Homework 2 - Understanding comics

Before reading Scott McCloud's "understanding comics", I was reading sequential art with only my intuition to lead me through the stories, as most of us do. McCloud’s careful and profound understanding of this art form lead me to realize just how much comics rely on and expand upon the human psyche.
One example of how comics are intertwined with psychology is pointed out by McCloud while he discusses the way that cartoon faces are registered in our minds. The reason we are capable of seeing characters as humans is due to how our brains are hard-wired to find faces in everything, such as the examples he showed with can lids or car bumpers. There is almost a beautiful nuance in the way that comics encourage us to understand in the most human way possible; as reading just words requires a strong logical comprehension of language, and film provides sounds and a specific time frame for us to engage in. Yet comics free us from the necessity of understanding and invite the reader to visualize meaning from carefully structured panels, creating an experience where the visually focused aspects of our brains are satiated. Perhaps this is the reason many children can identify with comics so intensely, as the format of these stories is tailored for mental development. Growing up with bilingual parents, there was a period in my life where I could not read in either language at all. During this time, comics were one of the few books I would willingly engage in because despite not understanding all the words, the visuals provided an experience where I could actually engage in a story and its characters.
The fact that McCloud can break down and explain what appears to be second nature for humans to read only proves further the relevance that psychology and human nature has in comics.