HARDLINED: taste and style in cartooning

I saw this scene at the Airport a few weeks ago. A family played cards while waiting for their boarding time. What struck me in this particular situation is the distance between the parents and their son. The mother seemed to be very loving towards her husband and while the boy and his daddy played cards she kept herself physically away from her child. I felt as if I was watching a scene from “Ordinary people” or even “East of Eden”. The mother kept whispering at the husband ears while both of them giggled at the child’s moves in the game.

Later on the boy came to hug his mother begging for love but she could barely look at her child’s eyes.

Maybe the mother was a mean step-mother or the new girlfriend of his father? Maybe the parents were always distant and the child will grow lonely? Maybe i’m just wrong and the mother was just angry at the boy for something bad he did? Maybe the mother was just tired? I don’t know for sure what was that actually happen between the family but that for sure brought me ideas and spurred some thoughts in my mind as far character and behavior goes.

By Leo Matsuda