Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

"Comics as a Form of Reading" is a philosophic introduction to the modern form of sequential art. Daily comic strips, first appearing circa 1934, are the main forums for sequential art in today's world. Comics began as short features but evolved into "graphic novels" and become part of the "early literary diet" of young people. "Reading" includes written words but also pictures, maps, circuit diagrams, and musical notes. The reader must have both visual and verbal interpretive skills. Fortunately, the structures of illustration and of prose are similar.

The repetitiveness of comics form a language with its own grammar. Eisner analyzes one of his Spirit stories in which the hero wishes he could fly, is struck by a stray bullet, and achieves his goal en route to the earth. The panel can be diagrammed like a sentence. It breaks the left-to-right convention...