The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry: A Stanford Professor’s Humorous Graphic Guide to College-Level Science

The Cartoon Guides

by Larry Gonick, Craig Criddle

If you have ever suspected that "heavy water" is the title of a bootleg Pink Floyd album, believed that surface tension is an anxiety disorder, or imagined that a noble gas is the result of a heavy meal at Buckingham Palace, then you need The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry to set you on the road to chemical literacy. You don't need to be a scientist to grasp these and many other complex ideas, because The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry explains them the history and basics of chemistry, atomic theory, combustion, solubility, reaction stoichiometry, the mole, entropy, and much more—all explained in simple, clear, and yes, funny illustrations. Chemistry will never be the same!

Genres: Science, Chemistry, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Education, Humor

256 pages, Paperback

Published May 3, 2005

About the author

Larry Gonick (born 1946) is a cartoonist best known for The Cartoon History of the Universe, a history of the world in comic book form, which he has been publishing in installments since 1977. He has also written The Cartoon History of the United States, and he has adapted the format for a series of co-written guidebooks on other subjects, beginning with The Cartoon Guide to Genetics in 1983. The diversity of his interests, and the success with which his books have met, have together earned Gonick the distinction of being "the most well-known and respected of cartoonists who have applied their craft to unravelling the mysteries of science" (Drug Discovery Today, March 2005).

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I relearned all I had forgotten from high school chemistry. Basically everything. Very amusing illustrations as well.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a bit harder to follow than the other ones, but that may be because I actually took enough chemistry that I couldn't just shrug off the technical parts, but have forgotten enough over the 40 years since I took it that it was a struggle to recall stuff.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stopping early. The good/bad.
Good: big-picture ideas with some detailed problems w equations too, fast pace, key concepts, friendly connective tone of text.
Bad: Graphics are often too humorous and often just get in the way/distract (me). Text written in a comic sans all caps? (not reading-friendly to me)

I might come back to this book one day.
I could see recommending specific topics to students to help get another viewpoint on material they have difficulty with.

Stopping at page 45 (~20%)

[meme · Rating 3 out of 5]

These type of books provides a unique approach to a subject usually considered accessible only to eggheads. It is crammed with clear, concise, amusing illustrations. Definitions are reduced to clear, simple sentences, but the book has plenty of equations, which do require some thought. As palatable as the author makes the subject, it is still chemistry. I like that the book has brief descriptions of theories, provides perspective and an idea of how major theories developed and built over the centuries. A good spare time book or supplemental read.

[Nadinastiti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had this book since university years but never had any chance and interest to actually read it, haha. It makes clear that the graphology result which say I am more to Mathematical and Physics than Chemistry and Biology composite is totally true. Nevertheless, I wish I had read this before I took that Basic Chemistry class in my freshman year, because the book contains the basic concept of ALL the lessons from the atoms, periodic table, and organic chemistry.

[Gordon Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another gem from Larry Gonick. And don't let the title fool you—the cartoon aspect of the book doesn't mean it's dumbed down. On the contrary, this is hard science and a solid foundation in the subject. I wish I'd had this as my high school chemistry textbook.

[~Lyn~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Formalin, boraks, arsenik, antioksidan, metanol, sampai nuklir, merupakan istilah-istilah teknis ilmu kimia. Di buku ini, bentuk, asal-usul, dan dampak benda-benda itu dapat dipelajari.

[Angela Barakat]

I read this with my son.

[Prismo · Rating 4 out of 5]

i never took ap chem but i bet this would go crazy as prep for the exam

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the Cartoon Guide to Statistics, this book promises “to set you on the road to chemical literacy”.

You don’t need to be a scientist to grasp these and many other complex ideas, because The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry explains them all: the history and basics of chemistry, atomic theory, combustion, solubility, reaction stoichiometry, the mole, entropy, and much more—all explained in simple, clear, and yes, funny illustrations. Chemistry will never be the same!

Pretty much none of this is true except for the funny illustrations. This book reads more like a textbook, a book designed to be used in a course with an instructor. You may not “need to be a scientist” to understand it, but it will help considerably if you have a scientific background. There’s an appendix on how to understand logarithms, the apparent assumption being that most readers will already understand them.

When it gets to reaction equations, for example, it starts out with “a reaction equation for fire.”

CH₂O(s) + O₂(g) → CO₂(g)↑ + H₂O(g)↑

It explains that the left side are the reactants and the right side reaction products; some are solid and some are gas; and that this is a typical “combustion reaction”. But it assumes you know that this is a formula and that the left and right side of a formula are equivalent (that is, that the element quantities are the same on both sides).

I’m not sure it ever explains what the “delta” symbol means; the meaning of the symbol must be inferred by recognizing that every time it is used, it refers to a change in something.

The history is very cursory, and I’m not sure there is anything in here that could be considered “basics”. You’re not going to come out of reading this book and know any simple experiments to do yourself.

The accompanying cartoons are generally better than in the Statistics volume; they do seem likely to aid in remembering the topic, although once in a while the cartoon appears meant to aid in spelling; I suspect, for example, that Criddle was very annoyed at students spelling “molarity” “morality”.

Reasonably so.

The only real annoyance with the cartoons is that they overuse the concept of molecules being human and attracted to one another or repellant; the use of anthropomorphic molecules and atoms in that manner is so prevalent in the book that it’s not much of a memory aid.

One of the cartoons did teach me something I don’t recall ever knowing: that the vapor coming off of dry ice as it evaporates is not the dry ice; it’s water condensing from the air due to the coldness surrounding the dry ice.

There are no exercises in the book, but any reader that wants to get the full use of it would have to do what I did not, which is to sit at a table with pencil and paper and rewrite and rebalance or recreate the steps for the various reaction equations and other formulae as they’re presented, taking numbers from the book’s tables and plugging them into the book’s equations.

This, by the way, is an example of a principle called Hess’s Law: Enthalpy change depends only on the beginning and end states, not on anything in between. If a reaction has intermediate stages, then ΔH is the sum of the intermediate enthalpy changes.

[Anas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Approved!
Kartun Kimia mampu merangkum sekaligus menyederhanakan pelajaran Kimia SMA (alias kimia dasar) menjadi komik kurang dari 300 halaman. Penjelasan dalam 12 Bab cukup runut dan sangat mirip dengan kurikulum Kimia SMA, meski tentunya tidak untuk menggantikan buku diktat sekolah.
Untuk kamu-kamu sekalian yang kesulitan memahami Kimia yang diajarkan di sekolah, cobalah buku ini sebagai bacaan tambahan (suplemen) untuk menambah wawasan.
Tak lupa ada beberapa humor dari Larry Gonick yang cukup menggelitik, meski beberapa guyonannya kurang mengena akibat penerjemahan.
Tapi, seperti buku-buku komik Gonick lain yang telah ku baca, Kartun Kimia benar-benar menghibur sekaligus tidak kehilangan esensinya.

[Alex Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to review alot of the chemistry, that I had forgotten from Gen. Chem. This was very helpful in doing so the illustrations and quirky humor really helped to enforce some points in the book. I had also learned alot about fun facts in chemistry through this book. Although every time it would break out formulas or other arithmetic, the explanations were general and I had to look up other sources to understand. Also, some points weren't stressed and/or expounded on that I felt needed to be, and led me again to other sources.

[Barbora Zapletalová · Rating 3 out of 5]

Za mě stejný případ jako komiksový biologie a filozofie. Co se nám snaží předat je opravdu velmi těžké a komplexní téma. Ale kresby tomu alespoň za mě moc nepomáhaly, kolikrát jsem ani nevěděla, na co se dívám. První 3 kapitoly mě sice velmi bavily a byly zajímavé, ale pak jsem měla pocit, že se v tom všem ztrácí, nemá to hlavu a patu atd. Kdybych nestudovala chemii a biologii, těmto knihám bych asi měla problém porozumět, nevím jestli by to mohlo pomoct třeba nějakým středoškolákům před maturitou.

[Nick Khormaei · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give it a 4 / 5 stars because I enjoyed all the information it had, along with the pictures that gave it extra spice. Another thing I liked was that the information corresponded with our class pretty well, as it started with the mole stuff and ended with K and equilibrium. The only flaw that I saw was that it was it wasn’t colored, as that would make everything else pop. But all in all, I enjoyed it a lot, and it was a great book.

[Mikhael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chem class in a comic book. I skimmed over some of the technical equations, just getting the gist. The first half of the book is pretty calculation-light. The second half lays it on heavily, expecting that you may want to even practice the calculations yourself. Still worth skimming the second half, even if you don’t plan on truly getting into it.

[Lightdee · Rating 3 out of 5]

first half of the book is a fairly easy read and I could follow everything. the artwork is enjoyable and adds to understanding. the complexity ramps up quickly in the second half and left me in the dust. I'm finished with it for now, maybe I'll come back to it someday and try to understand the more difficult concepts

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda skimmed over most of the second half since I'm not teaching much of the math of chemistry to the kids at this time. But I got some good metaphors and feel generally refreshed in my knowledge of the subject, so yay!

[Stasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but I wish it would have been slightly dumbed down. After all, it IS a cartoon guide. I didn't think explaining electron orbitals could possibly be more confusing than what's already in my chemistry book.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a lot of basic facts, from the discovery of fire to the explanation of the periodic table. The cartoon made it more funny and interesting and got me in the book.

[Emerson John Tiu Ng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice book to learn Chemistry in a light approach

[Andika Lesmana · Rating 3 out of 5]

After 16 long years, chemistry seems quite difficult

[Eddi Firmansyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bahasannya cukup advance walaupun judulnya kartun, jadi agak kewalahan memahaminya

[Asaf Cygelberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read half of the book. At some point I felt a bit tired of the material.

However, the book is light and pretty clear, and somehow interesting.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informational and interesting, would recommend it to anyone taking chemistry. Some concepts are extremely hard to understand such as what orbitals are but worth the trouble research those ideas.

[Δάσκαλος · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meski kartun, bacaan ini tetap berat bagiku. 😅

[Nicole Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

[Miss. Judy Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little complicated for me, felt like I was reading a textbook but I always say if I learned at least one thing it wasn't a waste of time for me.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for kids. Some clear exposition of concepts but material is not deep enough. Just a light hearted survey of concepts.

[LibrisNaEx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ideální pomůcko k učení chemie (např. na maturitu).

[Tessanee W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm was failing chemistry before I read this book. I'm still failing but at least now I have an idea of why. Jokes aside a good surface-level introduction to foundational chemistry knowledge.