McCloud in depth on how image and words interact

In order to understand the macanics of how image and words interact, one may turn to Scott McClouds book, Understanding Comics.  To begin with, pictures have outlived words in a large part.  Ancient cultures first documented their stories and traditions with pictures.  Not long after, some pictures took a symbol form, thus documenting different parts of their language.  McCloud takes us through the different types of word/image combinations. One of them begins with word specific, “where pictures illustrate but don’t significantly add to largely complete text”(McCloud 153).  This can be seen in simple picture where the image specifies to broad subject.  It is more of a symbol for the picture.  However, the most common image and word combination is the inter-dependent.  This is “where words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone” (McCloud 155).  This relates to Brian Fies and his Mom’s Cancer comic, where the image must be explained in full depth in order for the reader to fully engage and understand the context.  McCloud makes it known that “the more said with words, the more the pictures can be freed to go exploring and vice versa”(155).