The Invisible Art Paperback
This book is fascinating and surprisingly readable, by American cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud. It uses the medium of the graphic novel to explain the way that comic work and how they convey their message, and in many cases the not so visible underlying message. This book is particularly interesting as it demonstrates how easy it is to take in concepts using this format and how easy to read it is as you are not assailed with a wall of text. I may be a very visual person which may be why this style of book feels os easy to read.
When looking for the book cover image, I came across the book again on Amazon and noticed that he has written several more books on the subject, and I am more than tempted to read them.
The concept of explaining complex ideas like this is mind-blowing, at one point in the book Scott explains the principle of Plato’s cave without ever mentioning Plato, caves or Susan Sontag or even Roland Bathes. I am buzzing at the moment by the ease with which a graphic novel can pass out complex theory in few words and simple images. This book is well worth a look. I intend to re-read it in more depth and may write a second review looking at the contents a bit deeper, but for now, I am contemplating the message delivery system rather than the message.