March 16, 2007 Vol. 77, no. 9S

CAL ILLUSTRATED: BioE senior Charles Yong is the creator of “Below the Mean.” IMAGE PROVIDED BY CHARLES YONG

Below the mean and right at the funny bone
BioE senior publishes weekly comic strip for Daily Cal

As a freshman, BioE major Charles Yong wanted to create a TV sitcom series about student life at Cal. “Berkeley is full of material,” Yong, now a senior, explains. “Regardless of age or major, we all have these common experiences, such as waiting for elevators, eating in the D.C. (dining commons), late nights, finals week. I drew up storyboards [visual sketches of a plot] based on things I’d seen or friends’ experiences. Of course, I didn’t know how much time engineering would take.”

While concentrating on his studies, Yong continued to sketch throughout his sophomore and junior years, jotting ideas in notebooks during his spare time. Then, last semester, when he realized all those drawings would never come to film fruition, he decided to create a three-panel comic strip.

“Below the Mean, a story of hope” debuted in the Daily Cal in January. “Below the mean” refers to the tendency of Berkeley professors to grade on a curve, producing students determined to rise above the curve’s mean. It is that characteristic Cal academic ambition that fuels much of the strip and motivates its main character, Charles.

”Below the Mean”: a comic strip about Cal student life. IMAGE PROVIDED BY CHARLES YONG

“He’s a fourth-year, pre-med bioengineering major at Cal,” Yong describes. “Being both pre-med and in engineering, he has spent the past three years valiantly struggling to beat the curve. Some of his friends describe him as dedicated, honest and hardworking. His other friends prefer the terms obsessive, blunt and antisocial. His favorite TV show is ‘Heroes.’ He’s an avid programmer and somewhat of an insomniac. He likes to eat at Aki’s Sushi.”

Yong admits that Charles is based on himself but adds that the character is an alter ego who does and says things Yong wishes he had. “Below the mean” also has a regular cast of supporting characters, including Steve, who looks like the happy happy happy man from Sproul Plaza and represents a composite of Berkeley liberalism.

Fellow students seem to love it, Yong reports, and have approached him to say how much they enjoy the strip. Yong says his goal is to find humor (even if it’s occasionally the dark variety) in familiar experiences that will connect people. “Financial aid is such a fun place to be,” he deadpans.

Yong, whose favorite comic strip is Penny Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com), taught himself to draw. Each strip takes a few hours to complete, from deciding the theme to drawing it by hand to finalizing it in Photoshop Illustrator. A talent for visual art may run in the family. Both his parents are professional photographers, and his sister has taken award-winning photographs while attending medical school.

With graduation looming in May, Yong says he won’t continue the strip next year (“That would be weird since I’m not on campus”), but he’s already collecting material for a strip about medical school, where he’s headed next. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things involved with med school applications! Now there’s some funny stuff!”

Go to www.belowthemean.com.

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