Scott McCloud

Johnathan Kohlhepp Publication Production II March 8th, 2017 Symbolism & Iconography The use of symbols and icons predates human spoken and written languages. In his book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud (1993) defines an icon as “any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea.” While a symbol is an “image we use to represent concepts, ideas, and philosophies” (p. 27). He also defines “Icons of the practical realm” as “icons of language, science, and communication” (McCloud, 1993, p. 27). Each of these types of icons have varying degrees of meanings. A representational icon’s meaning is fluid and varies depending on the degree of realism. The second being non-pictorial icons, or as Scott McCloud calls…

Everyday people make decisions. These decisions can be based off of how we are feeling. These decisions can lead us down the path of sadness or the path of happiness. Taking these paths set us up for the future. In the picture that I have chosen, I can use Scott McCloud’s idea of “Icon” to describe myself. Everyone experiences good days and bad. In the picture the mountains mean happiness. They are seen as standing tall and confident. They mean happiness to me because on good days I feel…

Scott McCloud discusses the complexities of how an artist’s usage of lines can drastically affect the viewer’s idea of tone. It is in this way that artists can express language without speaking, and dictates the emotions of a reader. At the core, when comparing artists’ lines to the closest degree, there is ultimately no difference, thus there is heavily importance on their use. Since there is a large allowance of variety, this provides artists with the means to even change the personality of a…

evidence, but we also receive the shock that her babysitter is portray very proactively on the bed. Just as Scott McCloud has said in his book Understanding Comics, “every time we see a photograph reproduced in a newspaper or magazine, we commit closure. Our eyes take in the fragmented, black-and-white image of the “half-tone” patterns and our minds transform it into the reality of the photograph!” (McCloud 64). So with McCloud’s statement we can assume that Bechdel is giving herself closure…

The Separation Of Art And Literature In chapter eleven of “Understanding Comics.” Scott McCloud opens up about his opinion and view on how society sees comics. He explains that most people, when thinking about the combination of art and literature, generally have a negative view on the matter. He says that society believes that the two should be separated, and that the combination of the two art forms are meant for kids. Believing that to both show and tell should be left to younger ages. All…

A Balance of Words & Pictures Among his revolutionary works, Scott McCloud’s graphic essay, “Show & Tell” emphasizes the effectiveness of combining words and pictures while addressing a general audience of various ages, consisting of cartoonists, writers, artists, and readers. The Show-and-Tell vignette, at the beginning of the essay, explains to the audience how a story can be difficult to understand when words and images are separated or used improperly. Throughout the graphic essay, the…

While creating my “big triangle” I had never realized how drastically styles, especially comics, depict people. Scott McCloud focuses on how we are able to recognize and see human faces even in basic depictions, such as his example of a circle with two eyes and a line for a mouth. Thus, in comics this allows a ton of variety in the degrees of realism and expressionism, which is why so many styles exist, especially regionally. Though it was occasionally hard for me to find an appropriate example…

The article Show and Tell by Scott McCloud highlights the evolution and changes of comics throughout history. Specifically, he illuminates the development from pictures as words in language, to the reemergence of pictures and words working harmoniously together to enhance the ideas of a piece of writing of art. My own view of comics was very limited before reading this article. I had preconceived notions that comics were always around as a more laid-back, artistic style of writing.…

Persuasion is a novel by Jane Austen that portrays the Elliot family (which in this time is head by the Baronet Sir Walter Elliot), and their friends with a third-person omniscient narrator. The book takes place in early nineteenth century England during the Napoleonic Wars and also takes place in the same universe of one of Jane Austen’s earlier and most popular book Pride and Prejudice. Throughout the book, several characters such as Sir Walter and Anne Elliot are persuaded that their first…

The titles of Pretties and Specials by Scott Westerfeld are fitting to the book and give the reader an insight on the main character’s, Tally, status within her society. The cover of Pretties by Scott Westerfeld, is a simple representation of what one of the main themes of the novel is. The theme the cover depicts is the changes thought to be needed to make people fit within society. The cover shows a picture of a female’s legs, but on her legs there are lines and arrows. On the surface these…