31 Days of Scans - Gift Recommendations: Understanding Comics

[alicemacher]

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (HarperCollins, 1993) makes a great gift for connoisseurs of media, such as literature or film, who are also interested in the theory or technique behind them. Some such connoisseurs may be unaware or skeptical that comics too are an art form, and that studying the theory and technique behind them can help us appreciate them even more. What's more, this book uses the comics medium itself to analyze comics.

It's not just for those new to comics, of course. Understanding Comics also is a great gift for aspiring comic creators, for whom McCloud has also written a practical, nitty-gritty guide (also in sequential-art form), Making Comics.


Comics: the reader-participation art.











Add words and pictures according to taste, then stir and serve.

Comments

[zachbeacon]

Bonus recommendation:

Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection: 1987-1991

...because Scott McCloud does pretty good fictional comics too.

[alicemacher]

Zot! is awesome. My copy is well-thumbed.

[thatnickguy]

Also The Sculptor! It's amazing!

[randyripoff]

Good stuff if you have any interest in how it all works.

[commodus]

Thank you so much for posting this! I used to read this all the time at my school library, so it brings back a lot of fond memories.

[agharta75]

Great book, and not just for comics fans.

[icon_uk]

If there's someone you need to REALLY spoil, perhaps this in conjunction with a copy of Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art"?

[shadowpsykie]

this is an AMAZING book. my teaching used it for her graphic novel class.

[adriantullberg]

What other books (in the same vein) would be recommended?