Robot to Headspin to Boogaloo

I picked up Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics from Desert Island a few weeks ago on the advice of HOVA, who told me that the book is considered one of the seminal texts of game design. I was especially interested in McCloud’s deconstruction of “the gutter,” the space that exists between panels, and it’s relation to closure, the phenomenon by which people take parts of information to construct a whole. The ideas are ones that are interesting to think about in the context of film, with film cuts serving as an analogue to the gutter. But the text also reminded me of the brilliant video for the Madvillainy song “All Caps” directed by James Reitano. In the video, Reitano makes playful use of the assumed constraints of comic panels in some sequences, whilst simultaneously paying homage to the art of Jack Kirby, one of the most influential comic book artists of all time. Plus Madlib and Doom murdah dem on the track. Dig.