Christina Leary - Comics as Art

December 9th, 2017
Christina Leary - Comics as Art
Outside Reading: McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding comics: The invisible art. Northampton, Mass.
I’m currently in a class here at CNU that is about “Comics as Social Criticism,” and it is a really fun class. Today I am working on my final paper which analyzes the comic Watchmen overall the comic series is really cool, I would say it is a great piece of art. However, I believe some would object to this idea and I am not the only one. Author Scott McCloud has written a whole book on the subject of comics as art. First he explains what they, how they functions, how they are different across cultures, how they have transformed, etc. While he is doing all of this he is subtly making an argument for why comics should be considered art.

The reason I find this topic so interesting and chose to write about it today is because just a few days ago I was holding my Watchmen graphic novel and someone in this class made a judgemental face and said “ew comics,” and I have never been so far on the side of Scott McCloud as I was in that moment! Scott McCloud makes interesting, to say the least, arguments. At one point he defines art as being composed of two basic elements: survival and reproduction. This I am not so sure about but he makes a very interesting argument for it in his book. The part of his book that spoke the much to me and actually reminded me of Van Der Leeuw was when he says “when you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face, you see it as the face of another . But when you enter the world of the cartoon , you see yourself.” He goes on to argue that this is why cartoons are so important and compelling for one to take action, because we see ourselves not a stranger, not someone else with more capability, but instead we see ourselves so we see the actions of characters in comics as possible and achievable. When cartoon artists don’t want us to see ourselves they make the drawing unearthly especially when comics started printing in color, they used that color so that the reader could identify who they clearly were and who they clearly were not in order for them to relate. Now, based on the author's intentions, he can get the reader to take sides and in doing this she/he calls the reader to action, which I am beginning to think is an essential part of art. I saw what McCloud was explaining so clearly I began to wonder what would make comics art? They have elements of drama, picture, poetry, etc. in them, they are utilizing so many different forms of art in one setting so why then is there such an automatic response to think that comics are childish or simple? Some of the most complex ideas I read this semester came out of my Watchmen comic but the beauty of it all is that they were explained in a way that I could understand more easily.

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