Cartoon reality

I wonder what deciding factors are at play when a cartoonist decides to age their characters? Some characters are obviously ageless - the "Peanuts" gang, the folks from "Blondie", the grunts of "Beetle Bailey". Though they may stay the same in age, signs of progress begin to crop up in the panels, from Blondie's use of a laptop computer and getting her own catering business to new and diverse characters and technologies in Camp Swampy.

On the far side of the spectrum, we've got "For Better Or For Worse", which has compellingly moved the Patterson family forward in a way that encapsulates life and death all too convincingly. "Doonesbury" likewise has a definitive time line, albeit a slower-moving one. It's this bond with reality that allows us to become close with drawings, to feel for them in their times of desperation, and to laugh with them like old friends.

Somewhere in the middle are strips like "Rose Is Rose", which features a seemingly ageless Pasquale, who at one time was a gibberish-speaking toddler, but now thinks and speaks in astoundingly adult fashion. Compare that to Trixie in "Hi and Lois", who has always been a fairly well-spoken character (well-thought?) but who has not aged a day since she was first introduced.

I'd like to think that many strips remain stuck in one period of time because many of us would like to do the same. Face it, there are points in life that are so good, or so satisfying, that we long for them to last forever, or flashback to them when the present is kicking our asses. There's comfort in going through the angst of pre-teen life, familiarity in the situations that pepper long-time strips and satisfaction in having a vague notion of how it will all turn out. It's a theory anyway.

On another note, "Sally Forth" seems to embrace change and progress in a way, giving us satisfying glimpses of backstory and allowing Hilary to grow and emerge as her own identity. But for those of us who wonder if Sally can ever say anything without grabbing the last word, her hubby brought it into focus with today's strip which finishes:

Ted: "Y'know, I could make witty rejoinders, too, if I spoke second."
Sally: "Then you should have sat on this side of the couch."

Now that you think about it, given that we read strips from left to right in most cases, it makes sense that the arrangement of characters has a lot to do with how the flow of remarks will go. Now, flipping back through old "Sally Forth" comics, it seems that Sally is usually on the right - which may or may not shout volumes about her political leanings, one could surmise.