Understanding Comics

I never really got into comic books when I was younger. I always thought about them in terms of super heroes or anime, neither of which were things I was interested in. But every Sunday morning I'd sit at the kitchen table and read what my mom and I call the "funnies"--the color comics hidden within the pages of the paper. I'd skip right past world news and dive into the fictional world of "Luann," "Baby Blues," and "Pickles". Each week I'd wait to see which boy Luann would start to have a crush on, or what other trouble Hammie and Zoe would get into. When I go home I still read the strips, even if I don't know what I've missed plot-wise. Reading and looking at drawn images is like an escape from reading about the struggling economy or failed war efforts on the front page.

The first two chapters of Understanding Comics countered some of my assumptions about comics as an art genre. They don't have to be just about Spiderman or super "nerdy," and they are more than merely cartoon scribblings.

"To be neither artist nor writer, and yet both at the same time." - Scott McCloud

Comics play into human nature. We like to see ourselves in everything we do, and we strive to find things that are relatable to our own lives. It's why I was drawn to the strips about families and teenagers--I often found myself within Luann and rooted for her as if she were an extension of my own life. Comics may simplify images yet it doesn't mean they degrade them in any way. Through simplification we get to the core meaning of icons and understand concepts more universally. McCloud suggests that "our identities belong permanently to the conceptual world." We can't see or touch or smell them. The idea of having an identity is just that. An idea. Yet once we start attaching such perceptions to visuals we start to solidify in the sensual world.

As the characters in my favorite funnies grow older, so do I. Their faces and their personalities continue to mature, just as I will. There's something really cool about being so connected to the life of someone imaginary. That's probably how my generation feels about Harry Potter, but I never got into wizardry either...