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adudemaybe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.75
alanffm's review against another edition
3.0
Understanding Comics does exactly what it's title suggests it does. I don't think it does it well, however. Scott Mcloud is pretty famous for his analysis of storytelling through pictures (comics!) and tries very hard to convey his knowledge in this book. Unfortunately it was kind of a boring read and, after taking a comic book class about narrative structure in comics, incredibly uninformative. Still, I think this is a great introductory book for anyone looking to learn about how comics work. The fact that it's all drawn out as a comic book is also very cool.
toltzboy456's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.25
About as entertaining of an academic text as you're going to find. I liked this a lot.
_ash0_'s review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting book and a great book if you want to learn the art of comics. Whether you like to read comics or to draw them, you will find something useful and informative in this book. Liked how he has shown differences between western and Japanese comics throughout the book.
vorsoisson's review against another edition
4.0
We read this in a course I took on narrative theory at Carleton. It's a fascinating look at the theory behind comics/graphic novels, how to analyze them like a good little English major and McCloud's thoughts on writing them.
bookstobarbells's review against another edition
I found this book to be so overwhelming and busy. As an avid graphic novel reader, I thought I was going to enjoy this and get some takeaways to apply to a curriculum I’m writing. However, I found myself feeling alarmed at how much information was thrown onto each page. I wonder if it had been in color, rather than black and white, I would have found it less distracting? I’m not sure. I just know I cannot finish this book.
eowen2696's review against another edition
Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is an informational text, written in the form of a comic book, that attempts to give readers a greater appreciation of the genre as an art form. Although I had read graphic novels and comic books in the past (specifically "Persepolis," "Maus," "Paper Girls," and "Watchmen"), I had never dedicated the in-depth thought to the form that McCloud inspires in his audience. McCloud brings readers to think critically about the purposes served by the line style, colors, dialogue, and panel use utilized within the discipline of comics; he identifies comics as a form that is not necessarily the combination of images and text, but something all its own. This text led me to build a greater appreciation of comics and to find ways to defend the form against critics who restrict their conceptions of "comics" to stories about superheroes. I think that my familiarity with the genre made the text more readable to me than it might be to someone who has not previously read any graphic novels or comics; I could see how it would be easy for an audience looking for an entrance to the form to become overwhelmed by the Discourse of McCloud's text. I would recommend this book to any readers with a surface-level familiarity with graphic novels or comics that are looking to deepen their understanding of the form; this text would also be great for lovers of the form who are looking to create comics of their own.