McCloud discuess several terms in his novel Understanding Comics. The discussion of what an “icon” signifies is interesting to me. McCloud makes the point that these icons often do not resemble the real thing at all, but are still accepted and understood by the masses. He also seperates these into subcatergories, such as pictorial icon. He makes the argument that we no longer think abstractly. We put things into categories and have trouble with things that don't resemble their counterparts.

     He also goes on to seperate the world into two other categories, the realm of the concept and the realm of the senses. He uses the example of the Tin Tin comics to clarify it. The use of a fantastical or unrealistic characters inserted into realistic environments.

     He also goes on to talk about how other authors use abstract characters to talk about deep issues or mature themes. McCloud reminded me of another comic book illustrator called Art Spiegelman. He used animals to portray the people and characters in his graphic novel about the holocaust. The novel was violent and graphic, but with the substitution of creatures for humans we were able to handle his violent and gruesome images of the concentration camps during WWII.

     Chapter six is also an interesting chapter. He discusses how we are forced to turn away from books with pictures with them and move on to books with words. Comics are able to fully utilize the power of both words and images. McCloud argues that this makes comics a different and, at times, more powerful then just words alone. This depends a lot on the artistic power of the illustrator. IF it is executed correctly, then the words and images complete each other.

     The Harrison reading was also interesting.  She discusses the term "semiotics."  This is a word that I had never heard before.  This means the study of signs.  She also breaks this down into similar categories like McCloud.  The other categories are the icon, index, and symbol.  An icon is similar to the thing being represented.  An index is something that may not look like the object, but we as a society have decided to use it to represent the object.  A symbol looks nothing like its counterpart, but we have learned to accept it.

     The Wysocki reading is similar to the McCloud, although it deals with visualization differently.  It discusses the many forms that letters can be a visual form of information.  She also lays out forms of examining the information on the page.  Such as looking at the page itself, what is on it, and what helps the reader to make connections. By looking at these, we can get more meaning.  An example Wysocki uses is using large type, such as thinking of the book as a children's novel.