對漫畫藝術的探討在貢布里希的藝術史敘述與圖像心理學研究中占有重要地位。貢布里希從漫畫禁忌入手思考圖像魔法問題,由此串聯起了西方藝術史的進程。他又從漫畫藝術彰顯的等效性出發反觀西方自然主義的再現性圖像,從而向我們揭示了一個圖像心理學的真理,即一切圖像制作(包括再現性圖像的制作)所追求的都不是相似性而是等效性,圖像制作者意在通過不斷實驗摸索獲得開啟感官之鎖的鑰匙。由于漫畫創制甚至任何圖像創制都不是對現成之物的尋求,因此所有繪畫作品主要是藝術家的創造發明。

E. H. Gombrich’s discussions on caricatures play an important role in his study of the history of art and image psychology. He begins his narrative of the magic of art with the taboos of caricature and in this way delineates the course of Western art history. He also reflects on the representational images in Western Naturalism from the perspective of equivalences of caricatures,and by means of this he reveals the truth of image psychology. Gombrich argues that all image makings,including the one aiming at representation, pursue equivalences instead of similarities, and image makers always devote themselves to conducting various experiments to forge keys to our senses. Since making caricatures,even all kinds of images,is not to discover something that is already made,all drawings are mainly inventions of artists.