McCloud reading response 1

Albert Rayle
Reading response to McCloud
Ms. Hara
10/22/07

Scott McCloud completely changed my way of viewing comics. I have never actually sat down and read one in my whole life but after reading his and discovering how much of a factual easy read they can be I have a strong urge to go and read one. Mr. McCloud managed to give an uninterested reader like me a thorough understanding and a new interest for comics.
Some of my favorite parts were when he explained his search to find comics in history. He first talked about the one that Cortez discovered in 1519. This one was about 8-Deer “Tiger’s Claw” and was written in 1049 AD. He told us the story of the kidnappings and murder and then went on to tell us another ancient comic that he discovered. The second one was an Egyptian comic made 32 centuries ago and written in the tomb of Menna. This one was about the process of producing wheat and paying taxes on it. I found the whole idea of comics in the past very interesting because I am somewhat of a history buff and I love learning about interesting random things.
McCloud also defined a comic as a “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/ or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.” I though that his reasoning to make this definition was interesting because he was using people in a crowd to make the needed corrections and act as his conscious.
In the end McCloud comes to the conclusion that Rodolphe Toffer was the father of modern comics and he started them in the mid 1800’s. I felt like the author did a great job of story telling and made me have a different outlook on comics and what they stand for. Like I said earlier I now really want to go out and buy a comic book.