Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics

Chapter 1: Setting The Record Straight

What are Comics? – Juxtaposed images in a deliberate sequence intended to convey aesthetic response from the viewer.

Pictorial – Has to have some resemblance to the subject, this is in comparison to hieroglyphics.

Chapter 2: Vocabulary of Comics

Icon – Any image used to represent a person, place or thing/idea

Visual Scale: In this chapter, Scott discusses the range that visual art. complex <-> simple, realistic <-> iconic, objective <-> subjective, specific <-> universal

Chapter 3: Blood in the Gutter

Closure – Observing the parts but perceiving the whole. This happens off screen and can show the passage of time without the artist depicting it. In this case, it’s not about what you draw but what you don’t draw.

Gutter – Space between the panels – Fracture time & space

Mono-sensory Medium – Information can only be conveyed visually between the panels, magic happens.

Chapter 4: Time Frames

Bleeding – When panel runs off the page. This creates a feeling of movement. This is used alot in Japanese manga.

Zip Rippons – Represent objects running through space. This is used alot in American Comics .

Chapter 5: Living in Line

Syn-aesthetics – Relating to synesthesia & merging of the senses. The use of visual icons can give the feeling of things we can’t necessarily see such as shock lines or smell lines.

Chapter 7: The Six Steps

This is a process described by Scott in this chapter.

Idea -> Form -> Idiom -> Structure -> Craft -> Surface