McCloud, Comics, and Me




I'm not a big fan of comics in general, it's not something that I read on an everyday basis, but I found one I liked,the Boondocks. After reading Scott McClouds book, I'll see if I'll become a more avid reader. So what is the Boondocks Comics you ask? Well I did some research, and I am really into it. The Boondocks is a comic, and now television show, by Aaron McGruber. It features two main characters, two African American boys, who are the first Black kids in a previously all-white suburb. One of the characters, "Huey Freeman, the radical scholar," spends most of his time questioning perceptions of African Americans and the ways they are treated in the United States. The comic has always been distinguished by its willingness to raise tough questions and express dissenting opinions. This comic has been banned by certain newspapers and praised by others, it's controversial to some and hailed by others. I personally don;t think it's as political as some people say, it's funny and not every strip is serious, it's a comic, people seem to forget that. Here is a link to several Boondocks comics http://community.livejournal.com/boondocks_comic/

McCloud made a statement that I never thought about. "Space does for comics what time does for film"(7). Since the Boondocks is both a comic and a show, I can relate to and see the validity of this statement. Moving directly into the discussion on sequential visual art, comics don't have to contain words to be a comic. On the link provided there is a Boondocks comic 3/09/06 and the first three frames have no words, but I bet everyone knows exactly what is going on. Actually it is the comic I have shown above. The character 'Grandad' has taken all kinds of different pictures of himself in different outfits and poses. This communicates better to us than any words would. I think I'm getting it. McCloud pointed out the picture manuscript from the 1500's. I immediately though of Ancient Egypt and 'the pictures an symbols engraved on the walls' and never thought once of this being a comic, but it is. I turn the page and there it is, Ancient Egypt. This is really the sequence of occurrences, I thought of it before I turned the page. He elaborates on this when he talks about the Normandy Conquest scene. "Reading left to right we see the events of the conquest, in deliberate chronological order unfold before our eyes. As with the Mexican Codex, there are no panel borders per se, but there are clear division of scene and subject matter" (13).

Looking at many of the Boondocks Comic strips, everything that McCloud touches on in chapter one is relevant. I didn't know anything about the Boondocks prior to reading it, but I could relate to it and it made sense. Something that would usually not be considered a comic and that can be understood by everyone is the flight information 'diagram' in which the pictures show how to properly secure your mask incase air pressure changes in the cabin, and then to do the same for the person next to you. Now from what I just said, you would think all of the words were right there in the diagram, but they weren't it's just pictures of a woman and her child going through the actions. With that, comics really do have a way of communicating without words, and even greater chance of accurate communication with words. Who would of thought.