I'm currently reading Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics, the sort of sequel to Understanding comics. I've only just started it so don't have much to say about the book itself at the moment. I wanted to read it because while Understanding Comics was incredibly thorough and analytical when it came to about every aspect of comics it was written in the early 90s. This means a lot of new developments in comics are obviously not included as well as predating the digital revolution that completely changed the way a lot of comics are made compared to the 90's. Also Scott McCloud often mentions possibilities in comics that are yet to be explored in Understanding Comics but with the recent comic renaissance of the moment are being actualised.
Having said all that Reinventing Comics was only written in 2000 so isn't particularly recent and was published just before what I've talked about came to light. In fact the comic world of the late 90s was going through its most dire period ever, less were being made, those that were were in general unoriginal and not very good and no one seemed to be buying comics anymore. I expect McCloud will have insights about this dire time in the book but I hope he is perceptive enough to foresee what is to come and talk about that too. Either way if it's anyway near as good and useful as Understanding Comics then it will be worth the read.
McCloud, S. (2000) Reinventing Comics. New York: Harper Collins.
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