Four ways to buy:
- Find it at a Comics Retailer near you (DC's comics market version; there's also a hardcover version).
- Buy now at Amazon (I get a small referral fee for this one).
- Visit an online comics retailer like Mile High Comics.
- Find it at your local bookstore (big independent stores or chains like Borders are your best bet).
Overview:
A 215-page comic book about comics that explains the inner workings of the medium and examines many aspects of visual communication along the way. Understanding Comics was a Harvey and Eisner winner, was praised in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly and Wired, and is in over 13 languages. A favorite of interface, game and Web designers despite the fact that it doesn't mention computers once!
(1993 in the comics market, 1994 in the book market).
Quotes:
"If you've ever felt bad about wasting your life reading comics, then check out Scott McCloud's classic book immediately. You might still feel you've wasted your life, but you'll know why, and you'll be proud."
- Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons.
"In one lucid, well-designed chapter after another, [McCloud] guides us through the elements of comics style, and... how words combine with pictures to work their singular magic. When the 215-page journey is finally over, most readers will find it difficult to look at comics in quite the same way ever again."
- New York Times Review of Books review by Garry Trudeau
“BRAVO!! Your Understanding Comics is a landmark dissection and intellectual consideration of comics as a valid medium. Its employment of comic art as its vehicle is brilliant. Everyone...anyone interested in this literary form must read it. Every school teacher should have one.”
- Will Eisner
"...one of the most insightful books about designing graphic user interfaces ever written, even though it never discusses the subject directly."
- Macintosh co-creator Andy Hertzfeld
“With Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics the dialogue on and about what comics are and, more importantly, what comics can be has begun. If you read, write, teach or draw comics; if you want to; or if you simply want to watch a master explainer at work, you must read this book.”
- Neil Gaiman
“Cleverly disguised as an easy-to-read comic book, Scott McCloud’s simple looking tome deconstructs the secret language of comics while casually revealing secrets of Time, Space, Art and the Cosmos! The most intelligent comics I’ve seen in a long time. Bravo.”
- Art Spiegelman
“Understanding Comics is quite simply the best analysis of the medium that I have ever encountered. With this book Scott McCloud has taken breathtaking leaps towards establishing a critical language that the comic art form can work with and build upon in the future. Lucid and accessible, it is an astonishing feat of perception. Highly recommended.”
- Alan Moore
"A must-read classic."
- Seybold Seminars Online
"The basic manual for introduction to the medium. Do not attempt to operate your comic without reading this first. "
- Warren Ellis
"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. A superb book-length graphic essay... Fast becoming a classic in graphic communications..."
- Yale Center for Advanced Instructional Media
"It just might change the way you think about Web design."
- HotWired: WebMonkey Design Collection
"McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal work at the level of Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information..."
- Stewart Brand - Global Business Network
“Scott McCloud’s book, Understanding Comics, is a must read for any true connoisseur of comics. Don’t let its entertaining format fool you -- it’s an in depth look at what makes the comics medium so great. If I knew half as much as Scott, this would be the book I’d write!”
- Jim Lee
“...a rare and exciting work that ingeniously uses comics to examine the medium itself.”
- Publisher’s Weekly
“...a brilliant comic book discussion of what makes comics work.”
- L. A. Times
“[Understanding Comics] might well turn out to be the rosetta stone, the secret decoder ring, the lyrics sheet, for pete’s sake, to all that has gone on in comics art. [This] 216-page book is one of a kind, a combination of everything funny and profound, cool and quirky.”
- Chicago Sun-Times
“This is the reference work our industry has been crying out for: a 224-page analysis of the comic-book medium -- its structure, aesthetics, philosophy, and history -- all brilliantly told in comic book form! It’s simply invaluable for professionals in the field -- and an entertaining read for anyone interested in comics. I challenge you all to read this book -- you will never look at comics in the same way again!”
- Diana Schutz
“Understanding Comics is spellbinding! With a lively wit and a laser intelligence, Scott McCloud offers us a fresh new look at the comics medium. Whether you’re in the business or on the sidelines, this book will charge your batteries. More than just a scholarly analysis of the art form, it points the way to possibilities, giving inspiration to those wishing to explore the wonderful continent of sequential art.”
- James Gurney creator of Dinotopia
“McCloud firmly establishes his reputation as both the Thomas Edison and Marshall McLuhan of comic books...A comic book about comics, Understanding Comics is a thought-provoking book that will be talked about for years to come.”
- Wizard review by Tom Palmer Jr.
