WRIT 1702 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Everyman, Primo Levi, Making Money
WRIT 1702
January 31, 2018
Biography and the Graphic Form: Maus
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics (1993)
● Created Zot; response to violent, dark, and adult comics
● If you understand something about comics discourse, you are pretty literate in
reading comic books
● Comics have their own discourse
Co-Mix: Combining Media
● Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for Maus in 1992. Did not win it in an
established category; won a special award because the Pulitzer committee did not
know how to define it, it seemed like a shame to shelve it with comic books. No one
could argue that this text was not serious.
● Maus, the comic transmits information via two media, writing and pictures, combined
● Spiegelman refers to what he did as “Co-Mix” rather than comics
● Co-Mix Discourse: the language of pictures and words combined
○ A flexible way to transmit information; combines the strengths of pictures and
words; a very accessible form of writing
○ Suggests that something fairly complex is happening in your brain when
interpreting comics
○ When we talk about co-mix authors, we’re talking about people who do the
whole process; has a preferred reading, because it is made by an individual
and not a team of artists and authors
● Marshall McLuhan, Canadian Media Theorist
○ Mass electronic culture; concerned how information gets across to the public
○ High Definition Mediums: ex. Films. Everything perfectly reproduced. Easy to
understand meaning. Can consume passively.
○ Low definition mediums: ex. Comics. Evokes, rather than records, have to
look closer. Much more of an active process. Require an imagination to read.
■ Co-Mix demand abstract thought.
● Abstract Thought: the ability to use our minds to connect images to the real thing,
and to perceive relationships between representations and ideas. This is not a pipeL
an abstraction of the real thing; use our minds to perceive lines and interpret what
we’re seeing.
● The word Pipe: requires 100% abstract though, no direct connection between the
word and the physical thing.
○ Use abstract thought to see representations of ourselves. We like to see
representations of ourselves in everything: we humans are a self centered
race. Our brains put stuff in patterns.
Viewer Identification
● The less realistic the image, the more you see yourself in the image. We try to relate
ourselves and see ourselves in the image.
Document Summary
Created zot; response to violent, dark, and adult comics. If you understand something about comics discourse, you are pretty literate in reading comic books. Art spiegelman won a pulitzer prize in 1992 for maus in 1992. Did not win it in an established category; won a special award because the pulitzer committee did not know how to define it, it seemed like a shame to shelve it with comic books. No one could argue that this text was not serious. Maus, the comic transmits information via two media, writing and pictures, combined. Spiegelman refers to what he did as co-mix rather than comics. Co-mix discourse: the language of pictures and words combined. A flexible way to transmit information; combines the strengths of pictures and words; a very accessible form of writing. Suggests that something fairly complex is happening in your brain when interpreting comics.
