Blog #5 Understanding Comics

When I first bought this book, I wasn’t quite sure how it would relate with our class. I briefly flipped through the pages and wondered why we would even study comics in class. Even my sisters laughed when they saw the book, joking about how I just wasted money on a comic book, but I brushed them off and stored the book away until we needed it.

I remember having comic books as a child (mostly Marvel comic books), but never really got too much into it (because they had cartoons on tv), other than the fascination with the drawings (I loved drawing). Scott McCloud’s book, Understanding Comics, on the other hand is surprisingly quite an interesting read. Rather than using the typical book structure form to present his side/take on comics and the media, he uses the comic structure to produce a very creative book. You almost forget that you’re reading a book because the way it’s presented, which I enjoyed because it made it less boring and entertaining. He includes some witty remarks and humor in the book to make it more fun to read, which eventually keeps you turning the page.

His explanation of assumption in chapter 3 forced me to think ‘outside of the box’ and made me think of things I never thought about. His explanation of how we as society are quick to assume, even though we aren’t completely sure and not guaranteed anything, is a great examplanation of his term ‘closure’. He says all of our perception is an “act of faith,” which I agree with, but I guess never really thought about. Afterall, I guess I do assume things are there, even if I don’t see it with my own eyes. I guess our minds can automatically generate closure through what we percieve and assume on a daily basis, even if it’s an incomplete observation.

Understanding Comics forces the reader to think outside of his or her comfort zone and look at things differently. It’s creative and humorous way of presenting ideas of language, closure, and the basic understanding of comics has kept me as a reader interested and laughing along the way.