Images Text and Comics

We have been discussing all semester, in nearly all of my classes, how text and images work together, how they represent each other, compliment each other, replace each other.  But, there is no better way to illustrate their dependency on each other than to read Scott McLoud’s Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art (1994). In Chapter Two, the Vocabulary of Comics.  His interpretation of how we view images and how our minds perceive those images is really interesting.  He talks about the icon and the fact that they are representational.  Words too are a representation and, are some times used in place of images as a representation of their meaning.  When McLoud talks about the reader identifying themselves in the images, I think this is an important factor in understanding the pull of this genre.  Who doesn’t want to be the hero? Who doesn’t want to be the one to discover the cure?  So when we identify with the image and identify with the words that go with that image, there is an interdependency that allows an understanding which depends on the interaction between image and text.  There is always such a hierarchy put on genres of writing.  When placing the intellectual at the top, it’s hard to see that something like a comic can relay as much of a message and appeal to an audience that may never be exposed to certain philosophies because they don’t consider themselves to be intellectuals.  Comics should not be confused with lack of content and should also not be discarded as meaningless unless fully explored by those it reaches as well as those it doesn’t.  Our world is filled with comic icons everywhere from the buttons on our toolbars to the crossing signs on our street corners.  We shouldn’t try to separate and alienate one genre from another.  No one really knows what will spark the imagination and attention in a another.

~ by hannaj30 on April 24, 2008.