McCloud also highlights the differences between iconic and realistic figures. McCloud emphasizes Töpffer's use of "cartooning and panel borders" along with "the first interdependent combination of words and pictures seen in Europe". Understanding Comics posits Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer as in many ways "the father of the modern comic". McCloud mentions, among other early works of graphic narrative, the Bayeux Tapestry, as an antecedent to comics. The book begins with a discussion of the concept of visual literacy and a history of narrative in visual media.
The book argues that comics employ nonlinear narratives because they rely on the reader's choices and interactions. McCloud also introduced the concept of "closure" to refer to a reader's role in closing narrative gaps between comics panels. The book's overarching argument is that comics are defined by the primacy of sequences of images. An attempt to formalize the study of comics, it is itself in comics form. Understanding Comics is a wide-ranging exploration of the definition, history, vocabulary, and methods of the medium of comics. McCloud has followed up Understanding Comics with Reinventing Comics (2000), in which he suggested ways for the medium to change and grow and Making Comics (2006), a study of methods of constructing comics. The book was edited by Mark Martin, with lettering by Bob Lappan. Understanding Comics was first published by Tundra Publishing reprintings have been released by Kitchen Sink Press, DC Comics' Paradox Press, DC's Vertigo line, and HarperPerennial. McCloud previewed the book at the August 1992 Comics Arts Conference.
1992) that issue later won the 1992 Don Thompson Award for Best Non-Fiction Work. Publication history Įxcerpts from Understanding Comics were published in Amazing Heroes #200 (Apr.
The title of Understanding Comics is an homage to Marshall McLuhan's seminal 1964 work Understanding Media. Although the book has prompted debate over many of McCloud’s conclusions, its discussions of "iconic" art and the concept of "closure" between panels have become common reference points in discussions of the medium. Understanding Comics received praise from notable comic and graphic novel authors such as Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Garry Trudeau (who reviewed the book for the New York Times).
It expounds theoretical ideas about comics as an art form and medium of communication, and is itself written in comic book form. It explores formal aspects of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in which these elements have been used. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 1993 non-fiction work of comics by American cartoonist Scott McCloud.
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