mshelle54

Reading for 9/22 September 22, 2008

For real my first real introduction to comics ever, I think this was the way to go. Not only did I learn all about comics and their various forms of art, I was able to see the parallel between comic’s and media (old and new). In the beginning when McCloud went all the way back in time to talk about other forms of comics, like the Egyptians with their hieroglyphics. He takes us through other time periods to show their form of sounds. What had me thinking was that back when these pictures where used for everyday life, people knew what they meant, those hieroglyphics were their words. But now as society is advancing we have taken their hieroglyphics and made them into just that, symbols. No longer used for what they where now they show us the past, this at the same time lets us see how far we have come. Which is similar to media, to understand where we are going we need to look back at where we have come from, all the way back. This will not only give perspective on where we have been but more important where we are going.

Where do comics fit in the whole old media new media discussion?

In chapter two “The Vocabulary of Comics” McCloud writes about how comics are able to take you to another place, you can place yourself as the adventure of the comic “you mask yourself into the character” (McCloud p.49). This sounds very similar to what you can do on line now, with games like World of War Craft and Second Life. You can take yourself or who ever you want to be and enter into these online worlds and do crazy off the wall things that you would or would not do in real life. This then begs the question above.

Are comics’ old media in that now people can be anyone they want on line or are they new media within the world of pictures and symbols working together?

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life