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 :)