Introducing Scott McCloud




[ Photo courtesy Shawn Levy.]

This has been one of the most busy-cool weeks of my career. In addition to the usual day-job stuff:

Friday-Saturday, June 22-23: I volunteer at two charity screenings.

Sunday, June 24: I lead a workshop.

Monday-Saturday, June 25-30: I am a festival juror.

Tuesday, June 26: Dark Horse gives a friendly nod to "Serenity Tales."

Thursday, June 28: My work is displayed among flayed corpses. And

Thursday, June 28: I get to introduce one of my heroes.

That last one was a doozy. Scott McCloud -- the absolute guru of comics theory -- is touring all 50 states with his family to promote his new book Making Comics. He popped in at Wieden + Kennedy to give an amazing 700-slide PowerPoint lecture on the theory, history and future of the art form. (Shawn Levy blogged about this sold-out event here.) And PNCA asked me to warm up the audience by basically geeking out on the guy for three minutes.

For posterity's sake, you can read that geek-out after the jump. There will not be a test later.

continued ...

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Hello. My name is Mike Russell. I draw a non-fiction comic strip for The Oregonian called "CulturePulp." And the PNCA has very graciously given me a chance to introduce one of my heroes.

So: Why is Scott McCloud important? Why are we here?

I think it boils down to this:

A lot of people who make comics spend a lot of time worrying about their careers (or their imagined careers).

Scott McCloud spends a lot of time worrying about the career of COMICS ITSELF, as a medium.

Mr. McCloud is a wonderful narrative storyteller, but he's most famous for creating three non-fiction comic books ABOUT comics. Taken together, the trilogy of UNDERSTANDING COMICS, REINVENTING COMICS and MAKING COMICS is extraordinary -- and almost totally unprecedented.

Over 700 meticulously crafted pages, these three books explore the nature, history, future, vocabulary, and practical creation of comic strips and books. Comics are the easiest form of writing to read and the hardest form of writing to write. And in his books, Scott McCloud explains exactly why. He takes the medium apart and studies it like a pocketwatch. He reveals what he calls "the secret language of comics" -- that is, the massive number of decisions about layout, writing, art and choice of moment that go into every panel and page.

And he's revealing that secret language while EMPLOYING that secret language. This seems like an obvious idea until you realize that no one had quite done it before Scott McCloud -- or at least not done it for 700-plus freaking pages.

I've heard people at Pixar talk about the concept of "sprezzatura" -- an Italian phrase that means "concealing your effort." If you distill your work to its essence and don't show off, the work tends to radiate with power. Scott McCloud totally embodies sprezzatura. Break down any one of his pages and you realize he's spent dozens if not hundreds of hours of research, consideration and effort on every single clearly and simply rendered idea. It was probably terrifying to write. And it will endure for centuries.

McCloud has been called a "pop scholar." But when you consider what goes into every page, the term very quickly seems inadequate.

Finally, Scott McCloud is ALSO important because he's generous. He's a guru to the next generation of print and web cartoonists, many of whom recently moved to Portland (and are, apparently, in the audience tonight). His books have inspired people who don't "Draw the Marvel Way" to realize they can contribute meaningfully to the medium working within their own vocabulary -- a vocabulary Scott McCloud helped define for them. He shares ideas and welcomes counter-arguments. At every turn, he tries to transform the lonely process of making comics into a community event -- as when he invented a now-popular endurance contest called "The 24-Hour Comic" that is every bit as horrifying as it sounds.

And he's currently acting as a sort of Johnny ComicsSeed: He and his family have been touring the nation, visiting all 50 states, leading workshops and making introductions. He's even gotten his family into the act: His daughters have produced a disarming series of video interviews for the Web with famous cartoonists they've met along the way.

Everything about comics is better with this man in the world, and we're lucky to have him. Please give a warm welcome to Scott McCloud.
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ScottMcCloud.com

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Posted: Sat - June 30, 2007 at 03:00 PM        

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