Before commenting on the actual content of the novel, I wanted to state that I enjoy reading this comic from McCloud because he is so effective at stimulating my mental using both images and text.

I was a bit skeptical about McCloud’s argument that GREAT works of art/literature had text and images separate. It seemed like a incorrect view to me since there are counterexamples across time and cultures. Combined art and text has been a part of Japanese culture for a while. I could not tell what McCloud was referencing in his art half on the page of 140, but on the written half, I could see “Peace and War” which was published mid 1800s. During the early 1800s, Japanese artist Hokusai had released famous works of art with text that would later develop into manga. In Southern Asia, old temples have visuals on the walls and ceilings with text grouped together, and they are regarded as works of high art and displayed in museums. Even Durer’s famous self portrait from a long time ago had text accompanying the side.

However, I can see that most of the time, famous works of art and literature stay within their own visual / text domain. I find that this makes sense as well, since famous art and literature are often created by geniuses or intellectuals, which means that it will be harder to be comfortable with both on a level that is on par with works that are purely in one facet.

I liked his explanation of pictures and words on a scale, but I think that structure of their relationship suits comic writing better than works with a visual art focus. For example, looking at examples of art within the Dada movement blurs that rigid relationship between image and text. Instead of a scale, it felt as if the text and visuals were two independent factors that came together and worked instead of restricting the other or reacting to it. However, I don’t mean to say that the text and images are unrelated. In constructivism there is a clear dynamic between image and text, and it plays into some of the relationships that McCloud listed in the chapter.