Understanding Comics

Reading Notes

Understanding the world of icons. Nothing are actually what they seem. They are just icons used to represent real things.

Icon: any image used to represent a person, place thing, or idea

Icons are made up of symbols, language, science, communication, and even pictures to resemble their subjects

Some icons represent invisible ideas

Words are abstract icons

Why obsessed with cartoons?

They have the ability to focus our attention on an idea

We have the ability to see faces wherever we go in everything

The cartoon is a vacuum into which our identity and awareness are pulled

Our ability to see human features in inanimate objects allows us to make inanimate objects into things that are useful to us today

The amount of realistic or cartoonish qualities in a comic tells us what to connect with and connect to within the story.

Pictorial vocabulary is represented by language in the picture plane

Object picture plane is where lines and shapes are themselves and nothing else.

The more advanced a comic is based on the amount of realism depicted in the comics and the amount of description in the dialogue.

Summary/Reflection

In understanding the world of comics comes with first understanding the world of icons. Which is the understanding that nothing is actually as it seems. We us them to represent the any image of a person, place, thing, or idea. Icons are made up of symbols, language, science, communication, and even pictures to resemble their subjects. Some represent invisible ideas and some are abstract icons like words. 

Cartoons give us the ability to focus our attention on an idea. Our minds give us the ability to see faces and human qualities in everything we see. This allows us to make inanimate objects into things we find useful. In masking, the amount of realistic or cartoonish qualities in different aspects of the comic tells us what to connect to within the story.

Pictorial vocabulary is represented by language within the picture plane while the object picture plane is where lines and shapes are just as is and nothing else. The more advanced a comic is, is based on the amount of realism depicted in the comics and the amount of description in the dialogue.