Chapter II's idea seems pretty interesting to me. It is about what we see in comic books, and how images translate to us. He mentioned that the artist can choose any different type of way to make realistic, unrealistic, surreal, cartoon images of people and objects, to express their emotions of the character or story. Moreover, the more simplistic a comic, the more personality it has. Then I found normally we see a lot of icons around us in more simplistic terms, such as a flag or traffic sign. That's what exactly comic book needs, to catch the viewer's eyes. However, after I read The Arrival by Shaun Tan, I feel comic could be realistic, as well. If he drew the comic in a simplistic way, then it will lose lots of emotions and cinematic feelings.
Scott McCloud said, when pictures are more abstracted from “reality”, they required greater levels of perception, more like words. When words are bolder, more direct, they require lower levels of perception and are received faster more like pictures. But I think it's hard to decide who is faster because it depends on the artist. A good comic artist knows when is the right time to use the picture, and when is the right time to use a simple word.
By the way, I do like these four principles are from 17 minute talk by Scott McCloud in the TED conference. The first one and second one are my favorite. From my perspective, Learn from Everyone means that we can get all the useful parts from others and discard what is not, Follow No One means that you have to develop your own unique stuff.
