Location In Research

This book attempts a close examiniation of the comic book medium with a view to understanding exactly why it is successful and pervasive, but also not widely considered to be of artistic value or academic study.

McCloud presents such concepts as comic book closure, the human need to seek completion of any part-realised image or situation by inseting the missing elements based on past experience. Functioning in both a narrative and a stylistic manner, comic book closure is almost identical to the similarly named principal of Gestalt Psycology. Comic book narrative closure can also be identified with Gestalt principals of continuity, similarity and proximity.

Comic book forms of closure can also be indentified as employing the kind of experience discussed by embodiment theorists in order to function. The example motor car example used by McCloud on page 38 is almost exactly the same example employed by Paul Dourish when describing his theory of "embodied interaction".

For the purposes of this research, McCloud's volume is fairly central as it provides the bridge between the concept of reducing detail in order for interface participants to find controls more "ready to hand".

The Embodiment theorists, interface theorists and Gestalt psycologists provide this research with a context for improvement within interface design. This book gives that context a direction and hypothesis to explore.