Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for July 07, 2009

I DO take the genre seriously, and I believe as well that fiction should embrace the whole of life. But let’s look at how such a character might have fared in other media:

If it were a novel, that would be close-ended. The wheelchair-bound, speechless character could maintain that status throughout the work, since it depicts only a small portion of a person’s life. The same goes with a feature film. The realities of having a loved one in that state could be dealt with honestly, and there would be no necessity to have that person either die or be cured by the end of the film.

In a live-action serial drama such as a standard American soap opera, such a character might be introduced (or an established character might suffer a similar affliction), but the realities of the aging process are such that any such character would be around for a limited time. If, on the contrary, you place a YOUNG character in this condition, thus having an individual who can’t speak or interact with anyone else in the show for a potentially LONG time, I doubt the writers would keep pushing the wheelchair before the cameras for very long before writing that character out. There’s no possibility for character development, and only a limited number of compelling storylines for the OTHER characters.

In a comic strip, we of course have the advantage of being able to read Grandad’s thoughts, so even though he can’t interact with the other people in the strip he can interact in a certain way with the reader. But how long can such a relationship be kept interesting? If he doesn’t improve (which would be unrealistic) but he doesn’t deteriorate (which would bely the illusion that no time is passing), then there’s nothing that can be done with the character except to wheel him out every month or so to remind the audience “Oh yeah, their Grandad is in a wheelchair. Isn’t that realistic?” His destiny I fear is to become a prop. He’s less an agent for plot development than the dogs.