McCloud's Understanding Comics Blog Post Week 2

The world of comics is – for the most part – a new area of study for me. In the past, much like Scott McCloud mentions in his work Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, I was also a skeptic of comics. I was under the impression that if it contained pictures, that it must surely be of no academic interest. If someone handed me a comic and said “find the important bits” I would laugh and say “there cannot be any.” However, McCloud argues that comics contain a variety of icons that portray the different aspects within a society. Furthermore, he even claims that comics are an avenue into another world.

Within Chapter 2 of his work, McCloud delves into the difference between an abstract work of art and a realistic one. So comics could fall within either category. They could be incredibly detailed, in which the reader need not question the features or details of a setting or character. Or the comic could be abstract, in which many aspects of the comic’s details are vague and up for interpretation. McCloud argues that a more abstract form of comic allows a reader to embrace the characters and the setting of that comic. For example, he writes that “the more cartoony a face is…the more people it could be aid to describe” (McCloud 31). He continues by stating that when looking at an abstract style comic, the reader projects their own self into the characters (McCloud 36).

To provide my own example, I found a comic that – while I have not read myself (though I do enjoy the show) – that I thought exemplified McCloud’s ideas. Below is an excerpt from the comic Green Arrow #42 part 1. Here, the details are rather vague. The background, though fully formed, is up for interpretation. The lines are simple but the reader is able to fill in the blanks. The characters themselves are in stark contrast to said background. The eye is immediately drawn to them and their own details.

Though more detailed than the background, the characters are also drawn simplistically. Given McCloud’s logic, one could argue that the creator did this in order to make his characters seem more approachable and identifiable. Furthermore, the characters are masked, which adds another level of obscurity. The reader is able to form their own idea of what the characters look like. Because people enjoy thinking themselves heroes, allowing the reader to project their own selves into the Green Arrow characters gives them the opportunity to escape into a world completely different than their own.

McCloud, Scott. The Invisible Art Understanding Comics. HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.

Scott, Mairghread. Green Arrow #42. DC Comics. July 4, 2018.

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