Understanding Comics: Chapters 5 and 6

"In fact, the general public's perceptions of 'great' art and 'great' writing hasn't changed much in 150 years. Not as much as we like to think it has, anyway." - McCloud

I think this quote has a lot to say about our culture and the way we interact with creative outlets. Close your eyes and imagine the word "art". What visuals pop up? Drawings? Paintings? Sculptures? I know that I personally forget about performance pieces or abstract work because those aren't the mediums I'm familiar with. I don't see them as often in museums or hanging on the wall in someone's home. We tend to stick with the status quo and regurgitate ancient ideas/styles with a slightly modern twist, claiming to be forward thinkers. Following popular standards seems to be a sure fire way of being at least moderately successful or accepted. But in reality, a lot of truly "great" artists or writers are those that don't fit in with mainstream precursors. They push boundaries and create something unique rather than recycled. It's not enough to mimic what's already out there if you want to be revolutionary or innovative, and yet we still subconsciously judge art like we're stuck in the 1800's.

McCloud argues that comic creators have the same problem of clinging to the work of their predecessors, and that such a habit only perpetuates misunderstandings about comics as simply a "genre of writing" or as a "style of graphic art". When comic creators merely strive to "match the achievements of other media," they are belittling their own work and closing doors to so many possibilities. Even if your ideas aren't congruent with what's currently popular, they can still have value and promise. The only way we can grow is if we try new things and experiment with different modes of creativity. I think McCloud is really invested in trying to shatter preconceptions about comics and their creators because such assumptions stunt growth and improvement within the medium as its own entity.