Response
From Collectivate Course Wikis
1) Quote:
"com-ics (kom'iks)n. plural in form, used with a single verb. 1. Juxtaposed pictoral and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer."
Scott McCloud (1994) Understanding Comics. New York, p9.
Response:
2) McCloud gives a precise description of comics that is slightly wordy.
3) for a more succinct description Will Eisner (whom Scott McCloud ref in his own book) defines comics as: "Sequential Art."
1) Quote:
"Think of your face as a mask. That’s what it is, after all. A mask. Facing outward. Worn from the day you were born. Slave to your every mental command. Seen by everyone you meet. But never by you. Open its eyes now. Just think it. The mask will obey. All set? Good. Now, SMILE.... C’mon nobody’s looking.... Good. Now, what changed when you smiled? What did you see? Nothing, right. Yet, you KNOW you smiled! Not just because you felt your cheeks compress or the crinkling around your eyes! You KNOW you smiled because you trusted this mask called your face to RESPOND! But the face you see in your mind is not the same as others see."
"When two people interact, they usually look directly at one another, seeing their partner’s features in vivid detail. Each one ALSO sustains a constant awarebess of his or her OWN face, but THIS mind-picture is not nearly so vivid; just a sketchy arrangement... a sense of shape... a sense of general placement. Something as simple and as basic as a cartoon."
Scott McCloud (1994) Understanding Comics. New York, p35 - p36.
2) McCloud essentially proposes how cartoons are somewhat of a mental picture of a person's self image. This statement explains how cartoons are powerfully believable creatures. By taking an anonymous shape that could easily represent millions of different people cartoons are characters that the audience becomes while watching. Thus an instant sense of connection occurs and a relationship is formed. This argument of the "empty shell" of cartoons that allow viewers to become them has a makes some curious statements about cartoons. Basically it matters less who the cartoon is, and it's more imprortant what a cartoon has to say.
Prior to this discussion of a sense of self image he states how almost any shape easily becomes a face by adding a simple circle as an eye.