Question: “My 8-year-old grandson wants to know why people in cartoons talk only in capital letters.”

        Answer: The Stupid staff considered quizzing Jim Borgman, The Enquirer's editorial page cartoonist and co-creator of the comic strip Zits. Then we remembered his 25-year reputation for upper-case yelling.

        So we rang up Daryl Cagle, editorial cartoonist for the Honolulu Advertiser, former president of the National Cartoonists Society and host of www.cagle.com, the nation's busiest cartoons Web site. He too, it turns out, communicates in capitals.

        Practically all cartoonists do, he says, to maintain legibility and consistency — within their own work and industry-wide.

        “People write lowercase in different ways,” he says. “They don't write capitals in different ways.”

        The tradition is rooted in the historic Ames Guide, a stencil tool that creates a field for lettering. “It's fairly small, so if you did write in lower case, with some letters dropping below the bottom line, it would be tough to maintain that consistency and legibility in hand lettering.

        “In the olden days, capital letters helped create a look people became used to,” he says. “Now, if you see cartoons in lower case, it looks wrong.”

        As for comic books, which also use capital letters seemingly for the font of it, “there's no good reason for it . . . because the type comes from a computer.”

        Even less defensible, he suggests, is the overuse of exclamation points.

        “Every sentence in a comic book ends with an exclamation point,” Mr. Cagle says, “even if something is said with no great energy.

        “You would think the exclamation point would lose its impact when it is used so much.”

        You would think!

        If you have a stupid question, send it to Ask a Stupid Question, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; fax: 768-8330; e-mail mpulfer@enquirer.com.

A brush with emotion
Ask A Stupid Question
KIESEWETTER: 'Scrubs' set in real hospital
Bon Jovi hopes to rock 'Ally' ratings
Get to it
'Gratitude attitude' pays off with gift from a child
Opening act steals show from McKnight
Hatebreed alone glitters in metal lineup
Curtain closes on 'Fantasticks'
Supplements useless without healthy eating, exercise
Fit Bits
Put on your palindrome cap