Scott Mcloud Understanding Comics

As a late comic book reader I can say this comic definitely has its place in being a very important read. I say this because, understanding a comic is so very important before diving into the whole plethora of comics out there. Most people don’t have the luxury of taking a class solely based around the comic or the graphic narrative, that’s why this makes a perfect substitution. One of the key elements that I thought Scott Mcloud did so well was he emphasized the artwork and the dialogue to work together, because when both are separated, it becomes confusing and a lack of information, he noted this as being the interdependent method. 

When Mcloud started to introduce the compositional aspects of a comic page I was very intrigued, especially the part around the gutter of the book. He talks about the gutter (the spaces between the panels) as a way of showing emotion or an importance, I thought this was very true and always in my mind I had a sense of this but never fully understood it. For example in the comic March: book one, there is a single page with no gutters no dialogue, just a blank bus appearing to be moving, in this scene was the bus that Rosa Parks was riding on, it made a powerful statement for that bus to be alone on a blank page.

The overall feeling I had with Understanding Comics was honestly a pleasurable read, but when I was first introduced to it it sounded like a manual or a guide and thought that I knew how to read a comic. But as a gradually got more into the comic it became more enjoyable, I was sucked into the wealth of information and interesting way that Mcloud made the comic.