Understanding Comics Ch. 02

In Understanding Comics ch. 2, McCloud talks about how comics are "iconic," especially when it comes to the human face. What he means is that comics often strip details down to the simplest form, like two dots and a line still being understood as a face. Even though it doesn't look like any specific person, we instantly recognize it as human. Because of that, readers can easily project themselves into the character.

This connects to his idea of a continuum between realism and abstraction. On one end you got realism, where an image almost looks photographically tied to an individual. On the other end is full abstraction, where the image might just be symbols or shapes with no physical likeness. Comics usually sit in the middle, where things are simplified enough to act as symbols but still carry meaning. The face is a perfect example: a realistic portrait is locked into one person, but a cartoon face can represent anyone. The less detail it has, the more universal it becomes.