McCloud and the Erasure of Difference

When reading McCloud's "Vocabulary of Comics" I kept trying to challenge the ideas being presented with what little exposure I have had over the years to comic books/graphic novels. One point I could not quite get on board with was his argument "But if who I am matters less maybe what I say will matter more," (37). McCloud believes that when characters are drawn with less detail it allows the reader to identify with them more, because there are fewer drawn indications of difference for the reader to be constantly reminded of.

While I think this may be true in some cases, I found the example McCloud gives on page 36 to be very underwhelming. McCloud has one frame with the cartoon image of himself saying, "That's why I decided to draw myself in such a simple style," with the next frame being of a more realistic image of himself saying, "Would you have listened to me if I looked like this?". The cartoon follows with the above argument and the belief (on his part) that the reader would in fact not identify with him more if he were drawn more realistically.

I disagree that the specificity in a drawing of a character is the main determinant in how I immediately relate to a character. Sure, the elimination of specificity allows the erasure of some things such as class, because you cannot tell whether a shirt with a lightening bolt is from Goodwill or the newest from an expensive skate brand. Other differences, however, are present and I would argue may have equal power to create distance between the reader and author. I would argue that in the simple (and necessary act if you are drawing humans) decision in choosing gender begins to create distance between author and reader, at least if those readers are women (and the character is a man). The decision to choose a race accomplishes the same thing.

I am not trying to argue that women cannot identify with characters who are men, and that people cannot/do not identify with characters of different races from them, I just want to point out to this white, male author that the details he is discussing are not just simply whether you show the lines in a characters hair or the lapels on a jacket; the choice of details is more complex than that. I understand that McCloud is pointing out the ability to identify more with a character, and is making an argument of degrees, not something that is black and white, I just wish he would have been more cognizant of more types of difference comics elicit.