Understanding Comics (3)

 I have to say McClouds' format on understanding comics was engaging and easy to read. I enjoyed the flow of his comics while still very much being informative, like when he makes the comic panel a film strip to compare a film to be a very slow comic. Or the section when he discusses icons and how different icons represent concepts or ideas and philosophies (symbols) and others communicate language and science, then icons we called pictures which represent their subject. I just thought it was nice how he visually communicated that concept. So for symbols, he drew very well known icons like the American flag or religious symbols, etc. And still, on the subject, it's interesting thinking about pictures as icons since really thinking about what pictures are they are images designed to resemble their subject. It is interesting when we humans tend to endear ourselves more to simplified symbols like inanimate objects and how we assign identities and emotions where it does not exist, like seeing faces on the front of cars or power sockets. I also liked the point he made to the reader that they would pay attention more or care more in his current narration (which is a simplified version of himself) compared to a more rendered version of himself. There was also another interesting bit that I never really thought of when reading comics, in Chapter 4 he talks about how changing the shape of the panel can make time go faster or slower. It is such a simple thing but never the less interesting.