Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Scott McCloud uses examples of negative space and sound throughout his book. These literary devices prove most effective when emphasizing comics’ ability to communicate, to guide the reader as to which senses are being evoked. McCloud frequently uses negative space and sound when drawing panels in which a subject stares at the reader without saying anything (Introduction) or panels with words but no art (87)—often to comedic effect. 

McCloud uses ironic references such as word play: When he says there is more to comics than meets the eye (45), many of the asides are visual rather than written, supporting his effort to demonstrate the communicative possibilities of comic art.

Examples of this are found in Chapter 8’s treatise on the use of color in comics. McCloud draws himself as a black-and-white subject against colored backgrounds, which immediately catches the eye and expresses reality in its own way. He pens a likeness of Maxfield Parrish’s famous painting, Daybreak (189), while discussing the human eye’s child-like attraction to shapes; Parrish was considered an illustrator who excelled in color rather than a fine artist, thus more of an experimental comics artist. McCloud ends his discussion of color with his black-and-white image in front of a Van Gogh self-portrait (192), implying that the portrait has comic-like properties and that comics can be meaningful despite their reputation.