SCOTT MCCLOUD

'Scott McCloud' (born 'Scott McLeod' on June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and a leading popular scholar of comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium.

Contents

Biography

24-hour comic

McCloud's non-fiction books

References

External links

Biography

McCloud was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He created the light-hearted science fiction/superhero comic book series ''Zot!'' in 1984, in part as a reaction to the increasingly grim direction that superhero comics were taking in the 1980s. It became a cult classic. His other print comics include ''Destroy!!'' (a deliberately over-the-top, over-sized single-issue comic book, intended as a parody of formulaic superhero fights), the graphic novel ''The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln'' (done with a mixture of computer-generated and manually-drawn digital images), 12 issues writing DC Comics' ''Superman Adventures'', and the three issue limited series "Superman: Strength"
He is best known as a comics theorist, following the publication in 1993 of ''Understanding Comics'', a wide-ranging exploration of the definition, history, vocabulary, and methods of the medium of comics, itself done in comics form. As the most ambitious book on the subject to date, it sparked considerable discussion among comics creators and readers, and is now widely considered one of the definitive works about the medium of comics. He followed in 2000 with the more controversial ''Reinventing Comics'' (also in comics form), in which he outlined twelve "revolutions" that he argued would be keys to the growth and success of comics as a popular and creative medium. Finally, in 2006, he released ''Making Comics''. Following publication, he went on a tour with his family that included all 50 U.S. states and parts of Europe.^[2]
He was one of the earliest promoters of webcomics as a distinct variety of comics, and a vocal supporter of micropayments.^[3] He was also an advisor to BitPass, a company that provided an online micropayment system, which he helped launch with the publication of ''The Right Number'', an online graphic novella priced at US$0.25 for each chapter. McCloud maintains an active online presence on his web site where he publishes many of his ongoing experiments with comics produced specifically for the web. Among the techniques he explores is the "infinite canvas" permitted by a web browser, allowing panels to be spatially arranged in ways not possible in the finite, two-dimensional, paged format of a physical book.

24-hour comic

In 1990 McCloud coined the idea of a 24-hour comic, a complete 24-page comic created by a single cartoonist in 24 consecutive hours. It was a mutual challenge with cartoonist Steve Bissette, intended to compel creative output with a minimum of self-restraining contemplation.^[4] Thousands of cartoonists have since taken up the challenge.

McCloud's non-fiction books

★ '' (1993, ISBN 0-613-02782-5)

★ '' (2000, ISBN 0-06-095350-0)

★ ''Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels'' (2006, ISBN 0-06-078094-0)

References

★ McCloud profile RAW

★ Scott McCloud French publications Bedetheque
'Footnotes'
1. Scott McCloud
2. 'Making Comics' author decodes cartoons
3. Making the web pay
4. The 24-Hour Comic Book Challenge

External links

★ Scott McCloud official site

★ 24 Hour Comics

★ Scott McCloud biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia