Understanding Comics

Scott McCloud's comic about comics not only taught me how comprehend graphic narratives, but media in general. Words and pictures in combination are such a part of our daily lives that we hardly ever take a second to analyze them.

A lot of what I read seemed obvious as I read it. He dissected the basic building blocks of comprehension. How we create closure when part of the image isn't there. 

We infer not only time but motion and action between panels. We see a raised axe with motion lines juxtaposed with a scream over a skyline, it's us who decapitated him. I'm currently reading Chew, a comic series about an FDA agent who can detect the entire history of every bite of food he eats. He uses this to solve crimes and often is forced to eat human flesh. Murderous sadists and cannibals abound, it can be kind of a gorey ride. The artist often uses this subject-to-subject transition technique to get around showing the super-violet details. In once scene, a raging cannibal enters a scene of diners. We know him and his intent, but all we see is his entrance and ferocious look in his eyes. When we return to the scene its a mess of bloody pulp. We infer this lunatic killed and ate everyone but didn't see it.