If you read "Understanding Comics" (if not, you should), you already experienced Scott McCloud's love of sequential art firsthand in his very accessible analysis of the form. Having acknowledged the incredible potential the medium has to offer, "Reinventing Comics" brings us to terms with why we're not quite there yet. This book is not so much about comics themselves, as about comic books today in America (brief mentions are made to European and Japanese comics, but mostly to make clear what the book is not talking about).
McCloud uses his concept of the 'twelve revolutions' to visit the shaping moments of American comic book history, and the current state of the industry. The book abounds with examples of comics that push the medium farther, facing many of the challenges posed (like ethnical diversity, feminine presence, and diverse genres and subject matters), most of which will be familiar to readers of current alternative comic books (Maus, Ghost World, Bone, Love and Rockets, Joe Sacco's works, etc.) The exposition is very clear and enjoyable, even for non comic book readers, which might as well be touched by the passion for the medium shown in every page. A vision is shared by McCloud with the reader, through this book, for a future of exciting possibilities.
The future, indeed, is the theme of the second part of the book, in which the eventual marriage of digital technology and comic books is discussed. A somewhat lengthy (for my taste, I admit) explanation of the internet and other current technologies is given, along with very conservative calculations of what the future might look like. McCloud's case is very solid, as he doesn't try to predict, but rather to open a window, for everyone to see some of the many possibilities available. A final analysis of the form is made, as questions are raised about what sequential art is when free from the "tyranny" of the page.
There is one major flaw I have to warn you about. The first half of the chapter _Big World, The Battle For Diversity_ is politically correct junk. (The second half is non-political, about diversity of genre, eg sci-fi, superheros, westerns etc) On the whole, Scott McCloud obviously knows a great deal about comics, but for this section, he appears to forget facts that are obvious to even the very casual reader of comics.
For instance, anyone who's even glimpsed comics in passing, even just in the checkout line at the supermarket, has seen female heroines such as Wonder Woman created expressly to feminize comics, to lure female readers with a female image. Yet McCloud simply ignores this relentless feminization of comics and won't acknowledge that it undercuts his arguments. Rebutting this half-chapter point-by-point is beyond the scope of this review, so suffice it to say, it is dishonest stuff and really lowers the quality of the book.
The book is otherwise OK. I don't entirely regret buying it, but I wish I'd been warned about the political correctness.
