The Vocabulary of comics was pretty interesting. It covered a lot of things I never took the time to really think about. For example, what we call pictures is really just one category of the icon, which by McCloud's definition encompasses pretty much any type of image that represents anything. An icon could be as simple as a stop sign, to a feature-length animated movie, so obviously, the variety of situations the word icon can be used for differs greatly. Another important point was the idea of amplification through simplification. It is the idea that the less features a character has, the more the reader must focus on the details the character does have. This lets the writer/illustrator subtly choose what he thinks is the most important feature of the character and gives the audience a specific idea to work with. It truly is a brilliant idea. His last point was the universality of the cartoon image, which was basically the more "cartoony" a face is, more people could be identified as that face. He then goes into how our minds are able to see faces in almost anything, even just scribbled circles. While this may be true, I think that the main reason we are able to do this is because we go into the drawing or whatever the object may be with the idea of looking for a face, and the pure coincidence that it is shaped with the semblance of a face. The scribbled blobs on the paper could come out to be various objects, and I think it depends on what your mind set is before being subjected to it. I also believe his assumption that people do not think of themselves as detailed as we actually are is a bit case-specific as well. I think that some people truly do picture themselves exactly as they look to the rest of us, simply due to the fact that not everyone can oversimplify themselves to that degree and some have the knowledge of their face well enough to picture it in their minds. Overall though, I think that McCloud brings up great ideas and topics that could question people's original thoughts on the subject of cartoons and imagery in general.

Now it's time for me to stop rambling ha