Scott McCloud, in his book Understanding Comics, examines the comic book as a medium, and the subsequent messages that can be conveyed through them. He discusses the creation of comics, how they work stylistically, and how they are perceived in the world.
McCloud spends time explaining the concept of icons and how they are the foundation of comics. He defines an icon as an image used to represent a person, place, thing or idea. There are icons of language, science and communication all around us, and they serve to help humans understand a message more efficiently.
Icons, however, are only representations of real things, thus, they have a significant level of abstraction. For example, a non-pictoral icon has a fixed and absolute meaning. Pictures, in contrast, have a meaning that is fluid and variable.
McCloud draws upon Marshall McLuhans seminal idea that the medium is the message. Through studying media like comic books, we learn more about the meaning behind the art than we do in the content.
