Week 1/21/20 - Thoughts on Understanding Comics

Philosophy was never really a strong suit of mine, despite my very clear and apparent enjoyment of the matter, Understanding comics by Scott McCloud proves to be one of these instances where I'm immediately hooked by what I'm reading and am eager to digest more of the information presented to me.

The format of the book itself proves to be a strong suit in grabbing and maintaining interest, or at least for me it does. As a visual learner and a visual artist, this comes as no surprise, comics have always been something I’ve gravitated to but never have I experienced reading a comic about understanding the logic behind them. As Scott McCloud puts it, comics are much more than sequential images, in fact the idea stems much deeper than what it appears. Within the book he explores the ideas behind exploring identity within objects, how the mind perceives information and the convincing explanation of the psychological and philosophical sciences behind the graphic narrative. Personally I found the humor in this book to be very charming and kept me entertained as I was reading, comic humor is one of my favorites, not simply because of the visual gags but because of the creativity and inventiveness behind them. Comics can allow humor to exist that would otherwise be physically impossible.

Within the book he even goes to explain how this is one of the many strengths and appeals to comics as a whole, however for the majority of the book he explores the ideas behind them, hence the understanding. Overall I enjoyed reading Understanding comics, I simply wish that Scott Mccloud would tackle more contemporary pieces within the comic industry, not simply the ideas of how to make them.