Understanding Comics Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 5, Living in Line Summary

Chapter 5, Living in Line Summary and Analysis

In this chapter, Scott discusses the ways in which comics artists appeal to readers' senses and emotions. He believes that emotions can be made visible, even when just portrayed as ink on paper. Scott explains that the idea that a picture can evoke an emotional or sensual response in the viewer is vital to the art of comics. The classic painting, "The Scream" is provided as an example. Emotions and senses can be portrayed either within or between individual panels in comics. Scott explores the history behind expressionistic art in comics.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, artists like Wassily Kandinsky begin studying the power of "line, shape, and color to suggest the inner mind of the artist and stimulate the five senses". As Scott explains, Kandisnky is searching for an art "that might somehow unite the senses, and in doing so, unite the different art forms which...
(read more)