Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993)

I've tended not to read comics for a couple of reasons -- I don't feel like I have the patience to engage in the way they require you to engage, and I've felt like most of what's out there just wouldn't interest me; I don't really care about superheroes, for example. I guess I'm basically a snob. So I'll read something literary (e.g. Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan) but not something light. This snobbery at least applies across genres; it's not the comic form itself that I'm snobbish about but the sort of material that most of what I think of as comics covers.

This was a great read. It was very clever, and nicely laid out, and easy and fun to read, and it made me think about aesthetics and narrative in ways that I found satisfying. It's probably not for everybody, but I think most anybody who likes thinking about how stories and art function would find it appealing. ( )

A highly engaging and informative unpacking of the comics world. McCloud merges history, analysis, and workshop in this text. ( )

The official how-to and why-is-it-so textbook for graphic literature. More than that, the context itself is humorous and fascinating. Call it Meta-Graphic-Novel if you may. This book for comic student is like Campbell Biology for Life Science student. Amazing! ( )

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. ( )

muy buen primer. abre el criterio para conocer más