Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

This is an incredibly insightful and broad analysis of a medium that, beforehand, I didn't really care about or even take seriously... I'd say this is archetypal of one of the best experiences in life; when through another's eyes you come to appreciate something that you had previously dismissed as 'not for me'. I read this as a teenager and recently bought a copy for my 9-yr-old daughter who is super keen on both reading and making comics of her own (sorry, my apologies... "they're graphic novels dad!!"). It is advanced material for her age, but she finds it fascinating and eye-opening nonetheless. I suspect she will read it multiple times as she ages and evolves her art.

I purchased this item, along with McCloud's other book Making Comics, to teach a course on comics in English to art students at Cheongju University in South Korea. Both of these books really lend themselves to teaching, each one is divided into chapters which discuss specific comic concepts and elements. Two excellent chapters: The first chapter in Understanding Comics is great because it discusses the history of comics, and some great activities can be done having students think about and search for comics in the real world and instances of comics in history. This chapter really validates the fact that comics are interesting and useful, rather than just being treated as a 'fake' art or a 'not really real' subject. Chapter three is excellent because it breaks down transitions not only in American comics, but European and Asian comics as well, and explains his thoughts as to why these differences exist. This allows students to compare the differences and broaden their understanding of how different cultures think differently. This chapter also discusses how comics are subtractive, and lends itself to an excellent lesson whereupon students can draw comics with many pictures, then keep subtracting and combining pictures until they have the miminum number of pictures that tells the gist of their story. In other chapters: Chapter two discusses word choice and flow in comics, four discusses time, chapter five discusses displaying emotion by using different types of lines (and similarities and differences between comics from different cultures), chapter six discusses how words and ideas complement each other in comics, and chapter seven discusses six steps to making comics. In my opinion, each book is worth its weight in gold alone for a comic class, but they have a synergistic effect when used in tandem with each other. Concepts from one book flow into the other book, and vice-versa, giving the students in-depth knowledge of both how to make comics and how to understand comics from other authors better. All of the concepts from the chapters can be seen easily in comics online or from newspapers, and so each week I first do the lecture, then use a few examples on the overhead that I have found from other comics, then give the students homework pertaining to the concepts discussed. Through use of the two books, the students' work is really improving, and it is fun to see them working specifically with each comic element. Each of the concepts discussed in the chapters is a great starting point to get the students' creative juices flowing. I would recommend this book to any teacher or lecturer interested teaching comics at almost any level and to any audience.

It really makes you appreciate comics and give them the respect they deserve. McCloud is funny and a good teacher.

Scott McCloud is doing something phenomenal in this book. Not only providing a guide to the sequential imagery of story telling that is comics, he does do with a mastery of the craft. I did not grow up with comics being ubiquitous, there were no comic book stores where I lived (I'm not originally from the US, came here as an adult) - however I did like reading comic books in my childhood and youth. The medium always fascinated me. As and adult, now living in the US, access has become much easier, the range of what's available is staggering. This book can not only helped me understand the medium even better, it helped me create a deeper emotional bond with it. It also provides as a guide of sorts of prominent works, authors and artists that are worth checking out. It has been published in 1993, but the points made and the content still holds up. If you always thought comics was "just for kids", give this book a chance - it will not only change your mind - it will reveal the wonderful world you missed, and guide you through it. If you always liked comics, but wanted to learn about it's evolution and history - this book will be a joyous ride that you'll want to revisit multiple times in the future. If you wanted to understand what makes this medium different, what are it's strength, what are the struggles facing the world of comics (and it's industry) definitely read this. I can't think of anyone who will not find this book fascinating. When you're done, I highly recommend his next book, from 2000, Reinventing Comics.

I was required to read this book for multiple comic courses. Yes, this book is useful, especially for those with a limited understanding of comics. The advice on flow, pacing, etc is invaluable. However, because comics are such a complex medium, this book is not the all-or-nothing guide it pretends to be and can even come off as pretentious at times. If you'd like to truly understand comics, observe the comics that you read rather than relying solely on this book.

Great, informative, engaging read. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes enjoys learning about art history and theory

Les trois livres de Scott McCloud sont généralement recommandés par les enseignants aux USA, ce n'est pas pour rien. J'en possede deux, et je ne me lasse jamais de les relire, lorsque je travaille mes compétences de design ou composition d'image (pour webmastering), ou quand je cale sur une création. Le livre est en anglais, mais les références culturelles ne sont pas toutes, loin s'en faut, américaines. Quand on aime la BD, c'est aussi un plaisir de voir tant de secrets révélés - je ne savais pas qu'il pouvait y en avoir autant, d'ailleurs.

Piacevole ed istruttivo!

Fue un regalo, asi que le doy 4 estrellas porque no he tenido quejas

I first owned this classic text about 15 years back, until I 'loaned' it to a student. I didn't mourn the loss of the book so much as the loss of the many many notes I had made in the margins! Anyway it was time to read it again, and Amazon had a generous discount applied to the item, so... bonus! I do agree with one of the other reviews that the paper stock used is the cheapest, about the same newsprint stock as the older comic books, so, appropriate in a way! This wasn't an issue to me, in fact a glossy stock isn't conducive to pencil notes in the margins, so, job done in my use case. The reprint history and ratings speak for themselves, this book is a must read for anybody involved in the field of visual communication, for example like myself teaching painting or like some of my students, graphic design and sign making.

This is a master piece for designers who deals with story telling in theat job roles... If designing is your bread and butter then this is a must read..