"Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud

Today the panelists discuss Scott McCloud's classic, Understanding Comics, a book that purports to be a lecture but in many cases comes off as a manifesto. We discuss Scott's messy definition of the medium, his genuinely good insights, and also his strong creative biases. This book is impossible to spoil so there is no spoiler section. (00:00) - "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud (03:18) - Front Matter (05:22) - Impressions (10:18) - We’ve moved past this (13:10) - The mechanics of comics (20:20) - Part lecture, part manifesto (22:15) - Another opinionated textbook (33:15) - The definition of comics (41:11) - This about video games (42:41) - Scout has a callout (46:34) - Dude predicted emoji (47:36) - Great iconography (49:29) - A short biography (50:58) - Gutters! (53:23) - Pacing (55:27) - Public discussion (59:49) - Further Reading Further Reading- Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud - Making Comics by Scott McCloud - Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner - The Comic Book History of Comics by Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey - Inventing Comics (from Comics Journal #234, June 2001) by Dylan Horrocks A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network. Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr. This week’s panelists can be found at: Scout Matt Robin Jillian Editing this week by AJ Fillari. Cover art by Scout Wilkinson. Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.