I had heard great things about Understanding Comics, but I had never gotten a chance to really sit down and read pieces of it. I've obviously always loved comics and cartoons, but I had never analyzed any type of formula on why this art form is so appealing to audiences. I thought McCloud had some very interesting points, regarding success and abstraction, some of which had come to mind before.
One of the "lessons" that really resonated with me was how a lot of successful comics have a very simplistic style, but very detailed backgrounds. I had mostly noticed this technique in anime and manga, and I had often found myself mesmerized by background paintings in some of my favorite anime shows/movies. Recently, my thesis partners and I have been addressing the backgrounds in our film and although we have very stylized characters, we decided to go with a more realistic approach. It was nice to see that technique boiled down, since it gave me a lot confidence in our decision. Hey, if Tintin can do it, we can do it too!
Understanding Comics was a very interesting read, and although I agreed with most of it, I had to disagree on his idea of the striving artist. To me, it felt like this hierarchy of dissatisfied artists was really a chart for a single artist's life. The first couple of stages could easily refer to students or entry-level professionals who are still trying to find their footing, whereas the later stages in his chart could refer to older artists or leaders in their field.
I can't wait to read more of this book later, I'm excited to hear what else he has to say!
No comments:
Post a Comment