The Anatomy of Comics - Part 2

Notes from: McCloud, Scott. (1993). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 60-137.

• Closure - a concept where we perceive a whole/entire experience when we may only actually be observing parts of it (ex. in a vertical stack of books, we assume there are covers and pages between the top and bottom; not because we see them but because we have previously experienced this to be true) (p. 63)
• The space between panels is called "the gutter", and "plays host to much of the magic and mystery that are the very heart of comics. Here in the limbo of the gutter, human imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea." (p. 66)
• It's in the gutter where readers go from reading to participating (p. 69)

McCloud, Scott. (1993). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 66.
Retrieved from: graphicnovel.zachwhalen.net

• A few pages are spent on analyzing the different types of transitions between panels
• Action-to-action predominates in Western culture, illustrating out "getting there" culture (p. 81) as well as perhaps the necessity of accomplishing much in a limited space (p. 80)
• Action-to-action does predominate in Japanese comics, but to a much lesser degree; subject-to-subject and moment-to-moment panels illustrate a culture that emphasizes "being there" (p. 81) which is permitted in the lengthy anthologies of comics (p. 80)
• Comics is considered "mono-sensory" - that is, it's entirely visual; however, in the gutters, because no senses are required, all are engaged! (p. 89)
• The dance between visible and the invisible is a unique property to comics. "No other artform gives so much to its audience while asking so much from them." (p. 92) 
• Words provide time by representing sound (p. 95)
• Extending the length of a panel can increase the reader's perception of time, even though the content may be no different than if the panel were narrower (p. 101)
• Timelessness can be produced when the content leaves no information regarding duration, leaving the reader to ponder the scene even after they've moved on to another panel - this effect is exaggerated when the panel "bleeds" off the edge of a page (p. 102-3)
• Depicting motion evolved from "wild, messy, almost desperate" lines to lines "so stylized as to almost have a life and physical presence of their own" (p. 111)
• All lines carry some sort of expression, shape and direction alone influencing the characteristics (p. 125)
• The use of very basic lines can be used to add emotion or sensual information (smell, sound, etc.) (p. 128)