Scott McCloud’s expository comic Understanding Comics contains the frames shown on the next page. In those frames, a nameless narrator explains the rationale behind making comic characters simple to the point of being unrealistic, and his self-referential style of presentation aptly clarifies his message because the explanation takes the form of a comic strip. Both the text and the images in this strip back up the narrator’s arguments.

Beginning from the frame that reads, “… You see yourself,” the narrator illustrates the idea that the audience can project any identity, even his/her own, onto a generic cartoon face. Then, he effectively conveys how a cartoon character can even be relatable despite is lack of realism. He draws upon Mickey Mouse, an iconic Disney character, as an example of a figurehead with whom many people can identify, and the audience being drawn into Mickey’s head, both literally and figuratively, serves as a memorable visual pun that indicates how a person can identify with almost any sufficiently ‘simple’ character. The last two frames on page 36 drives the narrator’s point home because he offers a realistic, ‘non-simple’ version of himself juxtaposed with his regular self in fully comic form. The shaded counterpart fills in too many details that the audience’s mind would otherwise have filled in by itself, and he seems less authentic as a messenger because not only is the audience not able to frame him-/herself to think like the narrator, but also the particular details of the altered narrator make him seem unauthoritative. Part of the reason is that extraneous features displace the professional, clean features characterizing the original narrator.

By stripping away many of the phenotypes that contribute to his identity, the narrator conveys his message to the audience more effectively than if he were given more features, which can potentially distract the audience. The sequence of frames on page 37 elucidate the psychological concept of gestalt very effectively. The minimalistic imagery coupled with the lack of color captures the essence of the narrator, so naturally, he calls himself a “blank slate.” By not filling in the eyes or even mentioning the name of the narrator, McCloud augments his point that a person can derive meaning from very basic forms. Finally, he subtly extends his claims to encompass elements of a comic other than faces or objects throughout his comic. Many key words and phrases are printed in bold and italics such that the audience can skim through the text without reading every word and still understand the gist of the arguments.

By cleverly employing the narrator’s message into his comic-style essay, McCloud convincingly defends his views on the psychological effects of comics. Most notably, he has convinced me that the simple drawings of a comic convey messages effectively because the details do not obstruct of the audience from his key points. Using the same style of self-referential explanations, I have adapted these two pages into another comic strip that re-conceptualize McCloud’s views.

-Tom