What does the fourth of July mean to you?

What does breaking the fourth wall mean to comics?

• "Breaking the fourth wall" is when a character in a comic book is aware of his place as a comic book character, and speaks to the audience. A few examples of this are Deadpool's frequent metafictional references, or some of Sonic the Hedgehog's jokes referring to his video games. While breaking the fourth wall is a technique that has been around since the Greek tragedies, few have really put thought into what it actually means to the world of comics when a character breaks the fourth wall. Are the characters trying to validate their own world by linking it to ours? Are the authors and artists trying to make their characters more approachable? What does it mean when you admit that you're only a comic character in a book, and not even real? Is it even possible to acknowledge your own non-existence? Or does this very acknowledgment of non-existence verify existence? I understand what breaking the fourth wall *is*, but now, what does it *mean*?

• Answer:

  One important detail you left out of your description of the fourth wall is the fact that it has it's origins in theater where the characters on stage were surrounded by a set made up of three solid real walls and a fourth invisible wall that separted them from the audience. They say that any time the author decides to have the characters break the fourth wall, it breaks that magic spell of voyerism. The audience is no longer spying on the characters, but rather, they are a part of the story in some way. The charcters have included the audience in on a secret in some way. The fact that we talk about this technique as if the charcters were doing it is a funny kind of mind game. When in fact what is really happening is not that the character on stage, or in the comic panel has turned to you the audience member, but rather, the writer has instructed the actor to talk to the audience, and the audience goes along with it. Talk about your suspension of disbelief!