Before starting class last week I didn’t know a thing about comics apart from the occasional Marvel or DC film. I knew that comics were books that were heavy on the art and light on the prose. Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics explained the who, what, where, when, and why as it pertains to the development and creation of a comic. After each assigned reading, I became more and more interested in the process of how comics work and the story that is beneath the words and pictures on each page. I found it very interesting that although the creator assigns the art and words to each page, the reader is “an accomplice” in determining the meaning. I don’t think I would be able to pick up a comic, now, and skim the pages without dissecting every inch of the page—for example, spacing, wording, color, use of symbols, etc. I used to think comics where the pictures were the primary texts; whether a reader paid attention to the prose or not was unbeknownst to me. I would never read the words; I always flipped through the pictures and called it a day. Now, I imagine I will take my time and examine each page and appreciate the story.
To begin with, I really do like the idea of reading a comic about comics. I think it's a great idea and it's very well executed. As I was reading the first two chapters, I was surprised at how many examples there were of art in recent (and ancient, in some cases) history that are variations of "sequential visual art" and thus the foundations of modern comics. I'd never even thought about it before and it was hard to believe how many different kinds there were. I also love all the discussion about how our human brains automatically interpret certain images in a specific way, how we see others constantly but we identify ourselves when we look at cartoons, and how inanimate objects automatically becomes extensions of our bodies. The pyramid of styles was very interesting too as a way to conceptualize and almost graph or "place" a specific art style in comics. In Comic Book Nation , I enjoyed reading about the evolution of early comics from "funnies...
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