RE-Reading "Making Comics" Favorite New-er Scott McCloud Quote

Scott McCloud - Commentary

Style and the Four Types of Storytellers

"Style isn't really something you can choose off-the-shelf like a scarf or a pair of socks. It's roots go much deeper than that. And you don't always "choose" your style. Sometimes it chooses you.
"Style" usually describes surface details like Line Quality, a way of drawing faces, or one's use of dialogue.
But mannerisms like that are just byproducts of the artist's attempts to present the world as they see it. -- And to capture the aspects of comics that may have captivated them as readers.
Behind that struggle lies their fundamental outlook on life and art --
-- A Statement of their passions and priorities --
-- An echo of the times Times and Places they've come from --
-- And a signpost to Where they want their chosen art to Take Them.
Discovering your own "style" is a deeply personal process which can take years, and it can't be taught in a book.

There are The Classicists, The Animists, The Formalists, The Iconoclasts


The Classicists
Values:
• Mastery of Craft
• The Quest For Enduring Beauty

The Formalists
Values:
• Understanding of Comics Form
• Experimentation with the Comics Form
• Loyalty to the Comics Form

The Classicists and Formalists share a focus on Art for Art's Sake


Classicists

• First is the devotion to Beauty, craftsmanship, and the Tradition of Excellence and Mastery.

• The desire to create art that our descendents could dig up in a thousand years and still think "Hey, This is good stuff!"

• The understanding that Perfection may not be attainable in this life -- but that that's no reason not to Strive for it

Formalists

• Then there's the devotion to Comics Itself, to figure out what the Form of Comics is capable of.

• The Eagerness to turn comics inside-out and upside down in an effort to Understand the Form's Potential more fully

• The willingness to let craft and story take a Back Seat if necessary, in pursuit of New Ideas that could Change comics for the better."