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Understanding Comics: Chapters 1 & 2

What I found most interesting about Chapters 1 and 2 was the part about how an object such as a car can become an extension of our body and thus our identity. I thought this was a very interesting approach that I had never considered before, but I do not understand how this relates to comics? I did understand how dressing in different clothes can help us transform to a different identity, and how a car we are driving can become our extended identity, but how does the car relate to a transformation of an identity?

There was a section in Chapter 2 (pgs. 36 & 37) that I found somewhat contradictory. At first, the author talks about how his face needs to be drawn in simple style in order for the reader to identify himself with that particular character. Then, the author continues to say that people tend to become captivated by a comic when they can identify themselves with the characters. I find this conflicting since many popular comic characters do have faces and yet people still tend to identify themselves with that character. Furthermore, I believe that even if a face is simply an “empty shell” in which the reader can envision his own face, many characters have predetermined differences, such as a different race or gender, to which the reader may not be able to identify him or herself with.

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