Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Introduction-Chapter 2

Reading Check

1. The author/Scott McCloud and his friend/Matt Feazell (Introduction)

2. They are boldfaced. (Introduction)

3. 10th grade (Chapter 1)

4. Juxtaposition (Chapter 1)

5. Icons (Chapter 2)

6. Cartooning (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. He says he is working on a comic book about comics. (Introduction)

2. He says he has a new theory of the creative process. (Introduction)

3. He thought they were too childish. (Chapter 1)

4. Comics are sequential visual art. (Chapter 1)

5. He is illustrating the point that comic icons can represent their meaning even when they are very abstract. (Chapter 2)

6. He says that experiences can be divided into the realm of the concept and the realm of the senses. (Chapter 2)

Chapters 3-6

Reading Check

1. Closure (Chapter 3)

2. Gutters (Chapter 3)

3. Frames (Chapter 4)

4. Voice-overs (Chapter 5)

5. Duo-specific (Chapter 6)

3. Interdependent (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. He says that Japanese culture is more focused on experiencing the present moment. (Chapter 3)

2. He uses the panels to demonstrate how text and pictures interact in comics to imply the passage of differing amounts of time. (Chapter 4)

3. Borderless panels have a “timeless” effect that lingers in the reader’s mind. (Chapter 4)

4. He is illustrating the way that art has historically searched for methods to convey emotion. (Chapter 5)

5. Its first images were essentially cartoons. (Chapter 5)

6. Older readers are discouraged from engaging with texts that use pictures. (Chapter 6)

Chapters 7-9

Reading Check

1. Survival and reproduction (Chapter 7)

2. Art (Chapter 7)

3. The four-color process (Chapter 8)

4. Their shapes/physical form (Chapter 8)

5. Helping humans understand one another (Chapter 9)

6. Explore the world of comics (Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. McCloud says that the pursuit of truth, the pursuit of self-expression, and sports and games all arose from “primitive” forms of art. (Chapter 7)

2. Because imitators focus on the surface level of artistic expression, their works lack deeper layers of skill and creativity. (Chapter 7)

3. The expense of color reproduction caused publishers to take shortcuts that diminished color quality. This pushed creators to rely on bright primary colors that could be accurately reproduced. (Chapter 8)

4. The three additive primary colors—red, green, and blue—can be combined to produce any color. The three subtractive colors—cyan, magenta, and yellow—can be combined to produce darker colors. (Chapter 8)

5. Becoming a comic artist is easier than becoming something like a filmmaker or playwright, and this allows for more individual voices to be heard in comics than in many other forms of media. (Chapter 9)

6. Töpffer also wrote about the prejudices that keep people from appreciating comics as a form of art. (Chapter 9)