Book Reviews, Book Talk

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

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cover of understanding comics

I recently read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, and I was blown away. This book came out in 1993, and I know that makes me really late to the party, as I’ve seen this recommended quite a few times, but I’ve never stopped to read. Joe Crawford threw this title out as the November 2025 IndieWeb Book Club read, and I’m so glad I joined in (both because I enjoyed the book and I am thankful for the chance to try out webmentions, which is also new to me).

McCloud does a masterful job of explaining how and why comics work so well when it comes to storytelling.

He dives into the way our brains work, how culture affects what we perceive, and the physical restraints of the medium. He spends time explaining the difference between a cartoon, comics, icons, illustrative art, etc. He shows how commercial and artistic interests sometimes push and sometimes hinder development.

He dedicates whole chapters to time, color, and spatial perception.

All of this is so well done, there were times I was wondering if this book needed to be on my books about books shelf or my media philosophy shelf. 

While there are many takeaways that will stay with you and are worth ruminating on, it was Chapter Three – Blood in the Gutter, when he explains the concept of ‘Closure’, that I knew I was hooked. He boils down some big ideas and simplifies things so you understand the complexity of what happens in your brain when you read a panel of a comic and then read the following rectangle panel next to it, essentially skipping the small white space (called the gutter) separating the two. 

A great way to illustrate and explain the idea of “closure”.
So much can happen in the gutter between two panels. McCloud breaks down the six most common.

McCloud then goes on to demonstrate how storytellers can use that gutter to connect action and get your brain involved in the storytelling. It’s so well done.

His explanations of why different levels of detail/realism in a comic directly influence how much the reader will immerse themselves into a story were amazing and something I haven’t quit thinking about.

I now see that I’ve only looked at the surface of comics and not considered the other layers involved, which just makes one appreciate the form even more.

McCloud also excels at plotting different ideas and formulas when it comes to types of comics and illustrated storytelling. While I don’t know enough to call this book a masterclass, it is certainly one of the best any casual reader could pick up. His book Understanding Comics is to comics as baking shows are to cakes. You really start to understand the vocabulary, see how all the pieces work together, and why. And you have a blast while learning all this.

I highly recommend this one to almost everybody. It’s one of the few 5-star reads I had this year. Contrary to what I’ve always thought, this is not just folks who get comics and “are into it”, but anyone who likes books and thinks about storytelling in any form (even reports at work where you have to present things sequentially). This book really does open things up.

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As I stated at the top, the fact that I read this book is a celebration of the cool parts of the IndieWeb. I am posting this using something called webmentions, which is new to me, and I am anxious to see how these notifications, pings, and conversations happen. 

Book Talk

NONFICTION NOVEMBER 2025 WEEK 5

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This week’s Nonfiction November 2025 festivities are being hosted over on Deb Nance’s site, ReaderBuzz, with the prompt being:

“New To My TBR:  It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR?”

What a great month it’s been, and I feel exhausted! So many great new reads, conversations, and fun new blogs to follow. 

November is always a good time of year to have this event, as it gives us all a little time to add a few new titles to our wish lists. I’m already excited about next year’s reading. Over the 4 weeks of the event, I collected a list of 23 titles that sound like really good reads. I cut that down a bit and am sharing an “up first for me” list of ten titles, with links to the blogs where I read about them. These are all books that I hope to read sooner rather than later:

  1. Bookish by Lucy Mangan 
  2. Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound by Kate Kennedy
  3. The CIA Book Club by Charlie English
  4. Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
  5. Cull of the Wild by Hugh Warwick 
  6. A Year With Gilbert White by Jenny Uglow. 
  7. We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi
  8. Along the Road: Notes and Essays of a Tourist by Aldous Huxley 
  9. The Common Good by Robert Reich
  10. The Quiet Damage by Jesselyn Cook 

I was encouraged by some of the recurring themes and books folks, from across the globe, were reading. There were lots of books on the history of fascism/resistance/current affairs as well as nature. While not an official count, I did track the titles I saw pop up most often, and these had the most ticks on my notepad:

Thank you to all the hosts this year. It really was fun. I hope you found some good reads this November, and I hope you have a fun place online to share your thoughts and reading. Thank you for stopping by and reading my posts during Nonfiction November 2025!

Here are the links to my earlier Nonfiction November 2025 posts:

 

Book Reviews, Book Talk, letterpress, Typography

NONFICTION NOVEMBER 2025 WEEK 4

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This week’s Nonfiction November festivities are being hosted over on Rebekah’s site, She Seeks Nonfiction, with the prompt being:

“Diverse Perspectives: Nonfiction books are one of the best tools for seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. They allow us to get an idea of the experiences of people of all different ages, races, genders, abilities, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, or even just people with different opinions than ours. Is there a book you read this year from a diverse author, or a book that opened your eyes to a perspective that you hadn’t considered? How did it challenge you to think differently?”

I have been excited about this Week Four ever since I finished reading Citizen Printer by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.

Citizen Printer cover

You guys are going to have to forgive me if I fanboy for a bit, as I am a huge fan of Amos Kennedy and his work. I have quite a few posters and have been following him ever since our conversation at the 2009 Alabama Book Festival. I have to say that this book (which came out in 2024) more accurately captures Kennedy’s view of the world and his processes than any other book or interview that I’ve read about him. If you enjoy typography, letterpress, and handcrafted art, you should check out his book. If you like your art to communicate with clear, bold, and inspiring images and color, then you need to own some of his art. Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. has never strayed from his mission of social justice, Black history, and culture.

Citizen Printer spine

It’s pretty amazing how so many books about race in America can be distilled down to a single broadside poster printed with a true artist’s eye.

Citizen Printer pages

Citizen Artist does a solid job of not just showing how Kennedy shares what he’s saying (lots of people dig his art), but the essays in here do a good job of highlighting what Kennedy is saying through his art.

Kennedy is at his best when he is giving weight and emphasis to other people’s words. Some names you’ll know, but many are voices that often get left behind as time marches on.

Citizen Printer pages
Citizen Printer pages

And, if you’re not sold on him yet, Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. loves books! He gets the need and power of having books close at hand and lining the bookshelves at home.

Citizen Printer pages
Citizen Printer page

The book features more than 800 pieces of art, a fold-out poster page, and a few thoughtful essays by a handful of scholarly folks. But Kennedy’s art and message always stay at the front, helping you see the struggle, work, pain, and hope for social equality here in America. As many times as Kennedy’s work pokes me in the eye demanding I pay attention, it is often sad, but never painful, and always feels like fresh air. 

Citizen Printer pages
Citizen Printer pages

I hope we all find some new books this week to help gain some hope and a fresh perspective on the people around us.

BONUS: Here is a flip-through video that Kennedy’s publisher made and posted online. It gives a wonderful view of just how great this book is.

Book Talk

NONFICTION NOVEMBER 2025 WEEK 3

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This week’s Nonfiction November festivities are being hosted over on Liz’s site Adventures in reading, running, and working from home, with the prompt being:

“Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read, and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or maybe it’s just two books you feel have a link, whatever they might be. You can be as creative as you like!”

This week’s challenge was fun because both of these books are fun as they revolve around the world inhabited by obituary writers. The novel, I See You Called in Dead by John Kenney, is a new one that came out this year, and the nonfiction I matched with it is the amazing 2006 book The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson.

one blue book cover and one tan book cover on a wood table

Kenney’s I See You Called in Dead starts off so quickly with a bunch of things happening in the first 30 pages. Here’s the setup: a tired and ready-to-give-up obituary writer has a night of drunken weakness (dwelling on his ex-wife’s current life without him) where he logs into his work network and writes an amazingly humorous and lie-ridden obituary for himself. The next morning, the world believes he is dead. The next afternoon, he gets put on paid leave as the company decides what to do (the computer won’t let them fire someone who is already dead). He spends the rest of the novel going through his personal relationships as well as attending the funerals of random people around the city. 

blue book cover
Cover design by Emily Mahon

While the book has lots of fun people and a quirky plot, there were two things I really enjoyed: first, New York City. The book is dripping with the sights and sounds of the city, and it was fun; second, every once in a while, Bud or a friend would have a moment of clarity about something profound (the city or the role of news) or see the edges of some universal truth. There are some really big “wake up call” kind of moments that will stay with you once you’ve finished reading. The book is so well done and even fun to read as it balances ideas of life/death among all the weird happenings and sarcastic remarks. Just like life.

page of text

While that novel deals with an obituary writer dealing with life and visiting funerals, Johnson’s The Dead Beat deals with real-life obituary writers as well as some of the lives and deaths behind the articles. This book is such a fun read.

Dead Beat tan cover
Cover design by Milan Bozic

Some of the obituaries are absolutely brutal, some are eye-watering sweet, and they all add up to a true snapshot of humanity. The book was written almost 20 years ago, so the internet doesn’t figure in as much as it would today (and I think that is kind of refreshing). Johnson interviews obituary writers, readers, and even goes to an Obituary Writers’ Conference. I had no idea how many people read the obituary page each day. She does a good job of showing the art, humor, and humanity behind every column inch that gets published.

gray photo in a book facing a page of text

I hope you all have found some good nonfiction books this month. And I hope you have someplace to share and get others excited about your reads. Book people are the best people, and the internet is at its best wherever there is a vibrant book community.

Books, Publishing and Birmingham