Scott McCloud

For other people named Scott McCloud, see Scott McCloud (disambiguation).

Scott McCloud
McCloud, RISD, March 2007.
Born	Scott McLeod June 10, 1960 (1960-06-10) (age 51) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Area(s)	cartoonist, theorist
Notable works	Zot! Understanding Comics Reinventing Comics Making Comics Superman
Awards	Russ Manning Award, 1985 12-time nominee for Eisner, Harvey awards[1]
Official website

Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod on June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium.

Biography

McCloud on the Making Comics Tour in Louisville, Kentucky

McCloud was born in Boston, Massachusetts and spent most of his childhood in Lexington, Massachusetts. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from Syracuse University. McCloud created the light-hearted science fiction/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.^[2]

He is best known as a comics theorist or as some say, the "Aristotle of comics",^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

He was one of the earliest promoters of webcomics as a distinct variety of comics,^{[citation needed]} and a vocal supporter of micropayments.^[6] 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.^[4]

His latest work is a comic book that formed the press release introducing Google's web browser, Google Chrome, which was published on September 1, 2008.^[7]

In 2009, McCloud was featured in The Cartoonist, a documentary film on the life and work of Jeff Smith, creator of Bone.^[8]

Creator's Bill of Rights

McCloud was the principal author of the Creator's Bill of Rights, 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.^[9] The group that adopted the Bill also included artists Kevin Eastman, Dave Sim, and Stephen R. Bissette.^[10] 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."^[11]

24-hour comic

In 1990, McCloud coined the idea of a 24-hour comic, 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.^[12] 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 his comic.^[13] Neil Gaiman finished his story in the 24 hours and created "The Gaiman Variation".^[14] Gaiman's participation was later lampooned in "Ghastly's Ghastly Comic", calling him "Neil 'Eighteen Pages' Gaiman".

Bibliography

• Zot!
  • Zot!: Book One (Eclipse Books, 1991) ISBN 978-0913035047
  • Zot!: Book Two (Issues 11-15 & 17-18) (Kitchen Sink Press, 1998) ISBN 978-0878164288
  • Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection: 1987-1991 (Harper Paperbacks, 2008) ISBN 0061537276
• Understanding Comics
  • Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993, ISBN 0-613-02782-5)
  • Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form (2000, ISBN 0-06-095350-0)
  • Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels (2006, ISBN 0-06-078094-0)
• The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln (Image Comics, 1998) ISBN 978-1887279871
• 24 Hour Comics (editor) (About Comics, 2004) ISBN 978-0971633841

Notes

1. ^ Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Scott McCloud". http://lambiek.net/artists/m/mccloud.htm. 
2. ^ Toko Buku Online.
3. ^ Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick (2003). The New Media Reader. The MIT Press.
4. ^ ^{a b} http://www2.und.nodak.edu/our/uletter/print_article.php?uletterID=2163
5. ^ MIT news (September 20, 2006). "'Making Comics' author decodes cartoons". http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/mccloud-0920.html. 
6. ^ The Guardian (August 7, 2003). "Making the web pay". http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1013313,00.html. 
7. ^ McCloud, Scott (2008-09-01). "Google Chrome, behind the Open Source Browser Product". Google. http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/. Retrieved 2008-09-02. 
8. ^ http://www.thecartoonistmovie.com
9. ^ Coogan, Pete (September, 1990). "Creator's Rights". The Comics Journal p. 65-71
10. ^ McCloud, Scott (2000). Reinventing Comics, New York: Paradox Press. Pg. 62
11. ^ "Creator's Bill of Rights". 2006-10-13. http://www.scottmccloud.com/inventions/bill/bill_of_rights.html. 
12. ^ Brattleboro Museum. "The 24-Hour Comic Book Challenge". Archived from the original on 2007-06-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20070607194756/http://www.brattleboromuseum.org/events/ComicChallenge.html. 
13. ^ CerebusCerebus the Aardvark
14. ^ The 24-Hour Comics Index

References

• McCloud profile on RAW's site
• Scott McCloud French publications Bedetheque (French)

External links

	Boston portal
	Comics portal
	Biography portal

• Official website
• 24 Hour Comics
• Scott McCloud biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
• TED Talks: Scott McCloud on comics at TED 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"

Persondata
Name	Maccloud, Scott
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 10, 1960
Place of birth	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Date of death
Place of death