McCloud, Comics, and You.

In McCloud's article "The Vocabulary of Comics", he presents us with the idea that "an icon is an image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea" (McCloud, 27). He goes on to say that symbols are a subcategory off icons that are more complex. He gives us the example of the cartoon and how and why it is simplified. The idea that cartoons are simplified down to their basic core appearance allows the audience to identify with the character and become one with the cartoon. He claims that by the cartoon being striped down and simple, the audience is able to identify more with the cartoon and, in a way, see ourselves in it. 

In this claim, it seems that McCloud is dealing with the role of the viewer and trying to show that the viewer is important in the receiving of icon, text, etc. The fact that "we see ourselves in everything" and "make the world over in our image" is a strange concept. It draws me to the idea of the viewer and how we create meaning in the things that we see. It is similar to Ong's idea that the reader has to become a part of the audience that the author fictionalized in order for the text to gain meaning. We have to find a way to relate and identify with the icons we see in order to understand the meaning behind them in the same way the we have to become part of the audience to gain meaning from a text. The role of the viewer cannot be passive. The viewer has to have an active role in signification and the creation of meaning.

Works Cited:  

• McCloud, Scott. “The Vocabulary of Comics.” In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. 24-45.  
• Ong, Walter J. "The Writer's Audience is Always a Fiction." PMLA 90 (1975): 9-21. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4611344.