A review by booklywookly
The Sculptor: Scott McCloud by

3.0

The Sculptor follows the tumultuous life of David Smith, a 26-year-old sculptor grappling with artistic stagnation and financial ruin. His family is gone, his patron has abandoned him, and he faces eviction. “Cancelled” in the modern art world, he believes he has an artistic greatness in him but not the resources nor the luck to express it. The world owes him a recognition. 

Enters Death, who offers David an extraordinary deal: the power to sculpt anything he can imagine, but with a catch—he has only 200 days to live.

The morbid part aside, this is a sweet deal, isn’t it? But what if even with this superpower, deep down, he is just not a good artist? He creates sculptures that defy reality, yet critics remain unimpressed. His art is trivial, unfocused, childish. Not inspirational enough even to be seen any differently from a random graffiti or act of vandalism. The clock ticks relentlessly, and David’s desperation grows. Will he leave behind an artistic legacy before his time runs out? 

I liked this graphic novel. The artwork is simple, bluescale, easy to look at, yet atmospheric. The characters are realistically flawed and unlikeable. David is a textbook loner. An angry, compulsive, aggravating young man. A stoic, stubborn, “all in for one thing” kind of hero, with limited social skills and simp-ian tendencies towards a very Clementine-sque manic pixie girl, who has her own set of clichéd quirks. He chooses the possibility of achieving fame in exchange of a shortened life over a long fulfilled life devoid of any fame. He chooses not to acknowledge hardships faced by other people around him. He just wants to be SEEN by people. 

This chonker is a love letter to the artists everywhere - not just the celebrated ones but also the ones who would never achieve any success in their life. David’s struggle to create and his decent into madness resonates with anyone who has faced creative blocks or questioned their purpose as an artist, grappling with their craft. His obsession with sculpting consumes him, blurring the line between artistic passion and self-destruction. 

It’s also a scathing remark on urban life and hipster culture. The novel captures the zeitgeist of contemporary urban life. Despite the city’s vibrancy, David experiences profound isolation. His struggle to connect with others mirrors the alienation many feel in modern society - depression, frustrated ambition, young love, mental health issues, and finality of life.