What I quickly began to enjoy about Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” was how it was presented, and the self-encouraging humor it had about itself.
I say self-encouraging, because although the comic made several jokes about itself and the presentation of comics, none of it was necessarily self-deprecating. It all was made with the understanding that comics, their limitations, their styles and what exists beyond their panels is not something to be ashamed about, but rather are things to appreciate and poke affectionate fun.
Before I go on, I should probably admit a few things: I am an avid fan of animation, and have been ever since I was a young child. My first drawing – aside from a cat with nine legs (and I’ll maintain to this day that my 2-year-old self was simply attempting to draw the cat in motion) – was Ariel from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” By growing up in what many now call the animation renaissance of the of 1980s, it became a primary passion in my life that continues today with works from Don Bluth, Hayao Miyazaki or Pixar.
So with that grounding in the world of moving pictures, I have an avid appreciation for comics as well. In many ways, I mirrored McCloud’s early sentiments in his book about the western cultural depreciation of comics as competent story-telling devices or art. But as mentioned before, he did it in such a charming way.
The first hint of his tongue-and-cheek approach (aside from the short and sweet introduction punchline) began on page 24. “This is not a pipe” is a very familiar piece of work from all my art history experience and dedicated visits to art museums, and he did well to connect it to the dilemma of comic books.
“Do you hear what I’m saying? If you do, have your ears checked, because no one said a word.”
Moving on, another presentation of this dilemma I appreciated occurred much later on page 48, when McCloud told the story of the artist and writer coming together to make the greatest piece of storytelling of all time. I found myself emphathizing for each during their long, hard roads in becomming artisans of their craft, then giggle at the bottom punchline when the two stared at each other with a broad, empty expanse between them and large questionmarks over their heads.
This brought me more and more into thinking, and I stayed glued to the text to the very end. Later on, I greatly appreciated the differences and comparisons to eastern and western comic styles, since I too have noticed the differences but did not realize it could be graphically represented in… well, graphs. I resolved to try grading comics myself with this method in the future. After this, I also noted the publication date of 1993 of McCloud’s book, and quickly recalled many comics and works of animation that have appeared since then. One that specifically came to mind was the recent blockbuster “V For Vendetta,” which many may be surprised to know was derived from what western cultures call a “graphic novel,” or what I like to think of as a way of them to say “so not a comic book.”
Another example I thought of which he actually directly mentioned was “Akira,” which later became a very successful movie adaptation in Japan in 1988, but I was not sure whether it had made its way into the States by 1993. A quick imdb search told me that it did not see wide American release until 2001, so no.
I bring this up because both of these movies, while nestled in their social niches, were still commercial successes in the United States, a place where comic books are only considered for young boys – as McCloud lamented – and only depict grown, muscular men in tights. While this may be true in many ways in western comics, other areas of the world have evolved differently, which proves to me that comics are a limitless media when it comes to depicting art and writing – the difference is how the creators choose to present it, and how the readers open their own minds to receive it.
I look forward to reading more of McCloud’s “Understanding Comics,” because it at times coincides so well with my own feelings on the subject.