Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by…

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (original 1993; edition 1997)

by Scott McCloud (Author)

Series: Understanding Comics (1)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
5,250	97	2,146	(4.32)	75

This was recommended as a book graphic designers should read -- and the reviews were great -- here I am. I knew little of comics and thought fairly low of them, so I didn't know what to expect.

What you have here is a super-effective method of storytelling, comics and the way this book is written, that makes you fly through the book in a few nights. Each page is thoroughly drawn and thoroughly written on a thoroughly well-thought out, under-appreciated subject. The author explains his examples through word and image, and often gets meta, which helps keep you along for the ride. The history of where comics came from and where they sit now was completely lost on me. The history and science of art was dutifully explained and he was always met upcoming objections with a witty answer.

Many aspects venn-diagram into design and graphic arts.

The biggest takeaway I have at this very moment is -- images are an effective way to help tell a story. They can enhance emotion subtly in the background, replace words momentarily, reference icons which the reader may relate to, use the same techniques of artists from days of ol to accomplish whatever goal they want the viewer to do. Why skimp out on visuals if it helps tell your story better? (

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wesmess | Oct 4, 2024 |

English (89) French (2) Dutch (2) Danish (1) Portuguese (Brazil) (1) Korean (1) German (1) All languages (97)

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wesmess | Oct 4, 2024 |

Equal parts easy to understand and clear as a demonstration of the comic form. He makes quite a few compelling arguments for the significance of comics as a medium. (

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bobbybslax | Feb 9, 2024 |

Comics are mainstream now, I think maybe in part because of Mccloud's work. (

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mykl-s | Aug 13, 2023 |

A very clever explanation of what Comics are and how they work. The author is our guide and he shows and becomes what he explains. (

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markm2315 | Jul 1, 2023 |

McCloud is passionate and erudite about his subject. His discussion transcends "understanding comics" to figuring out art's role in the world. I taught a graphic novel in my English class this year, and this handy little tome helped me explain some of the conceptual ideas behind the form and the genre. (

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jonbrammer | Jul 1, 2023 |

I read this book around the time it first came out, and there was really nothing like it then. On re-reading it nearly 30 years later, there is still really nothing like it. It is an explanation of how comics work, and an argument that comics are an art form worth of study and consideration, equal to and distinct from literature or painting.

While I have yet to see another book like this one in the 30 years since it was first published, I have seen wider acceptance of McCloud's ideas, and a much wider variety of comics and the voices telling those stories. (

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rumbledethumps | Jun 26, 2023 |

A wonderful book. Using the comics medium, McCloud builds a simple, approachable yet profound essay on this form of art, with great insights on visual art and story telling. This is useful not just to understand comics but, more broadly, every form of art that can be considered a way of telling stories. A must read. (

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d.v. | May 16, 2023 |

An excellent and thought-provoking read for anyone who has the idea (as I used to) that comics or graphic novels can't be "serious literature." (

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Synopsis2486 | May 15, 2023 |

Great book on how comics work: sequential art. How stories and emotions are conveyed. I read this as soon as my library purchased it. (

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kslade | Dec 8, 2022 |

Still a great resource for people who want to think critically about the forms of comics. (

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livertalia | Apr 28, 2022 |

Feel like this could have been condensed quite a bit. Had to read it, wouldn't recommend it.

roseandisabella | Mar 18, 2022 |

Anyone who thinks comics isn't real reading and anyone who wants to better understand comics will be fully schooled by this eye-opening work. McCloud demonstrates that visual literacy, art appreciation, and the unique ways readers interact with comics make this art form so much more than its critics maintain. He breaks down comics' form and techniques so we appreciate how much comics have to offer. He also looks at the history of pictorial representation, from cave drawings to early comics, and the Japanese influence. At times, the content gets too deep for me to process but suffice to say, I have even more appreciation for all that goes into the creation of graphic novels and comics! (

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Salsabrarian | Jan 29, 2022 |

I didn't grow up reading comics. I've recently started reading more, but I'm still figuring out what I enjoy (Y the Last Man, Walking Dead, Saga, and Attack on Titan so far).

This book is completely different. It's not about how to read comics, but about how to write comics. While I have no intention of writing comics, it's an insightful overview of how to create a story using a combination of images and words – something I want to get better at.

What impresses me most about this book is that it felt like a conversation between me and the author. The entire comic is written in a format where the author, the main character of the comic, is introducing you to various comic concepts and exploring why they work (or don't). Although I don't plan to create comics, I came out of this with a bunch of ideas that I want to try on mediums I work in. (

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adamfortuna | May 28, 2021 |

This is a great book that honestly changed how I felt about comics completely. I had never really been exposed to comics outside of the weekly newspaper. Of course I knew the titles that were out there, and I did more than my fair share of watching cartoons and movies based on comic characters, but I didn't "get it." The medium was not mine. McCloud's book gave me the tools I needed to really understand the art of comics. How comics use the blending of art and written word to really present ideas in a unique way that no other art form can really do.
Reading this book opened my mind to a broad range of stories that I never would have read or even known about, some of which are among my most cherished books now. (

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whatsleepsbeneath | Apr 20, 2021 |

I've tended not to read comics for a couple of reasons -- I don't feel like I have the patience to engage in the way they require you to engage, and I've felt like most of what's out there just wouldn't interest me; I don't really care about superheroes, for example. I guess I'm basically a snob. So I'll read something literary (e.g. Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan) but not something light. This snobbery at least applies across genres; it's not the comic form itself that I'm snobbish about but the sort of material that most of what I think of as comics covers.

This was a great read. It was very clever, and nicely laid out, and easy and fun to read, and it made me think about aesthetics and narrative in ways that I found satisfying. It's probably not for everybody, but I think most anybody who likes thinking about how stories and art function would find it appealing. (

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dllh | Jan 6, 2021 |

A highly engaging and informative unpacking of the comics world. McCloud merges history, analysis, and workshop in this text. (

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DrFuriosa | Dec 4, 2020 |

The official how-to and why-is-it-so textbook for graphic literature. More than that, the context itself is humorous and fascinating. Call it Meta-Graphic-Novel if you may. This book for comic student is like Campbell Biology for Life Science student. Amazing! (

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Rex_Lui | Sep 12, 2019 |

it's one of the best examples i've found of someone writing so specifically about a topic that the observations and implications become absolutely universal.

think about it: hamlet is completely consumed in his little world, and the stakes are all about what will happen to denmark and only denmark. and centuries later, we still perform the play and read it and think that that is us up there struggling with our problems, just with a different name.

this is what mccloud achieves here: he is so fixated and clear in talking about comics that the scope of his thought travels to all corners of creativity, art, and human endeavor.

this is not only a testament to the validity of comics as an artform and mccloud's mastery of it, but also to the microscopic differences between the various supposedly discreet arts and vocabularies thereof when viewed from the vantage of a close and sensitive read of any one of them in particular.

a book that renews your faith in people's ability to communicate with (and 'understand?') each other. (

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rmxwl | Sep 8, 2019 |

muy buen primer. abre el criterio para conocer más

tcanaleso | Apr 14, 2019 |

A brilliantly executed (and frequently funny) treatise, whose sole real weakness is that the more interesting observations are mostly frontloaded in the earlier chapters. But even so, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining study of a medium than this.

- Loki

A fascinating and entertaining analysis of the comic book medium, as well as of both how and why it works.

- Lucky (

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Lucky-Loki | Oct 15, 2018 |

'nuff said. (

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georgee53 | May 10, 2018 |

In depth yet straightforward textbook-style graphic definition of what comics are, what they have been, and what they could become.

I would certainly recommend this for people who are interested in learning more about comics and graphic novels. The way that this is executed makes it an effective learning tool for beginners, casual comics readers, as well as for regular or long-time readers of graphic novels.

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Critterbee | Apr 16, 2018 |

A clear overview of the form and structure of comics. Scott McCloud's deep understanding of the history and functions of art makes this an insightful and informative read. (

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kasyapa | Oct 9, 2017 |

Informative and intriguing, but a little dry. A lot of the concepts in here are applicable to visual creativity in general, so you certainly don't have to be specifically interested in comics to appreciate and learn from Understanding Comics. It's a fantastic introduction to get familiar with concepts and terminology. I would recommend it to any beginning visual artist, but I think it is definitely just a starting point to understanding visual media. (

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theCamille | Oct 31, 2016 |

Understanding Comics might as well be Scott McCloud's magnum opus, but it's certainly not for everyone. The casual comic book reader in particular might find it too "high art" for their tastes. Here the author turns on "Developer Mode" for one of the most thorough master's class of the comic medium I've ever read. It's a mashup of Comic Theory, Analytics, Fine Art, History and Philosophy unlike any I've ever seen before. (

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Daniel.Estes | Jun 22, 2016 |

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