Comics and Cartoons

   It's funny how fast attitudes can change.  What exactly is seen here?  The comic shows just how quickly the situation went from something light-hearted and comical to a very serious and grave moment.  The characters go from cheering on a friend funneling a beer to cheering on a doctor to pump the alcohol from him to save him from alcohol poisoning.  Sounds like a pretty drastic change of heart.

   So where exactly did this comic come from, and who created it?  It's from here in the States, ca. 2010’s, and is a webcomic.  The article was published as a comedic take on what the realities of partying can be; the comic itself is neither conservative or liberal, just a deriving take on a situation.  It aims for a laugh at a very real event that can be all too serious.

   This comic was created courtesy of Kris Wilson, a cartoonist for a popular series of comics called Cyanide and Happiness.  Kris, of the webpage Explosm, is known for him outlandish and edgy cartoons.  He is one of four members of Explosm which produce Cyanide and Happiness, that put out daily webcomics.  It is presumed Kris lives in Washington state, although he has not disclosed his location specifically; he publishes online anonymously exclusively though Explosm, using this avatar:

 

   The cartoon itself addresses the issue of overconsumption of alcohol, how partying can be fun at the time but have disastrous outcomes.  Irony is involved greatly, because the characters go from cheering on their friend to drink to cheering on the doctor to save the friend.  All in all, the cartoon doesn’t really take a stand, but it does show the hazards of drinking too much. 

   Design-wise, the cartoon is a two-frame piece.  The conflict evolves from one frame to the next, being only two.  This can be summed up to be similar to a cause-effect sense. While the cartoon is not visually exclusive, it draws heavily on the imagery.  Word and images are both used here.  The words are a commentary on what typically happens during the first picture, while the second is an ironic play on words on the effect of the first frame. 

   So what exactly is Kris showing in the comic?  The artist uses the images of a beer funnel, commonly found at parties, then a stomach pump in the next one, for comedic affect.  The drawings are purposely unrealistically cartoonish.  It is primarily a human stereotype done simply on something like the program Paint.  The artist does not draw on past or present ideas, he simply uses a modern event found at today’s parties.  This mirror's the tone of most Cyanide and Happiness comics, keeping the cartoon is comedic in style.  The word play of “chug chug chug!” turned “pump pump pump!” is rhetorical in the fact that it changes its tone very quickly, and then is left simply at that.  This impacts the readers on how fast attitudes can change when something bad happens. 

   The cartoon itself only shows three simple things: people, objects, and two small scenes, all done at a bare minimal of style and imagery.  The people in the cartoon are only slightly based on human analogues, of middle-class Caucasian male partier-goers and a doctor.  While not real people, the images of the men is symbolic enough to represent what real people can do in those situations.  In short, even though the people shown are not real, what they are doing is something that happens often enough to be easily recognizable.  This happens in a rhetorical way because the image of a beer funnel is commonly associated with alcohol, and for those who have experience in alcohol over-consumption, the stomach pumping is also familiar.  For the party culture, this isn't a totally alien thing.  All in all, Kris' comic is a simple one-two punch of a joke, showing the cause and effect of drinking and how quickly people's attitudes change.

Found at http://www.explosm.net/comics/2507/