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4 days ago
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About
Would You Have Listened To Me If I Looked Like This? or Decided to Draw Myself In Such a Simple Style is an art trend and redraw meme based on two panels from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics book in which he shows himself drawn in a simplistic cartoon style next to a more realistic style, the simplistic cartoon's speech bubble reading, "That's why I decided to draw myself in such a simple style," and the realistic drawing's bubble reading, "Would you have listened to me if I looked like this?"
In the context of the book, McCloud uses the panels to illustrate the concept of projecting yourself on animated characters, suggesting that it's easier for the reader to project themselves on a simple cartoon rather than a realistic one.
The panels went viral in early March 2026 as the subject of redraws on sites like X / Twitter, Instagram and more. As an art trend, the panels are drawn over with popular or original characters, depicting the character in both a simple and realistic style.
Origin
Understanding Comics is a non-fiction comic book by Scott McCloud about the history and development of comic books, exploring what makes comics work as an art form.
In one section of the book, McCloud explains that cartoons with simple designs are easier for readers to project themselves onto than realistic cartoons, drawing himself in both styles to showcase this.
On January 23rd, 2026, X user and artist @NIKAOLILI333 posted a redraw of the two panels of McCloud, showcasing a simple vs. realistic cartoon style, replacing McCloud with Nahobino from Shin Megami Tensei V, garnering over 11,000 likes in two months. This is the earliest known redraw of the panels.
Spread
On February 26th, 2026, X user @pyrophorus_ posted the isolated panels from Understanding Comics, writing, "new draw this with ur sona trend???" garnering over 80,000 likes and 6,400 reposts in two weeks. The post encourages artists to redraw the image with the characters they use to represent themselves.
On March 3rd, X user @bearsockz posted a redraw of the meme, drawing themselves as a cartoon dog vs. a more realistic dog, garnering over 14,000 likes in a week.
That day, Instagram user awl__owl posted redraws of the meme based on the character Neco-Arc, gaining over 2,300 likes in a week.
On March 11th, 2026, X user @kartilage24 posted a redraw of the meme based on a viral dog named Dixie, garnering over 5,600 likes in under a day.
Various Examples
Template
English (US) ·