Making Comics, Death Note

Scott McCloud's Making Comics is a great continuation of Understanding Comics in many ways while also being it's own entity entirely. Understanding Comics essentially showed readers how to read comics, and look at them critically, as a medium, in the same way an art history class teaches students how to look at and appreciate fine arts. Making Comics is, as its title implies, a kind of general introduction on the execution of the craft, written in McCloud's deft style that manages to cut to the chase and illustrate many points, while still applying to all possible genres and styles of comics. Particularly interesting is the section in which McCloud illusrates the vast library of human expression and possible characters available simply when looking at basic groups of animals, elements, emotions, etc. McCloud thus not only gives technical assistance, but advice on opening up new avenues of inspiration.

Reading Death Note soon after reading Understanding Comics was a real treat. I was able to pick out and identify many of the techniques that McCloud notes as more prevalent in Japanese comics. Things like panels bleeding off the page, as well as more moment to moment transitions. I was surprised at how quickly the story in Death Note picked up and moved along from the beginning. I felt the book had just started when I was wrapped up in government panic, secret agents, demons and more "death note" rules than I could keep track of. However, I wasn't confused, and the pace seemed to keep the entertainment value and energy high within the narrative.