A Bridge Between Minds

Nowhere is the connection between artist and audience more prevalent than in the comic industry. Telling a story in small compressed panels is a tough ask. conveying the right information at the right moment to get the audience to suspend disbelief and to engage with the work takes some effort.

Scott McCloud’s, Understanding Comics goes along way to revealing the artistry and philosophical underpinnings of what are and how they came about. He delves into the history of the medium and breaks down the structure of comics to their essence.

The Journey McCloud takes us on is one of deconstruction and all presented through the very medium he seeks to explain. A comic book.

As a long time comic lover I have a bias to this medium. However I think that they is some terrific points in McClouds’ text that not only relates to comics but to the whole realm of visual creation and to the special relationship between creator and audience.

The Space Between Us

The Space between comic panels is where relationship exists. This space, or Gutter in comic terms, is a hidden device that allows the viewer to make connections through the narrative. McCloud focuses on the psychological concept of mental closure. Closure is the brains’ way of filling in the rest of the details we can't see based on previous information and knowledge. we observe the parts but perceive the whole. We are "Mentally completing based on past experience" pg.63. This idea of closure is what enables our minds to connections between shapes. I find this process analogous with the generative process known as “Clouding”.

Clouding is where the we take abstract elements, overlay them together, in order to create interesting positive and negative shapes. We then try and see what forms emerge from the abstraction. Aaron sims Creature Design in Photoshop is a great example of this. This act of deliberate shape seeking, much akin to children looking at clouds for dragons or ships, etc is all about closure.

“Clouding” Aaron Sims: Creature Design in Adobe Photoshop

Closure not only connects between shapes but also between narrative. In the case of comics the creator can lead an audience through particular narrative points and set up story points which the viewer then closes the story loop or themselves.

This makes the audience a "willing and conscious collaborator" pg.65 joining with the artist in a conceptual space to become "partners in the invisible" creating something out of nothing, time and time again." pg.205

I believe that this synthesis between audience and artist happens in all designed or created works and It it is the chosen medium the artist uses that becomes the dialect for this communication. As McCloud says, The “medium serves as a bridge between our minds” pg.195


-matt