Scott McCloud - Understanding Comics

According to Scott McCloud, the definition of a comic is a juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer. Although most people think that this form of literature has only recently been used, it has actually been present in our civilization as early as the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Between now and then, thousands of different cultures have created comics: Cortes’ picture manuscript, Mexican art, Norman tapestries, and 20^th century British caricature magazines. Unlike most critics, Scott McCloud considers comics to be high art. McCloud considers comics to be a form of high art because of their sparse representations of reality allowing the reader to inject himself into the narrative. Additionally, comics use principles of art like line, form, and color in order to create an aesthetically pleasing work.