A. Marisa was having trouble posting, so I am posting the following for her:
Formal Discussion Post: Ch. 7-9 Understanding Comics (Ashley Marisa Ansari)
As an art/design student I found McCloud’s argument of comics being art to be fascinating and true. Do you agree that comic is an art form? Do you think McCloud made a valid argument with substantial points? Art is found in everyday activity, just not credited as art. Is there anything that McCloud didn’t mention that you could argue makes comic art?
Color and comics… McCloud assures us that what two things are the reasons for lack of color in most comics? Do you appreciate colored comics or black and white comics more? I think the colored ones give me a sense of nostalgia for some reason, but I favor the black and white ones more. Thoughts?
McCloud states that comics have the seed of expressionism and synesthetic. Can you give an example of that? Even one McCloud has touched on. How did you like the book? I really enjoyed it and thought it was insightful. It was also a fun read. What are your thoughts on the format of the book?
I absolutely agree with McCloud. Given the points he gave us from the last two chapters, it takes a lot of skill to use both imagery and words to convey the exact emotion and sensation that the artist wants the reader to experience effectively.
ReplyDeleteMcCloud attributes the lack of color to commerce and technology, due to the fact that the large array of colors most artists would want to reproduce in a single comic would cost way to much to mass-produce, and the more cost effective way limits the overall appearance. I definitely appreciate when comics can be produced in full color, which are more expensive, but worth it. I do agree with the nostalgia of the "four color" processed comics that we remember reading on sunday mornings. But black and white comics have a certain clean-ness that sometimes gets lost with color.
I think what McCloud was referring to is how the combo of words and visuals makes it so the reader can feel and experience written/drawn stimuli. Like warmth can be expressed with a sort of glow.
I loved the way the information was shown to us in this comic. I felt as though I knew most of the ideas that he touched upon, even if I couldn't really explain them myself. The fact that he could explain everything in a way that everyone understands make all the information feel logical. I'm not sure if i'm expressing this feeling correctly, but mostly its the idea of a hindsight bias about comics.
I think that McCloud did a very good job articulating something that can be hard to explain to people that are not familiar with the genre. Even those of us who are familiar with comics probably don't often think about everything that the artists are putting into their work in order to convey their idea and the experience that they want the reader to have. The comic medium is a lot deeper than most would see on a surface level.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy both full-color and monochromatic comics and I think that they both have their place. Once of my favorite graphic novels is the Watchmen which has full color. However I also read a lot of manga which is traditionally released on a weekly basis. The time and cost expectations for manga means that it is not feasible for coloring. Manga is almost always black and white. In some cases I think black and white art can even compliment the story better than in color.
I think that this book was very well written and drawn. In some of the frames McCloud would simply have a fragmented sentence but the art practically turned the frame into a paragraph of information. I think that this was his intent in order to really show how comics can be used to convey ideas/information.
McCloud’s definition of art is broad, which I’m generally in favor of, but art as “any human activity which doesn’t grow out of…two basic instincts: survival and reproduction,” (164) isn’t very helpful. McCloud pairs, “I think it’s fair to say that some activities have more art in them than others,” with a close-up of a potter’s hand and makes “art” a lot more complicated. Only those cultural productions that are spurred by neither reproduction nor survival qualify as art. Qualifying productions contain an amount of art. McCloud moves quickly onto art and purpose and I prepared myself for an illustrated guide to Kant’s aesthetics, a guide to how one should ascertain how much art is in a thing. Instead, McCloud takes a detour through how society and art interact in real ways, artists have bills to pay after all (a move I approve of), but McCloud’s romantic vision of art eventually elevates a certain sort of artist above others (177). All of that is troublesome and McCloud’s assumptions about art go largely uninvestigated.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of color in comics stems from issues with commerce and technology (186).
I think comics are definitely considered art. The way that McCloud described art was more broad, and I view art as a broad term because there are variety of different mediums for art. Comics are an art form because they are a work of literature; a written art, as well as because they are a work of graphic artwork.
ReplyDeleteThe reason most comics are in black and white is due to the prices of color printing. I personally enjoy the colored comics; to me, they "pop" more and make the work more interesting and pleasing to the eye. However, I think there are pros to black and white, one being that you're more likely to focus on the content than the color.
I personally liked the format of the book; I had never read comics in this capacity and in all honesty I thought following along would be much harder than McCloud made it. Although I'm a creative writing major, I feel like I have a bit of a dull imagination and am a very realistic person (hence why I write mostly realistic fiction). For that reason, comics will probably be hard for me, but I think it's good to expand my writing knowledge and throw away my bias, which McCloud definitely is helping me to do.
I wholly agree with McCloud that comics are art, and that its ridiculous to think otherwise. Like McCloud, I have a very broad definition of the word art. In fact its almost impossible to define the boundaries of what art is, and as an art student its something we joke about all the time. We would have to dedicate a whole class to defining the word, and in the end we still wouldn’t come out with a clear answer. So obviously comics are art. Its fairly accepted that drawn illustrations are art, and a lot of people (including myself) think that literature is a form of art as well. So why wouldn’t comics, a simple combination of visuals and words, not be considered art?
ReplyDeleteThe reasons most comics don’t have color is because it costs a lot to print in color, and its very time consuming, although its becoming easier with new technology like Photoshop. That being said I really like comics with color. I think color can add another dimension to the artwork. Color has the ability to add emotion, and mode, or just act as a nice design element. However, color can easily make the artwork feel cluttered and overworked, so I personally prefer a limited color pallet.
McCloud thinks that comics help the viewers connect to the writers and experience emotionally and visually to what the writer desires. This is true not only in comics, but in any form of art. It’s a translation from the artist to the viewer, so any piece of art would be a good example of this.
I enjoyed the book, and never really found it boring or hard to read. The descriptions were made clear through the use of images and the added hints of comedy helped keep me attentive. The writing was very clear, and so where the images. The idea of a comic about comics is sort of weird at first, but it actually works really well, and makes perfect sense and I don’t think It would have translated well into any other format.
I certainly believe that comics are a form of art. In fact I believe that each component that goes into creating a comic is art in its own regard. The story line, the pictures, the way the panels are put together. I believe that when you put these components together you create a very clear depiction of what you are trying to convey. This adds many layers to comics and its what makes them unique from other literature.
ReplyDeleteColor comics arent as widely available due to the technology that we have for printing comics as well as the price increase that this would cause. In order to keep graphic novels and comics affordable to the masses they are often in black and white or four-color print.Personally I prefer the black and white print comics as I feel it is more "true" to the medium. I also tend to feel that color is distracting from the art as a whole, it tends to come across like pictures aided by words opposed to a cohesive whole.
I really enjoyed McClouds book, I feel like it was necessary to read this book in order to get a proper introduction to comics and understand them better. I think he did a wonderful job explaining all the different elements in comics and defining what they are. I will certainly have a greater appreciation for the comics we read in class because of this introduction
I certainly agree that comics are an art form. Comics are as much art as the Mona Lisa or a Beethoven symphony. McCloud’s arguments are more than substantial and certainly more convincing than I expected. No matter the purpose for the creation of a piece of art, it is a piece of art. The final product does not matter as much as the thought process that led to the creation of the art. A child’s fingerprinting and a piece of fine art are essentially the same thing, an outlet of creativity with no real survival purpose.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate colored and black and white comics equally. Both formats have their purpose and, when done well, the choice to use or exclude color can make or break a comic. For example if Maus were in color it would have a harder time remaining the serious, somber tone that it carries throughout. It could be done successfully, but it would be a difficult project. It is interesting that you find colored comics nostalgic rather than black and white. I suspect that older individual would have the opposite viewpoint.
As an immense comic book fan I very much enjoyed the knowledge given by the book. It was as fun as it was informative and McCloud did a great job of making abstract ideas easy to understand. It is a great addition to the class and didn’t feel nearly as aged as I imagined it would. Learning about comics from a comic seems natural and fitting. Having a comics textbook just wouldn’t have the same feel.
I definitely do agree that comics are an art form. I think anything that is created through some of imagination definitely deserves to be an art form. I do believe McCloud made some very interesting points that are definitely valid. I feel like video games are definitely today's biggest art forms. I feel the amount of time and story and actual art in video games definitely warrants it to fall into an artistic genre.
ReplyDeleteI like both forms of comics, color and also black and white. I enjoy the equally, color is nice, because it makes them more vibrant and pop more. Black and white is also good, but definitely more for the content and it is a bit less distracting while reading.
I would not say that I prefer comics over a standard book, but I do have an appreciation for it. I really enjoy how McCloud takes a fun approach at the book and tackles all of the topics well through out the book. He keeps it interesting while staying on topic. I felt really easy to read compared to a normal book and tackled the genre well.
I do agree with McCloud that comics itself, is an art form. I think his "6 steps" did a lot to dispel notions of what is and isn't considered art. McCloud thinks art is anything that doesn't involve our two most basic instincts. I've never thought about art in this sense, it is a very interesting observation he makes. For me though, going along with McCloud, art is anything that someone creates that uses self-expression to illicit an emotional response in the reader/listener/observer. However if someone chooses not to share their art it still provokes an emotional response from its creator so that is the essence of art I suppose.
ReplyDeleteIssues of cost and technology are the main reasons there are fewer color comics. I'd say I like black/white and color comics equally. I've read far more color comics than comics in black and white though. I feel like the color is most effective when it isn't simply there to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the comic, but to accentuate any emotion the comic is trying to convey and let the color at as an active canvas for what the cartoonist/artist is trying to convey on the page. An example would be Ghost World. In this Clowes exclusively uses pale blue hues which really add to the disillusionment captured in the material. McCloud says that pictures and words achieve the ultimate balance between what is clearly visible and what is inherently underlying by virtue of the cartoonist. I really liked this book too. It was a very in depth, but immensely accessible look into the foundations of comics. I did really like how McCloud wasn't just the omnipresent narrating voice, but was actually a character holding our hand as we delved into the essence of comics.