McCloud


Lyd B's Productions

I've never been into comic books. My brother's have though, so I have appreciation for just about any kind of graphic representation whatever out there, I've scene Sin City, and I follow Batman religiously. But I've never been into panel reading. I have a cousin who went to Ringling for illustration, I told him about the book, he said he read it for his Comic Books as Literature class. I found McClouds book to be very interesting. I am looking forward to reading the rest of it. What's best about it is that it's a quick, enjoyable read... unlike Bogost. I also learned some interesting things about comic books.

 

 

 

 

This chapter gave me a nice history lesson on the origin of comics. When I was a teen, I really enjoyed comics and collected very seriously. I honestly can't remember why I stopped collecting and reading them but I kind of regret it. Previous to reading this, my definition of a comic involved some sort of superhero or something out of the Sunday paper. McCloud shows me how comics are much more complex and broad from what my definition is. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book to give me more insight on this literary genre that I thought I understood.-Earl
 
Jacob Grimes
 

What can be said about this book besides genius? Scott McCloud is a rare breed of story teller, one that can take the sometimes childish genre of comics and turn it into an intelligent form of literature. Along with Alan Moore, Dave Sim, and Peter Bagge, McCloud will always be remembered for ushering in a new era for "juxtaposed pictoral and other images in deliberate sequence ."

 

So what is chapter 1 about? Well, it is as McCloud put it, “Setting the Record Straight.” Comics have been around longer than people seem to think, centuries in fact. Through a brief history lesson, McCloud is able to take 60 years worth of work trying to legitimize the comic genre and do it in 15 pages of… comics. You have to appreciate the irony.

 

I found the chapter very interesting. I have never read a text book in the way that McCloud presents his material, plus the history about comics and their origin was unknown to me prior to reading the chapter. It was interesting to see how people viewed the comic genre over the years and how they viewed them as"crude, poorly-drawn, semiliterate, cheap disposable kiddie fare". But McCloud tries to show us that there is much more to them than that and gives them a proper definition as mentioned above in Jacob's post: "juxtaposed pictoral and other images in deliberate sequence." I hope the rest of the book is as enlightening as the first chapter. - Paul

 

 

 

Nancy Assia: I was never into comics as a kid. I was around them all the time because my male cousins were all about them. Now as an adult, I find them very fascinating and so do many people who have overlooked them in the past. Now because so many movies have been inspired by the comics, I have become a big fan. Comics allow you to feel like you are part of a world that is extreme and completely out of the ordinary. People don't always want to have to face reality. They want to be captivated by an idealistic universe and I feel like comics have that affect on their readers.

 

On McCloud .... Jillian

 

Kristie Book Blogs

This includes my blogs on all McCloud chapters, Bogost and First Person  - Cyberdrama