Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (3 Points)

 “Understanding comics” By Scott McCloud is an interesting analysis on the medium of comics. Scott’s attempt to link the vastly diverse and complicated medium under a common definition and theory is (surprisingly enough) an entertaining read. Despite being worded and constructed similar to an academic paper on the subject of comics, McCloud’s choice to present his thoughts utilizing the medium of comics himself keeps things cohesive, allows for visual examples to be used extensively, and holds the reader’s interest bar better and a text based academic journal ever could.


The part of the book I found the most intriguing is the section on panel-to-panel pacing, timing, and progression. This is one of the aspects of comics that I personally most enjoy, since panel lines and shapes can be played with by the author to great effect in emphasizing things and providing impact. McCloud makes the assertion that there are 6 distinct types of panel to panel transitions. Moment to Moment, Action to Action, Subject to Subject, Scene to Scene, Aspect to Aspect, and Non Sequitur. 


After reading this section, I started to think a lot about the application of these different transitions were applied in the works that I have read, as well as if those 6 were truly definitive. As McCloud analysis states, Action to action is the most common transition that I noticed, however I also recall many more moment to moment panels in the works that I read. It is most likely because I read more manga than comics, but also that these panels stick out since they are supposed to. If the artist is taking the time to draw out every single motion of their characters these panels are typically for something important or impactful happening. These events can include the final moments of a character’s life or a character suddenly awakening in a strange land. 


With the different types of panels on the brain, I started to think about if McCloud’s definitions were really as clear cut as he presents them. Upon further inspection I found that often aspect to aspect panels are often used during scene transitions so I wonder what they would count as in that case? Aspect to Aspect and Object to Object panels, while different and clear in definition are rather similar in practice. The line in the sand between the two gets considerably blurry when you think about the varying amounts of relevance and interaction that both these types of transitions can have.


Now while reading comics I tend to keep panel to panel transitions in the back of my mind and try to notice any outliers from McCloud’s definition as well as pay attention to the ratios. 


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