Their simplified structure allows readers to focus more on the meaning of the image rather than specific details. McCloud relates this theory to an action movie in his book. A critic will remove the special effects, such as lighting and sound, to focus on the plot of the movie. Another concept important to illustrating picture icons is the gaining of viewer identification. This idea implies that cartoons demand the reader's participation to make them work.
Comic artists employ numerous techniques in order to achieve the viewer's participation .
The masking effect is one of many techniques used. This technique allows readers to place themselves in a character's position and actually become the character while reading. The masking effect is also used when an artist wishes to represent a subject that is either too reverent or too profane to be revealed. The human figures they drew were masked with an animal head. On the other hand, Art Spiegelman, the author of the Holocaust graphic novel, Maus , exercised this technique because he had to depict a subject that was too horrible to be revealed.