Understanding Comics - Contents - The Six Steps

The Six Steps

In the book's seventh chapter, "The Six Steps," McCloud outlines a six-part process of artistic creation (Idea/Purpose, Form, Idiom, Structure, Craft, Surface). He also notes that artists tend to fall into two classes, depending on which of the first two steps they emphasize more. Those who emphasize the second step "are often pioneers and revolutionaries — artists who want to shake things up," while those who emphasize the first are "great storytellers, creators who ... devote all their energies to controlling their medium ... to convey messages effectively." With these ideas, McCloud anticipates the artistic theory of David Galenson, which divides all artists into two groups with qualities similar to those McCloud notes.