Understanding Comics

I believe that Will Eisner’s description of comics as Sequential art fits very well as a simplified way to describe comics. In Scott McCloud’s comic book, Understanding comics he defines comics as, “Juxtaposed static images in Deliberate Sequence”, which he later uses to Segway in to words. This is definition is very specific as a definition should be, but as he explains can also be the definition of the written word.  Such a definition I feel left me unsatisfied as a specific definition for comics as such a definition could in someway be used for almost all visual forms of communication, but I understand his point. 
Understanding Comics provides a enlightening and refreshing take on the graphic medium through the very use of the medium it is trying to explain. I tried to imagine what reading this same information in a textbook would have been like and I don’t think the same message could have come across.  One point that I found extremely interesting was the reason why people are so connected to cartoons.  Scot McCloud illustrates that that by using simplified imagery to represent complex ideas we can connect better to it, because it has a closer resemblance to how our mind’s eye sees things such as our own facial expressions.  This explanation completely rewired how I think about cartoons and why people feel so closely connected to cartoon characters, sometimes even more connected then to people they actually know.

Lastly, the final portion of the book that explained the separation of form and content I believe was extremely well written and had a lot of insight on how greatness is achieved in the graphic medium or any craft or profession as a matter of a fact, but in the end there is a choice that needs to be made between form and content. When people master the 6 tiers of being a great artist they have conquered their medium and are able to use it as a tool to masterfully communicate and deliver a message to its audience. It is obvious that after reading this that Scott McCloud is one of those people and has delivered to us this masterful piece of work, that is Understanding Comics.