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The Comic Books #1
Understanding Comics
Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.
215 pages, Library Binding
First published August 1, 1993
2061 people are currently reading
125615 people want to read
About the author
Scott McCloud
125 books1,580 followersScott McCloud (born Scott McLeod) is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,190 reviews
August 29, 2017
I finished reading it for my comics/YA Graphic novels class this summer, 6/16/16 and now again, 8/8/17. I'll read this and use it to help people understand comics every year. It's the primary source though there are many good books coming out. What I have to add is that I had a fun conversation with my class about one insightful claim McCloud makes, that the simpler and more "cartoony" a comic representation is (i.e., a smiley face), the more universal it will be, the more we will say "that's me." In fiction classes I was taught to be as specific and detailed as I could be about characters and places. McCloud says that realistic depictions of characters such as in superhero comics are actually less relatable than simple characters such as Charlie Brown or Nancy, or most manga. Less is more, in a way. That's like suggesting that minimalism (something like Raymond Carver's stories, or Ernest Hemingway's stories) invite readers in more because we as readers have more space to "be" the characters, to connect with them. Maybe this is less true for non-comics fiction, though. But McCloud is interesting.
Review from before: I've used this book many times to teach comics basics. It's the best book I've found for doing this, and it's in a comics format, with McCloud as the cartoony and erudite "narrator". While thoroughly practical, it's also the most philosophical and thorough and at the same time efficient guide to the craft. McCloud also wrote Making Comics, for comics artists. This book is one of the classics of comic history, one of its great books for helping you understand and appreciate comics for their potential complexity as an hybrid art form, without question. If you want to know how comics are made in all its range of possibilities, and if you want to take see why this interrelated telling of visuals and words should be taken seriously as art and literature and cultural commentary and entertainment, this is the book for you.
Review from before: I've used this book many times to teach comics basics. It's the best book I've found for doing this, and it's in a comics format, with McCloud as the cartoony and erudite "narrator". While thoroughly practical, it's also the most philosophical and thorough and at the same time efficient guide to the craft. McCloud also wrote Making Comics, for comics artists. This book is one of the classics of comic history, one of its great books for helping you understand and appreciate comics for their potential complexity as an hybrid art form, without question. If you want to know how comics are made in all its range of possibilities, and if you want to take see why this interrelated telling of visuals and words should be taken seriously as art and literature and cultural commentary and entertainment, this is the book for you.
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May 27, 2024
In the 1940s, groups of youths were sent house to house gathering comic books that had been deemed offensive and took part in a massive book burning of over 2000 books. This was not Nazi Germany, however, this was 1948 in the United States and part of the rather subversive history of US comics which is…well, considering the spirit of underground resistance against the Comics Code Authority, being looked down upon as the social rejects of reading, the embracing of “vulgarity” as political resistance, frequently banned yet always fighting back, using comics to make space for queer and other marginalized voices, the proliferation of zines at hardcore shows and the artsy corners of town, and more, the history of US comics is punk as fuck. I recently put on a history of comics at the library, bringing in the wonderful comic artist and graphic memoirist Elizabeth A. Trembley (author of Look Again) to speak on this history and examine what comics are. During the presentation she recommended this book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud, which is an incredible and rather accessible look at comics from academic theories on the form’s unique use of visual art and storytelling, visual literacy and the concept of icons, but also by presenting the subject matter in the very medium it is examining to further emphasize the points. There is a lot to consider here, from neuroscience of pattern recognition, the ways different cultures attach different values to iconography and why, to how the genre can be expanded and reach us in ways other visual arts cannot. A fantastic book and one I will now also be recommending to everyone I see. And to you. I can’t see you, but I’m telling you anyways. Yes you, specifically you reading this on your screen. Okay lets dive in.
December 1948, Rumson, New Jersey comic book burning
The word comics can be a bit confusing, because while yes it can be funny, thats not the point. It has also been used, along with “cartoon” as a rather diminutive term when it comes to art, which is fascinating because around the world the idea of comics and graphic novels (a bit on how that came to be as a way to bypass the Comics Code Authority in a moment) developed as a rather well respected art. While visual storytelling goes back to the time of cave painting, the modern idea of comics began around the early 1900s as experiments in the novel form: ‘novels without words,’ such as Belgian artist Frans Masereel’s twenty-one woodcut novels. The superhero genre of comics exploded in popularity in the US just as WWII began in Europe, however the Nazis shut off access to American culture in occupied countries, including comics. While there are some fascinating stories about visual arts even under the tightly censored reading material during their regime, that’s all for another upcoming review but the key here is US comics leaned heavily into superhero’s while Europe developed differently. There is also the long, beautiful history of Japanese art (manga is a form of art similar to comics but also vastly different with its own specific cultural heritage and aspects) and it is fascinating to think about how the varying cultural developments of visual storytelling is so integral to the form and styles.
So what are comics, then, if we need a definition. McCloud, who prefers the term comics for the scope of the book says they are ‘juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.’ Basically it is a series of visual frames (sometimes with words) that tells a story or creates emotion. This is like film except, as McCloud points out
What has aided comics are two centuries of visual media developed from sequential images starting with French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce taking the first photograph in 1822. As McCloud tells us ‘our eyes have been well-trained by the photograph and by representational art to see any single continuous image as a single moment in time,’ and we are able to accept a busy panel as being a still frame that still conveys an implied motion. Without being able to see movement the same way as, say, a film, artists have found ways to manipulate time by how they frame sequential panels. Artists have even broken the standard basic square panel in interesting ways to imply duration with visual clues, such as how “bleeds”—when a panel runs off the edge of the page or presses into the next—often ‘linger in the readers mind’ because of their ‘unresolved nature.’
'Sequential art is a means of creative expression, a distinct discipline, an art and literary form that deals with the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea.'
-Will Eisner
Language can also be employed to orchestrate how the reader perceives motion, such as how a single sound (like the text “SNAP” to imply the shutter-snap of a camera) can grant a depth of duration or add a soundtrack. What I love about comics are the ways words often combine with art beyond simply being paired up in order to narrate the images. And I was thrilled to learn there are academic terms:
--In parallel combinations, words and images follow different courses but don’t intersect—sort of like hearing a monologue or or a conversation happening offscreen while watching a different “narrative” play out wordlessly (imagine a that whole you read the previous sentence is was paired with four panels of showing a cat getting into mischief around a city or something).
--A Montage where the word is part of the art (a look of surprise shown by the word “WOW” written in place of wide eyes).
--An interdependent combination is where words and pictures ‘go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone.’
I love McCloud’s metaphor of art and words in comics like dance partners that both take turns leading and try to perform more unique and impressive moves playing off one another. It’s a fascinating look at how comics attempt to move the scale between showing and telling.
‘Art, as I see it, is any human activity which doesn’t grow out of either of our species’ two basic instincts: survival and reproduction.’
On the topic of telling, since early comics in the US was a cheap medium they needed artists who were willing to work long hours for very little pay to do the actual telling. As David Hajdu writes in his book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, this low paying, underappreciated role attracted a disproportionate number of creative people for whom more “traditional” avenues of publishing was closed to them and primarily included ‘[I]mmigrants and children of immigrants, women, Jews, Italians, Negroes, Latinos, Asians, and myriad social outcasts.’. As the US has never quite embraced the idea of the “melting pot” it professes to be unless it means cultural erasure of anything incongruous to white, middle-class sensibilities, social stigmas against the identities of people such as the artists and workers behind the comic industry of the 1940’s played a role in the vilification of comics in the US. A 1940 essay, A National Disgrace (And a Challenge to American Parents) by Sterling North, condemned a ‘poisonous mushroom growth’ of comics made by people of color who illustrated superheroes deemed to be ‘sadists’ and ‘bullying vigilantes.’ Then came the book burnings. As Hajdu examines, the US wanted to return to a sense of “normal” after WWII. ‘There was intense pressure coming from church groups and family groups,’ writes artist John Jackson Miller, ‘they were trying to tie comics to juvenile delinquency in a way that didn't fit the facts.’
Like what occurred with video games in the 1990s, there was a panic that comics led to violent crime, lowered literacy, were for immoral and written to seduce children into sin. Books were written making such claims, such as Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent which was later revealed to be based on studies that were entirely fabricated. As Dave Itzkoff writes in an article for The New York Times:
These fears over comics would lead to the creation of the Comics Code Authority, formed by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation but effectively became de facto censorship. You can read the lengthy list of regulations HERE.
The CCA effectively took all the fun out of comics for adults and was the equivalent of requiring all US films to have a G rating. Stores could not legally sell any comic without a CCA stamp of approval. Of course people rebelled, and there was some amazing things happening in underground comics and it really became an outlet for queer voices during this time–the very voices still suppressed in current graphic novel publishing. Oh yea, I promised I’d talk about how “graphic novels” came to be. Get this.
In the late 1980s, people realized that, while yes Zines are cool as shit, but if you took a comic and “properly” bound all the issues together like a book and slapped an ISBN number on its ass BOOM suddenly its not a comic its a novel. A graphic novel]. GENIUS. And now we have SO MUCH AMAZING STUFF HAPPENING IN GRAPHIC NOVELS. NO I WILL NOT BE QUIET ABOUT IT. Honestly, queer YA graphic novels have been doing some incredible things and I sometimes feel YA graphic novels are were some of the most unique aspects of US publishing are happening but mostly I WANT YOU TO READ GRAPHIC NOVELS but uuuhhhhh yea sorry about that (IM NOT) there is a wonderful legacy of graphic novels stemming from a way to finally topple censorship. Right off the bat we had books like The Complete Maus and Watchmen and comics have never been the same.
SO lets get back to McCloud because one of my favorite parts of his book is the discussion on art as a form of symbol recognition and iconography. What is really fascinating about all the various culturally-unique forms of sequential visual art (and McCloud does some great deep dives that I urge you to read) are the ways that we decode images and find them to be a language of their own. I believe comics are important because it is such a perfect way to learn visual literacy and this is something that has become very valuable and necessary going forward in a digital age where memes and emojis are able to convey wonderfully abstract ideas that carry a lot of cultural currency with them. One of the more fascinating examples he gives is the idea that simplicity of comics is useful because it goes from being a specific into a universal. He explains how, for example, we know other people’s faces in better detail than our own because we see them and just have a general impression of our own. For this reason comics that have less specific detail help us inject ourselves into the characters.
We see a detailed face as someone else, we see a icon of a face as ourselves. Which i really cool and comes from a long history of research into Pareidolia, which is the phenomenon of seeing human-like faces in objects believed to be due to long ago instinctual needs to recognize faces for safety reasons. It is also how marketers have learned that designing cars with a more dominant, angry “face” helps them sell better in the US due to putting the “face” of the car on as our driver personality mask, or that there have been studies showing religious or spiritual people are more prone to perceiving these illusory faces, leading to theories about how the human history around personifying natural disasters or elements as dieties. I love this kind of thing, and comics play into this by making visual representations of ideas that speak just as loud as words.
But I’ve talked enough (too much as usual) and you should definitely pick this book up. It is quite academic but not inaccessible and wildly fascinating. It also helps you think about art in general and how much time and space come into play in ways we don’t typically pay attention to. I love sequential art and I will be urging this book on people for years to come.
5/5
December 1948, Rumson, New Jersey comic book burning
The word comics can be a bit confusing, because while yes it can be funny, thats not the point. It has also been used, along with “cartoon” as a rather diminutive term when it comes to art, which is fascinating because around the world the idea of comics and graphic novels (a bit on how that came to be as a way to bypass the Comics Code Authority in a moment) developed as a rather well respected art. While visual storytelling goes back to the time of cave painting, the modern idea of comics began around the early 1900s as experiments in the novel form: ‘novels without words,’ such as Belgian artist Frans Masereel’s twenty-one woodcut novels. The superhero genre of comics exploded in popularity in the US just as WWII began in Europe, however the Nazis shut off access to American culture in occupied countries, including comics. While there are some fascinating stories about visual arts even under the tightly censored reading material during their regime, that’s all for another upcoming review but the key here is US comics leaned heavily into superhero’s while Europe developed differently. There is also the long, beautiful history of Japanese art (manga is a form of art similar to comics but also vastly different with its own specific cultural heritage and aspects) and it is fascinating to think about how the varying cultural developments of visual storytelling is so integral to the form and styles.
So what are comics, then, if we need a definition. McCloud, who prefers the term comics for the scope of the book says they are ‘juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.’ Basically it is a series of visual frames (sometimes with words) that tells a story or creates emotion. This is like film except, as McCloud points out
‘Each successive frame of a movie is projected on exactly the same space--the screen--while each frame of comics must occupy a different space. Space does for comics what time does for film!’
What has aided comics are two centuries of visual media developed from sequential images starting with French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce taking the first photograph in 1822. As McCloud tells us ‘our eyes have been well-trained by the photograph and by representational art to see any single continuous image as a single moment in time,’ and we are able to accept a busy panel as being a still frame that still conveys an implied motion. Without being able to see movement the same way as, say, a film, artists have found ways to manipulate time by how they frame sequential panels. Artists have even broken the standard basic square panel in interesting ways to imply duration with visual clues, such as how “bleeds”—when a panel runs off the edge of the page or presses into the next—often ‘linger in the readers mind’ because of their ‘unresolved nature.’
'Sequential art is a means of creative expression, a distinct discipline, an art and literary form that deals with the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea.'
-Will Eisner
Language can also be employed to orchestrate how the reader perceives motion, such as how a single sound (like the text “SNAP” to imply the shutter-snap of a camera) can grant a depth of duration or add a soundtrack. What I love about comics are the ways words often combine with art beyond simply being paired up in order to narrate the images. And I was thrilled to learn there are academic terms:
--In parallel combinations, words and images follow different courses but don’t intersect—sort of like hearing a monologue or or a conversation happening offscreen while watching a different “narrative” play out wordlessly (imagine a that whole you read the previous sentence is was paired with four panels of showing a cat getting into mischief around a city or something).
--A Montage where the word is part of the art (a look of surprise shown by the word “WOW” written in place of wide eyes).
--An interdependent combination is where words and pictures ‘go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone.’
I love McCloud’s metaphor of art and words in comics like dance partners that both take turns leading and try to perform more unique and impressive moves playing off one another. It’s a fascinating look at how comics attempt to move the scale between showing and telling.
‘Art, as I see it, is any human activity which doesn’t grow out of either of our species’ two basic instincts: survival and reproduction.’
On the topic of telling, since early comics in the US was a cheap medium they needed artists who were willing to work long hours for very little pay to do the actual telling. As David Hajdu writes in his book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, this low paying, underappreciated role attracted a disproportionate number of creative people for whom more “traditional” avenues of publishing was closed to them and primarily included ‘[I]mmigrants and children of immigrants, women, Jews, Italians, Negroes, Latinos, Asians, and myriad social outcasts.’. As the US has never quite embraced the idea of the “melting pot” it professes to be unless it means cultural erasure of anything incongruous to white, middle-class sensibilities, social stigmas against the identities of people such as the artists and workers behind the comic industry of the 1940’s played a role in the vilification of comics in the US. A 1940 essay, A National Disgrace (And a Challenge to American Parents) by Sterling North, condemned a ‘poisonous mushroom growth’ of comics made by people of color who illustrated superheroes deemed to be ‘sadists’ and ‘bullying vigilantes.’ Then came the book burnings. As Hajdu examines, the US wanted to return to a sense of “normal” after WWII. ‘There was intense pressure coming from church groups and family groups,’ writes artist John Jackson Miller, ‘they were trying to tie comics to juvenile delinquency in a way that didn't fit the facts.’
Like what occurred with video games in the 1990s, there was a panic that comics led to violent crime, lowered literacy, were for immoral and written to seduce children into sin. Books were written making such claims, such as Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent which was later revealed to be based on studies that were entirely fabricated. As Dave Itzkoff writes in an article for The New York Times:
‘While the findings of Wertham (who died in 1981) have long been questioned by the comics industry and its advocates, a recent study of the materials he used to write “Seduction of the Innocent” suggests that Wertham misrepresented his research and falsified his results.’
These fears over comics would lead to the creation of the Comics Code Authority, formed by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation but effectively became de facto censorship. You can read the lengthy list of regulations HERE.
The CCA effectively took all the fun out of comics for adults and was the equivalent of requiring all US films to have a G rating. Stores could not legally sell any comic without a CCA stamp of approval. Of course people rebelled, and there was some amazing things happening in underground comics and it really became an outlet for queer voices during this time–the very voices still suppressed in current graphic novel publishing. Oh yea, I promised I’d talk about how “graphic novels” came to be. Get this.
In the late 1980s, people realized that, while yes Zines are cool as shit, but if you took a comic and “properly” bound all the issues together like a book and slapped an ISBN number on its ass BOOM suddenly its not a comic its a novel. A graphic novel]. GENIUS. And now we have SO MUCH AMAZING STUFF HAPPENING IN GRAPHIC NOVELS. NO I WILL NOT BE QUIET ABOUT IT. Honestly, queer YA graphic novels have been doing some incredible things and I sometimes feel YA graphic novels are were some of the most unique aspects of US publishing are happening but mostly I WANT YOU TO READ GRAPHIC NOVELS but uuuhhhhh yea sorry about that (IM NOT) there is a wonderful legacy of graphic novels stemming from a way to finally topple censorship. Right off the bat we had books like The Complete Maus and Watchmen and comics have never been the same.
SO lets get back to McCloud because one of my favorite parts of his book is the discussion on art as a form of symbol recognition and iconography. What is really fascinating about all the various culturally-unique forms of sequential visual art (and McCloud does some great deep dives that I urge you to read) are the ways that we decode images and find them to be a language of their own. I believe comics are important because it is such a perfect way to learn visual literacy and this is something that has become very valuable and necessary going forward in a digital age where memes and emojis are able to convey wonderfully abstract ideas that carry a lot of cultural currency with them. One of the more fascinating examples he gives is the idea that simplicity of comics is useful because it goes from being a specific into a universal. He explains how, for example, we know other people’s faces in better detail than our own because we see them and just have a general impression of our own. For this reason comics that have less specific detail help us inject ourselves into the characters.
We see a detailed face as someone else, we see a icon of a face as ourselves. Which i really cool and comes from a long history of research into Pareidolia, which is the phenomenon of seeing human-like faces in objects believed to be due to long ago instinctual needs to recognize faces for safety reasons. It is also how marketers have learned that designing cars with a more dominant, angry “face” helps them sell better in the US due to putting the “face” of the car on as our driver personality mask, or that there have been studies showing religious or spiritual people are more prone to perceiving these illusory faces, leading to theories about how the human history around personifying natural disasters or elements as dieties. I love this kind of thing, and comics play into this by making visual representations of ideas that speak just as loud as words.
But I’ve talked enough (too much as usual) and you should definitely pick this book up. It is quite academic but not inaccessible and wildly fascinating. It also helps you think about art in general and how much time and space come into play in ways we don’t typically pay attention to. I love sequential art and I will be urging this book on people for years to come.
5/5
January 9, 2011
Great book, but I'm too annoyed to give it four stars.
It's amateurish, but I believe if you're aware of how great a book is while you're reading it, it's not working at its best. You can go 'oh wow that's such a clever way to illustrate this idea, and the text is so effective', but it's a bit like reading an instruction manual, and nothing personal or particularly poignant. I guess the idea is to understand the basic structure and potential of comic art, but must it be so academic and dry? The book doesn't limit itself to the conventional art theory, but rather ventures into fundamental epistemological and phenomenological debates. It's informative and eye opening, but not particularly relevant, like every single other art theory textbook. Except this one has pictures (or should I say, integrated with pictures?)
Understanding Comics is a misleading title, perhaps How to and why you should appreciate comics would suit the purpose of the book better. Majority of people (in terms of an audience that is likely to pick up a comic-related theory book) has little trouble understanding the intention of the drawing and writing - we can feel the atmosphere, be moved by the characters and thrilled by the action. Appreciating the history, concept and techniques that help build it up are, however, often overlooked. Much like film and literature, comics require a lot of conceptual and aesthetic decision to make it effective and communicative, and McCloud tries hard to evaluate the general methods that are used to convey these expressions. It would work better if he utilise more specific works rather than general 'rules', and most of them only applicable to mainstream comics. The last chapter goes on about the importance of 'understanding', and how comics can serve as a great tool of communication. Frankly it is a bit arrogant to me. No matter what your medium - ink and paper, music, written words, motion picture, performance, construction, we as the audience give ourselves far less credit when apprehending these art forms. We are subjected to arbitrary education, test and criticism that are meant to 'guide' our 'understanding' of the creator's concept and execution - how to read them, how to properly experience them, how to get the most of it like the artist 'wants' us to. I feel as though McCloud is saying, 'I'm the creator, and you are the reader. Through these lines and colour, I'm telling you what is being expressed. Do you get it? DO YOU GET IT?'. Fuck this I don't have understand everything in order to appreciate it, have you never read Pynchon or seen anything David Lynch?
Comic art is merely another form of story telling, it is equally capable of being as representational or avant-garde as any other art form. 'Understanding comics is serious business' - why is it serious? why not just go out and say 'respecting comics is serious business'. McCloud also comments on how the merit of comics lies in its ability to convey 'individual voices' through mass production - really now? If you want personal expression, why not read a few blogs, talk to strangers in the park, speaker's corner, open mic, go to a concert, underground gig, restaurant, flickr, public toilet, open market, join whatever radical societies there are out there? It is almost ridiculous to have to remind people that comics are capable of being expressionistic, and please don't try to say your choice of material expresses something more profound, original than the others or with more efficiency. Why the fuck should it be efficient? Aren't you arguing that comics can be art too? Then why should it be readable, straightforward and commercial like everything else?
GAH I'm angry!
What McCloud is saying is that as an artist you have more control over the output. But at least for me, I don't care if you came up with the entire concept or worked in a team as long as the outcome is insightful and fun. And then he started talking about the human condition and how we can fix the world with reading more comics. YEAH. And then there are angels reading comics, statues of bullied comic readers, massive yin yang symbol! montage of great art works! The world map! Epic lightening! 'THE TRUTH WILL SHINE THROUGH'! (real quote)
That goes on for about 20 pages.
Dear comic art - Don't overestimate yourself, not because you're insignificant. Yes you have a long history indeed, and we 'understand' you're not just some flat tone sexist superhero adventure, and that you can be as postmodern as any other art school asshole graduate. Message received.
*Picture above: single panel from Moebius' 40 Days in the Desert I don't get it, but it's awesome.
November 20, 2018
Understanding Comics is a comic about comics by Scott McCloud.
I remember when this book came out in 1993. My fifteen year old self scoffed. "I've been reading comics for years. What can this book teach me?" Twenty five years later and a thousand comics later, on the heels of rereading Zot!, I decided to finally give it a shot. I was apprehensive at first since you really have to scrape to find a negative review of Understanding Comics. Did so many people like it or were they afraid to admit they didn't?
Understanding Comics traces the origin of comics back to the ancient Egyptians and other pre-Columbian people. This might be a bit of a stretch but McCloud explains himself fairly well. More interesting to me was the explanation of the mechanism of comics and how they work on the human brain, like the gutter in between panels and the visual language of comics.
While I found a lot of the book interesting, I think your enjoyment level of Understanding Comics will depend on why you read comics. If you read them because they fascinate you and you see them as an art form, this is your book. If you read them for escapism and entertainment, parts of Understanding Comics will feel like someone reading you the nutritional information of your food while you're eating it.
Remember the part in the beginning of Dead Poet Society when Professor Keating has them tear a section out of their textbook? Some of the more analytical parts of the book feel like the good Professor would have turned them into confetti, like the three axes of The Picture Plane, Reality, and Meaning, or graphing scene transitions into Moment to Moment, Action to Action, Subject to Subject, Scene to Scene, Aspect to Aspect, and Non-Sequitur.
All that being said, knowing why things are the way they are and why they work was more than worth my time. Not only that, it shows Scott McCloud's skill as a writer and artist that he took a subject that could have been drier than a desert and made it fun and interesting. I expect I'll be dipping back into it from time to time, along with How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Four out of five stars.
I remember when this book came out in 1993. My fifteen year old self scoffed. "I've been reading comics for years. What can this book teach me?" Twenty five years later and a thousand comics later, on the heels of rereading Zot!, I decided to finally give it a shot. I was apprehensive at first since you really have to scrape to find a negative review of Understanding Comics. Did so many people like it or were they afraid to admit they didn't?
Understanding Comics traces the origin of comics back to the ancient Egyptians and other pre-Columbian people. This might be a bit of a stretch but McCloud explains himself fairly well. More interesting to me was the explanation of the mechanism of comics and how they work on the human brain, like the gutter in between panels and the visual language of comics.
While I found a lot of the book interesting, I think your enjoyment level of Understanding Comics will depend on why you read comics. If you read them because they fascinate you and you see them as an art form, this is your book. If you read them for escapism and entertainment, parts of Understanding Comics will feel like someone reading you the nutritional information of your food while you're eating it.
Remember the part in the beginning of Dead Poet Society when Professor Keating has them tear a section out of their textbook? Some of the more analytical parts of the book feel like the good Professor would have turned them into confetti, like the three axes of The Picture Plane, Reality, and Meaning, or graphing scene transitions into Moment to Moment, Action to Action, Subject to Subject, Scene to Scene, Aspect to Aspect, and Non-Sequitur.
All that being said, knowing why things are the way they are and why they work was more than worth my time. Not only that, it shows Scott McCloud's skill as a writer and artist that he took a subject that could have been drier than a desert and made it fun and interesting. I expect I'll be dipping back into it from time to time, along with How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Four out of five stars.
May 12, 2017
This is a book on art and philosophy disguised as a book on comics disguised as a comic book!
A brilliant must-read for any fan of comics, art, philosophy and beauty!
Ahmad Eddeeb
May 2016
A brilliant must-read for any fan of comics, art, philosophy and beauty!
Ahmad Eddeeb
May 2016
August 29, 2017
Scott McCloud's love and understanding of comics is beautifully and simply expressed here. So much so that it increased my love and understanding of comics I read in the past and definitely comics I will read in the future.
As I was reading other peoples reviews and discussions about this book I noticed that most people are intrigued with the idea that the simpler the character on the page is, the easier it is for the reader to identify with the character. This is something that I noticed myself long before I read this book, so it wasn't so revolutionary to me... BUT his chapter on time and expressing time in space in comics truly blew my mind when I read it. It made me see and truly understand so much about pacing in comics. It helped me form, what I like to call, my internal gear shift. As a reader I didn't focus on speed of my reading and over time the only speed for reading became as fast as possible, but in comics this can be a huge disadvantage especially when going through slower and more solemn scenes. Now when I see a comic page and take a look at the composition of the panels I know when the story demands of me to go faster or slower and I am grateful for this new found knowledge.
This book is an excellent start for anyone who wants to learn about comics, and I certainly will continue my research on this topic.
As I was reading other peoples reviews and discussions about this book I noticed that most people are intrigued with the idea that the simpler the character on the page is, the easier it is for the reader to identify with the character. This is something that I noticed myself long before I read this book, so it wasn't so revolutionary to me... BUT his chapter on time and expressing time in space in comics truly blew my mind when I read it. It made me see and truly understand so much about pacing in comics. It helped me form, what I like to call, my internal gear shift. As a reader I didn't focus on speed of my reading and over time the only speed for reading became as fast as possible, but in comics this can be a huge disadvantage especially when going through slower and more solemn scenes. Now when I see a comic page and take a look at the composition of the panels I know when the story demands of me to go faster or slower and I am grateful for this new found knowledge.
This book is an excellent start for anyone who wants to learn about comics, and I certainly will continue my research on this topic.
August 3, 2013
Holy shit! I'm starting a graphic novel book club!! This is our inaugural book and I'm so excited!!!
We had our first meeting today, and in addition to saying terribly intelligent things about comics and eating mini-cupcakes and laughing at my dogs, we also picked a name for our (accidentally all-female) group: Jugs & Capes. I know you're very jealous.
Anyway, I was extremely impressed by this book. I can tell that Scott McCloud thinks that he is terrifically important and probably a genius, but, as often happens to me, I was willing to believe that at least he was smart enough to have earned the right to talk about all of this. So while there were a few points when I found him a bit condescending, a bit cloyingly didactic, on the whole I learned a lot about comics and how to think about them, and that was great.
I though I was going to write about some of the things I learned, but it's late and I'm tired, and honestly one of the things he does best is really use the illustrations and the text in the best symbiotic way, enhancing and augmenting one another throughout, and so it seems like it would be reductive and dismissive for me to try to summarize his points with words alone. So read the book! And then you'll get it for yourself.
(Oh but except for one thing, which is so cool I just have to share it. He talks a lot about how the reader is complicit in the telling of a comic story, because so much happens between the panels -- in the gutter, where the reader has to invent what is going on to connect one image to another. He uses as an example a panel with an axe-wielding man chasing another guy and shouting, "Now you're going to die!" Then the next panel is the outside of a building, with only an "Aieeee!!" screaming out. Anyway [see my point, how much extra describing I have to do just to get to what he does with like two pictures?], he then says: "To kill a character between panels is to condemn him to a thousand deaths." See? Because each reader will make his/her own decision about when and how the axe falls, how much blood comes out, how many strikes are needed, the specific choreography of the death. Amazing!)
We had our first meeting today, and in addition to saying terribly intelligent things about comics and eating mini-cupcakes and laughing at my dogs, we also picked a name for our (accidentally all-female) group: Jugs & Capes. I know you're very jealous.
Anyway, I was extremely impressed by this book. I can tell that Scott McCloud thinks that he is terrifically important and probably a genius, but, as often happens to me, I was willing to believe that at least he was smart enough to have earned the right to talk about all of this. So while there were a few points when I found him a bit condescending, a bit cloyingly didactic, on the whole I learned a lot about comics and how to think about them, and that was great.
I though I was going to write about some of the things I learned, but it's late and I'm tired, and honestly one of the things he does best is really use the illustrations and the text in the best symbiotic way, enhancing and augmenting one another throughout, and so it seems like it would be reductive and dismissive for me to try to summarize his points with words alone. So read the book! And then you'll get it for yourself.
(Oh but except for one thing, which is so cool I just have to share it. He talks a lot about how the reader is complicit in the telling of a comic story, because so much happens between the panels -- in the gutter, where the reader has to invent what is going on to connect one image to another. He uses as an example a panel with an axe-wielding man chasing another guy and shouting, "Now you're going to die!" Then the next panel is the outside of a building, with only an "Aieeee!!" screaming out. Anyway [see my point, how much extra describing I have to do just to get to what he does with like two pictures?], he then says: "To kill a character between panels is to condemn him to a thousand deaths." See? Because each reader will make his/her own decision about when and how the axe falls, how much blood comes out, how many strikes are needed, the specific choreography of the death. Amazing!)
January 3, 2021
Fantastic. I learned a lot about comics but also about writing more widely.
September 28, 2008
I really appreciate that this book exists. It's nice that something was created to help people understand the language of comics, what they are, what they can be, what makes them special, and so forth.
That said, there are parts which are a little convoluted (Chapter 2, I'm looking at you), and there are parts that are a little dated by now (such as the chapter on color, which I think has come a long way since the early '90s, particularly due to the use of computers). But there are so many parts that articulate things that we as readers may have never realized we were doing (such as reading between the panels, as discussed in Chapter 3).
I think McCloud did a great job of including all kinds of comics, from Schultz to Spiegelman to Lee/Kirby to Otomo, without placing more value on one than another. I also liked the parallels he drew between comics and other art forms, although he emphasized visual arts far more than literature, which in some ways makes sense but I feel it neglects the fact that these are comic books. Even in Chapter 6, which was dedicated to how language and words combine to form comics, I did not notice any analysis of how comics stand up to other forms of literature. However, in the chapter dedicated to the artistic process, I thought what McCloud had to say on the subject was so perfectly universal to all art, including literature.
Overall, definitely an insightful read for anyone who enjoys "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence."
That said, there are parts which are a little convoluted (Chapter 2, I'm looking at you), and there are parts that are a little dated by now (such as the chapter on color, which I think has come a long way since the early '90s, particularly due to the use of computers). But there are so many parts that articulate things that we as readers may have never realized we were doing (such as reading between the panels, as discussed in Chapter 3).
I think McCloud did a great job of including all kinds of comics, from Schultz to Spiegelman to Lee/Kirby to Otomo, without placing more value on one than another. I also liked the parallels he drew between comics and other art forms, although he emphasized visual arts far more than literature, which in some ways makes sense but I feel it neglects the fact that these are comic books. Even in Chapter 6, which was dedicated to how language and words combine to form comics, I did not notice any analysis of how comics stand up to other forms of literature. However, in the chapter dedicated to the artistic process, I thought what McCloud had to say on the subject was so perfectly universal to all art, including literature.
Overall, definitely an insightful read for anyone who enjoys "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence."
August 24, 2018
Жила-була і переклала. У серпні в мене якось сіли батарейки, працювалося крізь зуби, тож за весь місяць тільки і здобутків, що комікс на 4 авторські аркуші / 160 тисяч знаків. Зате дуже класний! Це - спроба осмислити, як працюють комікси як рід мистецтва (велика залученість читачів: додумування логічних зв'язків між панелями; різні способи передати, скажімо, час і рух у статичному медіумі, і т.д., і т.і.). Якщо ви в коміксі раніше ніколи доти не бачили семіотичної термінології, а хочеться, то вам сюди :) Ну й єдиний комікс, який цитують у наукових статтях як партнера в діалозі, а не предмет дослідження. Детальніше розкажу, коли вийде переклад, але взагалі це класика-класика і дуже дотепно.
May 14, 2023
من سال اول هنرستان از کتابخونه اینو گرفتم و بعد ده صفحه مغزم بهم گفت این برای "معرفی" کمیک به یکسری آماتوره و تو آماتور نیستی. مغزِ من خیلی بد غلطی کرد و تصمیم اشتباهی بود رها کردن این کتاب بعد از صفحهی دهم.
این کتاب صرفا معرفی ساختار کمیک استریپها و تاریخشون نیست، خیلی جاها وارد فلسفه و جایگاه اون توی هنر میشه، چیزی که متاسفانه تا حالا جایی در موردش نخونده بودم، در حالی که بارها بهش فکر کردم و همیشه برام جالب بوده. خیلی خوشحالم که دو جلد دیگه هم از این مجموعه هست، قراره چیزهای زیادی ازشون یاد بگیرم.
پ.ن:
اگه از این کتاب خوشتون اومده یا به طور کلی میخواین کمیک ها رو خوب بفهمین، کانال
StripPanelNaked
توی یوتیوب بسیار مطالب ارزشمندی داره.
این کتاب صرفا معرفی ساختار کمیک استریپها و تاریخشون نیست، خیلی جاها وارد فلسفه و جایگاه اون توی هنر میشه، چیزی که متاسفانه تا حالا جایی در موردش نخونده بودم، در حالی که بارها بهش فکر کردم و همیشه برام جالب بوده. خیلی خوشحالم که دو جلد دیگه هم از این مجموعه هست، قراره چیزهای زیادی ازشون یاد بگیرم.
پ.ن:
اگه از این کتاب خوشتون اومده یا به طور کلی میخواین کمیک ها رو خوب بفهمین، کانال
StripPanelNaked
توی یوتیوب بسیار مطالب ارزشمندی داره.
October 6, 2008
I love the idea of this conversation more than I love the application--at least in this book. While I find the concepts themselves fascinating, I found the book tedious. The overall art and style employed by McCloud just wasn't compelling to me. I really struggled to finish this book.
But as I said, the conversation is a good one, and the concepts explored--particularly the role of the reader and the required brain work involved in reading comics--were interesting. I'm glad this book is out there. I just wish I personally enjoyed it more.
But as I said, the conversation is a good one, and the concepts explored--particularly the role of the reader and the required brain work involved in reading comics--were interesting. I'm glad this book is out there. I just wish I personally enjoyed it more.
January 4, 2023
Malgré un début un peu lent c’est le genre de livre qui nous fait voir le sujet d’un tout nouvel oeil car l’auteur nous transmet sa passion à merveille!! Hâte de voir avec la suite
June 23, 2007
it's one of the best examples i've found of someone writing so specifically about a topic that the observations and implications become absolutely universal.
think about it: hamlet is completely consumed in his little world, and the stakes are all about what will happen to denmark and only denmark. and centuries later, we still perform the play and read it and think that that is us up there struggling with our problems, just with a different name.
this is what mccloud achieves here: he is so fixated and clear in talking about comics that the scope of his thought travels to all corners of creativity, art, and human endeavor.
this is not only a testament to the validity of comics as an artform and mccloud's mastery of it, but also to the microscopic differences between the various supposedly discreet arts and vocabularies thereof when viewed from the vantage of a close and sensitive read of any one of them in particular.
a book that renews your faith in people's ability to communicate with (and 'understand?') each other.
think about it: hamlet is completely consumed in his little world, and the stakes are all about what will happen to denmark and only denmark. and centuries later, we still perform the play and read it and think that that is us up there struggling with our problems, just with a different name.
this is what mccloud achieves here: he is so fixated and clear in talking about comics that the scope of his thought travels to all corners of creativity, art, and human endeavor.
this is not only a testament to the validity of comics as an artform and mccloud's mastery of it, but also to the microscopic differences between the various supposedly discreet arts and vocabularies thereof when viewed from the vantage of a close and sensitive read of any one of them in particular.
a book that renews your faith in people's ability to communicate with (and 'understand?') each other.
March 20, 2009
Well, I also think this book was brilliant, just like everybody else. I was like, 'how could he possible have two hundred and fourteen pages of things to say about comics?' but then I'd heard it was brilliant for so long from so many people that I gave it a shot. And it is just theory! It's like reading Roland Barthes or somebody, but in comics, which makes it easier/more fun, which I think is in keeping with Mr. McCloud's idea that comics are the best thing in the whole universe. I mean, some of his theories are a little wingnut- he basically argues that comics are the simultaneously the culmination of human achievement and the basis of it- but y'know I love me a wingnut theory. So.
So yeah! I am going to be on the lookout for the next ones AND for McCloud's non-meta (is there a prefix that means not-meta?) comics.
So yeah! I am going to be on the lookout for the next ones AND for McCloud's non-meta (is there a prefix that means not-meta?) comics.
May 29, 2017
3.5★ rounded up with indulgence for its (possible) usefulness
If a book/work can be interesting and boring at the same time, than this was it! There were some fascinating parts, with interesting, new informations, but there were also enough parts that were boring, because of the too many details and obvious clarifications.
However, it seems to me like an excellent initiative, as it could be extremely useful for those who are just getting acquainted with the comics' universe or for those who want to start creating in this field.
If a book/work can be interesting and boring at the same time, than this was it! There were some fascinating parts, with interesting, new informations, but there were also enough parts that were boring, because of the too many details and obvious clarifications.
However, it seems to me like an excellent initiative, as it could be extremely useful for those who are just getting acquainted with the comics' universe or for those who want to start creating in this field.
January 15, 2013
A book that explains the forms and functions of the graphics media -- in the guise, naturally, of a comic book. A non-fiction comic book.
Everyone should read this elegant classic (and its two sequels), just for some basic 20th - 21st century cultural literacy. It does what the very best books do; makes you see the world differently, through changed eyes.
Ta, L.
Everyone should read this elegant classic (and its two sequels), just for some basic 20th - 21st century cultural literacy. It does what the very best books do; makes you see the world differently, through changed eyes.
Ta, L.
April 14, 2021
Ово је књига о стриповима... у виду стрипа! Neat, eh? Ја сам иначе тотална топузина за стрипове, а ову књигу ми је неко препоручио (мислим да је то био Душ(М)ан Младеновић, на чему му овом приликом топло захваљујем) када сам прије много година још имао амбиција да пишем ривјуе разних ствари, између осталог и стрипова, па сам хтио мало да се образујем. Тај пројекат ривјуисања је тренутно на леду, али нисам изгубио жељу да прочитам ову књигу, тако да је ето и она дошла на ред.
Ово је врло лијепо написана и нацртана књижица у којој писац/цртач преко сопственог аватара објашњава начин функционисања стрипа као умјетничке форме. Мени као необразованом човјеку је све ово било ново и занимљиво и морам признати да је аутор успио у својој намјери да мотивише читаоца да стрипове посматра другим очима. Писао бих детаљније, али ми је мрско и неспособан сам, па ћете морати да нађете неки бољи ривју, жао ми је.
Ово је врло лијепо написана и нацртана књижица у којој писац/цртач преко сопственог аватара објашњава начин функционисања стрипа као умјетничке форме. Мени као необразованом човјеку је све ово било ново и занимљиво и морам признати да је аутор успио у својој намјери да мотивише читаоца да стрипове посматра другим очима. Писао бих детаљније, али ми је мрско и неспособан сам, па ћете морати да нађете неки бољи ривју, жао ми је.
September 29, 2017
"Don't gimme that comic book talk, Barney!"
McCloud surely must be smiling to himself every day to see just how far - in great part because of the publication of this endearingly idealistic visual essay in 1992- his beloved medium has come since then, both in terms of popular acceptance and artistic merit. Some respect at last!
McCloud surely must be smiling to himself every day to see just how far - in great part because of the publication of this endearingly idealistic visual essay in 1992- his beloved medium has come since then, both in terms of popular acceptance and artistic merit. Some respect at last!
December 5, 2008
this book was intriguing, but also annoying. a comic book about comics! what a great idea! i wanted it to be better than it was.
ultimately, i'm glad i read it, but only to the extent it identified a bunch of interesting topics/themes that i'm now inclined to think about on my own as i read more comics (and reflect on the ones i've already read)--i.e. issues of time, motion, panel sequence, reader perception, artistic style etc. but on the whole i was not thrilled with mccloud's own exposition and analysis of those topics. i simply don't agree with a lot of the conclusions he draws. he makes a lot of unjustified analytical leaps that just strike me as really reaching for something deep and i just wasn't buying it. also, i was really put off by his tendency to go out of his way to say "but this is just my opinion--feel free to disagree." it just comes off as defensive. i was annoyed by his whole process of trying to define what "comics" are. and i completely skipped the chapter on "the six steps" because i could tell it was going to annoy the crap out of me. i think this sequence of comments pretty well represents the irritation i experienced at the beginning of this chapter:
"Even today, there are those who ask the question, 'can comics be art?' It is--I'm sorry--a really stupid question! But if we must answer it, the answer is yes. Especially if your definition of art is as broad as mine!"
despite all that, it's definitely a worthwhile read for comics aficionados. i just wasn't crazy about it.
EDIT: okay, i felt bad so changed my rating to three stars. it really has a lot of interesting stuff in it... it was just a combination of his slightly annoying tone, and it being 15 years old, that made me like it less. it's a good read for comics lovers.
ultimately, i'm glad i read it, but only to the extent it identified a bunch of interesting topics/themes that i'm now inclined to think about on my own as i read more comics (and reflect on the ones i've already read)--i.e. issues of time, motion, panel sequence, reader perception, artistic style etc. but on the whole i was not thrilled with mccloud's own exposition and analysis of those topics. i simply don't agree with a lot of the conclusions he draws. he makes a lot of unjustified analytical leaps that just strike me as really reaching for something deep and i just wasn't buying it. also, i was really put off by his tendency to go out of his way to say "but this is just my opinion--feel free to disagree." it just comes off as defensive. i was annoyed by his whole process of trying to define what "comics" are. and i completely skipped the chapter on "the six steps" because i could tell it was going to annoy the crap out of me. i think this sequence of comments pretty well represents the irritation i experienced at the beginning of this chapter:
"Even today, there are those who ask the question, 'can comics be art?' It is--I'm sorry--a really stupid question! But if we must answer it, the answer is yes. Especially if your definition of art is as broad as mine!"
despite all that, it's definitely a worthwhile read for comics aficionados. i just wasn't crazy about it.
EDIT: okay, i felt bad so changed my rating to three stars. it really has a lot of interesting stuff in it... it was just a combination of his slightly annoying tone, and it being 15 years old, that made me like it less. it's a good read for comics lovers.
March 17, 2008
FASCINATING book!
I'd heard excellent things about this book ever since I got into comics way back in 1993, but never decided to sit down and read it until a few months ago. It took me a week to go through it (reading a bit every night before bed), but it's honestly a pretty quick read. Most people could probably get through it in a couple of hours.
What I found in the pages of this book is an excellent explanation of what happens to us as we read comics, how our mind interprets information and the effect it has on our consciousness. I also feel that this book makes an excellent argument to anyone who looks down on comics as "something for kids" or overly "nerdy." McCloud explains that comics are a much more prevalent part of our culture/society than we may immediately recognize, and what ensues is evidence of the medium as an art form, ripe with theory and rich creativity.
I feel that anyone who has an interest in philosophy/theory, filmmaking, history, painting, photography, or literature/writing should read this book. It's not just for "comic book nerds" -- it's for all who appreciate the arts and perhaps could do with some more open-mindedness. It really changes how you look at visual communication.
I'd heard excellent things about this book ever since I got into comics way back in 1993, but never decided to sit down and read it until a few months ago. It took me a week to go through it (reading a bit every night before bed), but it's honestly a pretty quick read. Most people could probably get through it in a couple of hours.
What I found in the pages of this book is an excellent explanation of what happens to us as we read comics, how our mind interprets information and the effect it has on our consciousness. I also feel that this book makes an excellent argument to anyone who looks down on comics as "something for kids" or overly "nerdy." McCloud explains that comics are a much more prevalent part of our culture/society than we may immediately recognize, and what ensues is evidence of the medium as an art form, ripe with theory and rich creativity.
I feel that anyone who has an interest in philosophy/theory, filmmaking, history, painting, photography, or literature/writing should read this book. It's not just for "comic book nerds" -- it's for all who appreciate the arts and perhaps could do with some more open-mindedness. It really changes how you look at visual communication.
August 25, 2007
amazing homage to an art form as old as the carved stories on borobudur temples and the papyrus scrolls of pharaoh - the unassuming geeky guide dissects the media format (worthy of mcluhan) and history of comic and walks us through its tiniest elements to be able to fully appreciate it as an art form - down to the technical and philosophical levels - not just comic but also how human mind works to allow the storytelling to happen through sequencing, line, and meaning... all the things we take for granted (certain lines representing smoke or odor) - this is a guide as great as the subject matter, and also produced in the format of the subject matter: a combination of art and words to tell a story.
October 5, 2018
Absolutely great. Informative, funny and interesting. A must-read for every comic books lover and a great introduction into comics for the hesitating non believers.
November 19, 2024
Exactly what it says on the cover. You'll walk having learned how comics work. What's to know? Well, you'd be surprised. I was.
June 26, 2024
Exactly the kind of stuff I used to take art history courses for. McCloud has a lot to say about not only comics, but also art and storytelling as a whole.
I’m curious what McCloud thinks about webcomics—which I’m way more familiar with than traditional comics. I think he predicted a lot of stuff about the medium (genre?), re: its use of color and essentially infinite page space.
I’m curious what McCloud thinks about webcomics—which I’m way more familiar with than traditional comics. I think he predicted a lot of stuff about the medium (genre?), re: its use of color and essentially infinite page space.
December 21, 2016
I have been getting into comics lately and I am quickly discovering there is so much about this medium that I do not know. When trying to review a comic or graphic novel, I find it easy to talk about plot but talking about the art is difficult. I picked up Understanding Comics because there is so much to learn and I wanted a better grasp on the art form. And it is art, it might not be as highbrow as artists like Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet or my personal favourite Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, but it is still art. To exclude comics as an art form would be like removing Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollack or René Magritte from the art world because you 'don't get it'.
Now that I have had a little rant about art, let’s talk about comics and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. This book is a graphical look into comics as an art form, exploring the history of comics and tries to explain the meaning behind the art. It starts off trying to define what a comic is, which I quickly realised was an impossible feat. McCloud ended saying “Comics are juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” but then went on to explain how problematic that definition can be.
A highlight for me was found in chapter two where Scott McCloud explored the vocabulary of comics. The chapter begins with explain René Magritte’s painting The Treachery of Images (1928-29), an artist I am a big fan of. I actually went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the hope to see The Treachery of Images, but it was currently on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago. What I liked about this chapter was how he took the meaning of this painting and expanded on it to help explain comics. He took something easy to explain and built upon that to the more complex ideas.
Reading Understanding Comics makes comics sound like highbrow pieces of art and maybe that is how we should view them. Instead of thinking about comics as a lowbrow medium, it is about time we experience the art and what it can tell us. In this book six major ideas around the art. Idea/purpose, form, idiom/style, structure, craft and surface; explaining how they can all work together to make great pieces.
There is a lot of information within Understanding Comics and I don’t think I have explored it all yet. It has equipped me with some new tools when reading and reviewing comics. The best thing about this book is the way Scott McCloud changes his art style and methods to explore the different ways you can execute the theories behind this book. I am glad he referenced all his work, especially when talking about other artists and how they write comics. The graphical representation of the art theory in the book helped me to understand comics a little better but there is just so much here that I will need to reread this a few times before it sinks in.
This review originally appeared on my blog: http://literary-exploration.com/2014/...
Now that I have had a little rant about art, let’s talk about comics and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. This book is a graphical look into comics as an art form, exploring the history of comics and tries to explain the meaning behind the art. It starts off trying to define what a comic is, which I quickly realised was an impossible feat. McCloud ended saying “Comics are juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” but then went on to explain how problematic that definition can be.
A highlight for me was found in chapter two where Scott McCloud explored the vocabulary of comics. The chapter begins with explain René Magritte’s painting The Treachery of Images (1928-29), an artist I am a big fan of. I actually went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the hope to see The Treachery of Images, but it was currently on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago. What I liked about this chapter was how he took the meaning of this painting and expanded on it to help explain comics. He took something easy to explain and built upon that to the more complex ideas.
Reading Understanding Comics makes comics sound like highbrow pieces of art and maybe that is how we should view them. Instead of thinking about comics as a lowbrow medium, it is about time we experience the art and what it can tell us. In this book six major ideas around the art. Idea/purpose, form, idiom/style, structure, craft and surface; explaining how they can all work together to make great pieces.
There is a lot of information within Understanding Comics and I don’t think I have explored it all yet. It has equipped me with some new tools when reading and reviewing comics. The best thing about this book is the way Scott McCloud changes his art style and methods to explore the different ways you can execute the theories behind this book. I am glad he referenced all his work, especially when talking about other artists and how they write comics. The graphical representation of the art theory in the book helped me to understand comics a little better but there is just so much here that I will need to reread this a few times before it sinks in.
This review originally appeared on my blog: http://literary-exploration.com/2014/...
November 29, 2009
Perhaps the best explanation of how a particular artistic medium works that I've ever seen. McCloud wrote this at a time when the artistic merit of comics/graphic novels was still in doubt in some corners, so clearly that animates a lot of the discussion. He really demolishes any doubt about their legitimacy, and in the process created quite a comic himself. Understanding Comics is one phenomenal piece of analysis and it's far more than just a treatise on one medium. His meditations on comic forms and how they're created and received could more often than not be applied to any other artistic endeavor. This is clearly the work of someone who's done some heavy intellectual lifting, and the medium is lucky to have him as it cheerleader.
September 1, 2015
A clear overview of the form and structure of comics. Scott McCloud's deep understanding of the history and functions of art makes this an insightful and informative read.
August 14, 2025
‘Understanding Comics’ by Scott McCloud is more amazing than I had suspected! It is like a college class on the history of the making of visual images in comics: the effort of artists to communicate through pictorial art, the visual complexities of engaging all of the senses in the mind in combining drawings with the creating of visual symbols that imply movement in space and time, and the ‘hearing’ of sounds pictorially, and of telling a story with emotion and drama through line ink. I had no idea! This book is a Must Read! As far as I’m concerned, the principles of communicating ideas, words, scenery, emotion, sound, Time, motion, and striking visual beauty from artist mind to reader mind in such a medium is unexpectedly a science!
I have copied the book blurb:
”Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.”
What was most interesting to me was about scene transitions. McCloud broke down the different types there are. Who know there were types! With names and defined styles and all! This is an eye opening book! And it’s all done in comic cartoons!
I have copied the book blurb:
”Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.”
What was most interesting to me was about scene transitions. McCloud broke down the different types there are. Who know there were types! With names and defined styles and all! This is an eye opening book! And it’s all done in comic cartoons!
September 22, 2016
I found this book to be, in roughly equal measure, charming and irritating as hell. When McCloud was dealing with the nuts and bolts of how comics work, it was illuminating and the decision to write the book as a comic really came into its own. There were all sorts of clever ways in which he could use the very medium of his exposition to offer insight into comics. But when he launched himself into generalities about the importance of comics, the nature of artistic creation, language and meaning, etc., it felt piously conventional and not sufficiently analytical. And there, the decision to write the work as a comic was annoying - it obscured the shallowness of the content.
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