Animation: Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud Response

I found this book to be an excellent way to get to grips with comics. It's a great read to come to understand what comics are, in short, it does what it says on the tin.

As someone who's been collecting and reading comics for a long time, Scott McCloud offers great insight into how this medium operates and some of its origins. For instance, he attributes the title of 'Father of modern comics' to Rodolphe Topffer, I always thought it would be Winsor McCay. It's in these intricate details where I think the book really shines.

At first, I thought it would be daunting to read a 200-page book on comics but seeing how the book itself is delivered in comic-book form really helped me understand the different ideas McCloud was proposing in his writing. Similar to a traditional textbook McCloud serves as the narrator, guiding the reader through the world of the comic-book medium but in this book he is both the narrator and an actual cartoon avatar. I found this to be the most charming aspect of this whole endeavor. During one of the chapters, McCloud explains the reason he chose to have a cartoon avatar represent himself in this text. He states that we as human beings have a propensity to see the familiar in irregular objects; according to him cartoons have a universal identity to them that makes them simple to reflect upon and relate to, this is precisely why he chose his avatar. Having read the book, I do agree with him. His presence was relieving, seeing a character being affected by the different aspects of comics as they're being explained to you is a great way to not only engage the reader but make sure the ideas stick with them.

One of my highlights in the book was when McCloud tries to come up with a definition for comics. In this sequence he is asking for suggestions from an audience while being on a stage, that looks to be in a comedy club of sorts. We see different silhouettes of famous cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, shout different ideas and some heckle him about his work. It's a very light-hearted moment. The genius of this sequence is that without ever needing to explicitly spell it out, McCloud presents beloved cartoons with their most basic features; their body shape and manner of speaking. We know it's Bugs Bunny because of how McCloud captured his speech pattern, we know it's Mickey Mouse because of his iconic shaped head and ears.

Another great moment is when McCloud is explaining the Picture Plane Pyramid, his characters move up the slope and starts to unravel and become abstract with every step he takes, ultimately becoming singular shapes. He adds to his encapsulation all manner of artists and cartoons from different eras into the pyramid. I personally found it to be a great way to explain the idea of abstraction as well as the different extremes that are present in comics.

Finally the I'd like to mention my absolute favorite bit was seeing how McCloud conveyed the power of color and color theory in the latter half of the book. Seeing color after hundreds of pages of black and white really heightened its impact. It made me realize how much I take a color for granted in my comics. I've become so used to seeing color, that the absence of it never really occurred to me before. Color is so utterly brilliant in how it influences emotion, the symbolism certain colors have when they're seen together. McCloud really delivered on this chapter especially when he showed how different artists used color in their works. Also as I've mentioned before but using his avatar to show how color can affect a character and its environment is genius to me.

The book has great insight on timing, closure in paneling, how the Eastern style of comics differs from their Western counterparts. But I wanted to highlight what I took away from this book. I found it to be a brilliant read, I think I may re-read some parts as I may have missed some parts from my first go through.