Understanding Comics - Softcover

Scott McCloud

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568620195 ISBN 13: 9781568620190

Publisher: Tundra Pub, 1993

Synopsis

216 page paperback written in comic book form about the world's most misunderstood artform.

About this title

Reviews

This is a rare and exciting work that ingeniously uses comics to examine the medium itself. McCloud (who wrote a comic-book series called Zot! ) conducts a genial, well-researched and funny tour of virtually every historical and perceptual aspect of comics, which he calls "sequential art," that is, art that consists of sequences of words and pictures. Beginning in the 11th century with the Bayeux tapestry, he examines pre-Columbian picture languages and the printing press, presenting a quick survey of the historical development of early sequential pictures into the specialized visual language of comics. But it's McCloud's accessible and quite amusing discussion of realism, abstraction and visual perception that forms the heart of this survey. He dissects the vocabulary of the medium, cheerfully analyzing the psychological power of comics and their central role in our ultra-visual culture. McCloud attempts to place comics within the tradition of serious western art. His black-and-white drawings are a delight, ranging from simplified cartoons to parodies of classic comics and fine art, all the while manifesting every theory and comics trend discussed.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tundra Pub
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568620195
• ISBN 13: 9781568620190
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 216