Understanding Comics: Chapters 5-6

Chapter 5 of Understanding Comics begins with a number of somewhat abstract illustrations meant to suggest various emotions. However, I wonder if I would have picked up on the same emotions if McCloud had not labeled them. The frames conveying serenity, pride, intimacy, and anxiety were especially confusing, so I’m glad McCloud decided to add question marks after all his proposed emotions and senses.

Chapter 6 gave me a better understanding of what McCloud was doing with his emotion and sense panels. He seems to be using duo-specific panels in an attempt to make his representations of nonphysical characteristics clearer.

When McCloud first discussed duo-specific panels, I figured there was little or no artistic use for them. I’ve taken a number of creative writing workshops, and “show, don’t tell” is always one of the primary rules discussed by instructors. Naturally I was inclined to believe that showing and telling at the same time would influence the comic in a negative way (I was definitely annoyed by the examples McCloud gives on page 153). However, when it comes to senses and emotions (as it does in chapter 5), duo-specific panels do seem like they can be justified. I will be interested in seeing if any of the graphic novels we read use this specific combination in a particularly effective way.