Understanding Comics: Identity and Expression (3 Points)

 One of the topics that Scott McCloud discusses about in his comic, Understanding Comics, is that we use a variety of styles and symbols to represent humans, and he talks about how far we can go in simplifying the human face and still recognize it as a human face. He goes on to talk about how simplified cartoons of ourselves and in general are more universal, and therefore, more pleasant to their audience. Being someone in the art world, I get to experience this theory on a day-to-day basis. Most times when viewing self portraits of my friends, I find that they use a stylized version of themselves. By drawing a caricature of themselves, they open up the appeal of the drawing to more people, and it becomes a desire of others to see themselves in that style. McCloud also explains that, when we see a realistic face, we do not see ourselves represented in it, yet if we see a cartoon of anyone, we can see a bit of ourselves in it. While he explains this as being a result of never truly seeing ourselves but having a good understanding of an abstract of our face, I believe there is another reason for this occurrence. When we see a cartoon, we do not get the full picture of it as we would in realism, therefore our minds interpret the gaps we do not see. And while our interpretation of a 'real-life' version of the cartoon might not look like us, it looks like how we think it to look, giving it our personal stamp on the drawing. It is what makes us want to see ourselves in that style and why so many artists will make themselves in a popular art style.