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Understanding Comics the Book! #artbooks #comicsChristina Lorre'

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Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art Paperback – April 27, 1994

by Scott McCloud (Author)

4.8 2,744 ratings

in Comic & Graphic Novel Literary Criticism

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"You must read this book." —Neil Gaiman

The bestselling international classic on storytelling and visual communication.

Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the panels, through the lines, and within the hidden symbols of a powerful but misunderstood art form.

Length

224
Pages
Language

EN
English
Publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication date

1994
April 27
Reading age

13 - 17 years
Dimensions

10.1 x 6.6 x 0.6
inches
ISBN-10

006097625X
ISBN-13

978-0060976255
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Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels

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Reinventing Comics: The Evolution of an Art Form

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 long time."

Review

“If you read, write, teach or draw comics; if you want to; or if you simply want to watch a master explainer at work, you must read this book.” — Neil Gaiman

“McCloud’s masterwork is not just an indispensable treatise on comics, it’s also the best primer around on visual literacy and the mechanics of storytelling. A must-read for anyone interested in narrative of any kind.” — Alison Bechdel

“Cleverly disguised as an easy-to-read comic book, Scott McCloud’s simple-looking tome deconstructs the secret language of comics while casually revealing secrets of time, space, art and the cosmos! The most intelligent comics I’ve seen in a long time. Bravo.” — Art Spiegelman

“Reading Understanding Comics blew my teenage mind, and gave me a toolbox full of ideas that I still use today.” — Raina Telgemeier

“The best analysis of the medium that I have ever encountered.” — Alan Moore

“BRAVO!! ... A landmark dissection and intellectual consideration of comics as a valid medium. ... Anyone interested in this literary form must read it.” — Will Eisner

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (April 27, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 006097625X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060976255
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 - 17 years
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.06 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.1 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Comic & Graphic Novel Literary Criticism
- #2 in Comics & Graphic Novel History & Prices
- #10 in How to Create Comics

Customer Reviews:
4.8 2,744 ratings

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Scott McCloud

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Scott McCloud has been writing, drawing, and examining comics since 1984. Winner of the Eisner and Harvey awards, his works have been translated into more than sixteen languages. Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) called him "just about the smartest guy in comics." He lives with his family in southern California. His online comics and inventions can be found at scottmccloud.com.

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2,744 global ratings

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Daniel

Fun Book

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

It literally does what it say in the title, help you understand comics. And it does it in a very fun and easy to understand way. It will probably also help shape the way you understand and experience all art in general. I'm really glad I read it when I was younger.

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

As someone who was incredibly nervous to jump into the world of creating comics, this book saved me! Scott McCloud found a unique and informative way to help guide me on this journey. I truly hope find yourself as inspired as I did!

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RM

Short Definition Of Comics

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

Still reading the book, but, had to hit the pause button once I reached page 23, the last page of Chapter One.

Not because I quickly grew bored of the book, rather, my mind refused to process the short definition applied to the term "Comics", i.e., Sequential Art, which is presented at this stage of the book.

After wrestling with the short definition for a couple of minutes, I eventually modified it to " Sequential Imagery" that was later validated (in my mind) by Scott McCoud's definition of an "Icon" which reads, "Any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea.".

For me, the term "Art" goes beyond images, i.e., sculptures, performances, music, etc.

Therefore, this book made me think more about the topic which is why I'm giving it five stars.

Fascinating read thus far which goes beyond the boundaries of comics as we understand the term today.

2 people found this helpful

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Steven

Best text book I've ever owned

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book will open your mind to many new concepts about comics even if your a comic pro your guaranteed to learn some new ideas or outlooks on the art of comics.

One person found this helpful

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Shin Splinter

My review

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

Had to get this for a class. Its a fun text book of how to make a comic. One of the few "text book" I kept from college.

2 people found this helpful

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Lockszmith

Quoting Neil Gaiman from the back cover "... you must read this book"

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

Scott McCloud is doing something phenomenal in this book. Not only providing a guide to the sequential imagery of story telling that is comics, he does do with a mastery of the craft.

I did not grow up with comics being ubiquitous, there were no comic book stores where I lived (I'm not originally from the US, came here as an adult) - however I did like reading comic books in my childhood and youth. The medium always fascinated me.

As and adult, now living in the US, access has become much easier, the range of what's available is staggering. This book can not only helped me understand the medium even better, it helped me create a deeper emotional bond with it. It also provides as a guide of sorts of prominent works, authors and artists that are worth checking out.

It has been published in 1993, but the points made and the content still holds up.

If you always thought comics was "just for kids", give this book a chance - it will not only change your mind - it will reveal the wonderful world you missed, and guide you through it.

If you always liked comics, but wanted to learn about it's evolution and history - this book will be a joyous ride that you'll want to revisit multiple times in the future.

If you wanted to understand what makes this medium different, what are it's strength, what are the struggles facing the world of comics (and it's industry) definitely read this.

I can't think of anyone who will not find this book fascinating.
When you're done, I highly recommend his next book, from 2000, Reinventing Comics.

5 people found this helpful

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ParaNormal

Great for teaching!

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2007

Verified Purchase

I purchased this item, along with McCloud's other book Making Comics, to teach a course on comics in English to art students at Cheongju University in South Korea. Both of these books really lend themselves to teaching, each one is divided into chapters which discuss specific comic concepts and elements. Two excellent chapters:

The first chapter in Understanding Comics is great because it discusses the history of comics, and some great activities can be done having students think about and search for comics in the real world and instances of comics in history. This chapter really validates the fact that comics are interesting and useful, rather than just being treated as a 'fake' art or a 'not really real' subject.

Chapter three is excellent because it breaks down transitions not only in American comics, but European and Asian comics as well, and explains his thoughts as to why these differences exist. This allows students to compare the differences and broaden their understanding of how different cultures think differently. This chapter also discusses how comics are subtractive, and lends itself to an excellent lesson whereupon students can draw comics with many pictures, then keep subtracting and combining pictures until they have the miminum number of pictures that tells the gist of their story.

In other chapters: Chapter two discusses word choice and flow in comics, four discusses time, chapter five discusses displaying emotion by using different types of lines (and similarities and differences between comics from different cultures), chapter six discusses how words and ideas complement each other in comics, and chapter seven discusses six steps to making comics.

In my opinion, each book is worth its weight in gold alone for a comic class, but they have a synergistic effect when used in tandem with each other. Concepts from one book flow into the other book, and vice-versa, giving the students in-depth knowledge of both how to make comics and how to understand comics from other authors better. All of the concepts from the chapters can be seen easily in comics online or from newspapers, and so each week I first do the lecture, then use a few examples on the overhead that I have found from other comics, then give the students homework pertaining to the concepts discussed.

Through use of the two books, the students' work is really improving, and it is fun to see them working specifically with each comic element. Each of the concepts discussed in the chapters is a great starting point to get the students' creative juices flowing. I would recommend this book to any teacher or lecturer interested teaching comics at almost any level and to any audience.

8 people found this helpful

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Ilaria

Scott Mcloud è una garanzia

Reviewed in Italy on October 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

Usato per la mia tesi magistrale e ottimo per fornire informazioni a riguardo

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Amazon Customer

Informative in a very different way.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

I'm not normally one to write a review, normally I just buy a product at that is it. I am currently undergoing a solo comic book project involving script writing and illustration. I had read good stuff about this book so I bought a copy and I was not disappointed. Reading through, Scott highlighted certain areas that I took a second to realise I had already had these thought processes but not realised. It also opened me up to more information that I was not aware of and taught me things about comics that date way back.I like the idea that this was informative and in the style of a comic, pure genius. 10/10 for me and a brilliant read.

One person found this helpful

Arun N

Awesome book

Reviewed in India on August 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

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

Dogg Almighty

Highly readable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2023

Verified Purchase

I bought this for a 13 year old who asked me what an icon was. I suggested she start at chapter 2, then go back to the beginning. The language and illustrations are great teaching material, and the tone seemed to appeal to her developing maturity. Recommended.

One person found this helpful

Machuca

Concepos basicos para entender la estructura del comic

Reviewed in Mexico on February 2, 2023

Verified Purchase

A manera de comic es un gran libro que presenta las ideas detras de varios conceptos al desarrollar una historia a manera de comic y entender la razon por la cual se colocan paneles en cierto orden, como funciona el tiempo en paneles y el significado de simbolos, onomatopeyas y como explotar estos conceptos en un formato diverso como lo es el comic. Un libro muy recomendable

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