Week 2: “Understanding Comics” Reflection – Hanna Rinderknecht-Mahaffy

In his book, “Understanding Comics,” Scott McCloud argues that Comics are about the form and not the content, and that comics are a vessel through which to obtain content. I like McCloud’s definition of Comics, because it argues for the “medium as the message” and leaves room for a broad range of material which increases the likelihood that a greater variety of people will read and enjoy comics. Before reading McCloud’s arguments, I too considered comics as somewhat of a narrow genre targeted to a  younger audience. However, by defining comics through their form and not just content, McCloud is leaving room for a wide range of material and target audience. 

In Chapter Two about the language of comics, I found the “this is not ____” page to be quite engaging. All of the “this is not” statements together caused me to reflect on precision of language and how language plays a role in what we consider to be reality. The “this is not my voice” caption was particularly interesting, because it brings up the question of what we define as our “voice.” Clearly the author’s point is that we are not actually hearing his voice speak words. However, if we go beyond this very literal definition, I do think that we are indeed hearing his voice on some level. In every-day language, we use the term “voice” to mean an expression of someone’s ideas/thoughts, whether that is in person or through the written word. For many of these examples, our use of language is not precisely accurate in the literal sense, however it often is a representation of the literal object. 

Week 2 : Response to Understanding Comics – Abdullah Zameek

I never really thought of comics to be an artform of its own category per se. To me, they were simply another sort of book or magazine that you would pick up at your local bookstore. However, after reading McCloud’s work, it is clear that comics do deserve a pedestal of their own as there are several key components that clearly distinguish them from regular novels. 

One of the more interesting aspects of the reading was the idea of human interaction with the medium itself.  McCloud stated, “we humans are a self-centered race……we see ourselves in everything.” This aspect of human nature seems to work in favour of maximizing engagement between the audience and the medium. The reader would put him or herself in the shoes of the characters that they see and would experience a whole new narrative from their eyes. McCloud also said, “Participation is a powerful force in any medium”, and comics seem to capitalize well on user engagement. 
This is something I have personally experienced as I was (at one point of time), an avid manga reader. The factor that played a role in the immersive experience was the inclusion of sound effects (in words, of course) alongside the panels. This allows the reader to really visualize and gain a sense of the world that they are in not only in a visual sense, but an auditory sense as well. 
And, achieving that level of engagement with simple print is quite impressive.

Week 2: Understanding Comics (Selina Chang)

The book Understanding Comics literally changes my  perception of comics. McCloud unraveled the concept of comics by tracing back to thousands of years ago. In fact, most of the instances he took, I have never thought of them as “comics”. I initially thought of comics as simple lines and thought bubbles without too many details, and thought of them as some art works that is much easier than those hung on the museums’ wall to be appreciated. It turned out that it is not the case.

This book really impresses me for it tells me the truth which I have taken for granted throughout my time reading comics. Before reading this, I have never thought of the reason why comics are more widespread than those realistic sketches. McCloud explains that the universality of cartoon imagery the more cartoony a face is, for instance, the more people it could be said to describe, making people feel empathy while reading. The combination of cartoony characters and realistic backgrounds, especially in those adventure comics, let us identify ourselves with the characters. The most magical factors among all, is the scene beyond gutters. I have never thought of the reason why we can have scenario in mind by merely looking at two pictures. This is generated by closure, which is based on our former experiences of the world, so as our perception of those panels.

In my opinion, these are the reasons why comics painters are deliberate authors. We should appreciate beyond the surface to see what those talented authors actually aspire to convey through seemly-childish artpieces.

Week 3 Response: “Understanding Comics” – Kimmy Tanchay

In this informative comic, McCloud effectively conveys the history and the significance of comics. I was thoroughly entertained by the way this comic book was written as although it aimed to inform, it delivered this through extremely quirky, funny and entertaining illustrations –  a very suitable choice for talking about comics. I know for a fact that if this was written in any other way, many readers wouldn’t have been as interested in what McCloud had to say about comics. Through this, I learned to differentiate between what were actually comics and what were not, along with how many things that I’ve never thought of could be considered comics as well.

What I found particularly fascinating was the significance of panel spacing. Different countries had different styles and ways to make their comics (EG how Japanese comics differed to European comics that also differed to American comics) as they don’t have a universal way of sequencing their panels. Each panel communicates time frames and motion that can be interpreted differently by readers. Through the sequencing of images and illustrations, these panels are able to represent the movement of time and space – almost as if creating motion in still images.