Monday, May 19, 2008

UNDERSTANDING COMICS THE INVISIBLE ART - SCOTT MCLOUD



CHAPTER 7 - THE SIX STEPS




Scott McLoud speaks of the six steps in comics. These steps are Ideas/purpose, Form, Idiom, Structure, Craft and surface. Basically these steps act as a guide for comic artists and should be followed in order to create a fantastic comic. If you skip steps then things may appear to be fine on the surface but the ideas and form can be miss interpreted.





(The original comic book cover above was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man, the spiderman 3 cover was taken from www.criticsrant.com)
An example of a comic appearing great at first glance is the Spiderman 3 movie, (although this is a movie it still can be used as an example of a good comic gone bad). At first glance a viewer would think this is going to be awesome, another Spiderman movie. But then once a person gets involved into the movie they realise that the movie is more special effects and more about romance then it is about destroying evil villans. Therefor the original "comic" has been changed and its content is not as good as what it used to be.

Why try to fix something or create something from the old, if the old works?

In my opinion a designer should remember these six basic steps for a successful comic. One must remember that although something can look amazing at first glance it doesnt neccessarily make it a great.

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