Comics – Writer and the Wolf Editorial

What’s a comic and what’s a graphic novel?

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By: Siobhan O'Brien Holmes

What’s the difference between a comic and a graphic novel? Are they the same thing? Can children’s books be graphic novels? Comics as an art form In the first post…

What are comics?: Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud Part 1

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By: Siobhan O'Brien Holmes

About 13 years ago I discovered Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, part how-to, part comic, part history book, part academic text. I was gearing up to write my MA dissertation about representations of colour in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and needed to level up my visual literacy and I’d heard that McCloud’s book was the best way to learn about the way pictures and text can work together. I’m SO glad I picked it up because it’s utterly fantastic: a really immersive, compelling read and full of McCloud’s expertise and passion.

I started putting together a blog post discussing definitions of comics and graphic novels and picked up Understanding Comics from my shelf to remind myself of how McCloud uses these terms. Once I started reading I couldn’t stop! So I decided to treat myself and revisit the entire book, and I’m going to discuss it here as I read.