Understanding Comics
The Invisible Art
by Scott McCloud · first published 1993
72% recommend27% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Comic-format study of how the medium communicates: abstraction vs realism, icons, color vs black and white, and storytelling. Designers, UX people, and anyone into visual communication will find the principles transfer.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the panels, through the lines, and within the hidden symbols of a powerful but misunderstood art form.
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If anyone hasn't read Understanding Comics, it's a fantastic book. http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-M... And for the HN set, it is actually really good for UX inspiration.
on “My Obsession with Chess” ↗…Watts. The fantasy section needs Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. (and throw Harry Potter out) Sexual Personae by Paglia deserves to be named in the Gender/sexuality section. And an off-beat recommendation. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is a truly smart book on comics, in the form of a graphic novel.
on “Mind-expanding books” ↗Scott McCloud, author of the great book Understanding Comics, also did a comic book introduction to Kubernetes: https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/kubernetes-comic/
on “A Tutorial Introduction to Kubernetes” ↗…implied and inferred nature of humanness? That's the Alignment Problem. The book dives into this broadly – but also gives an excellent non-technical survey of the evolution of machine learning. — Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art By Scott McCloud This is magnitudes more than a dive into the perhaps easy to dismiss artform. This book is about storytelling and why great stories resonate. It's one of the best…
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗Buy the books. Understanding comics is just plain interesting. A good story, well told. Haven't read the follow-ups. Guys like McCloud break open the perception of what graphic storytelling can look like. More money to him = a good…
on “Why the Google Chrome Comic Rocked - Scott McCloud’s “Invisible Art”” ↗…(basics of visual design) 3)Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works by Erik Spiekermann (typography) 4)Don't Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability by Steve Krug (basics of UX) 5)Understanding Comics by Scott Mccloud (basics of storytelling- useful in web interfaces too) 6)The Visual Display Of Quantitative Informations by Edward R. Tufte (useful in information design and dashboards) If you have…
on “Not a designer? Here’s how to make your web apps look awesome” ↗…space-saving brief. It's an attempt to inflame. But... I think it's pretty cool that a new medium for legal discourse has been actually used. Several years after absorbing Scott McCloud's phenomenal book Understanding Comics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Comics), I set out to argue for a very technical (programming) project at work through a goofy comic. It was surprisingly effective, and got more eyes on it…
on “Faced with a Five-Page Limit, Lawyer Files Cartoon Amicus Brief” ↗Scott McCloud's _Understanding Comics_ presents a more robust paradigm than abstract-not. He posits a triangle whereby visual communication selects a space between three poles: representative , abstract , realistic. I encourage you to look…
on “Homo erectus made world's oldest doodle 500,000 years ago” ↗…of an orange in an app can trigger exactly those same neurons. As long as your mind is busy with other things, you won't even notice the difference. This is why novels work. And it's why comics work. "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud does a great job of showing how abstract representations of things can provide richer experiences than realistic ones. Of course, if you direct your attention to the differences between…
on “Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI” ↗…After years of fumbling around in the gym this cut through a lot of bad ideas about fitness, exercise, strength, and health. It lead to the first real (and lasting) progress I've ever made physically. Understanding Comics - Understanding art and visual communication. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Up there with Hackers & Painters in its rate of insight & surprise per page. Fail Safe Investing - Thought provoking…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗No problem! It's important to appreciate skills in others you wish you had. If you've never read Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" I think you would love it. He talks about the "Infinite Canvas" which is (to me) a loose metaphor for screens. If I taught UX/UI and Logo Design at an Art School, it would be one of the first books…
on “How Dropbox Onboards New Users” ↗Murch's book is great. I also found Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" useful in understanding how visual information can be conveyed.
on “Why 3D doesn't work and never will (2011)” ↗1. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, by Scott McCloud A comic about comics, but I don’t think you have to enjoy the medium to get something out of the book. If you enjoy exploring subjects to their core, give it a shot.…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗…to those experimental farms/communities all over the US in the early-mid 19th C - that's what the word meant at the time - there's a lot on the history of those. Brilliantly written. Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics - the history, science and philosophy of comics. Plus it's a comic. Crucial Conversations - I added this to You Just Don't Understand on my 'Essential Guides for Anyone in a Relationship' list. Equally…
on “Ask HN: What is the best non-tech book you read this year?” ↗…discipline for the occasional departmental web page, etc. If you want to focus on visual language, iconography, and how graphics communicate, an unconventional, yet highly-regarded choice is Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. What Norman does for interaction, McCloud does for visual communication (and does so, appropriately, in the form of a comic book).
on “Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?” ↗