Week Two: Understanding Comics


The concept of varying the level of a character's visual complexity in the interest of achieving a certain affect on the reader was a very interesting point brought up by McCloud; the idea of iconic abstraction aided in the understanding and expanding of this subject. I had never really considered how the simplification of a character or even an object could affect the involvement of the audience, as obvious as it seems now having read McCloud's take on this concept. I considered the abstraction of a character a stylistic, aesthetic choice, and not so much something meant to engage a reader on that sort of psychological and personal level. I also found it important that McCloud went on to point out that while characters in comics may be simplified or heavily abstracted for the sake of "viewer-identification", viewers are not as engaged when these simplified characters are placed in a visually plain environment. With this in mind, it makes sense that audiences find it more easy to identify with simple characters placed in immersive worlds. McCloud sums it up with the line: "One set of lines to see. Another set of lines to be". 

The way these concepts extend further into how objects are drawn was another noteworthy point made by McCloud. The way an inanimate object is shown, simplified and abstracted or highly detailed and realistic, reflects not only a mere stylistic choice, but a carefully made decision regarding the relationship of this object to the character and environment as it interacts with it. 

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