GRAPHIC NOVELS Understanding Comics SCOTT MCLOUDS UNDERSTANDING COMICS: THE INVISIBLE ART WHAT ARE COMICS? SEQUENTIAL ART Images taken individually are just pictures. When they are part of a sequence, the image is transformed WHAT ARE IMAGES? ICON: Any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea. REALISTIC ICONIC WHATS BEYOND ICONIC? WORDS! PICTURES = RECEIVED. INFORMATION RECEIVED INSTANTANEOUSLY. WE SEE IT AND WE UNDERSTAND IT IMMEDIATELY. WRITING = PERCEIVED. INFORMATION NEEDS TO BE DECODED. WE SEE IT BUT THEN WE NEED TO READ IT TO UNDERSTAND IT. WHATS BEYOND ICONIC? RECEIVED = WE SEE A FACE. PERCEIVED = WE READ THE WORD FACE. WE MAKE MEANING FROM BOTH IMAGES AND WORDS IN COMICS. FACE We identify with faces. The more iconic the image, the more we project onto it. We become the cartoon. COMICS GIVE US PICTURES AND WORDS. WHAT DO WE GIVE COMICS? Our imaginations. We fill in the blanks. THE GUTTER THE WHITE SPACE BETWEEN TWO PANELS. CLOSURE The reader uses his/her imagination to figure out what happens in that white space between the panels. Our imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea. Theres nothing there in that white space, but our imaginations fill it in. We connect the images in the panels to construct a continuous story. Comics is a mono-sensory medium. It relies on only one of the senses to convey a world of experience. --Scott McCloud p. 89 Its all in the eyes. Within these panels, we can only convey information visually. But between panels, none of our senses are required at all. Which is why all of our senses are engaged. --Scott McCloud p. 89 HOW ARE OTHER SENSES, EMOTIONS, AND MOTION REPRESENTED? Representing The Senses Emotion Motion HOW DO WE USE OUR IMAGINATION & OUR OTHER SENSES?