Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

I read the Vocabulary of Comics chapter, which I feel goes along with the questions best about combining visual and print text to contribute your ability make meaning out of it--because of it's in-depth evaluation of iconography.

I felt this chapter was EXTREMELY philosophical because of the way it challenged human perception vs. words, objective art, and more iconic, "cartoony," art.  I never thought about how by looking at a smiley face, which is just a circle with two dots and a line, I cannot restrain myself from recognizing the symbol as a face!!  He was so right on!  I also liked how he separated the picture from the actual object, as well as a symbol from the actual idea, for example, a flag is not a country, or flowers drawn on paper are not flowers, they are drawings of flowers.  He completely challenged my previous views about comics, he made it seem amazing that for all this time, I could actually look at a picture and automatically recognize it as the object it is representing, it just makes the human brain that much more mysterious and wonderful!!

The Beowulf graphic novels I felt were extraordinary representations of comics as an art-form.  Hinds' comics were much more along the left, realistic side of McCloud's triangle diagram.  They were not just comical drawings, but beautiful, detailed, colorful paintings.  I think this is just right for Beowulf, because a more cartoony version of the story would have made it seem like a joke, but the paintings made it seem like a magnificent, mystical land.  I found myself primarily looking at the pictures over the text since I've already read the story a few times for different classes, and also because, lets face it, the pictures were what really made the story interesting!!  I now totally understand why Shannon chose Beowulf as the story to compare with McCloud's theories in Understanding Comics.  Beowulf's writing alone is a very hard story to comprehend!  Translated right, like in Hinds' version, the text is vivid and exciting, but combined with the beautiful art he made for his comic book, it really becomes alive.