Brian Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad tells the story of a pride of lions, escaped from the Baghdad zoo, and the horrors of the humans' war they are suddenly thrown into the middle of. Vaughan uses anthropomorphism to tell the story: each lion has a distinct personality, as do the other animals they encounter. The lions' journey is not a straight up allegory for the human side of the war in Iraq, however. Instead, the anthropomorphism of the pride is used to bring attention to the effects of war that reach far beyond economic and political destruction. The lions' ignorance and inability to comprehend the destruction all around them is used to make the human readers understand how nonhuman animals must feel, surrounded by destruction they do not understand and cannot control.
Niko Henrichon illustrates the lions very true to life. In the art, there is very little anthropomorphism: the most common is simply keeping the mouths open to illustrate talking, even though real lions communicate primarily through closed-mouthed growls and body language. The visual anthropomorphism is limited to facial expressions. By keeping this realism in the art, one never forgets that the leading cast is a pride of lions. The mild humanlike qualities of their appearances are to illustrate to the readers how the lions are feeling.
[...] This duality between animal and human is also touched on in the ending narration, “There were other casualties as well.” Not only do the lions, as people, die because of the fighting, the other zoo animals and forest dwellers we know are killed, and having even the slightest context for the text gives the human readers the knowledge of all the human deaths. However, the narration lies over a picture of the thriving city, with all of its windows lit up, and a construction zone in the back. There is evidence everywhere of the human animals' survival, but there is no sign of any more lions in Baghdad. Works Cited Vaughan, Brian K., and Niko Henrichon. Pride of Baghdad: Inspired by a True Story. New York: DC Comics, 2006. Print. [...]
[...] Niko Henrichon illustrates the lions very true to life. In the art, there is very little anthropomorphism: the most common is simply keeping the mouths open to illustrate talking, even though real lions communicate primarily through closed-mouthed growls and body language. The visual anthropomorphism is limited to facial expressions. By keeping this realism in the art, one never forgets that the leading cast is a pride of lions. The mild humanlike qualities of their appearances are to illustrate to the readers how the lions are feeling. [...]
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