Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Vocabulary of Comics
McCloud is a strange fellow, but had some very good ideas. For instance, when McCloud talks about the face. There were thousands of ways to talk about how we see the face but he gave us visuals. One thing he said did remind me of something that I learned in general psych. Our mind is always putting things together and no matter how hard we try to unsee it, we can’t. I seriously tried to see just a circle, two dots, and a curve with that basic “face”. I will say that him being a strange fellow and me being a strange fellow I think I got a lot out of it. It wasn’t as cut and dry as I thought it would be with a title like The Vocabulary of Comics. My favorite part of all had to be the picture discussion. This isn’t a pipe, but it is, but is a picture, but it isn’t, but it’s a printing, but it isn’t. The scary thing is I thought I heard him describing this weird concept. Guess I better go get my ears checked…or my head examined. I also tried that drawing random curves then putting dots in them at random spots and yep I still saw faces or at least wear a head would be. Never knew a target could do all that. I also never knew that live action movies could be called cartoon. I only use it to describe things that are well animated and required voice over artist. Still as I was reading it didn’t feel like I was learning vocabulary for comics as much as I was learning concepts that comics tend to use. So back to my question is it really vocab? Or do we need just redefine vocabulary.
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3 comments:
I like your opinion and the way you describe the process that McCloud uses to describe the vocabulary of Comics. I felt the same way about his topic. I did not feel like I learned a variety of vocabulary words but rather the depth and complexity of the art itself. It is cool that you actually experimented using the curves and dots.
I took general psychology too and I remember that same chapter your referring too. Did your professor show you that picture of the two people standing in the slanted room? I think the reason we see our face in everything is because by human nature we are selfish. I also agree that it wasn't quiet vocabulary but more of a explination of how to better interpret comics. I'm completely for redifining vocab, the word reminds me of sixth grade english class.
I agree with you question "...is it really vocab? Or do we need just redefine vocabulary." I felt like I was learning tatics that comics use, too. I'm a really big fan of the "pipe" as well, I felt that there was alot to learn from that opening, like McCloud was trying to put us in a mindframe to understand the concept of graphic novels. I saw the general pysch comparision as well.
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