Show And Tell Mccloud Analysis

Images and Their Effect on Reading One of the first things a child is taught to do when he picks up a writing utensil is to draw a picture. As we grow up we are weaned off of pictures, as Scott McCloud says, and the goal is, “to arrive at ‘real’ books -- those with no pictures at all” (McCloud, 740). McCloud is a comic, in one of his works, Understanding Comics, McCloud explores the different ways that cartoons can be used and the power of adding images to stories. In his excerpt Show and Tell, McCloud effectively uses graphical techniques to acknowledge the absence of comics in adult reading and argues that images enhance a reader’s experience by creating a multidimensional scene, supporting the words and creating a “word to image” interaction in order to peak the reader’s interest. McCloud uses a graphical essay to show how words and images, build upon each other to give the reader a multidimensional understanding of the scenes by creating an emotional connection. One example is a series of images that depict a kid describing his toy robot during show and tell. The child points to different parts of the toy and uses his words to describe the object. The boy’s expression shifts from nervous to happy (McCloud, 739). The robot creates a sense of ethos because it is an object that is commonly associated with childhood while the nervous face of the child brings pathos into the …show more content…
He quotes Robert Frost on the issues that come along with translation: “Poetry is what gets lost in translation”. To him a comic without images loses the “poetics of comics” (Kartalopoulos). He believes that “the aesthetic experience of simultaneously experiencing a comic's form and content so harmoniously” is what makes a comic so unique and deep (Kartalopoulos). The several layers of a comic including the picture, structure and wording all create a mature and highly intelligent