Show And Tell By Scott Mccloud Analysis

Together, It Becomes Strong.

Do you still remember your first time open a can of food? Did you able to fully explain how to open the can with words? I guess most of people will answer no. When we were kid, we use show and tell to explain most of complex thing in our early life. We use show and tell when we choose multiple options. For example, we say “this one,” and “that one” with a finger pointing to the option. One of the famous comics artist, Scott McCloud also shows the important of language in his graphic essay Show and Tell. The essay starts with a child using show and tell to teaching student how to use a toy. McCloud uses this opening example to explain word and picture could help people understand more about the essay, and word
The first example in the text is showing a young student doing a presentation in the class and teaches the class how to play a robot; most of words used were this, these, thing and some simple words. This reminds people what they are doing when they were young. Nobody comes with perfect English, people use this or that represent the object or verb. However if the artist removes the words, nobody could imagine it is a presentation that only has simple words, people might think the young student is using perfect English to explain the function of robots. That made the words are more powerful, it give a limit to the picture, on the other hand, if the artist remove the picture and only show the words, it won’t make sense at all. Words or pictures shouldn’t stand-alone. A good proportion of words and pictures could make it become more powerful. That is the artist’s idea of words and pictures could support each
In the graphic essay, the artist gives an example on page 157, that in a raining day, a sad woman went to store for ice cream, then return to her own apartment alone and eat the ice cream by herself. If people only see the picture of this story, they could have a sample idea of what the story about. However if the artist wants these pictures mean something else, he could. The artist also show an example on page 158, that if add different words to these pictures, it will be a much different story. The artist used different ways of adding words to these pictures, he is using interdependent on the first picture that explain the woman is alone for a long time. For the second picture, artist added words by using parallel, words and picture means different things. Words say, “Mission control, mission control, do you read me?” this is the words people used in space travel; it has no relation with the picture. For the third, the artist is using words to make the picture become to advertisement. The picture is showing the woman is eating the ice cream, but the words say, “You’ll love the taste.” Last but not least, the artist is using the picture that show the woman picking a ice cream up to ruminate on broader topics. After adding words, could anyone still remember what the original pictures telling? Or, what if artist turns everything into words and removes pictures? On page