Response to Scott McLoud's Understanding Comics

Here is a banner series for my Museum of Comics Brand Concept.

Understanding Comics was a very enjoyable read. Overall, the idea that an informative book about comics written as a comic is simple and engaging. In addition, McLoud's writing is amusing with interesting concepts.

The concept introduced in Chapter 2 about humans and how we, as a "self-centered race", tend to see a faces in everything was fairly compelling to me. The idea that there is a simplification of image for reason made me think about some work I had done in my graphic design studio class.

My project was to brand a fictional Museum of Comics and create a proof of concept. Using the idea of escapism I came up with the concept of "Who is behind Your Mask?", which used many of the typical characters you see in comics and hearken to the idea that when one reads a comic book, one essentially becomes part of that world. I applied McCloud's simplification of form to this. Though I didn't mean literally simplifying images, I used the simplification of character. In both of these instances I think people enjoy projecting themselves into these worlds and that is a main joy of comic books. I just like how I was able to connect something I had done in my studio class to what I am reading this semester.