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syd_s_r's review against another edition
4.0
The author uses every tool and trick the graphic novel has to offer. His storytelling is so inventive and compelling that I enjoyed the plot way more than I would have if it was presented any other way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Mental illness
Moderate: Sexual content
tsadooni's review against another edition
4.0
I heard about this book from books on the night stand podcast. I started reading it and i could not put it down. the last 200 pages were absolutely riveting.
You will become attached to the characters. This book has heart and it will tear yours apart.
Highly recommended reading.
You will become attached to the characters. This book has heart and it will tear yours apart.
Highly recommended reading.
rebeccacider's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best graphic novels I've ever read. McCloud shows mastery of two forms in this volume - graphic storytelling and tragedy.
Aesthetically, The Sculptor is really masterful, and I enjoyed it the more for having read McCloud's comics treatise, Understanding Comics. I loved how he used the city landscape to depict David's emotional landscape. There have been so many stories about artists set in New York City, but rarely do they evoke the city as completely as McCloud does - bringing it alive through the eyes of a tortured outsider. His character design is also incredibly excellent - he has a particular gift for spot-on facial expressions.
As an unflinching tragic fable about life and art and our pained, ill-advised, inspired attempts to make meaning out of them, this book was very moving. Tragedy doesn't always work for a modern reader - we get cranky about the characters' tragic flaws and wish they would only problem-solve their way out of the abyss. McCloud's characters, however, were too carefully drawn and his story too profound for me to read David Smith's story with anything but a sense of doomed inevitability.
This is a big, big story about art and existentialism. It is probably Scott McCloud's masterpiece - but it's the first work of his fiction I've read, so I look forward to reading his backlog and what he creates next.
Aesthetically, The Sculptor is really masterful, and I enjoyed it the more for having read McCloud's comics treatise, Understanding Comics. I loved how he used the city landscape to depict David's emotional landscape. There have been so many stories about artists set in New York City, but rarely do they evoke the city as completely as McCloud does - bringing it alive through the eyes of a tortured outsider. His character design is also incredibly excellent - he has a particular gift for spot-on facial expressions.
As an unflinching tragic fable about life and art and our pained, ill-advised, inspired attempts to make meaning out of them, this book was very moving. Tragedy doesn't always work for a modern reader - we get cranky about the characters' tragic flaws and wish they would only problem-solve their way out of the abyss. McCloud's characters, however, were too carefully drawn and his story too profound for me to read David Smith's story with anything but a sense of doomed inevitability.
This is a big, big story about art and existentialism. It is probably Scott McCloud's masterpiece - but it's the first work of his fiction I've read, so I look forward to reading his backlog and what he creates next.
christineb75's review against another edition
5.0
The book was a great quick read. I'm only beginning to read graphic novels, but I read this as part of a Book Riot reading challenge. I'm so glad I did. The book discusses love, death, art, and life using a medium that lends itself to being over the top and occasionally ham-fisted and cheesy, but it avoids that. It will, however, wink at those moments in passing, playing homage to comic book superheroes without being about superheroes. (I'm pretty sure that Death looks like Stan Lee.)
kaylesreads42's review against another edition
4.0
this is a very unique story that unfolds in an incredibly beautiful way
lintkaurea's review against another edition
5.0
Qué maravilla, Scott McCloud no ha perdido ni una pizca de genialidad. Una gozada de principio a fin, con personajes que evolucionan y un dominio del ritmo narrativo y la composición que dejan en ridículo a otros grandes exponentes de la novela gráfica contemporánea. Imprescindible.
marenkae's review against another edition
2.0
2.5
I originally gave this 3 stars because it IS an extremely impressive and well executed graphic novel and if you are interested in graphic novels as a medium, I would still recommend reading this. But I can't stop thinking about how horribly this book mishandled the subject of mental illness and the AWFUL misogynistic tropes that came into play throughout this book. They just tainted the entire reading experience for me. Also the main character sucks.
I originally gave this 3 stars because it IS an extremely impressive and well executed graphic novel and if you are interested in graphic novels as a medium, I would still recommend reading this. But I can't stop thinking about how horribly this book mishandled the subject of mental illness and the AWFUL misogynistic tropes that came into play throughout this book. They just tainted the entire reading experience for me. Also the main character sucks.