ENG 4433: Topics in World Lit

Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” invites readers of comic books and graphic novels to explore a new realm of art and literature. He discusses the idea of visual sequential art, meaning that comics use each frame to show movement and the passing of time. James O’Barr uses an interesting tactic to cover time in his graphic novel, “The Crow”. The image includes one page of “The Crow” in which Eric Draven who has been reincarnated to avenge his and fiancé’s murders is speaking to one of their assailants. O’Barr uses lighter image frames to indicate his main character having a flashback to the happy times that he and his fiancé had during their lives together. The images will have mainly black backgrounds as Draven’s thoughts are in the real time of the story and they will show a more prominently white background as he is remembering his life before his death so the frames will often go back and forth between dark and light as Draven experiences these flashbacks (if you watch the ...

Comics, or “visual sequential art”, as Scott Mcloud puts it, has an intended purpose. Each frame of a comic changes, indicating motion, movement, and a change in time or scene. This can be viewed in the above “Garfield” comic strip by Jim Davis. In the first frame, we see the character of John asking a question. The next two frames then show the excitement and energy generated from his imposed question. The scenes that directly follow then result in frustration as well as the eventual intended outcome from the initial question that was asked at the very beginning. If this were a stand-alone cartoon, there would be no sequencing or contrasted images to view the change in time, which later comes to a humorous concluding solution. The visual sequencing here, is what helps make this "Garfield "  comic strip a true comic. With each new frame, we as an audience, can see the progression of the given scenario play out.  Something else that I found rather interesting in Scott...

In "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, describes virtual sequential art "as art that is in pictures, it is the art of comics" (McCloud 5).This means that art in pictures is beyond what one sees. It is in fact the beauty that makes up a whole new world beyond comics. It is what makes a comic one worth to look at and read. McCloud later states that "this world is only one- of many possible worlds." I think he means that comics come with the imagination of difference between all comic authors. Although there could exist some similar comics, there will never be quite the same.That is another plus about comics. There will always be comics that share something different, even with the same idea and concept, there will always be something that makes each comic stand out. An icon is then described as many things, but McCloud uses the term to describe a place,person, idea, or thing. An icon is also most likely known as pictures that correspond to that icon st...