Before reading the first five chapters of “Understanding
Comics,” the only comics I had ever really read were those in the newspaper.
Whenever my grandfather would get the newspaper I would sit down next to him at
the breakfast table and read the comic section. I used to love all of the funny
pictures and cartoon animals.
Now as I’m sitting down reading this comic book, I don’t
feel the immediate joy that I did as a kid. Instead, I honestly find comic
books rather overwhelming and dizzying. There are so many different pictures
and words that my eyes can’t find one thing to focus on. I like to consider
myself a fairly organized person and I tend to make a lot of “to-do lists.”
Sometimes, before I make those lists, I get super overwhelmed with all of the
thoughts jumbled around in my head. When I look at this comic book I get that
same feeling, as if I’m looking at the inside of my brain.
While I’m overwhelmed, I’m doing my best to be open to
reading a new style of writing I’m not used to, but there’s a few things that are
REALLY bothering me…
1. Why are there some words that are randomly BIGGER or BOLDER than all of the other words? You
usually see this done to draw the reader’s attention to certain words, but just
like over highlighting a text, can’t you overemphasize too many words?
2. Why is there so much gosh darn writing and art work on
one page? I will admit that it is pretty cool that there are so many different
types of artwork and fonts (you name it)! But, there is just so much on one
page that I can’t really process it all.
3. Okay, so good ‘ole Scott McCloud says you read a comic
left to right, just like a book, but some of the boxes are different sizes and
shapes that it seems more like left, down, right, down, left, up to the right,
etc.
So, I guess you can gather that reading this comic book and
learning how to read comics/history about comics is not my favorite thing, but
I will say there was one thing I appreciated.
At the beginning of the second chapter McCloud talks about
the vocabulary of comics. For those of you who don’t like sappy love movies,
the first two pages of this chapter are talked about in the movie “The Fault in
Our Stars,” when Hazel Grace where’s a shirt that says, “This is not a pipe,”
under a picture of a pipe. Though I love that movie and appreciated the common
connection, I was mainly intrigued for the very same reason I was dissuaded by
comics-they’re super complex and detailed. While it still confuses me, there are so
many different possibilities that exist within comics and it just fascinates me
how incredible our imaginations are! Kudos to all the people who can actually
sit down and draw and write like this, I know I can’t.
Anne, I think that you raise an interesting question regarding the overemphasis of certain words in a comic book text. As you pose the question yourself, "can't you overemphasize too many words?" I definitely understand your position for being somewhat confused in this regard. McCloud especially tends to utilize the changes in text frequently throughout his narrative. However, in defense of both McCloud and comic book writers everywhere, the tactic of emphasizing certain key words or phrases in the text remains a key resource that can be used to further develop the story in the minds of the reader. I do not believe that the concept can be overdone since every aspect of the comic is already deliberately placed within the pages for a reason. Most commonly, comic book writers use this technique to highlight important characters, places, events, actions, or other phrases that are essential to the understanding of the story. This process is meant to help distinguish certain elements in the mind of the reader and help them to fully comprehend the intended vision of the writer. I hope that this discourse may help in grasping this essential component of the comic book medium.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I understand the overwhelming feeling of comics. Comics depend on the visual stimulation, and so it seems like there is too much going on all the time. I think there is a misconception that there is a right or wrong way to read comics. You can read the words first and then look at the pictures, or you can look at the pictures and then read the words. Focus on one frame at a time and I promise that it will become easier. McCloud emphasizes that comics are meant to be taken seriously and that every line has a purpose. Then we spent last class discussing how comics are viewed in a negative way in contrast to the common scholarly literature. In addition, we are assigned comics as readings for our honors seminar class. Although I agree that comics are valid literature and we are getting SOME meaning from them, we need to take it easy. Don't think of the comic as something you must understand or something that must have meaning, and maybe then it will become easier to read. I am so not an expert, but I hope it helps.
ReplyDeleteAnne,
ReplyDeleteEverything you have mentioned about your comic reading experience I can relate to! Even though the point behind McCloud's book is to help the reader understand comics, I still felt dizzy and confused about comics as a whole. The part when you describe the reading of the comics from left to right is the part I most agree with. All of the frames vary in size, making it difficult to determine which frame to focus on next. At the same time artwork is filling up the comic frames and bold words are jumping off the page at you. I feel like comics in general are tricky to an unseasoned comic reader. With anything, comics must be in the category of "practice makes perfect".
Hey Annie,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated your post because I felt very overwhelmed when I started reading the first few pages of the book. I didn’t know how (or where) to start, words were jumping out at me everywhere, and the drawings were distracting me from the words. But I think Karen gives good advice, as that’s what I did after: I simply started to read first, and then look at the pictures, taking it frame by frame. I know the text styles can be distracting but somehow I put it out of my mind and instead focused on what the words were saying instead of how they looked. I think you will be able to appreciate comics more once we read the X-men or another comic book with much, much less dense material. I did enjoy this media just because to me, it was easier than reading a textbook. But at the end of the day, McCloud was writing to inform, not entertain, which is probably why it was so dizzying to you. Like you said, there are so many things that people can do with comics, and a “textbook” comic is just one of them. Keep an open mind and maybe you can appreciate some of the other comics we read since I know you have a background in comic reading with your grandfather!
I love how you state that you consider yourself an organized person and then proceeded to create a list hahaha! But I am 100% on your side. I look at his book and immediately don't know where to start. Even though I've been trained my entire live to read left to right, I still find myself skipping sections or jumping around because something in the register below caught my attention. I find that read short quips and thought bubbles cuts up his thoughts too much and I can't retain anything. I also found myself short on time and unable to dedicate what I deemed the appropriate amount of focus on his artwork; instead I read the chapters without giving much thought to what I was seeing. But I think thats really unfortunate because his artwork clearly took lots of time and thought. I never got into comics because I never liked the set up. I would read the words and then focus on the pictures for too long and forget what I read. So I just stuck to the word-heavy stories that allowed me to create my own pictures.
ReplyDelete