Flying on a McCloud

Hey everybody out there in the blogverse,

I do have to admit that my title this week sounds a lot like a McDonald's commercial rather than enthusiasm for our guest speaker here at NDSU, Mr. Scott McCloud.

If anybody out there in the world is interested in comics, or the ability to simply understand media in a little more detail, then please check out some of his books. I have read one for my Visual Culture and Learning class here at NDSU titled "Understanding Comics", which was a quick read while also being very informational. The ideas that McCloud writes about can be transformed to understand most types of media, such as movies, pictures, or, obviously, comics.

Anyways, the reason I am writing about this man is because he visited our campus here in Fargo, N.D. for a portion of his 50 state tour. McCloud's ideas have become very mainstream in the last ten years or so, which prompted the college here to have him come and speak to some students and members of our community.

McCloud's presentation was a little more than an hour, which was then followed by some Q & A afterwards, but it was all professionally put together and executed without a hitch. McCloud, the family man, even had his wife and children sitting in the front row to help him with the presentation. As, the presentation began, McCloud describes the 5 different questions that need to be answered when creating or understanding a comic, while eventually diving in to his childhood by the end, explaining how this passion for comic book story and artwork inspired him for the rest of his life. He also mentions the different established forms of comic books, such as graphic novels, manga, and the European style of artwork, along with the future of the industry, which included web comics that were both fun and creative in their design.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by Mr. McCloud and his presentation, which was a beautifully put together slide show consisting of almost 700 slides (which strangely went by extremely fast). I recommend any person out there to read one of his books, of which I have only read one but others do exist, and learn a little about "Understanding Comics".

Have a good one gore fanatics.