Years ago, I took a coming-of-age course in the summer as part of my MA degree. My professor and mentor, G, taught the memoir Fun Home and gave us a crash course in reading and understanding comics. Included in this lesson were excerpts from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. I purchased a copy and have taught excerpts when I taught art and comics to my own students, but I never fully delved into the text until now. It’s a wonderful and worthwhile journey. McCloud took an […]
Wrung out like a dish towel, I tell you.
Holy shitballs. I haven’t felt this wrung out by a graphic novel since I read Blankets, and I liked this one soooo much more. I’m not sure The Sculptor is going to be for everyone, but oh man, if it hits you, it’s going to straight up MURDER YOU. The main character is David, a frustrated sculptor. It’s more complicated and lovely than this, but essentially he makes a deal with Death. He will trade his life for the ability to create the art he can see in […]
The Sculptor and the Angel
I am a *huge* fan of Scott McCloud. His book Understanding Comics is a staple for understanding graphic novels and images, and I teach from excerpts of it every time I teach visual literacy. His cogent analysis of comics, images, and text is informative and also entertaining. So when I heard that he was coming out with a new graphic novel of his own, I got really excited. When it came in at the library, I was initially daunted by the sheer size of it […]