Understanding Comics

During my days at NHS, a co-worker of mine introduced me to Scott McCloud's 1994 book 'Understanding Comics'. What at first seemed like a shallow primer on 'how to draw your own comics' turned out to be an amazing study on the basics of storytelling and symbolism of imagery. he puts all of these elements together to make the case for 'sequential art', which is term that Will Eisner coined in his also groundbreaking book called 'Comics & Sequential Art'



He followed up with an even more detailed book on the transfer of the printed page to the digital realm called 'Reinventing Comics'. This book goes on to explain Scott's theory on digital distribution, and hits on the concept of 'micro-payments'(which is what Apple's been successful with with iTunes').



THese books have gone on to win numerous awards as well as be required reading for most graphic design/illustration courses (CalArts requires it as a text book).

James