Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

I was lucky enough to get a copy of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud as a Christmas present and it's a fascinating book. I was a big fan of comics in my youth, going through Battle and on to 2000AD. I must admit it stopped reading them for some while and only rediscovered them, in graphic novel format, a few years ago. Since then I've picked up copies of all the classics - Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Dark Knight Returns, From Hell, Maus, Sin City to name but a few; and have also picked up the Judge Dredd compilations which have taken me back to my youth.

Understanding Comics is a rather different book, it's a non-fiction comic which uses the medium of the comic book to explore the history, nature and mechanics of the comic in order to try to understand their power and success. This style is very accessible and the author uses it very effectively. It really got me thinking and I suspect I won't look at another comic in quite the same way again!