Scott McClouds’s Understanding Comics is an essential piece of reading for anyone interested in art or art making. It provides just enough information about the history of comics and what comics actually are.Through analysis of ancient manuscripts and wall paintings we, as readers, are explained what happened to comics that gave it the reputation it has today.
As someone who grew up reading comics, bought from the saved lunch money, I was fascinated to learn something new about the art I adore.
One of the interesting question for me was, what is the difference between the movie/ animation and comics. Both of them are representation of the sequential art. The answer was quite simple, yet, I have never looked at either this way. Time and space. Time helps the movie/ animation to progress, while space does the same for comics. Each frame can be a representation of the second or a decade, depending on the authors/ artists idea.
Scott also tries to educate reader about different comics styles. The classic left to right format is something we all used, yet, japanese comics, known as manga utilises different format. Ancient egyptian writings used to be read from bottom left, zig-zac, to top right.
Most of concepts and ideas in the book are familiar to me, yet Scott manages to present the information in a really interesting format, comics, which makes reading so much more simpler and entertaining.