Comics Chapters 5 + 6

In chapters 5 and 6 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, he addresses the critique many people have towards comics as "not great works of literature" compared to novels. This is mainly due to the fact that people associate pictures and writing with children's books. For some reason these two forms are only worthy if they are viewed separately. McCloud hopes that this stereotype can be broken down as people learn to understand comics and do not follow this commonly accepted attitude towards them. McCloud explains that comics appeal to all of the reader's senses. He further explains that the pictures which accompany the writing "evoke a sensual and emotional response from the reader" unlike other books. McCloud compares comics and their illustrations to expressionist works of art and artists such as Wassily Kadinsky. In comics, each panel can express a particular emotion which is what makes them so versatile. Similar to McCloud previous statement about time within comics, this ability to not follow a completely rational time scale allows comics to portray this many changes in emotion throughout such a short amount of space. Novels without pictures in them can not achieve this at the same speed. And pictures alone do not always express their intentions.