04 Nov Any topic (writer’s choice)

Read Ch. 1 and 2

In Chapter One, McCloud works to define
“comics” and to explore early forms of
“juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence” in history. Plan to spend some time getting used to following an argument made panel by panel with both words and images. McCloud seems to enjoy rendering drawing styles of other eras and cultures-consider what distinguishes these styles one from another as you move through the chapter.

In Chapter Two, McCloud takes us into the unique structure and design of comics, establishing a “vocabulary of comics” for us to use and explore as we continue to read comics and graphic novels. McCloud explains how different design choices can affect how the reader perceives information, and he takes us through to the idea of “visual iconography”.
Importantly, McCloud explores all the things our brains do when we read and make sense of comics.

Wrtting Assignment:

Part A: Focus on McCloud’s Chapter One.
How does McCloud come to his definition of comics? In 3-4 sentences, summarize McCloud’s definition and his journey to this definition (why, for instance, does it take him several pages to refine his thinking and to arrive at this definition?). For this summary, do not include direct
quotations. Process McCloud and share your understanding / interpretation of this chapter in your own words.

Part B: Now, turn to Chapter Two. Share two distinct and specific ideas from the chapter that caught your attention, caused you to reevaluate something, heightened your understanding of how you read comics, and or something that might help you read, follow, and interpret the comics we read moving forward. Note the page number(s) and panel numbers) of the ideas that you identify, and share a few sentences (2-3) for each idea that explains what you found interesting, enlightening, surprising, useful about them.

Part C: Finally, consider McCloud’s text as a comic. Pick two pages, one from each chapter, that you appreciate or find significant (different than what you’ve share previously).
Maybe these are pages that you just enjoy or find visually interesting. Consider form and content, panels, layout of panels, captions, speech bubbles, images and kinds of images (style of illustration). Take a few sentences to explain what’s significant and/or enjoyable with each page (3-4 sentences per page you choose.)