Review from before: I've used this book many times to teach comics basics. Maybe this is less true for non-comics fiction, though. That's like suggesting that minimalism (something like Raymond Carver's stories, or Ernest Hemingway's stories) invite readers in more because we as readers have more space to 'be' the characters, to connect with them. McCloud says that realistic depictions of characters such as in superhero comics are actually less relatable than simple characters such as Charlie Brown or Nancy, or most manga. What I have to add is that I had a fun conversation with my class about one insightful claim McCloud makes, that the simpler and more 'cartoony' a comic representation is (i.e., a smiley face), the more universal it will be, the more we will say 'that's me.' In fiction classes I was taught to be as specific and detailed as I could be about characters and places. It's the primary source though there are many good books coming out. I'll read this and use it to help people understand comics every year. The article ends with a picture plane that shows the relationship between the person’s perception of reality and the language by which he or she expresses this or that idea or image.I finished reading it for my comics/YA Graphic novels class this summer, 6/16/16 and now again, 8/8/17.

This chapter mentions the Japanese masking effect, which for a long time remained a favorite feature of the comics of this country.

In the author’s opinion, comic book artists use a concentration technique when a drawing method of realism is used to transfer details, and, to emphasize the general plan, inanimate objects are depicted as simply as possible. McCloud claims that all human feelings are subordinated to the world around, and when it comes to images, realism serves as a way to portray the outer world and a cartoon – the internal one. The author also introduces the concept of a mask, where he talks about the fact that any person’s face is nothing more than a mask that obeys the commands of the brain and that is perceived by other people differently than by its owner. The idea of self-centeredness, when any person can see a human face in the objects that surround him or her, is rather interesting. These cartooning are viewed as a form of amplification, which is achieved through maximum simplification. McCloud suggests the idea of simplifying drawings when a human brain equally recognizes more complicated and simpler pictures (cartoons).

Understanding comics