Comics: Chapter 2: Influence Of Comics

In Understanding Comics, McCloud defines comics as, “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (McCloud, 1993, p. 9).

Furthermore, “by appealing to the tastes of adolescents and incorporating real-world concerns into fantasy narratives, comic books have offered impressionable readers a means of self-identification and integration into an expanded consumer society” ( St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture ). Comic books are written in ways where real-life problems are mixed with a fantasy setting creating something that is enjoyable and fun to read. Children and adults alike enjoy comic books and found that these comic book characters are often they wished could be real in their own time of need. The love for comic books have lasted through out the ages and brand new comics are still being made today. Several people even collect comic books because they admire them so much and the older and rarer the comic book is the

I love comics, especially superhero comics. I have been in love with them since I was seven, when my uncle introduced me to Superman and Batman. I was just so mesmerized by the plot, even if it was repetitive, I was so intrigued that I couldn’t stop. You know the plot, the one where a victim or victims are distressed and the hero swoops in at the right time to save them from any danger. Growing up though, as life got more complicated, so did comics. It wasn’t the same old plot anymore. More casualties occurred in the stories, heroes developed more weaknesses. It was as if the comic book creators were trying to make the readers realize that superheroes and an regular person are not so far apart. I will never be able to see it that way though. Why you ask? It’s because unlike a regular person, superheroes will never be a reality. No one will swoop in to save you in your time of need. The only person that can protect you, is yourself. If you are able to do that, maybe the next step is to protect people that can’t protect themselves.

Images everywhere! On the billboards, in magazines, newspapers, books, advertisements, on the internet. OH GOD! These days we are bombarded by images. But why? Most people are visually impressed, and quite strikingly, the human “brain is mainly an image processor, not a word processor.” This is due to the fact that “visuals are concrete and more easily remembered, whereas words are abstract and rather difficult for the brain to retain.” Nevertheless, rather surprisingly human beings tend not to analyze images as they would scrutinize a text. The very moment a text is written, it flies from the hands of the writer and moves to the eyes of thousands and thousands of readers to be evaluated and criticized.

Through visual anthropology, images, ads, and cartoons are constantly changing individual’s views and the world in which they live in. Images are not merely pictures to state the obvious, they are pictures that have a deeper meaning. Whether the meaning is shown or not shown, they convey representation of something more meaningful in the end. Stuart Hall

Distinctively visual texts aim to manipulate the way we explore and interpret the images we see, thus affecting the way we make interpretations of the experiences we encounter and allows us to embody newfound various perspectives of the world.

“People only see what they are prepared to see” is a famous quote by Ralph Waldo. This quote emphasises the fact that the purpose of a text can often be unnoticed and misinterpreted by the viewer. Many people only have a limited world experience, and it’s the Distinctly Visual feature of a text which allows the viewer to gain a better understanding. Distinctly Visual texts use a combination of techniques to create and shape an audience’s point of view or interpretation, and visualising a text requires the responder to interpret all of the images presented.

The first two chapters of “The Practice of Looking” touch upon the idea of interpretation of images. For the purposes of this essay, an image is a piece of media that has a tangible visual effect, such as a picture, book, or TV series. The authors talk about how many people can have different interpretations of the same image and the idea that the audience gives an image meaning, which are valid arguments, but they fail to recognize that a single person’s interpretation of an image can change over time. Interpretation can change constantly, whether it’s many people looking at the same image or one person looking at the same image repeatedly over time; sometimes, the author’s intended meaning is more easily interpreted than at other times.

Comics allow for a unique type of learning through the combination of prose and images. Not only does the reader have the ability to take away meaning from the text, but the images offer clarification and small details that one might miss when reading a novel or short story. “The Mixed Up Files”, a comic by Gabrielle Bell about how literature affected her life, and “Superman and Me”, an article by Sherman Alexie regarding comic books, include information about their childhoods. However, due to the ambiguity and the detail of the pictures and text in “The Mixed Up Files”, more information about Bell’s childhood is available to the reader.

As a culture, our brains and our society have become accustomed to this linear way of reading, and at times this leads to one being less involved with whatever they are reading (Kartalopoulos, 2014). However, images can really capture a reader’s attention. Two categories of McCloud’s characterization of the different types of ways to use words and pictures are montage and additive. In a montage, McCloud describes it as, “words are treated as integral parts of the picture”. Basically, pictures are formed out of words. This unique combination ensures that you are paying close attention to what you are reading because otherwise you might skip a whole scene or overlook a crucial piece of description. The additive method of combining words and images is using either words or images to “amplify or elaborate” the meanings of each other. If one is inattentive when reading a comic book, or scene utilizing this method of categorization then one will surely miss a detail or askew the meaning of the

When you execute research, you are basically endeavoring to solve a puzzle of some kind, you need to know how something functions or why something happened. As it were, you need to answer an inquiry that you have about the world, however in reference to this subject, or about comic art. This is a standout amongst the most fundamental purposes behind executing research, to gain unknown information and use it to further your perspective on an already established subject, topic or theme. Before understanding or analyzing a comic series or any piece of art work, you must have an understand of that genre of art. In order to understand the background information and use it to connect key elements in your descriptions. This paper will, analyze the comic editorial series by Brian Crane, Pickles, using the theme of family.

Specific Purpose: I want to inform my audience more about the history of comic books and what they have become.

When you think of a superhero one normally thinks of Spiderman, Batman, or Superman, but there were superheroes long before these characters were created. First one must understand that the basis of this name is hero. What is a hero? A hero is a person who does something special or out of the ordinary in order to help others. It could also be someone who is admired for a characteristic about them, be it physical or mental. They are individuals that normal everyday people can look up to. This being the case, a superhero is nothing more then someone who is a hero, but not just that once and for that one person, but someone who helps many people, or leads them. As time went by the number of people who were true heroes diminished and just

The distribution, audience, narrative style, and dramatic content, of comic books were the direct descendants of the pulp magazine. They were called pulp magazine because they were printed on the cheapest paper for non-costly mass distribution, these publications were as old as newspaper comic strips. Pulp magazines can be traced to their Civil War-era ancestors, called dime novels. Unlike the funnies, pulp magazines styles were outside of the mainstream and featured adventure, fantasy, and suspense. In 1933, Harry Wildenberg and Max Gaines took the traditional comic and folded it in half and then created the first four-color newsprint comic. It would became the new format which is still seen in modern comic books still today.

From an early age I loved to read. At just two years old I would beg my mother to enroll me into school. I watched as my older sister meticulously picked out her outfit each night in preparation for the next school day. At such a young age I somehow knew that this thing called “school” was the answer to something spectacular. My home was chaotic and reading became an escape and helped distract me from the unpleasant family dynamic.