Reviews

Reinventing Comics: The Evolution of an Art Form by Scott McCloud

rexlui's review

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5.0

Scott McCloud's "Comics Trilogy" is the official textbooks of Graphic Literature 101.

lindsayb's review

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2.0

Better as a cultural artefact than anything else (though I did occasionally enjoy certain historical tidbits). Perhaps this would have been more hard-hitting if I had read it when it was published in 2000, but half-assed discussions of diversity and cutting edge technology like CD-ROMs makes it woefully obsolete (and the writing wasn't anywhere near as engaging as its predecessor). Understanding Comics needs an update just because I'm interested in his take on the subject matter now; this is in dire need of an update for it to maintain any measurable relevance.

*******
Counting as my (FINAL!) Panels Read Harder item for a book about comics.

neven's review against another edition

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4.0

A more pragmatic book than his Understanding Comics—and thus a bit less timeless, perhaps—this is nevertheless a clear, well argued and explained essay.

rrrrj's review against another edition

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3.0

Loved the first section as a comics creator - not sure if others will get the same enjoyment out of it, and it's definitely not universal in the way that Understanding Comics is. Most impressive in the second section is McCloud's ability to talk about the internet and technology in 2000 without dating himself (ok, saying "Macromedia's Flash has potential" elicited a giggle). One of the strengths of this book, in general, is knowing and navigating its own limits, which unfortunately, are inherently many.

jamiely's review against another edition

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4.0

I didn't like "Reinventing Comics" as much as "Understanding Comics" because while the latter talked about general issues of perception and symbology, the former was more specific to the comic industry and comic medium. Still, it was informative and many of the ideas that Scott posits about the digital reinvention of the industry seem to have come to fruition.

What I liked most about "Reinventing Comics" is learning about the history of comics and some of the more influential works, including Art Spiegelman's "Maus", which I plan to read.

If you are at all interested in comics as an industry and art medium, then you should definitely read this book.

heatherreadsbooks's review against another edition

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5.0

Back in the mindset of if I'm losing reading time to research, I'm putting them here. It helps when they're about comic books, and fully illustrated as if it was a comic book. More textbooks should be like this.

iamwindomearle's review against another edition

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5.0

It opened my eyes to the way technology works and how it can expand media and give more creative control.
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