Editing Understanding Comics (section)

== Summary ==
''Understanding Comics'' is a wide-ranging exploration of the definition, history, vocabulary, and methods of the medium of comics. An attempt to formalize the study of comics, it is itself in comics form.

The book's overarching argument is that comics are defined by the primacy of sequences of images.{{sfn|Thomas|2010|pp=157, 170}} McCloud also introduced the concept of "closure" to refer to a reader's role in closing narrative gaps between comics panels.{{sfn|Hatfield|2005|p=70}} The book argues that comics employ [[nonlinear narrative]]s because they rely on the reader's choices and interactions.

The book begins with a discussion of the concept of [[visual literacy]] and a history of narrative in visual media. McCloud mentions, among other early works of graphic narrative, the [[Bayeux Tapestry]], as an antecedent to comics. ''Understanding Comics'' posits Swiss [[caricaturist]] [[Rodolphe Töpffer]] as in many ways "the father of the modern comic". McCloud emphasizes Töpffer's use of "cartooning and panel borders" along with "the first interdependent combination of words and pictures seen in Europe".<ref>[[Scott McCloud|McCloud, Scott]], ''Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art''. New York: HarperCollins & Kitchen Sink Press. 1994. {{ISBN|0-06-097625-X}}, pg 17.</ref>

McCloud also highlights the differences between iconic and realistic figures. Iconic figures can be compared to a standard cartoon, while realistic figures focus more on photo-quality in terms of detail. He states that Western culture is captivated by iconic images more so due to their simplicity. He provides a full comparison and breakdown of iconic and realistic images and gives an interesting explanation of his reasoning behind this statement.

One of the book's key concepts is that of "[[Masking (comics)|masking]]", a [[Style (aesthetics)|visual style]], [[dramatic convention]], and [[literary technique]] described in the chapter on [[Realism (arts)|realism]]. It is the use of simplistic, [[Archetype|archetypal]], [[narrator|narrative]] [[Character (arts)|character]]s, even if [[Contrast (linguistics)|juxtaposed]] with detailed, [[Photorealism|photographic]], [[Verisimilitude (literature)|verisimilar]], [[Spectacle|spectacular]] [[Background artist|background]]s. This may function, McCloud infers, as a [[mask]], a form of [[projective identification]]. His explanation is that a [[intimate relationship|familiar]] and [[minimalism|minimally]] detailed character allows for a stronger [[emotion]]al connection and for viewers to [[Identification (literature)|identify]] more easily.

One of the book's concepts is "The Big Triangle", a tool for thinking about different styles of comics art. McCloud places the realistic representation in the bottom left corner, with iconic representation, or cartoony art, in the bottom right, and a third identifier, [[abstraction (art)|abstraction]] of image, at the apex of the triangle. This allows placement and grouping of artists by [[triangulation]].