~Learning About Comics~ Week 2

When I heard that I was going to read is book about comics I thought it was going to be like all the rest of those normal books that has a lot of type with only a few images that go with it, but I was wrong. If you have not heard of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and you want to know more about comics this book is a great way to learn about them. It is a book that is designed as a comic book. The book shows and teaches you what is a comics, how to understand and or make one.

Most think that comics are just simple sequence of images that tell a story with words in boxes for kids. But there are always some that brake out. As you read through this book it can open your eyes and show you there are many different types and ways you can go with a comic set up or design.  For an example there are comics that do not have text at all like The Arrival by Shaun Tan or just a short comic strip like Charles Schulz's Peanuts. There are many ways and direction that comics can go in for kids and adults.

What I thought the most interesting thing that Scott McCloud did in Understanding Comics was how this book is designed. I thought it was genius how the book is a comic which breaks everything down for an easy read. For an example, it would be hard to explain how to draw and setup a person that has a movement through many frames, with only text and some images.

Scott on the other hand takes that information and draws it out. He breaks it down into four frames. In the image it shows how Scott has drawn out a complete background that is broken down into four frames. With his character “walking” through the frames to tell a simple story with some text to help. The text in the text bubble is talking you through how to set up the movement and some tips. I found this really easy to learn from because it show exactly what he is talking about.

With this layout of the book it make everything about comic within this book easy and fun to read. Before I read this book I knew just the basics of how to set up and comic and that you need some prep before starting a comic. I found this to be a great read and learned a lot from the book.