Part of our class today involved seeing a video on comics. I had been disappointed we didn't get to watch it before because as a fan comic book fan, Japanese comics more specifically , I figured it would be very interesting to watch. I was right. Scott McCloud made it clear he knew his work. He spoke at rapid pace yet despite how quickly he spoke, you could catch all his jokes. Which I found very amusing, they all tied in to his topics and even his own history tied well in, but I guess that's expected.
As a response to the video Jimmy asked us to re-watch it, done, and to find 3 things, any 3 things, that we do not understand and research them in any way. There were some things I found I didn't know, and one that I found interesting that I would like to mention.
One of the things I didn't understand was his reference to a man named Vannevar Bush. Boy, It took me quite a couple of tries to get some info on this man, from hearing his name I could have never guessed his name's spelling correctly. After getting it correctly I learned a couple things about him. He was an American engineer, and was involved in numerous projects important to American history, he was even part of the politics that came with the development of the atomic bomb. McCloud referenced him for his idea of memex. Something he thought up that would now be comparable to the world wide web.
A second thing I didn't quite understand was his reference to Moore's Law, this was also researched and I found its often referred to as a prediction by Moore and it says that,"An empirical observation that the density of transistors on a chip doubles every two years"
I did not know what a transistor is so I found that as well. It is a device used to amplify electronic signals. I find it amusing that one thing lead to another as I do this quite often when I do not know something.
The most interesting part for me, aside from the jokes, that really struck me and stuck to me was his explanation that comics are a visual medium, that tries to incorporate all the senses. When he mentioned this I stopped following for a second and realized this was something I saw all the time but never realized. I found it incredible interesting and since that time today I haven't pictured a comic panel without remembering that. To me that alone makes comics that much more dynamic and the video worth it that much more.
Over all it was enjoyable and I learned twice as much by re-watching it and doing this assignment.
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