Week 2 Response to “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud- Evan Xie

Throughout chapters 1-4, I found the entire organization and structure of the work to be incredibly amusing and fun to read. The layout of the book is very interesting as it shows and explains what a comic is within a comic itself. I thought this method was captivating and helped not only explain the elements of a comic but also show them visually. As well, I felt that McCloud’s explanation of a comic medium as a sequential art or images helped me personally better understand comics on a deeper level. His discussion of artistic representation through comics and visually capturing messages through a certain order made me think of comics in a different way. As well, I also thought that the discussion and representation of comic history showed comics from a different perspective. I never previously thought about how older time periods such as that of Cortés included large scale drawings and artwork as murals that can be identified as comics. After understanding McCloud’s point of view, I realize how he sees artwork in many different forms as comics. From a historical perspective, I feel that based on McCloud’s work, a comic can be defined as any type of art following a specific order or sequence. I also thought that McCloud’s interpretation of detail in comics was very interesting. His belief that simplicity is more valuable than an enormous amount of detail stood out as very true in the sense that too much is not good. When thinking about my own artwork, this message impacts me deeply as I feel strongly that simplicity can show much more than trying too hard to be detailed. 

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