Cartoon as Vacuum

November 25th, 2007

Nine panels from Scott McCloud’s comic book on comic books, Understanding Comics.

On the universality of a cartoon face (p31):

what are you really seeing

cannot avoid seeing a face

And thus our universal identification (p36):

the cartoon is a vacuum

A diagram of the pictorial vocabulary of comics, from reality & resemblance to language, meaning, & iconicity, and their representation on the picture plane, as ink on paper (p51):

comic vocabulary

Click image for larger version.

On our emotional response to line (p119):

madness

Posted by Greg Filed in Art
5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Cartoon as Vacuum”

  1. Andrew Clarke Says:
    November 26th, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    The book is relevant to so much more than its title implies. Anyone who ever communicates will get something out of it.

    You should get an Amazon Associates account for posts like these.

  2. Thomas Puggard Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 11:50 am

    It Is a significant statement that we put ourselves into the picture frame of the cartoon and of other media to some extent.

  3. Look & See « Rayn@'s Spot Says:
    September 21st, 2011 at 10:08 am

    […] Image: Unurthed  […]

  4. The eyes have it : “Hugless Douglas” by David Melling | Did you ever stop to think and forget to start again? Says:
    July 6th, 2013 at 12:03 am

    […] this extract, McCloud talks about faces. About the way two dots, a line and a circle make a face. About how we […]

  5. cara perkosa anak kecil Says:
    November 1st, 2024 at 9:10 am

    Great delivery. Outstanding arguments. Keep up the good spirit.