Scott McCloud utilizes the comic book medium to dissect its own mechanics, defining comics as "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence." He introduces the concept of closure, which occurs in the "gutter" between panels where the reader mentally fills in missing information to create a continuous narrative. The book establishes a vocabulary for visual language, categorizing styles along a triangle that flows from photorealism to total abstraction. McCloud also breaks down the relationship between words and pictures, charting how they either reinforce, intersect, or diverge from one another.
This book serves artists, designers, and students of visual communication. Readers learn how to manipulate the passage of time through panel shape and size, and how to use line weight to convey specific emotional tones. By studying these frameworks, practitioners understand the cognitive process behind how humans decode icons and symbols. The reader finishes the book with a technical toolkit for constructing narratives that maximize reader participation through the specific physical and psychological constraints of the printed page.
Balanced in tone; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Evidence Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1993
- Language
- EN
