Scott McCloud
Encyclopedia
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist
and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium. He is most notable for his non-fiction books about comics, Understanding Comics
, Reinventing Comics
and Making Comics, for which he has been called the "Marshall McLuhan
of comics".
McCloud was born in 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts, and spent most of his childhood in Lexington, Massachusetts
. He decided he wanted to be a comics artist in 1975, during his junior year in high school. When it came time to look for a college that fit his career goals, the one that offered a program closest to his career goals was Syracuse University
's Illustration program. He selected that school and area of major, and graduated from Syracuse with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree in 1982.
/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.
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 or as some say, the "Aristotle of comics", 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 in comics form. He followed in 2000 with 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.
He was one of the earliest vocal supporters of micropayment
s. He was also an adviser 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.
He created a comic book that formed the press release introducing Google
's web browser, Google Chrome
, which was published on September 1, 2008.
In 2009, McCloud was featured in The Cartoonist
, a documentary film on the life and work of Jeff Smith
, creator of Bone.
, a 1988 document with the stated aim of protecting the rights of comic book creators and help aid against the exploitation of comic artists and writers by corporate work-for-hire practices. The group that adopted the Bill also included artists Kevin Eastman
, Dave Sim
, and Stephen R. Bissette
. The Bill included twelve rights such as "The right to full ownership of what we fully create," and "The right to prompt payment of a fair and equitable share of profits derived from all of our creative work."
, 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. Thousands of cartoonists have since taken up the challenge. One of the notables to take up this challenge include Kevin Eastman
, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
. Rick Veitch
also took up this challenge and used it as a springboard for his popular comic Rarebit Fiends. Dave Sim
used some of his work from this challenge in Cerebus the Aardvark
. Neil Gaiman
finished his story in the 24 hours and created "The Gaiman Variation". Gaiman's participation was later lampooned in "Ghastly's Ghastly Comic", calling him "Neil 'Eighteen Pages' Gaiman".
, pens or brushes in years. After sketching layouts, which he says are "pretty tight", and include the full script, he scans them into an 18-inch computer tablet/monitor to use them as a guide for lettering them in Adobe Illustrator
. After completing the lettering, he exports the files to Photoshop
, where he fully renders the art at a resolution of 1,200 dpi
, creating between five and fifty layers of finished art before flattening it into a single black and white bitmap
, plus a greyscale page, if needed.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium. He is most notable for his non-fiction books about comics, Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 215-page non-fiction comic book, written and drawn by Scott McCloud and originally published in 1993. It explores the definition of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in which these elements...
, Reinventing Comics
Reinventing Comics
Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form is a 2000 book written by comic book writer and artist Scott McCloud...
and Making Comics, for which he has been called the "Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
of comics".
Early life
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,399 at the 2010 census. This town is famous for being the site of the first shot of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.- History :...
. He decided he wanted to be a comics artist in 1975, during his junior year in high school. When it came time to look for a college that fit his career goals, the one that offered a program closest to his career goals was Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
's Illustration program. He selected that school and area of major, and graduated from Syracuse with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
degree in 1982.
Artist and theorist
McCloud created the light-hearted science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
/superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series Zot!
Zot!
Zot! is a comic book created by Scott McCloud in 1984 and published by Eclipse Comics until 1990 as a lighthearted alternative to the darker and more violent comics that predominated the industry during that period. There were a total of 36 issues, with the first ten in color and the remainder in...
in 1984, in part as a reaction to the increasingly grim direction that superhero comics were taking in the 1980s.
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
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln (done with a mixture of computer-generated and manually-drawn digital images), 12 issues writing DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
' Superman Adventures
Superman Adventures
Superman Adventures is a DC Comics comic book series featuring Superman. It is different from other Superman titles in that it is set in the continuity of Superman: The Animated Series as opposed to the regular DC Universe. It ran for 66 issues between 1996 and 2002...
, and the three-issue limited series Superman: Strength.
He is best known as a comics theorist or as some say, the "Aristotle of comics", following the publication in 1993 of Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 215-page non-fiction comic book, written and drawn by Scott McCloud and originally published in 1993. It explores the definition of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in which these elements...
, a wide-ranging exploration of the definition, history, vocabulary, and methods of the medium of comics, itself in comics form. He followed in 2000 with Reinventing Comics
Reinventing Comics
Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form is a 2000 book written by comic book writer and artist Scott McCloud...
(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.
He was one of the earliest vocal supporters of micropayment
Micropayment
A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money and usually one that occurs online. PayPal defines a micropayment as a transaction of less than 12 USD while Visa prefers transactions under 20 Australian dollars, and though micropayments were originally envisioned to...
s. He was also an adviser to BitPass
BitPass
Bitpass was an online payment system for digital content and services. Kurt Huang was a co-founder; Doug Knopper was hired as CEO in November, 2005. Bitpass was a California corporation with headquarters in Silicon Valley...
, 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
Infinite canvas
The infinite canvas is the idea that the size of a digital comics page is theoretically infinite, and that online comics are therefore not limited by conventional page sizes. An artist could conceivably display a complete comics story of indefinite length on a single "page"...
" 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.
He created a comic book that formed the press release introducing Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's web browser, Google Chrome
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
, which was published on September 1, 2008.
In 2009, McCloud was featured in The Cartoonist
The Cartoonist
The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the Changing Face of Comics is a 2009 documentary about the life and art of Jeff Smith, the creator of the Bone graphic novel series and regarded as one of America's greatest living cartoonists...
, a documentary film on the life and work of Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith (cartoonist)
Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. His current series, RASL, focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.-Early life and education:Jeff Smith was born in McKees...
, creator of Bone.
Creator's Bill of Rights
McCloud was the principal author of the Creator's Bill of RightsCreator's Bill of Rights
The Creator's Bill of Rights was a document drafted in November 1988 by a number of independent comic book artists and writers, designed to protect their rights as creators and aid against their exploitation by corporate work for hire practices...
, a 1988 document with the stated aim of protecting the rights of comic book creators and help aid against the exploitation of comic artists and writers by corporate work-for-hire practices. The group that adopted the Bill also included artists Kevin Eastman
Kevin Eastman
Kevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Early life:Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
, Dave Sim
Dave Sim
David Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
, and Stephen R. Bissette
Stephen R. Bissette
Stephen R. Bissette is an American comics artist, editor, and publisher with a focus on the horror genre. He is best known for working with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben on the DC comic Swamp Thing in the 1980s....
. The Bill included twelve rights such as "The right to full ownership of what we fully create," and "The right to prompt payment of a fair and equitable share of profits derived from all of our creative work."
24-hour comic
In 1990, McCloud coined the idea of a 24-hour comic24-hour comic
A 24-hour comic is a 24-page comic book written, drawn, and completed in 24 hours. Scott McCloud originally came up with the challenge for himself and Steve Bissette as a creative exercise...
, 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. Thousands of cartoonists have since taken up the challenge. One of the notables to take up this challenge include Kevin Eastman
Kevin Eastman
Kevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Early life:Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
. Rick Veitch
Rick Veitch
Richard "Rick" Veitch is an American comic book artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.-Early career:...
also took up this challenge and used it as a springboard for his popular comic Rarebit Fiends. Dave Sim
Dave Sim
David Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
used some of his work from this challenge in Cerebus the Aardvark
Cerebus the Aardvark
Cerebus the Aardvark, or simply Cerebus , is an independent comic book, written and illustrated by Canadian artist Dave Sim, with backgrounds by fellow Canadian Gerhard. Cerebus ran for 300 issues from December 1977 to 2004, and was over 6000 pages long, the longest-running original...
. Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
finished his story in the 24 hours and created "The Gaiman Variation". Gaiman's participation was later lampooned in "Ghastly's Ghastly Comic", calling him "Neil 'Eighteen Pages' Gaiman".
Technique and materials
Although McCloud sketches his layouts in pencil, the remainder of his work is done digitally, explaining in his 2006 book Making Comics that he had not used traditional materials like Bristol boardBristol board
Bristol board is an uncoated, machine-finished paperboard. It is named after the city of Bristol in the southwest of England...
, pens or brushes in years. After sketching layouts, which he says are "pretty tight", and include the full script, he scans them into an 18-inch computer tablet/monitor to use them as a guide for lettering them in Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Illustrator is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to its competitors, CorelDraw, Xara Designer Pro and Macromedia FreeHand....
. After completing the lettering, he exports the files to Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
, where he fully renders the art at a resolution of 1,200 dpi
Dots per inch
Dots per inch is a measure of spatial printing or video dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch . The DPI value tends to correlate with image resolution, but is related only indirectly.- DPI measurement in monitor...
, creating between five and fifty layers of finished art before flattening it into a single black and white bitmap
Bitmap
In computer graphics, a bitmap or pixmap is a type of memory organization or image file format used to store digital images. The term bitmap comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits, a spatially mapped array of bits. Now, along with pixmap, it commonly refers to...
, plus a greyscale page, if needed.
Awards
- 1985 Jack Kirby Award for Best New Series for Zot!
- 1985 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award for Zot!
- 1994 Eisner AwardEisner AwardThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
for Best Comics-Related Book for Understanding ComicsUnderstanding ComicsUnderstanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 215-page non-fiction comic book, written and drawn by Scott McCloud and originally published in 1993. It explores the definition of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in which these elements... - 1994 Harvey AwardHarvey AwardThe Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
for Best Writer for Understanding Comics - 1994 Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album/Original Material for Understanding Comics
- 1994 Harvey Award for Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation for Understanding Comics
- 2001 Harvey Award for Best Biographical/Historical Presentation for Reinventing ComicsReinventing ComicsReinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form is a 2000 book written by comic book writer and artist Scott McCloud...
Nominations
- 1988 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist for Zot!
- 1988 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue for Zot! #14
- 1988 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series for Zot!
- 1988 Eisner Award for Best Black-and-White Series for Zot!
- 1988 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist for Zot!
- 1991 Harvey Award for Best Writer for Zot!
- 1991 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story for Zot! #33
- 1991 Eisner Award for Best Story or Single Issue for Zot! #33
- 1991 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series for Zot!
- 1991 Eisner Award for Best Black-and-White Series for Zot!
- 1991 Eisner Award for Best Writer for Zot!
- 1992 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story for Zot! #35
- 1993 Harvey Award for Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation for Understanding Comics: The Slideshow!
- 1998 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue for Superman AdventuresSuperman AdventuresSuperman Adventures is a DC Comics comic book series featuring Superman. It is different from other Superman titles in that it is set in the continuity of Superman: The Animated Series as opposed to the regular DC Universe. It ran for 66 issues between 1996 and 2002...
#3 ("Distant Thunder"; with Rick BurchettRick BurchettRick Burchett is an American comic book artist known for his work on such characters as Batman and Superman.Burchett began his artistic career in St...
and Terry AustinTerry Austin (comics)Terry Austin is an American comic book artist, working primarily as an inker. He is best known for his work embellishing John Byrne's pencils on The Uncanny X-Men from 1977–1981.-Early life and career:...
) - 1998 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for Superman Adventures #11-12 ("The War Within"; with Rick Burchett and Terry Austin)
- 1998 Eisner Award for Best Writer for Superman Adventures
- 2007 Harvey Award for Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation for Making Comics
External links
- 24 Hour Comics
- Scott McCloud biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
- TED Talks: Scott McCloud on comics at TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
in 2005 - Scott McCloud's page on Comiclopedia
Interviews
- "Interview with Scott McCloud, artist behind Google Chrome comic" New York Daily News (Sept. 7, 2008).
- "Interview of McCloud by R.C. Harvey, excerpted from The Comics Journal #179" "The Comics Journal"
- "Still Thinking: By Charles Hatfield" "The Comics Journal"