Daily Inspiration Quote by Sergio Aragones

A cartoonist’s complaint about jump scares doubles as a tiny manifesto about craft: don’t confuse surprise with substance. Sergio Aragones, a master of visual timing, isn’t just saying he dislikes the “big shark” moment. He’s poking at a cheap contract some movies make with the audience: we’ll startle you, you’ll reward us with a scream, and we’ll pretend that reaction equals fear.

The phrasing is tellingly deflationary. “Boo scare” sounds like a Halloween prop, not an art form. “The only thing they’re doing” is a line you use when you’ve spotted a trick and can’t unsee the string. Aragones frames the jump scare as mechanics, not meaning; it’s not emotional persuasion, it’s ambush. Subtextually, he’s defending suspense - the slow build, the earned dread - over the sensory equivalent of a honking horn.

Coming from a cartoonist, the critique lands with extra bite. Comics live and die by control of attention: panel-to-panel pacing, the beat before the punchline, the reveal you guide the reader toward without shoving them. Aragones knows that being “caught off guard” can be funny, even delightful, but it’s a different pleasure than fear. His irritation suggests a broader cultural fatigue with shortcut storytelling, where technique becomes a substitute for tension, and reaction becomes a substitute for experience.