Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art back

Since Page 45 took its name from this book's 45th page, it seemed a bit odd that it didn't yet have a review on our website. But then (obviously) it came out before we had even opened!

It remains one of the finest essays on the comicbook medium and since it's a graphic novel in its own right, it's beautifully self-demonstrative; if Shakespeare's critics had been half so entertaining I might have secured a better degree. It's witty, it plays with your preconceptions, and it's actually a pretty vital book for those exploring communication in any medium.

Referenced, for example, by Bryan Talbot in ALICE IN SUNDERLAND (the venerable Scott materialises right in front of a feverish Bryan), it sets the medium in its historical context, explores the wealth of material produced by William Hogarth to Los Bros Hernandez, and begins to dissect the mechanics of the craft, giving us a vocabulary with which to discuss it. Obviously Scott delves deeper in the more recent MAKING COMICS, and it's not without critics, but without this book they might not have found the words with which to criticise it in the first place. Above all, it will make you think.

Five gazillion other endorsements comes from the likes of Art Spiegelman, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Will Eisner and Warren Ellis.