Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud

 I would have to say Understanding Comics was an interesting read and that McCloud brought up some interesting points. But I think he spent too much time trying to create a definition for what a comic is. It became to complicated and for myself a bit confusing. It made me feel like I lost some important point to the defining process. To me comics have always been in a very simple definition of, a series of image put to a page to tell a story.  Now McCloud goes through word after word and complicates it a bit too much. But that’s the only time he really lost me.

Now his discussion on how we perceive faces and why we are more willing to see ourselves in a cartoon environment than one that is completely realistic, was interesting. Especially in that we see ourselves more in the characters drawn simply; than the one drawn realistically. But to me that is still just the surface.  He discussed a bit on content and writing but not much. Which in some ways disappointed me because sometimes our identity that gets tied to characters isn’t by just how they look its by how they act and how they are written. Content also plays a big role because you have to be interested in the content before you even can feel an identity to a character.  So by solely going about it in an image based sense excludes some of comic books other aspects.

But I think he was just trying to keep it simple for the viewer. His break down on how stories progress and our filling in information that isn’t there with panels was very interesting. And the variety of the basic panels gave a good look at to what you find in most western comics, I would say. He did delve into the eastern but mostly on Japan. And how their pace in story telling was much different. I do agree to this view, western culture is mostly go, go, go! While eastern holds onto moments so you can see what they mean or to actually enjoy the moment. This does create an interesting comparison and gives another view into how to pace a story.

But (yes just one more but) overall I felt a bit restricted in McCloud’s views, he gave a very systematic view on comics. Which is fine if you’re a person who hasn’t read a lot of comics or maybe needs a clearer understanding. But it felt to cold to me at times, that I was restricted to a view that sometimes would open up. His points were clear and not false, but I didn’t feel excitement while reading it. This may be that I read Will Eisner’s Sequential Art  and for me that one was really about movement and actor, action, stage so in a way it felt like a play. So maybe I should cut some slack with McCloud, he in the end was in a search for a better definition or comics.

The Arrival, Shaun Tan

Reading through The Arrival again after many years, brought back memories of the stories told about my Mother’s side of the family who immigrated fairly recently. I’m a third generation American on that side.  I like that in the comic there are small stories of the people the character meets on how and why they immigrated. Overall they had some type of hardship to go through and had to leave a bad place.

My great grandparents did the same, my great grandmother’s family escaped from fascist Italy, in the early 1900s. My great grandfather’s family escaped from Ireland due to the escalation of the British occupation.  Not much really is known about the Irish side they popped out of nowhere. Rumors persist they were part of the IRA but we still don’t know. But the Italian can trace itself back, and many hardships were dealt to my great grandmother and her two sisters and little brother. They lost their father to a carriage accident and their mother was left lame. So they took up property in Durango, Colorado and the three sisters farmed. Some of the locals that have been there since the family landed; know of The Tale of the Three Sisters. So when reading this comic it brings up memories of being told about the three sisters how the grew up, how they survived, and learned about American culture.

That to me is what always struck me about this comic is that I think for anyone who has had family immigrate here to bring up memories and an understanding of what its like; a feeling of being united and not alone.  And its what makes the comic truly universal.