Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Our course text is Understanding Comics By Scott McCloud. It is a comic book about comic books. McCloud, in an incredibly accessible style, explains the details of how comics work: how they’re composed, read, and understood.

Chapter 3 – Blood in the Gutter – pp. 60

  • In comics, what is “the gutter?”
  • Discuss the concept of closure as it relates to comics.
  • Of the six types of transitions in comics, choose one that you find most interesting and tell why.
  • What’s the point of the three stories about Carl that are shown on pages 84-85?

Chapter 4 – Time Frames – pp. 94

  • Is each frame in a comic a single moment in time? Why or why not?
  • How does adding words change the length/time of a panel?
  • In comics, time and space are “one and the same.” How so?
  • On page 101, how does changing a panel’s shape affect its time?
  • In comics, motion is usually reduced to what?