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Underground > Comic Books >

Scott McCloud at the BBC

  
 
sleazenation
16:31 / 12.04.02
For those of you that may have missed it... a Scott McCloud article from the BBC website

So... i guess the questions are

What are people's thoughts on the works of scott McCloud and his one man crusade to promote comics?
 
 
Steve Block
17:42 / 12.04.02
Hmmm, I guess any coverage is good coverage, and far be it from me to snipe the article, much as I want to, as any coverage is good coverage, and I just said that, and I'm meandering.

I'm no big fan of online comics. The only one I like is The Journal Comic because it is short, I guess. The longer stuff just doesn't work for me, all the scrolling and stuff, I think I'm a luddite when it comes to this stuff. If you could get it on a cdrom I think I'd be more interested, if the layout fit the screen and you navigated through it like a web page. pdf just doesn't do it for me, I guess.

I have to say I've never read a book online, either. Hmmm. Must be just me.

I've waffled an awful lot about nothing in particular about Scott McCloud. I liked...um, I liked the colouring on New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln, the story was okay but is one for my son rather than me. Understanding Comics gets a lot of flak, but it is for better men than me to take it to task, like Eddie Campbell, although only non-specifically in that essay. I remember James Kochalka asking Scott McCloud if his shoes were comics over on the Comics Journal message board because they were a sequence.

I guess Scott McCloud is great because he knows what he is talking about, even if he is wrong. The whole idea that The Bayeaux Tapestry is a comic...um, it's a tapestry. It isn't a comic. It may be a form of sequential art, aslthough there isn't really critical consensus on what sequential art is yet, so who knows. I do know if tapestry is a category of sequential art, then so is comics, but that doesn't make comics tapestries anymore than it makes Tracey Emin an impressionist.

In fact, this whole thing is circular. I mean, the best thing to do is just recommend good comics to people, rather than try and categorise stuff. It's a shame McCloud didn't point people to the good stuff.

I much prefer the Top SHelf approach to the Scott McCloud approach. I have to confess I've never read Reinventing Comics. As far as I'm concerned, whilst people put out works like It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken, From Hell, Hicksville and so on, there's nothing broken.

Comics is almost like politics, you know with all those analysts scratching their heads trying to work out why people don't vote anymore. But then I guess that means comics don't matter to a lot of people now. The Guardian award helped, but the telly coverage didn't. I wonder if a decent comics award that was televised, kind of like the Mercury Music Prize or the Booker...I'm going way off the abstract for this thread. Sorry.

Scott McCloud, I guess it's one thumb up.
 
 
Dan Fish - @Fish1k
18:29 / 12.04.02
I think when McCloud uses the term 'Comics', he is referring to Sequential Art (i.e. pictoral images etc spatially juxtaposed to convey information or provoke an aesthetic response blah blah), which would include the Bayeaux tapestry. I think he mentions in Understanding Comics, that his definition (HIS definition) is not confined to comic books as we know them. It is whether it is 'Comics', not is it 'a' comic.

I have read some of McClouds online strips, the ones that were on www.ComicBookResources.com yonks back, I think they did read well, most online strips I find are a bit slow to download though.

I don't agree with every little thing he says though - I think some of his ideas are a little self serving - But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I like the guy!

Danny
comics 4 sale @
www.fish1000.freeserve.co.uk
 
 
Krister Kjellin
19:51 / 12.04.02
How could you not like him?

I mean, the guy seriously tries to define the genre and come up with a working vocabulary to describe and analyze it.

If comics interests you the least bit, above the "Yeah, comics are fun. I read Spiderman when I was a kid. It was great!"-level, then you should like him. Regardless of whether you agree with everything he says or not.

But then I may be partial. I did write both my Bachelor's and Master's thesis' on the subject, so...
 
 
DaveBCooper
16:46 / 15.04.02
Liked Understanding Comics; one of the more accessible books to try to explain how comics ‘work’ and define them, and that kind of thing.
Less impressed with Reinventing Comics, mainly because I think that Scott overdoes the importance of the internet.

And Steve McC, I think your comparison between comics and politics is a good one, though I’d suggest there’s one fundamental difference; in the UK at least, politicians point at (for example) the lack of interest amongst the young, and suggest it’s the electorate’s loss, and that their (apparently perfect) parties need to be communicating in a way that appeals to more people.
In the comics field, the emphasis is the other way round : people aren’t interested, WE must be doing something wrong. Much more humble and self-knowing, which unfortunately may lead to things like Joe Quesada’s speech to retailers about how the industry needs to take more pride in itself… but it’s much more healthy, if you ask me.

Anyway, Scott McCloud; I don’t necessarily agree with him on everything, but he’s articulate and intelligent and wants to see the medium thrive, so I’d give him three thumbs up (we’re very close in my family).

DBC
 
  
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