Week 2, Understanding Comics - 3 pts

I enjoyed reading Understanding Comics immensely. One of our professors in Motion Design, for Concept class refers to this comic book for encouraging us to come up with visuals that both make sense and communicates to the audience. One of the ideas that McCloud presents is Amplification through Simplification. He demonstrates that the more simplified and less realistic a face is, the more you can connect, relate and see your self in that face. He shows a series of heads, slowly getting less detailed and simplified and share that " When we abstract an image through cartooning, we're not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details." By removing a picture down to it's essential meaning, the cartoonist can increase it's impact in a way that realistic art can not do. I strongly agree with this conclusion. In week 3, I related to and enjoyed a comic that was more simply drawn than the ones than those that were more detailed. My favorite comic is Calvin and Hobbes. One of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because I can see parts of my childhood in the character and I relate him in that aspect. Drawn as a cartoon, the facial expressions and actions are more exaggerated and pronounced creating emphasis on different aspects of Calvins life, whether over eating dinner, being scared by Hobbes, or throwing water balloons at Lucy. If Calvin was drawn realistically, I more than likely would not relate to him as much.