Making/Understanding Comics Differences

After reading both McCloud books, it's clear that both touch upon the same ideas, quite a few new things came up when I read "Making Comics".

For instance, McCloud brings back the smiley face idea, and how we humans always try to see ourselves in everything. He also brings introduces a new concept to the 'smiley face' idea, symmetry. There's something natural about it that instantly differentiates living things from non-living things. I thought it was also interesting later in the same section, when McCloud talks about character designs to evoke certain feelings and emotions, that he pointed out some comic characters are drawn to ressemble animals. I thought it was a great contrast to the 'smiley face' idea and kind of reminded me of the saggitarius idea that the traits of both man and animal are present in us and so we should learn to accept it. I think the style is prevalently seen in cartoony books, most certainly in Bone. A well-known comics example I guess would be some of characters in superhero genre. The Spider-Man villain, The Vulture for instance, even without his wings, the image of a vulture still comes to your mind the instant you see him with his wrinkly face, hooked/beaked nose, gangly neck, and menacing facial expression.

Both the Smiley Face idea and much of "Making" touch upon the theme that less is more and that unless you have clarity, your message will be lost to the reader. One of the most inciteful and humorous parts I loved was when McCloud showed us a picture of Mark Twain and Albert Einstein and asked us which was which.

The panel-panel transitions resurface again, and McCloud elaborates further when and why each one is used. McCloud's explanation of panel arrangement, flow, etc. reminded me of a summer film course I took once when I was in High School and touched upon many of the same things. One thing was flowing the story from left to right and keeping your angle consistent when apropriate as to not confuse to the reader. But a break in the flow like that mock story McCloud does, such as having a character move from right to left, signals in the reader something has happened or stopped. I usually don't think about the movement of characters within and from panel to panel, but I think if we go back to Watchmen or even Bone and keep it in mind for future books, we'll see how some of the techniques add to the story, and make them more "cinematic" so to speak.