"The Language of Comics" - Scott McLeod | Realism, abstraction, and the human face

"McLeod discusses what he calls the "iconic" nature of comics, specifically in terms of the human face. What does he mean by this, and how does it relate to the continuum between "realism" and "abstraction" that he describes?"

Response:

McLeod defines the human face in comics as "iconic", in the sense that it is a universal form of expression through the medium of comics. There is a fluidity to comics that cannot be achieved with just words, and an ability to make things more "real" through the methods of abstraction and simplification to this iconic form, which can be more powerful than depicting images in a "realistic" style. Abstraction is a means by which reality and realism is translated into a different pictorial form, but is still able to retain its overall meaning - this artistic power is at the core of what McLeod defines as the iconic nature of comics. Realism in his definition thus does not refer to the style of art, but instead to how "realistic" the comic's depiction of its content is to the reader, no matter the level of abstraction.