Description

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art                                         Trade Paperback
Writer: Scott McCloud
Artist: Scott McCloud
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Editors: Steve Bissette, Kurt Busiek, Neil Gaiman, Bob Lappan, Jennifer Lee, Larry Marder, Mark Martin & Ivy Ratafia
Cover by: Scott McCloud

Tracing the 3,000 year history of storytelling through pictures, discussing the language and images used,”The Invisible Art!” was written and illustrated by Scott McCloud. Utilizing a comics format to explain the comics format, Understanding Comics – The Invisible Art is an insightful explanation and analysis of the graphic-text art form. Told in a serious manner with equal parts wit and wisdom, this book explores the intricacies of comic book storytelling which differentiate it as mode of expression from television and novels. Touching on the theory and history as well as some of the modern trends of sequential art and copy, this volume is an accessible introduction to the world of comic books.

Scott McCloud is a twelve-time Harvey and Eisner award nominee, creator of Zot!, and the inventor of many strange and wonderful things.

Understanding Comics – The Invisible Art is a 215-page comic book about comics that explains the inner workings of the medium and examines many aspects of visual communication. Understanding Comics has been translated into 16 languages, excerpted in textbooks, and its ideas applied in other fields such as game design, animation, web development, and interface design. Understanding Comics – The Invisible Art is winner of the Harvey and Eisner Award, the Alph’art Award at Angoulême, and a New York Times Notable Book for 1994 (mass market edition).

Features:
Definitions, history, and potential.
Visual Iconography and its Effects.
Closure, reader participation between the panels.
Word-picture dynamics.
Time and motion.
The psychology of line styles and color.
Comics and the artistic process.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art contains:

“Setting the Records Straight”
This is a historical examination of comics. What defines it, where did it come from and most important the definition.
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“The Vocabulary of Comics”
Because comics is a mixture of pictures and words, Scott McCloud explains the differences of pictures and words to what we see. Comics are really a language all its own.
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“Blood in the Gutter”
In this chapter McCloud explores perception of the world and the fragmentation in what we really see. He applies this to comics, in how we don’t see everything in a panel, but we trust its there, such as off camera arms and legs. Us humans need closure.
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“Time Frame”
In this chapter McCloud explores “Time” and how it is different in comics then it is in real life. Even if comics perception of time is different, time can still be translated for us to understand.
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“Living in Line”
In this chapter McCloud explores how a single line in comics can mean so much. Thick to thin lines, broken to complete, zigzag to squiggly, all lines affect the picture somehow. A single change in a smiley face for example, can be happy, sad or undecided by the shape of the line that make the mouth.
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“Show and Tell”
Another chapter dealing with history of words and pictures and the struggle of balance. When does pictures in books no longer mean for kids? Why does fine art and written master pieces have to be arms distance apart?
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“The Six Steps”
There are six steps to any form of creating art. These apply to comics, movies, paints, film, etc.

1.Idea/Purpose
2.Form – Book? Sculpture? Song? Comic?
3.Idiom – The Genre, what art of School is it from?
4.Structure
5.Craft
6.Surface

“A Word About Color”
In this chapter McCloud explores what colors and shades do in a comic. This chapter is the only chapter to have color, the rest of the chapters remain Black and White
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“Putting it all Together”
With what we have learned in the Eight Chapters before, McCloud shows us how to Put it all Together. By recapping everything we have just learned, Scott McCloud reaffirmed our education on “The Invisible Art” of comics.
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Trade Paperback is bagged & boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

Second Printing
Publisher: Kitchen Sink Press, Inc.
Publication Date: July 1993
Format: BW, 215 pages, TPB, 10″ x 7″
ISBN-10: 0878162437
ISBN-13: 9780878162437

Collectible Entertainment note: Trade Paperback is in Fine + condition.  Very Nice!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Comics collector and/or enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Highly Recommended.

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