I saw the comic ,"Pup," on another classmates blog and decided to check it out. In her entry, Rachelle decided to focus on how the comic is a good-natured fun. What she liked about, "Pup," is the way the characters engage in interesting dialogue with one another. She wrote, "I liked this comic because it is humorous but it illuminates some deep and interesting ideas. I think this has been an important function of comics and cartoons, which is a concept that McCloud doesn’t talk about very much in the book."Her discussion of the style the author uses is very interesting. She questioned the use of bubble comments versus actions and whether or not simplified characters are easier for reader to relate to.
As I analyzed the comic I could definitely understand what Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art meant when he wrote that, "In learning to read comics we all learned to perceive time spatially, for in the world of comics, time and space are one and the same" (100). This is definitely true of, "Pup." In the comic, "Deep Thoughts," we see different panels featuring the cat and the dog, but we the readers are supposed to view each scene as though it they were happening instantaneously at the same time and pace. While the cat is thinking about the dog, the dog is walking down the street on the opposite side of him. Each frame progresses the story, but we are supposed to read them as they are happening together, like normal motion. But this is normally not a problem for readers. As McCloud notes, "Comic readers are...conditioned by other media and the "Real Time" of everyday life expects a very linear progression. Just a straight line from Point A to Point B" (106). Other media are the texts and images that people take in around them on a daily basis. So, understanding time and space in comics requires readers to suspend disbelief, even if for a little while.
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