The Cardboard Kingdom

As the private lives of the children are gradually revealed, these chapters focus on the struggle to make connections despite differences, and the characters’ eventual success in this endeavor highlights The Celebration of Diversity. Most notably, “The Blob” and “Professor Everything” explore some of the challenges that arise when children try and fail to form friendships. “The Blob” is a story about misunderstanding—or more specifically, the difficulties of interpretation with new people and in new contexts—while “Professor Everything” expresses the idea that the process of fitting in and making friends is just a matter of finding the right people, those who hold similar interests.

In “The Blob,” Sell and his team highlight the difficulties of making connections across age groups, for Nate’s unnamed younger brother has considerable difficulties in joining the older group of children, and the disconnect is aptly illustrated by a moment of embarrassment and misunderstanding when they do not understand what his costume is supposed to be. While they actively engage with the young boy by making plenty of guesses and enjoying the comical aspects of the experience, Nate’s brother finds their antics frustrating because he has failed to engage with The Transformative Power of Play. The inability to translate the ideas of his imagination into something that the other children understand represents the difficulties that can arise for children who attempt to join new play groups. Unlike the young boy, Nate and his friends already have well-defined roles, terms, and rules of play, as well as shared experiences that shape their interactions. Nate’s brother does not yet know their language, metaphorically speaking, and this idea is highlighted by the fact that “The Blob” is another wordless chapter. Even the image of “The Blob” itself implies something that is not fully formed or realized.

Likewise, the lack of text increases the sense of ambiguity as the children try to interpret what his costume is supposed to be. With no real context clues, their task is next to impossible. However, the moral of the story becomes apparent when Nate realizes that the experience is upsetting his brother and steps in to bridge between his brother and his friends by modifying the costume and giving his brother a role. As the amorphous “blob” of a costume transforms into a distinctive, sharp-toothed creature, The Transformative Power of Play immediately returns, and the children’s imaginations find common ground and reignite the action.

Similarly, the chapter titled “Professor Everything” focuses on the social struggles of Egon, depicting the boy’s attempts to fit in and make friends. Unlike Nate’s younger brother, however, Egon’s problem is that his way of understanding the world is dominated by his extensive knowledge of science and logic. In this instance, The Transformative Power of Play does not quite work its magic for him because he clashes with many other children who aren’t interested in his pedantry and don’t want their imaginations limited by science, logic, and reason. True to form, Egon’s instinct is to consult a book for answers, but the suggestions it provides force him to try to change the core of who he is, causing him an immense amount of frustration. To emphasize the overwhelming emotions that Egon experiences, Sell leaves key panels unframed (108, 113), allowing the images to extend to the edge of the page. This artistic choice evokes the sense that Egon’s frustration cannot be contained. Ultimately, Egon’s unexpected moment of connection with the Scribe implies that true friendships cannot be forced, and that some connections are easier to make than others. In the Scribe, Egon finds somebody who loves books and knowledge as much as he does, and who has likewise been struggling to fit in. Because their interests and personalities align, the two boys are free to be themselves, and their friendship comes naturally and easily.

For most of the stories in the novel, the cardboard fantasies that the children create are separate from reality and serve as a way to process issues that plague their real lives, as when Jack develops the role of the Sorceress to represent the truest version of himself. Otherwise, the two worlds are generally separate from one another. However, this pattern shifts in “The Gargoyle,” as the turmoil in Seth’s home is so disruptive to his life and well-being that it collides with the broader fantasy world that the children have created. This impact is depicted in the chapter’s prelude (which is one of only two preludes in the novel), for the artist depicts Seth’s friends grappling with his absence. For the Animal Queen, it is clearly uncomfortable for her to leave her “kingdom” and approach everyone in the Dragon’s Head Inn, but she is so worried about Seth that she ventures out anyway. For everyone else, they immediately drop any pretense of fantasy when they realize that the Animal Queen is asking after Seth, since they know the severity of what he is going through. Thus, the chapter establishes the profound impact on the world of imagination when The Importance of Parental and Guardian Support is neglected and children feel unsupported and threatened.

The artistic choices of the chapter clearly reflect these underlying dynamics, for when Seth is at home, the impact that his parents’ conflict has on his life is communicated through the highly desaturated colors. Compared to the rest of the novel, the color scheme of “The Gargoyle” appears washed-out and lifeless, deliberately mirroring Seth’s feelings of stress, discouragement, and sadness as he struggles to come to terms with his parents’ separation. While the details of his parents’ conflict remains unclear, Seth now fears his father and feels the need to protect his mother, and this self-appointed responsibility prevents him from sleeping at night and renders him too tired to do anything during the day. As he adopts the alter ego of the Gargoyle and stands guard over the house, his actions represent a prime example of The Transformative Power of Play to allow children to process the more challenging or uncontrollable aspects of their lives. The only difference is that Seth is in this alone, and his strategy is more a way to distance himself from the problem in order to work through the pain that the separation is causing him. The look of dejection on his face after he faces his dad reinforces this idea and suggests that his solution is only temporary, for even with his dad gone, he will still have many difficult emotions to process.