Chapter Five- Living in Line

In chapter five McCloud discusses the idea of emotions and “the idea that a picture can evoke an emotional or sensual response in the viewer.” He explains that the way the picture is constructed, the weight, character, direction, shape, colour and texture of the lines create emotion and help to bring the comic to life.

He also looks at the idea of symbols and how lines are used to show certain phenomenons both visible, like smoke and invisible like smell. Even though he is describing comics, it is still present in animations as well. In kids cartoons or even Disney films animation can utilize the sense of sound and sight, the other three senses of taste, smell and touch are all portrayed through the other two senses. In the Lion King for example to show smell lines are used coming from that area and we as the audience don’t have to utilize our sense of smell to understand that it exists in the animation. These techniques are now a commonly accepted symbol, or visual metaphor, and we understand from our experiences that the lines represent smell.  

Symbols are a universal language that is utilized by artists to show a particular emotion, using only two of our five senses. Along with the importance of line and the way it is constructed there are also visual symbols that we as the audience have come to recognize through our other reading or viewing experiences. If we see a bead of sweat on someone’s face we immediately link that to fear, if we see a smile- happiness, if we see tears- sadness, zzzzzss- sleep, crosses on eyes- death, smoke or flames coming out of someones ears or nose- anger. Now lots of these visual representations are definitely not realistic as we all know that when someone is angry fir does not erupt from their ears, yet we have accepted these certain visual symbols among the years from when they first originated and they have stuck ever since, becoming a part of the visual language.

Emotions, McCloud goes onto explain, are not just limited to the characters themselves, backgrounds can also be used to show certain sensations. In class when we viewed anime I noticed that the Japanese certainly utilize this tool to create emotion. When a character gets angry they may be surrounded by flames to show their anger, even though we as the audience know that a fire hasn’t suddenly erupted around them.  

Chapter Four- Time Frames

In this chapter McCloud explores the idea of time and space within comics and other art mediums. He explains that the reader has a sense of time intervals between panels in the comics because of closure. We create relations between the certain objects in the panel and through our past experiences we judge the time intervals between the different actions or the words being spoken to create a moving timeline in our heads. Like McCloud says “pictures and the intervals between them create the illusion of time through closure, words introduce time by representing that which can only exist in time- sound.” Even though we look at a still picture our minds create connections between objects and their actions and relate them to time. Just like Chapter 4 discusses, between panels we as the audience create time intervals, it is also present between certain scenes in animations and films. Within panels and between panels we create a sense of time.

It is kind of like when you are trying to remember events from a party the night before and there are certain scenes or images you can remember (and others you don’t). I’m not saying that I endorse in this sort of behavior at all, but what I am trying to say is that in your head you have all these images and snippets of conversations between people all out of order and even though you have blank gaps you still use closure to fill them in and create a timeline of the last nights events.

McCloud describes how with comics we can see both the past and present, as we can see the certain panel we are reading (the present) yet we can also see next to it on the left the past and on its right the future. He compares this particular observation to other media where we cannot see the future until it becomes the present. However with comics someone can be an “exotic” reader and not follow the usual left-to-right up-and-down reading pattern, they may read wherever their eye land first and this means they have the opportunity to create their own story from the content in the comic book. I am often an exotic reader, only I don’t limit myself to comics. Often in a novel I am guilty of skipping certain sections of the descriptive text and hunting for the dialogue that will break the suspense. McCloud describes that in “other media such as film and television viewer choice has not generally been feasible”, meaning that the audience gets what is given to them, they cannot choose the storyline. 

In this chapter McCloud also talks about motion and how in the last century scientists have been puzzled and wanted to pinpoint the idea of motion. This was discussed in one of our first lectures where we looked at the concept of motion and how its history. We looked at some of Eadweard Muybridge’s work where he took many pictures at certain intervals of a moving object and then used the images to study motion. Before these pictures no one could really define or study the way something moved. This has been an important break through both from comics and for animation in order to animate or draw the characters in motion. It is an interesting concept that we know how to walk and watch others doing it everyday, yet when it comes to visually depicting movement it is hard and we need to use photographs or videos to help us convey motion.

Chapter Three- Blood in the Gutter

In this chapter of the book McCloud describes the concept of closure and its importance to design. He describes closure as “the phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole.” It allows us to create a picture using only limited parts by making connections and assumptions. In movies or animation it cannot retell the whole story down to the last second, the creator has to make choices and selections to still tell the story but in a shorter amount of time. This is when closure is important and film makers use long music sequences with particular significant images to help the audience fill in the gaps. McCloud compares the use of closure from comics and film and explains that even though it is used to varying degrees in both forms of media closure is still and important element and allows the audience to exercise their imagination and fill in certain parts of the storyline themselves.

McCloud categorized the different types of transitions in comics according to how much each frame has changed; whether it is moment to moment shots like someone blinking, an action to action shot like a car crash, subject to subject shots where the panels focus on different subjects or scene to scene shots where it shows different locations or different time frames, aspect-to-aspect and non-sequitur panels. McCloud explains about the different categories and how they have all been used in the history of comics and how comics have evolved to mainly use action-to-action, subject-to-subject and scene-to-scene as the authors have begun to realize our sense of closure and how in two panels it can tell the same story as one displayed in 10 or so. Even though these categories were to describe the different transitions between panels of a comic they are also similar to that of movies and animations. Like comic authors animators and film makers have also realized the power of closure and how people can fill in the missing gaps and still understand the storyline.


In class we studied the Cane toad animation. After reading this article and watching this animation the concept of closure became much more apparent and I then started to realize just how little detail or information that has to be given in order to create a much larger picture. According to McClouds different panel-to-panel categories the animation uses a lot of subject-to-subject shots. An example of this is when Baz gets run over by the lawn mower and when he gets run over by the truck , we don’t see him physically get squished or shredded up but the gory scenes that follow only help us as the audience to put two and two together based on our past experiences and piece in the gaps of the scene.

Another example is The Lion King where in the opening title sequence all the animals are running towards something, we don’t see them running all the way to the “rock” rather there are subject-to-subject shots where we connect the pictures and see that all the animals are running the same way and so are all running to the same place. A voice over didn’t have to tell us that, and neither did a caption, but we can predict it through our sense of closure.

Selection of detail is used by film makers and animators and allows the animation or movie to be shorter without reducing the storyline. It relies on closure in order for this technique to work. Just like the theatrical idea that “less is more” McCloud explains that with selection of detail “finding the balance between too much and too little is crucial.”

When you are reading a comic or watching a movie you never consciously fill in the gaps, it is an automatic thing that comes from past experiences. After reading this chapter it has made me much more conscious of closure and how my experiences have helped me to fill in the gaps. I realized just how much film makers ask the audience to leave to their imagination yet we all seem to get much the same storyline.

Chapter Two- The Vocabulary of Comics

Chapter 2 explores the idea of icons and how things in comics are merely representations of the real thing, they are not actually the thing itself. Through many examples he defines icons as "an image to represent a person, place, thing or idea" (pg 27 Understanding comics- The invisible art by Scott McCloud) he discusses the power of images to represent certain things and how this can be used as a visual tool of communication through design.

He also describes how comics are not representations of real life, but rather are just simple representations. The drawings aren't detailed because they don't have to be. Any person can see the representations and accept them for what they are representing with much detail. This is the same with the anime that we studied in the lecture. All the lines are very simple and there isn't a large amount of detail put into the drawings as they need to be quick and cheap to make.
And yet, even though some of these cartoons hardly look like any normal human being, we still accept them for what the are meant to be. He also describes facial expressions and how a simple stroke of a pen can turn someone angry or happy. It is from our previous experiences of sub-consciously studying other’s faces that we understand the emotions the animator is trying to create. McCloud highlights the importance of symbols and how they reflect the way we understand or read a certain picture.

Different representations of a girl:

Scott also describes how “backgrounds tend to be slightly more realistic” than the character itself. The character is repeated so many times throughout the comic book or the cartoon that the audience have already identified what they are so the character doesn’t need any more detail. McCloud explains that “this combination allows readers to mask themselves in a character and safely enter a sensually stimulating world.” McCloud relates this technique to animations such as Disney where this certain technique is a “practical necessity.” In class we studied Disney’s “The Lion King” and I can understand exactly what McCloud means. The characters all have very simple lines and detail, whereas I could be fooled that the background is actually a picture it is so realistic and detailed.

Chapter One- Setting the Record Straight

Scott McCloud in the first chapter defines what he will discuss in the book further in detail. He uses a certain format, just like any other book, which then highlights the main topics and then he defines them. I like how he has used a comic book instead of a novel. A novel would seem too long and boring to read each week, yet in a funny way a comic book seems somewhat enjoyable to read as it is more interactive and visually pleasing. Even though it is an educational book still, it is cleverly disguised.

The first chapter is mainly about the history of the comic. In the history he defines that comics haven’t always been a series of comical images, rather they originated in Egypt and weren’t anything like what we have seen today. He went on to show how many of the modern ideas all have originated from works of others in history and he then showed how they have evolved in time as there has been access to better materials. This was also displayed in the lecture how the first sorts of animations were used with stop motion, where there were many images taken and then they were used like a flip book animation. By comparing the old Egyptian comics to ones we have nowadays it makes me feel rather dumb. The Egyptian  comics seem so much more complex yet the ones we have now are more straight forward and to the point. The level of imagination you require to interpret the comics now seem less than the old days. Then again I’m speaking from this day and age, the Egyptian comic shown below may have made more sense if I was from that era.

How could someone possibly paint a story with these images?

By studying the history of comics it made me think; just what will comics be like in the future? Will we even have comics or will we all resort to the moving competitor- animation. Or will animation even exist? Or will we even exist? The future is uncertain for sure. But what I have noticed are that there are now two main types of comics I have come across in my readings: adults and kids. Comics for kids are more like McCloud’s book, they are longer and have more panels creating a story. Whereas adults comics are only a few panels long and involve funny skits or a comedic short storyline. Maybe this is because children have more time to imagine than busy adults? Or maybe it is because children need more panels to understand a simple story? Or maybe its because kids just like the pictures?

Kids animation vs. Adults

McCloud also defines a comic and classifies the difference between cartoons, art and comics. In class we explored the history of animation and how it has evolved into a much bigger and more powerful source of entertainment and communication which was similar to that of what McCloud was stating as well. Also just like what we learnt in class about animation Chapter one also showed just how powerful comics were. Both comics and animations allowed action, characters and settings that are out of this world as they are created using materials and aren’t photographs or video footage. Because of this basically anything you imagine can come to life in the simple click of a button or the stroke of pen. 

Hannah :)