Blog 11: Reading and Writing about Comics ala McCloud, Part 1

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud is a unique book that explains comics as a medium. The book is uses the comic medium to convey a lot of information that is both informative as well as entertaining. One of the drawbacks of the book is the lack of a glossary and an index, however reading the book and getting the information that McCloud shares with the reader almost makes up for those missing “book user” components.

It’s interesting to try applying the information in McCloud’s book, by considering a variety of comics. On McCloud’s website there is a good selection to consider when reading and learning about the elements in his book.

For example, in the comic, “Inertia Man,” located in the section called, “The Morning Improv Archive” on the website, click here for the link to this comic: http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi-12/mi-12.html we can examine several of the concepts that McCloud discusses with the reader.

“Inertia Man” is a five panel, brightly colored comic about an inert superhero. Inertia is the tendency of a body to resist movement, change, acceleration etc. Inertia Man does just that. He gets a warning from another superhero that the city is going to be destroyed by a doomsday machine and he remains inert until the city is blown up. The first panel is the title of the comic. The second panel has a simple pastel illustration of a city skyline in the background, while two superheroes are in bright primary colors in the foreground, presenting the majority of text in the form of dialogue. The third panel shows the same scene from panel two, only the other superhero has flown away and Inertia Man is unmoved. We are informed that it is “Twenty minutes later.” The fourth panel shows the word “Boom” with lines indicating movement; the blowing up of the city and Inertia Man is a radioactive skeleton. The fifth panel runs along the
bottom of the comic where Rhetorical Question Man asks us, "Is this the end of Inertia Man?"

One of the concepts in McCloud’s book that deserves to read and understood is his theory regarding a phenomena called “Closure” which he says means to observe the parts and perceive the whole. It must be similar to Gestalts theory where you can look at the parts of pattern and understand the shape it will form. McCloud says that “Closure can take many forms. Some simple, some complex” (64). For example, he says that sometimes outlines, shapes, lines that can trigger closure and that in comics, it is the reader that is “the conscious collaborator or participant and that closure is the agent of change, time, and motion” (65). The sequencing of the panel – to – panel transitions along with the gutter or space between the panels allow for “us to connect the moments within the comic and mentally construct a continuous , unified reality (67) There are several types of panel – to – panel sequencing. In “Inertia Man” the illustrator utilizes the type called, “Subject – to – Subject.” This type of transition occurs where the closure stays within the scene or the idea of the comic. If they didn't use color with this comic it would
be boring, because we expect our superheroes to by dynamic and colorful. McCloud mentions that use of subtler colors in the background helps to diminish the less important elements in the story, while brighter colors help to emphasize what is important. He also mentions that placing characters in the foreground is a popular western style of comic design.