Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

“Master comics artist Will Eisner uses the term Sequential Art when describing comics. Taken individually, the pictures below are merely that—PICTURES. However, when part of a sequence, even a sequence of only two, the art of the image is transformed into something more: the art of comics.”

Scott McCloud pays a great deal of attention to the definition and conception of the word “comic.” While he argues that Eisner’s definition is the simplest and most functional, he continues his examination of comics as a concept, adding different elements until he comes up with the ultimate definition: “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (9). Comics—which he points out are not comic books or comic strips but rather the genre from which they emerge—is used as a single word. In this quote, comics are treated as plural. McCloud alternates between using comics as a singular and a plural noun throughout the book.

“The father of the modern comic in many ways is Rudolphe Töpffer, whose light satiric picture stories, starting in the mid-1800s, employed cartooning and panel borders, and featured the first interdependent combination of words and pictures seen in Europe. Unfortunately, Töpffer himself failed to grasp at first the full potential of his invention, seeing it as a mere diversion, a simple hobby [...] Even so, Töpffer’s contribution to the understanding of comics is considerable, if only for his realization that he who as neither artist nor writer—had created and mastered a form which was at once both and neither.”

McCloud frequently discusses and quotes Töpffer, whom he regards as a visionary. Töpffer’s particular advancement was the combination of words and definite borders to sequential art panels. Despite this groundbreaking development and Töpffer’s recognition that comics were capable of more than most readers realized, McCloud argues that he did not truly grasp this potential.