Reaction to The Vocabulary of Comics - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Scott McCloud's book was surprising in how much it discussed that my Multimedia Century class is also covering. McCloud focuses on the use of "icons" and how much more universal they can be than almost any other medium. At the same time, Multimedia Century has begun the dive into the abstract and cubist movements in which visual art also becomes more universal. However, how universal we see visual art in the aforementioned movements is more because they are moving away from functionality (i.e. a testament to religion, patriotism, or some family hierarchy that only people from that culture can enjoy) and instead trying to only evoke emotions through basic color and line techniques that anyone can enjoy. Hence in The Vocabulary of Comics, Mr. McCloud is implying that comics like Tin Tin, which make much higher use of icons, can be much more universally enjoyable.

Personally, I prefer to see slightly more stylized or realistic comics, such as Preacher, The Dark Knight, or Kingdom Come. In these the icon is still at work, but I can focus on both the narrative and how the artist has chosen a visual aesthetic. Another example of this in the world of webcomics would be Karl Kerschl's The Abominable Charles Christopher ( http://www.abominable.cc/ ). I love how the characters have varying degrees of detail but are all very emotionally identifiable.