Category: Leon Eckert

After reading McCloud’s first four chapters on “Understanding Comics” I have really deepened my sense of awareness, understanding, and appreciation for the art of comics. McCloud provides an in-depth analysis of the basics of comics through a cleverly articulated format. 

The second chapter of the text, “The Vocabulary of Comics” was actually my favorite. I didn’t realize how many different items could be used to evoke different reactions depending on what society has rendered them to represent. I particularly liked the example of the face that was given. It was simply a circle with dashes in the centre to indicate eyes, a nose and a mouth but somehow our brains are able to connect the dots (literally) and signal it as a face. It became impossible to avoid being able to see the face. 

That type of recognition can be extremely powerful and this was further demonstrated through the implementation of symbols or icons. These icons could include a country flag, food, or even a stop sign. What was interesting was just how much was evoked from one simple icon. In taking the stop sign for example, the caption that McCloud used was “not law”. I thought this was quite funny as the first thing I thought of was in actually that you must abide by stopping at the sign. All the sign said was stop, but I had already began to extend upon what the literal meaning of the sign means and I was able to extrapolate more sophisticated information pertaining to its relevance and intended purpose. 

The hope I have for my interactive comic is to use simplistic conventions to convey a really deep and meaningful message. On the face value it may seem overly simplistic or lacking creativity but the longer you interact with the comic you begin to reflect on the deeper meaning that it is trying to convey. I think that is really powerful. 

McCloud also talks a lot about manipulating different mediums through text, icons, sizing, positioning, and also how this can distort a sense of time (Chapter 4) and place. Comics have a power to transform the ways in which we think about certain ideas and topics. They present a very clear picture to an array of audiences to simplify often challenging concepts. This is the hope I have for my comic as I wish to be able to encapsulate an issue of importance in an engaging and simplistic way to increase awareness and accessibility to information. 

McCloud’s text will definitely continue to be a source of inspiration as I continue on in my study of comics. 

I was very intrigued with McLuhan’s article “The Medium Is The Message” as it gave me a unique insight into the way in which we view technology. Quite often we focus on what the internet provides us and the content we receive without really paying attention to medium of delivery. The medium “shapes and controls the scale and form of the human association and action” (152) we often underestimate the power of the medium and the responsibility that comes with it. 

The medium in itself can create unity and divisiveness if exercised in an incorrect way. The example was given of a contrast between America and England. The English rejecting typography for the oral tradition of common law, yet America prided themselves on their use of typography due to its conformist and unifying nature. This made me think that the medium has the capacity to completely distort and change the intended meaning. If one was to write down oral traditions, they may be interpreted completely differently than if they were expressed in an oral way. 

We have a lot of responsibility with the way in which we interact with the medium of our content. We have the potential to reach far reaching audiences and as such the medium that is selected should have as much thought put into it as the thought that goes into the content of the message. 

As McLuhan states “the media is also a powerful weapon with which to clobber other media and other groups” (161). The negatively connoted diction of “clobber” insinuates destruction and is the reality of what happens when both the medium and content that are created are used in a damaging way. We don’t have to look too far on social media sites to see some of the “trolling” and “spam” that floods sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These are examples of using such a powerful medium for the wrong reason. 

After reading the article, I agree with Psychologist C. G. Jung that “no one can shield himself from such an influence” (161). What we need to work on is the way in which we use the medium to maximize the value of our content. One in which we use that methodology for good, rather than for degradation. 

Link: http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~jc8017/HW/index.html

One of the major challenges of this assignment was to position the navigation bar in the same line as the content bar. I was able to accomplish this by encapsulating both the content and navigation div under a single div. Then, I applied the flow on the encapsulating div. The rest of the positioning had to be done by either altering the width and margins.