Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a...
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Jan 09, 2011
Mon
rated it: 
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 s More...
Sep 28, 2008
Miss Michael
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
Dec 17, 2009
Inggita
rated it:
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 fo
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Oct 06, 2008
Christy
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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 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 More...
Mar 20, 2009
Imogen
rated it: 
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 o
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May 03, 2010
oriana
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
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Dec 05, 2008
Tara
rated it:
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 ow More...
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 ow More...
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Mar 17, 2008
Shark
rated it:
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 int More...
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 int More...
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Jun 22, 2007
ryan
rated it:
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 achie More...
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 achie More...
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Nov 28, 2009
Joseph
rated it:
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 comi
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Jul 12, 2008
Russ
rated it:
I have used this with my English 4 classes and will be using it next year with my Intro to the Graphic Novel course. This is a wonderful study in how the comic form of writing works. I think the graphic novel is going to become a more and more important form of literature. Just look at the movie scene lately and check out how many derived from graphic novels, and that is not just the superhero movies from Marvel and DC Comics.
McCloud deeply and thoughtfully explores how sequential More...
McCloud deeply and thoughtfully explores how sequential More...
Jul 18, 2007
Jennifer
rated it:
Even if you're not interested in comics and graphic novels, McCloud's book might get you interested. Rather brilliantly, McCloud uses the medium of comics itself for a philosophical meditation on the nature and possibilities of comics. He does reflect a little bit on the prehistoric and pre-modern origins of comics, but this is not a history lesson. Rather, he explores the specific nature of comics as sequential art and the potential of the form to explore new modes of expression. It's reall
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Dec 17, 2009
Kirsten
rated it:
A really good anatomy book for a medium that is (arguably) young, but has roots in so many other forms of art and literature. It's kind of a talking-head book, discussing an almost philosophical definition of comics (sequential art and writing), what that Means, and why COMIC BOOKS ARE A VALID FORM OF LITERATURE. Due to the pictures and basic explanations with a lot of examples, the talking-head's argument is not just easy to follow, it's even fun - it feels like an engaging PBS document More...
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Mar 06, 2009
Jil
rated it:
I never had any intention of taking the graphic-novel class here at Brown, but I had every intention of taking my roommate's textbooks for class and reading them on my own time. I hadn't gotten around to it yet when my playwriting professor assigned a big, photocopied chunk of this to us for reading - "Though it's about comics," he said, "there's a lot to be learned here for playwrights, too."
I decided just to read the whole book, since my friend Momo had also rea More...
I decided just to read the whole book, since my friend Momo had also rea More...
Feb 17, 2009
Matt
rated it:
What a fantastic introduction to the art of comics. Scott McCloud's work sets a new benchmark in comic art appreciation. The highly esteemed reputation this book enjoys is richly deserved. The tools he describes like the art pyramid and panel-to-panel types are a great place to start for comics critique and analysis. His explanation of the "invisible art" between panels, what he calls closure, is the clearest I've seen. I'd like to have seen more about how closure is different from say
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Feb 17, 2009
Morgan
rated it:
As an artform, comics are not as invisible as they had been when McCloud's book first saw publication. The last decade has seen the legitimization of "the graphic novel" as credible literature in the American mainstream, something that Europeans and Japanese readers have known for far longer. Stateside, comics have long borne the stigma of the dross superhero-in-tights fare that kept the art in a literary Dark Age for half of the 20th century. The renaissance that began in the undergro
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Oct 23, 2011
Dan
rated it:
In his discussion of the language of comics, Scott McCloud describes how the techniques cartoonists deploy function to represent non-visual and kinetic information in a medium that is visual and static. McCloud employs the comic book form to express his argument; the great advantage for the reader is that he or she is shown rather than told the techniques comic books deploy to represent such things as the passage of time or the smell of a rotten tomato. McCloud analyzes the medium as an art f
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Aug 04, 2011
Lars-christian
rated it:
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is a very different type of books compared to most books I read, and it was very interesting.
Understanding Comics is written as a Comic, for the most part in black and white, with the exception one section. Even though the book is getting a few years old, it has a lot to offer.
Scott McCloud takes the reader through several perspectives of comics, from the history of comics, the use of symbols, the different types of drawing (American comics vs. Japanese man More...
Understanding Comics is written as a Comic, for the most part in black and white, with the exception one section. Even though the book is getting a few years old, it has a lot to offer.
Scott McCloud takes the reader through several perspectives of comics, from the history of comics, the use of symbols, the different types of drawing (American comics vs. Japanese man More...
Apr 23, 2011
Osvaldo
rated it:
This is an indispensable and fundamentally exhaustive exploration of the comics medium presented in the medium itself. While it presents some fairly complex ideas of "how comics work" McCloud uses the medium itself to good effect to demonstrate his meaning.
I, do however, have to take issue with his strangely vociferous insistence that one panel cartoons are not comics - while I loathe the Family Circus as much as the next thinking person, I think McCloud is too hung up on More...
I, do however, have to take issue with his strangely vociferous insistence that one panel cartoons are not comics - while I loathe the Family Circus as much as the next thinking person, I think McCloud is too hung up on More...
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Apr 05, 2011
Terry
rated it:
A professor who actually uses graphic novels in her class --gasp!! innovation!?!?--recommended this book to me. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly, although my one tiny quibble is that it is almost twenty years old and thus clearly does not address twenty years' worth of graphic art and novels and their popularity around the world. Time for a new edition! Separate from that, this is a very serious work of literary theory, really. Well, a blend of literary theory and visual art theory. I could see thi
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Jan 11, 2011
Wordwizard
rated it:
A very enjoyable, entertaining, and interesting examination of form and function in comics. I need to re-read SANDMAN now to fully appreciate how creative it is with form, composition, shading, style, speech bubbles--even the way motion lines are used is a very conscious choice.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in comics, whether they're just beginning to be intrigued by them or already a fan.
**Note: I'm using the word "comics" as McCloud does, More...
I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in comics, whether they're just beginning to be intrigued by them or already a fan.
**Note: I'm using the word "comics" as McCloud does, More...
Jul 17, 2010
Janice
rated it:
This was an outstanding book. For anyone who appreciates cartoons or comics. It really sheds light on how we perceive stories told in sequence through line, expression, color--why we related more to some styles than others, how our brains interpret iconic images...along with some art history... There is so much info in this book that after reading a library copy, I am purchasing a copy for my home library. I know I will refer to it again when illustrating childrens books.
I also, in More...
I also, in More...
Feb 16, 2010
Julie
rated it:
This was one of the books recommended by Dan Pink (A Whole New Mind). I suppose it might be a cheat, considering that it's written, appropriately enough, in comic book format. But that's also the point. McCloud argues convincingly that comics don't need to be juvenile or amateurish. Just because that's the way most people think of them does not mean that's all they are. This is old news to anyone who's read Neil Gaiman's Sandman series or Art Spiegelman's Maus, but it's still the prevailing view
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Jan 25, 2010
Jason
rated it:
Way better than I thought it would be. This is not a history of comics, though it does include some history, but rather it is a section by section breakdown about the language of comics, the vocabulary, the movements, the hope and the foibles, etc. Even better, however, it discusses art movements that properly belong to the definition of comics but have been forcibly separated from the discussion (much like literary writers who write sci-fi novels and refuse to let them be called sci-fi), and it
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Dec 29, 2009
Abraham
rated it:
Wow...now I know why my comic-geek friends demanded that I read this!
I grew up reading comics (both strips and comic books), but I have to admit that I always considered comics as lower on the totem pole of art than either the written word or visual art. Now, after reading Understanding Comics, I see how ignorant that belief is.
If you ever wanted proof that comics can be written at a college-level, read Understanding Comics. It's a meta-comic, or a comic about comics. Thr More...
I grew up reading comics (both strips and comic books), but I have to admit that I always considered comics as lower on the totem pole of art than either the written word or visual art. Now, after reading Understanding Comics, I see how ignorant that belief is.
If you ever wanted proof that comics can be written at a college-level, read Understanding Comics. It's a meta-comic, or a comic about comics. Thr More...
Sep 11, 2007
A comic book about comic books. McCloud, in an incredibly accessible style, explains the details of how comics work: how they're composed, read and understood. More than just a book about comics, this gets to the heart of how we deal with visual languages in general. "The potential of comics is limitless and exciting!" writes McCloud. This should be required reading for every school teacher. Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman says, "The most intelligent comics I've seen in a lon
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Jul 25, 2007
Pete
rated it:
I haven't felt this guilty from reading a book in a while. it visually explains comics' magic use of time between frames and their wide-ranging storytelling capacity (as seen lately in the graphic novels used to show Mexicans how to safely cross their northern border, to the 9/11 report issued by the U.S. government). that info was great and well-presented. but the comics-will-save-the-world feeling i got from the book weirded me out, like this was written for an in-crowd and i'm not in it.
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Apr 09, 2011
Jay
rated it:
A great cartoon polemic for the artistic importance of comics. McCloud clearly wants to free the form from the superhero genre he feels it is handcuffed to in the West.
I have mixed feelings about this approach. As a kid I loved Spiderman, the X-Men, and Superman, to name a few. I left superheroes and comics behind but then came back in for many of the artist-creators that McCloud clearly sees as the future of the comics: Speiglmen, Hernandez Bros, R. Crumb, Heriman and others. Y More...
I have mixed feelings about this approach. As a kid I loved Spiderman, the X-Men, and Superman, to name a few. I left superheroes and comics behind but then came back in for many of the artist-creators that McCloud clearly sees as the future of the comics: Speiglmen, Hernandez Bros, R. Crumb, Heriman and others. Y More...
Mar 12, 2010
Katie
rated it: 
McCloud sets the record straight about comics and tries argues against several misconceptions surrounding the ideas of comics. Describes comics as limitless and exciting, huge and varied, sequential art, a medium for expression… He explains some of the tricks of comics, like the use of space to show time elapse, assigning identities to inanimate objects, experiencing comics with our 5 senses, our culture being symbol-oriented, the closure of comics allowing readers to connect, the different ty
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Jul 09, 2010
Abdyka
rated it:
Oke teman-teman, bersiap-siaplah untuk sebuah review yang berlebihan :)
Untuk diketahui sebelumnya Komik ini diperuntukkan untuk semua lapisan masyarakat, semua tingkatan pendidikan dan semua jenjang kecerdasan, jadi ga harus openmind koq hehehe.. :P
Komik ini seperti judulnya "Memahami Komik" dan benar, komik ini membuat saya paham. sangat-sangat paham.
komik ini akan memberi penjabaran panjang dan sangat lebar terhadap bentuk sebuah komik, se More...
Untuk diketahui sebelumnya Komik ini diperuntukkan untuk semua lapisan masyarakat, semua tingkatan pendidikan dan semua jenjang kecerdasan, jadi ga harus openmind koq hehehe.. :P
Komik ini seperti judulnya "Memahami Komik" dan benar, komik ini membuat saya paham. sangat-sangat paham.
komik ini akan memberi penjabaran panjang dan sangat lebar terhadap bentuk sebuah komik, se More...
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