Scott McCloud - Understanding Comics

Reading a text book in the format of a comic book itself was a new and thrilling experience for me. Hell yes, this is another reason why I love art school was the first thought that came to my mind as I considered the fact that most of my friends from back home were pouring over hours of writing lab reports while I was cozying up with some tea to read a comic about comics.

And indeed, it was a pretty pleasant experience. Coming from someone who doesn't know much beyond the surface level of comics, I feel much more knowledgeable after reading Understanding Comics, and a few aspects were particularly interesting to me. The first topic that stuck with me was the difference between Eastern and Western comics. Although I have always noticed that there is a clear visual difference between eastern and western comics, I had never pondered the reason behind why those variances exist. For example, McCloud mentioned that eastern comics are often characterized by more realistically rendered backgrounds contrasted by stylized and simpler characters. Up until this point, I assumed that anime, manga, and things of that sort were just different, and a little strange to be honest. It was interesting to hear, however, that this difference is due to the fact that Western comic culture rejected the new and radical pairing of different styles, which left Eastern cultures to embrace it as their own. I feel like this topic illustrates a key difference that exists between these two groups that is relevant beyond the world of comics and can be applied to a lot of current events.

The idea of the icon was another topic that I have been thinking about after reading Understanding Comics. While my instinct tells me that more realistic and rendered images are easier for audiences to relate to, McCloud argues that icons, or subjects shown at a basic level hit much closer to home. His reasoning behind this makes a lot of sense, because the lack of specificity in icons allows for our minds to fill in the details, and often place a part of ourselves in the characters or story.

Over the course of this class so far, I have enjoyed viewing comics on a deeper level and have grown to be interested in how they can comment on our society at large or even address humanity as a whole.