Reinventing Comics

Reinventing Comics was released in 2000 in separate editions published by Paradox Press and William Morrow Paperbacks. Paradox Press, formerly an imprint of DC Comics, is now defunct, and William Morrow is now a division of HarperCollins, so subsequent printings of the book have been released by HarperCollins.

Reinventing Comics explains twelve "revolutions" that McCloud predicts are necessary for the comic book to survive as a medium:{{cite web|url=https://www.thegutterreview.com/reinterpreting-scott-mcclouds-reinventing-comics/|title=REINTERPRETING SCOTT MCCLOUD'S "REINVENTING COMICS"|date=Nov 2, 2021|website=The Gutter Review|first=GRAEME|last= MCMILLAN}}

• "comics as literature"
• "comics as art"
• "creators' rights"
• "industry innovation"
• "public perception"
• "institutional scrutiny"
• "gender balance"
• "minority representation"
• "diversity of genre"
• "digital production"
• "digital delivery"
• "digital comics"

The book caused considerable controversy in the comics industry,{{cite web|url=https://www.scottmccloud.com/2-print/2-rc/index.html|title= Reinventing Comics|website=ScottMcCloud.com|access-date=Feb 12, 2024}} McCloud famously noting that it had been described as "dangerous".{{cite web|title=Reinventing Comics|url=http://www.scottmccloud.com/store/books/rc.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080722223736/http://www.scottmccloud.com/store/books/rc.html|archive-date=July 22, 2008|website=ScottMcCloud.com|first=Scott|last=McCloud|quote=Nearly every page seemed to step on somebody's toes, and the debates in the comics industry over comics on the Web have gotten increasingly heated since its publication. Reinventing Comics is the only book I've ever written that's been actually described as 'dangerous'.}}

As promised in the book, McCloud has offered annotations, addenda and his further-developing thoughts about the future of comics on his website. In particular, he considered his 2000–2001 webcomic, I Can't Stop Thinking, to be a continuation of Reinventing Comics,{{cite web|url=https://www.scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/icst/index.html|title=I Can't Stop Thinking (2000-2001)|website=ScottMcCloud.com|first=Scott|last=McCloud|quote=An online appendix to my 2000 book Reinventing Comics, 'I Can't Stop Thinking' provided a forum for ongoing speculations about digital comics.}} though he has continued to write about the future of comics in many different forms, as he acknowledges Reinventing Comics is "a product of its time".{{cite web|url=http://www.scottmccloud.com/links/resources/resources.html|title=RESOURCES: Reinventing Comics Resources|date= May 2001|access-date=Feb 12, 2024|website=ScottMcCloud.com}}

McCloud drew Reinventing Comics digitally, using a small Wacom tablet. Because of the low power of the machine he was using, McCloud had a difficult time working on the book. In an interview with Joe Zabel, McCloud stated that he was so eager to get to the second half of the book that he rushed through the first portion.{{cite web|url=http://webcomicsreview.com/?p=151&page=3|work=The Webcomics Examiner|title=Making Lightning – An Interview with Scott McCloud|last=Zabel|first=Joe|author-link=Joe Zabel|date=2006-06-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080324025118/http://webcomicsreview.com/?p=151&page=3|archive-date=2008-03-24}}

A revised version of Reinventing Comics{{ISBN missing}} was released in 2009.{{cn|date=March 2024}} Here, McCloud cited various successful webcomics that pushed the envelope, such as Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's work with the "Tarquin Engine" and Drew Weing's Pup Contemplates the Heat Death of the Universe.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnuQBQAAQBAJ&q="The+Right+Number"+McCloud|title=Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas|last=Booker|first=M. Keith|publisher=ABC-CLIO|date=2014-10-28|page=1825|isbn=978-0313397516}}

{{Portal|Comics|Books}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em|small=yes}}

• Comics studies – academic study of comics and graphic novels

{{div col end}}

• {{cite magazine|url=http://www.tcj.com/the-comics-journal-no-232-april-2001/ |title=McCloud Cukoo-Land |magazine=The Comics Journal |number=232|date=April 2001|accessdate=2017-08-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110408035700/http://www.tcj.com/the-comics-journal-no-232-april-2001/|archivedate=2011-04-08|url-status=live|publisher=Fantagraphics|page=32+|first=Gary|last=Groth|author-link=Gary Groth}}
• {{cite magazine|url=https://www.tcj.com/tcj-archive/the-comics-journal-no-234-june-2001/|magazine=The Comics Journal|date=June 2001|number=234|first=Gary|last=Groth|title=Cuckoo-Land Un-Reinventing Comics, Part 2|page=49+|publisher=Fantagraphics}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.scottmccloud.com/2-print/2-rc/index.html Reinventing Comics page on Scott McCloud's website]

{{Scott McCloud}}

Category:Books by Scott McCloud

Category:2000 non-fiction books

Category:Books of literary criticism

Category:Books about comics

Category:Comics about comics

Category:Paradox Press titles

Category:Non-fiction graphic novels

{{art-book-stub}}

{{lit-criticism-book-stub}}