Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (English)

"Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art" is a comic book about comics. Scott McCloud, in an incredibly accessible style, not only takes apart comic books, he puts them back together again.

The volume is divided into nine chapters:
(1) Setting the Record Straight, which develops a proper dictionary-style definition of "comics";
(2) The Vocabulary of Comics, detailing the iconic nature of comic art;
(3) Blood in the Gutter, establishing the different types of transitions between frames of comic art, which are the building blocks of how comics work;
(4) Time Frames, covers the ways in which comics manipulate time, including depictions of speed and motion;
(5) Living in Line, explores how emotions and other things are made visible in comics;
(6) Show and Tell, looks at the interchangeability of words and pictures in various combinations;
(7) The Six Steps, details the path comic book creators take in moving from idea/purpose to form to idiom to structure to craft to surface (but not necessarily in that order);
(8) A Word About Color, reminds us that even though this particular book is primarily in black & white, color has its uses in comic books;
(9) Putting It All Together, finds McCloud getting philosophical about the peculiar place of comic books in the universe.