Scott McCloud (1993)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
Every source, from TED Talks to web pages to actual comic people that I know, tells me that Scott McCloud literally wrote the book on Understanding Comics. He's actually written a few. And he will reference Will Eisner as the guy who wrote the book before him.
Understanding Comics is a book I would've bought back in August if I knew I was going to be teaching two classes in Graphic Novels. I was told on the first day of school and wasn't given any curriculum or guidelines to work with. For the record, I'm a math teacher (and still teach math the rest of the day). I'm neither an English teacher nor art teacher. However, the administration knows that I like to write so this idea occurred to them.
Note that I write prose, not comics. I do (did?) have a webcomic for many years, but that was a joke per day, not a continuing story, and it wasn't anything artistically special. It was loaded with bad puns, and you can't teach that. Maybe you can teach timing for it ... but that's another story. And, let's face it, they weren't aware of the comic.
The book is nonfiction but it's written as a graphic novel or just a giant comic. McCloud illustrates himself and plays with the surrounding to take about what makes comic books work and what makes them "art". He includes reproductions of many old comics and paintings to make his points.
I did get a bit more understanding and comprehension (just to use a different word) of the topics within the subject, so that was good. And if I'm giving this class next fall, I'd juggle some of the earlier vocabulary lessons. This is, I was stumbling in the dark. However, several comments he made make more sense in the order he mentioned them. So maybe I should go that way next time.
If nothing else, the topic of Sequential Art should've come in the first week.
I may buy this paperback as an ebook just so I can take screenshots.
This was a fun read, and I got to read it in my classroom during Free Read Fridays where I allow my students to read graphic novels ... most of which I had to provide, with the help of Little Free Libraries and a couple of nice donations.
If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.
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