Week 2: Understanding Comics

After reading Understand Comics this week, I found it was full of interesting and thought provoking ideas that I had never encountered before. Specifically, there was a section in which icons are discussed. The comic mentions icons and the simplification of pictures. Specific and realistic images of people speak to only a few, however, abstracting and simplifying forms allows people to more easily identify with an image of a human. “The more cartoony a face, for instance, the more people it could be said to describe.” 

Humans are self centered and see themselves in everything. Even simply adding a dot to a shape can make the mind think you’re staring at a face. I found this aspect of the chapter incredibly interesting because I have often found myself seeing faces and human-like shapes in objects, but never really stopped to question why and how. It’s pretty amazing how simple and abstract shapes can convey such a complex thought. The comic continues to go on about the human face, and how when looking at others we are constantly analyzing their facial features, but our own features remain blurry and “cartoonish” to ourselves. That being said, when thinking of others, we see a vivid image in our minds, however, when it comes to ourselves, we identify more with cartoons, and less detailed imagery. Although I agree, I’m not sure how accurate this is. With mirrors and photographs, I believe its pretty easy to know the details of ones’ own face, however, I can see how in conversation you wouldn’t have as vivid of an image of yourself as you would the person you were talking to. You can identify with a cartoon, but I believe you can also identify others with cartoons. Furthermore, the comic describes our fascination with cartoons from a child. After identifying with cartoons, we become them. 

This led me to thinking, perhaps comics aren’t imitating us, maybe we’re imitating them?