in the first chapter of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud i think he is just trying to get others to realize what comics really are and that there really is a meaning behind the comics. he is also talking about who started comics and when. Rodolphe topffer is the father of the modern comic. he started this in the mid 1800's. he featured the first interdependent combination of words and pictures seen in Europe. that is very interesting. you could really learn a lot from this book full of comics. when i first saw this book i was looking at it like what is this...i thought it was actual comics that we were going to be reading. but it turned out to be a good book that has informational content in it.