Week Two

UNDERSTANDING COMICS: THE INVISBILE ART

            Understand Comics: The Invisible Art, was an informative and easy to understand explanation about what exactly is a comic and how it appears. Also, I understood a lot better about how icons are used in this medium to refer to something, whether it’s cultural or just something every person is expected to know.

            First, in order to understand comics, one must understand that a comic frame is its own vessel. The frame of a comic can show several ideas within one frame. It’s also important as a comic book reader not to mistake the message for what is being shown. Comics are a pretty much a medium that is all show but no tell. They present the readers with images, but the readers need to figure out what those images mean.

            Comics use icons to get its meaning across.  An icon is a visual image that represents a person, place, thing or idea.  It is not an actual picture of something real, but a simplified version.  When people look at icons, it makes them think of something specific.  For example, if someone looks at a Star of David, any person would associate that with Judaism. Other icons like the cracked bell, and a fish with a cross on it have a very specific meaning as well. Icons have become so useful in society that politicians use them for political gain.  So the comic can convey a lot a meaning in a single frame by placing icons in it.
           
            Icons are the vocabulary of comics.  They vary a lot.  Some are highly realistic, others are highly abstract, and there are a lot that are in the middle between the two.  What they all have in common is that they are trying to express meaning.  They are not just a picture.  They are a message, presented in visual form.  Not everything in a comic frame is an icon.  Some things are just pictures that provide a setting for the story.  But icons are very common, and they are a very important feature of comics.

            

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