The kinds of line we use to make our comics are very much tied to some of the first lines we make as children.These are by a four-year-old. There is a steadiness in the curving shapes that disappears once people become self conscious about their drawings and begin to draw with a hesitant series of feathered short marks. The line in this drawing is the one I call a skating line. It’s a sure line made by a hand that stays in motion for the entire gesture.
One of the reasons I’m so interested in the lines made by four year olds is because drawing and writing haven’t yet split into two different things. When we make comics by hand, one of the things we have to re-learn is to write our words with the line we use to draw our images. When we letter something, we’re drawing the letters, paying attention not just to their shapes, but also to a feeling of creating individual characters. This doesn’t mean perfection in the look of the letters, but rather a feeling for them, for their aliveness. Handwriting has a voice. Adults tend to automatically dislike their own hand writing in the same way they dislike their drawings. If we take away the option of liking or disliking these lines that make words and images, what might we find?