A page from the cartoon short “Crash” depicting a rambunctious mess of collisions and cars zooming by. (Crash, Charles Burns, 1981, pg 88)

In this page of  “Crash”, there is a hectic mess of oil, collided cars, and passengers as man in a shanty kart zooms across. As explored in Scott McCloud’s explanation of lines and how they convey meaning, the lines in the first panel communicates a loud thud as what appears to be that the kart had throttled over the wreckage of the truck. The long curving lines all over the panels indicate movement, direction, and speed. In addition, the squiggly lines and symbols depicts these emotions of disarray, chaos, and loudness.

In another concept explored by Scott McCloud, he elaborates on the utilization of pictures and words to convey meaning in a work. The example I chose was from Will Eisner’s narrative portfolio, “The City” and it serves as a prime representation for word-specific combination.

A page from “City” with a passage about the drudgery of urban life along with a illustration of a city street. (City: A Narrative Portfolio, Will Eisner, 1980)

As seen here, when the reader reads the passage, it can stand alone as a complex text and convey its message without any explicit drawing or illustration. It can be completely visualized by the readers themselves without the need of an image. The picture provided illustrates an interpretation of the urban streets; however, the reader may have their own ideation of the city based on the text of the message of a dreary urban life, slaving away from the isolating feeling of a bustling city life.