• See Scott McCloud's 10 American Comics to Read, and browse through dozens more expert reading lists from your favorite authors in Grownup School.
  
  

Buy Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know and get Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

Buy Together Today: $34.38

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott Mccloud  (120)  $15.61

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott Mccloud  (32)  $15.61

Comics & Sequential Art by Will Eisner  (16)

Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner  (4)

Alan Moore's Writing For Comics Volume 1 by Alan Moore  (14)  $5.95

› Explore similar items : Books (50)

Amazon.com
Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics, the sequel to his groundbreaking work Understanding Comics, is a study of two revolutions: a failed one and a potential one. His 1993 book was not only a chronicle of the potential breakthrough of comics (which he redefined as "sequential art") into a legitimate art form but a sterling example itself of the medium's astonishing untapped potential. Now, seven years later, he chronicles the failure of the comic book industry to fulfill that promise, but also explores how the movement can be restarted, particularly by utilizing the resources of another spectacularly successful revolution, the Internet. In the first half of Reinventing Comics, an elegantly clean example of comic art in McCloud's trademark bold black-and-white style, the author outlines how hype, speculation, and artistic burnout led to the genre's decline. He then lays out 12 paths toward a new revolution of comics, including creators' rights, industry innovation, public perception, gender balance, and diversity of genre, which are then explored with such innovative intelligence that, as with his earlier work, the conclusions he comes to are fascinating for both artists and nonartists alike.

Three of his paths, however, are of particular interest to anyone who wants to know how the Internet will affect both our lives and the livelihoods of future artists. Understanding Comics, with its brilliant how-to guide on marrying image and language, has become an indispensable reference for many Web designers. Now McCloud returns the favor by focusing on how the digital revolution will influence production, delivery, and the art form of comics itself. Informative without being pedantic, controversial without being argumentative, and always entertaining, this is both a worthy sequel to the author's brilliant original and a work that opens up the potential for an entirely different direction for sequential art in the realm of cyberspace. --John Longenbaugh

From Library Journal
This is an exceptional book (in comic format) of ideas presented as a reader-friendly theoretical lectureDand it may just be the blueprint for the very future of the comics industry. McCloud, author of Understanding Comics, a classic exploration of how this unique art form actually works, now uses his impressive insight and admirable clarity to map out "12 revolutions," which, he believes, need to take place for comics to survive and finally be recognized as a legitimate art form. The topics progress from the oldest of comic-related arguments (seeking respect) to the use of computer technology to renew and expand its audience. These brilliantly presented discussions concern comics as literature, comics as art, creators' rights, industry innovation, and public perception, among other topics. McCloud's arguments are strong, factual (he recaps the evolution of the comics industry and the Internet to support his theories), and persuasive. He describes the comic as a "misunderstood, squandered idea...that seems increasingly obscure...[and] small...like an atom...waiting to be split." After reading this treatise, I agree. Strongly recommended for all public and academic libraries.DChris Ryan, New Milford, N.-- small...like an atom...waiting to be split." After reading this treatise, I agree. Strongly recommended for all public and academic libraries.DChris Ryan, New Milford, NJ
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews