Lab+3

September 30, 2010


 * "Do you agree with McLuhan when he defines comics as an extension of photographic media?"**

The concept of "hot" media is premised on the limited amount of user interaction with the media in comparison to its counterpart, "cool" media, which involves a greater amount of participation and requires completion by the audience (McLuhan, 39). Photographs are considered cool media because of the limited amount of information that is presented, therefore demanding more participation on the part of the viewer in order to make meaning from it. McLuhan saw comics as an extension of photographic media and described them as mediums that "provide very little data about any particular moment in time, or aspect in space, of an object. The viewer, or reader, is compelled to participate in completing and interpreting the few hints provided by the bounding lines" (Leshinski).

The foundation of a comic strip is that of a series of visual representations, whether elaborate or simple, much like that of a photograph. Its purpose is to project an idea or evoke an emotion within a viewer and (hopefully) achieve the conveyance of a narrative. However, the spliced format of a comic strip encapsulates fragments of information that must then be assembled by the viewer by actively linking each visual representation that is bound within each box. It also often incorporates text, such as speech bubbles, with imagery, thus forming a dissonance between the written and pictorial elements of the comic (Cheypesh), and consequently requires the audience's active participation in order to unify this content. This, therefore, renders comics as a "cool" medium, one that requires high participation from the audience, and by extension, a medium that grounds itself in the principles of photographic media.

Works Cited

Cheypesh, Oskana. "Masculinity and Technology in North American Comics." Web. 10 Sept. 2010. .

Leshinski, Guy. "McLuhan's Cool Comics." //The Cultural Gutter//. Web. 30 Sept. 2010. .

McLuhan, Marshall. //Understanding Media; the Extensions of Man,//. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. Print.