A review by jexjthomas
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott McCloud

4.0

[a:Scott McCloud|33907|Scott McCloud|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1231113775p2/33907.jpg] distills [b:Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art|102920|Understanding Comics The Invisible Art|Scott McCloud|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328408101s/102920.jpg|2415847] down to the bare necessities, the points that are most important for comics creators. He adds in a few technical details, protips, and some inane rambling about genre which could have been excised. Honestly, I do think this book is pretty good, especially if you have read Understanding Comics, but while it starts out strong, it kind of peaks somewhere in the middle, and then drops off HARD at the end. His musings about style and genre in particular feel out of place and without a whole lot of insight. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, I don't know, but I felt in particular his attempts to boil down genre into four distinct "tribes" to be really simplistic and not especially helpful. I think that's McCloud's approach to comics theory in a nutshell, though--in boiling comics down to the essence, you risk losing some of the profundity. Anyway, if I want a more in-depth analysis/exploration of genre in comics, I can go elsewhere, and all said, Making Comics offers some really good tips and McCloud drops some practical knowledge that young artists would otherwise only come across through years of trial and error. I would recommend this book to people who are serious about creating comics -- artists and writers both -- but if you're merely a comics fan, I would skip it. Understanding Comics is a much more comprehensive look at comics as a medium and the theory behind comics; in focusing on the practical, Making Comics only scratches the surface of that stuff, and if you're approaching this thinking that it's further exploration of comics theory, you're going to be left wanting. It lacks any of the revelatory moments of its predecessor -- which, for a young comics fan, really felt IMPORTANT, you know? -- but that doesn't mean its without merit.

I don't know what it says about me, but I enjoyed the section about pens the most.