First sentence: “Hoi, Ik ben Scott McCloud.”

P. 99: “Het plaatje fungeert als een soort algemene aanduiding dat tijd en ruimte worden opgedeeld.”

Last sentence: “Jullie zijn tenminste niet met hem getrouwd. Ik hoor dit de hele tijd.”

This was the first graphic novel I read since I was a child, and I only did it because of the enthousiasm of Michael Kindness (from Books on the Nightstand podcast).

This book gives information about the medium, i.e. the graphic novel, itself; it treats lines, colors, closures, time and space and so on. All of this is told in a very comprehensible style with drawings that really make you see what is meant. I’m glad I read it, but I’m not sure I will read any other graphic novels. When I was a child my parents didn’t buy me many graphic novels, because I was such a fast reader that I finished each one of them within half an hour. So they preferred to buy me ‘real books’.

And now I had the same problem again, I read to fast and did not really look at the drawings, so they were a bit lost to me. I think I still prefer to read the ‘real books’, although reading McCloud made me aware that my feelings and thoughts about graphic novels are a bit outdated, to say the least.

The best thing about buying this book, however, was the fact that my husband, who NEVER in his whole live read a book (except Hector Malot’s, Alleen in de wereld) did read this book and found it worth reading. he even said “Everyone should read this”. So, Michael, thanks for that and perhaps if you have any more recommendations for graphic novels, I’ll buy them, not for me but for my husband.

Other thoughts/reviews:

Literary Exploration (in English): http://literary-exploration.com/2014/10/29/understanding-comics-by-scott-mccloud...

Shelf Love (in English): http://shelflove.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/understanding-comics-review/ ( )

Door middel van striptekeningen maakt de auteur duidelijk welke facetten er in het stripgebeuren zijn.