Understanding Comics

An amazing study of the medium. Understanding Comics delves into the roots of comics and their history, where they stemmed from, the importance of expressionism and just how important they have been in human history. Scott McLeod also states many times how “high art” has spent so much time seperating written art from visual art and how the merging of these two forms are often looked down upon because of this snobbery.
This book makes you realise how American comics especially low budget commercial superhero comics have bastardised the medium and given it a childlike and “slop”esque mainstream opinion. To quote the book:
“Traditional thinking has long held that truly great works of art and literature are only possible when the two are kept at arms length.
Words and pictures together are considered, at best, a diversion for the masses, at worst a product of crass commercialism.”
and that's just it. The medium has been bastardised by this crass commercialism of the west but also comes from this deep seated belief in the separation of visual imagery and written language. What is special about comics is that it is a combination of visual translation of sound as well as visual interpretation of, well vision. It's a truly wonderful medium that deserves much more praise than it gets. But maybe I'm just a purist. It really sucks that this book won't be picked up by people who already have this widely spread belief that art must be separated, because it is such a wonderful breakdown of the medium that I love, and I'm sure it could change the opinion of someone who raises their nose to it.
This is one of the best books I've ever read. If you ever feel like changing your mind on comics, or giving them a shot, this is a great place to start, maybe after you've read Fun Home, In or another good entry point to visual and written storytelling. What I've learned from this book will change how I view comics and it has given me a deeper appreciation for art as a whole.