McCloud "The Vocabulary of Comics" Summary

Through cartoons and drawings, McCloud attempts to explain why people are so fascinated with cartoons. He implies that people are more likely to relate to a drawing than to an actual photo. He claims that since people are self centered, they can view cartoons are representations of themselves. He claims that the more simple a cartoon or drawing, the more likely a person can identify his or herself with the art.

McCloud stresses that an image is only a representation of the actual object. For example, in the article was a drawing of a stop sign, he claims that what a viewer is seeing is not actually the law. He implies that it as a representation of the law. Another example is the drawing of a hamburger, soda and French fries. Mc Cloud points out that the image is not actually food, simply an artistic representation of food.

I think that this was an interesting article to read. It was informative and the illustrations helped me understand what the writer was trying to convey. He stressed the importance of images in today's society. Images portray an ideas and the concept of images allow for universal relations. People can identify themselves within the cartoons. Images and graphics are used not only in print, not only in meat space, but all over the Internet as well. Images are used on websites and are used to capture the attention of a viewer.