Floyd Gottfredson on portraying emotion in comic characters

SABA: In terms of the drawing itself, the actual-not thinking about it as part of a series, but each character or each drawing-would you say there's different disciplines involved in cartooning than in other art forms? Is it a whole different art than other kinds of drawing? Or do you think you have the same basic problems as with any-
GOTTFREDSON: Well, I think in a way it is different because of the fact that if it's done well, it's much more expressive than illustrative art is. Because you're carrying it a step beyond. You're punching the idea, whatever it is, that you're doing with your...you have to remember with your characters especially. They are little actors and you got to remember that they act with their whole bodies from their heels up. They don't act with just their heads or their arms or their mouths. But every thing, every emotional thing, no matter how minor the emotion or how great it is, is depicted with a feeling that this character has. So his whole body feels that thing. Whatever it is he's portraying in that particular panel, he feels it from his heels up.