Comics, on the other hand, play with the dichotomy of requiring the reader to focus on one image, while simultaneously asking him/her to be aware of the whole page distribution. Thus, they don’t engage the viewer actively to understand what happens in between scenes and shots. This is different, from the way we understand movies or TV because these mediums just give us the pieces which usually tell the story chronologically without leaving any gaps. Our understanding of the comic depends on how all these panels work together which is what McCloud defines as closure in comics. The revolutionary faculty of this use of space is that comics make us understand content through a new cognitive process. Comics’ artists have the faculty to play with time and space at their will through their use of panel distribution, within the page.

Panels do not necessarily show a consecutive action, but they can show different perspectives of the same action, different planes of thought of one character, jump from event to event, represent contrasting ideas etc. Artists distribute panels at their will leaving gutters to indicate the pass of time or emphasize an action or even convey an idea. Comics have redefined the sense of space and time. The context is how the panels are distributed in the page and how they relate to each other. Thus, while reading comics, our cognitive process doesn’t work symbol = definition instead, we must abstract the multiple meanings from the image, which need to be analyzed in the light of a given context.

“Our need for a unified language of comics sends us toward the center where words and pictures are like one side of the same coin! But our need for sophistication in comics seems to lead us outwards, where words and pictures are most separate' (McCloud 49).įrom this we can understand that the comics’ imagery not only conveys one determined meaning, but it is also based on the abstract significance characteristic of visuals. McCloud explains that sequential art has evolved and the visual imagery in comics goes beyond icons, since it needs to be understood through a different cognitive process. Then, the icons that constituted the sequential art were similar to words in the way that they conveyed a specific meaning. McCloud states, that the history of comics goes back to prehistoric paintings in caves and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Juxtaposed pictoral and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer' (McCloud 9).

plural in form, used with a singular verb. In the first chapter McCloud specifically defines comics as: McCloud begins this examination by defining comics as a medium, which uses visual iconography in a sequential form to express ideas or tell stories. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993) is Scott McCloud's book that examines the medium of comics through comic book form.

Mccloud understanding comics