On McCloud - Putting It All Together

When form and content is divided, one can analyze one comic and the whole medium in the same way. One is able to better recognize the intent of the creator, as McCloud mentioned, also break down the wall of ignorance that keeps us from seeing each other clearly: communication.

In this chapter, McCloud mentions that these two aspects of comics should be seperated so that the possibilities of comics won't be obscured. Applying this concept to judgment of the work of other authors and artist's, it is a great learning tool to do so. In graphic memoir, one is able to weigh the considerations of the creator. The audience's interpretation of the intent can be more easily judged when the parts are broken down and analyzed. For instance, in Maus' graphic memoir, it is clearly word-specific with images that only illustrate the narrative; and the graphics are very detailed with action, subject, and moment panels. The characters being represented as mice is clearly a symbol usage technique that Spiegelman incorporated in order to place less importance on the physical world and more on the ideas and concepts of the narrative and story.

For all three of our composition reflection papers in this class, we analyzed form and content of our own work and the work of other graphic memoirists in the same way. Many people don't even know what aspects to consider when judging comics or any other medium. I agree with McCloud about society as a whole moving and progressing with the comics medium, but in the same way, we can become better critics on judging a medium.