I began reading Understanding comics not knowing what to expect, but as I got into it I found what McCloud had to say to be very amusing. I especially liked the part where he talked about faces, how a drawing of a face depending on its detail can represent a few, thousands, millions or nearly all people. I found it interesting when he discussed how we cannot avoid seeing two dots and a line as a face. I did the activity of having a friend draw squiggles with eyes. We both saw faces. I was once told that there is one part of our brains that is devoted to face recognition and this exercise demonstrated our ability to recognize faces immediately. McCloud goes on to talking about how our face is a mask and how we move the mask without being able to see what it is doing unless we are looking in a mirror. We perceive ourselves differently than others perceive us. Yes, of course I knew this but being able to look at his drawings while being told this made for an unusual and exciting learning process. Being able to learn through pictures is a fun experience, one that makes learning fun again like it used to be back in the day. So far I am a big fan of Understanding comics.
Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...
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