The Sculptor

Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is masterful, insightful and entertaining. He's great on theory and you should read that book.

However, he's not that great in practice. The drawings in this graphic novel are adequate but not striking and don't really contribute to the story. The story is pedestrian and low-energy. To me, it's weak character construction that everyone had a secret weakness, but maybe that's how artists really are.

Makes Maus seem like a cheerful romp. Might have been a good 30 page story, but this was hundreds of depressing pages too long. Can't imagine the frame of mind a person would have to be in to find this enjoyable. Good graphic storytelling was wasted in service of a dreary, overlong, and pretentious flop.

I love Scott Mcloud's Understanding comics, but this book is... too pretentious, too full of itself for such an average read. I think McCloud was trying to make the next Maus or Persopolis, and you can see him trying to tackle big issues in a pretentious way, but it never goes past mediocre. Understanding Comics is a classic, The Sculptor will be forgotten in a few years.

This graphic novel has great intentions, bursts with ambition and big ideas, and offers a few really satisfying set pieces. On the other hand, big chunks of it are predictable, angsty or tone deaf, (or all three at once).

To me, Great Uncle Harry, (a.k.a. "the Grim Reaper"), was worth the price of admission. His melancholy, his razor-sharp deadpan wit, and his passing observations about the human condition, added much needed energy and weight to the narrative. Whenever Harry was on the page, everything was sharper, smarter, funnier, and more touching. This is his book, as perhaps it should be.

As to our actual hero, well, the angsty artist with a thirst for recognition is not a new character. Our David faces a deadline and is possessed of a supernatural talent, but we get a lot more mopiness than we do artistic fervor. It may not help that nothing he creates during the course of the story is the least bit interesting or novel.

Other secondary characters actually are what keep the reader involved. I liked the manic/depressive Natalie Portman/pixie/"Garden State" Madonna heroine well enough, just because she counter-acted mopey-Dave. A few other art patrons, friends, and even a cop, have some great lines and add some spice to the proceedings.

As I said, even as I read this, (and it's long, with lots of trimmable sub-plots), I wondered why. But there was just enough tension, just enough Harry, and just enough suspense to keep me hooked. It also helped that at about the half-way point David starts to wake up and look around, and the pace and immediacy of the story-telling gets a boost that drives the reader to the end.

Neil Gaiman claims this is the best graphic novel he’s read in “a while”. While it’s not the best graphic novel I’ve read in a while, I do believe this story was fantastic.

Sculptor starts off with the stereotypical whiny starving artist trope, as our protagonist, David, lives in New York and vows to never take charity and never leave New York, among dozens of promises he makes to himself. He finds himself in a sticky situation when he’s fired from his job and nobody’s buying his art. Interestingly, Death appears and makes him an offer; David can choose to be able to sculpt anything with his hands, but in exchange David only has 200 days left to live. David feels like a nobody, and makes the choice to take the offer, then the story unfolds in new ways.

I didn’t feel attached to David as a character, as he seemed whiny in the worst way. He was jealous at all the wrong times, selfish and indecisive, yet his relationship with Meg did bring out a better side to him. I did like that Meg is bipolar. The characterization of her bipolar was overly dramatic at times, but cut through to what I believe living with such a state of mental health can feel like at times. The entire premise of their relationship did feel a bit like the manic pixie dream girl trope as well, so we have starving artist meets manic pixie dream girl in a similar vein as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (except David’s already been fired from his boring desk job). This connection becomes especially apparent when they spend more time together towards the end, as Meg dares him to break more of his promises to himself and do wild fun things (although it was kind of sweet).

What is most effective about this book, however, is not the character development, but the graphics. I love the way McCloud draws each panel, sometimes letting them hang off the edge of the page. There are two particularly striking series of images near the end, that stand out to me the most, and they are both run together. I can’t say too much without giving anything away, but the images are stunning and took my breath away. Also the ending was full of emotions for me, despite having not particularly liked the characters themselves. Yet another attempt to portray the flightiness of life, and it did inspire me (or remind me, rather) to value the little things in life.

If you don’t typically read graphic novels, I recommend you give this one a try, as the art is amazing.

Sculptor David is going through a rough patch with his art.... in that he can't seem to bring himself to make any, or if he does it comes out a big ol' dud. In the middle of a booze soaked mope-fest one day, he meets up with his great uncle Harry whom he hasn't seen in ages. Then he remembers -- Harry's been DEAD for ages! So it comes out that "Harry" is actually Death using Harry's body. Death makes David a deal: By sunrise the next day, anything David's mind can dream up he will be able to carve with his bare hands. Yep, sculpting solid stone with his bare hands like it's butter. But only for 200 days. On the 200th day, David's life will end. David, honestly believing that he would do literally anything for his art quickly agrees. What he never plans on is meeting his perfectly imperfect love, Meg.

So what can I say in my review here. I was feeling some slight shades of Faust in this story!

I've read a number of the lower rated reviews out of curiosity, have seen the rants about Meg being too much of the cliche "manic pixie dream girl", the plot being on the predictable side, all that. I even agree, to a point. For me though, this book is one of those cases in which I see the flaws and I just don't care. Yes, I did find elements of the story predictable. Yes, Meg's character was a bit much at times. AND YET I can comfortably dismiss all that because this book seemed to so perfectly meet my emotional needs. It was the right book for the right mood at the right time. It lingered in my mind for DAYS... something that almost never happens with my graphic novel reading... and I love graphic novels! I just tend to enjoy them in the moment and then largely forget them. Not this one. This one sucked me in like a beautifully shot film. In fact I hope there are plans to translate this to the big screen one day because I see plenty of potential for cinematic amazingness here!

The Sculptor is Scott McCloud's graphic novel about art, young love, and a deal with death. The protagonist is David Smith, who has a meeting with Death at a depressed time of his life: he's lost his family, his girlfriend, his supporting patron, and the money required to acquire more raw material to sculpt. Death grants him a gift which could potentially make him the greatest sculptor of all time, in exchange for giving him only 200 days to live.

The story can't possibly be that simple, of course, and the course of his life soon takes a turn and he meets someone truly special. Along the way we discover the true nature of David Smith's successes and failures: he's not a people person, speaks his mind too quickly and too loudly, makes assumptions about people that are unwarranted out of ignorance, and is a very flawed human being. What I liked abou McCloud's depiction of Smith is that he gets you this nuanced view of Smith indirectly, slowly unveiling it. You understand his strengths, his will, and his devotion to his art as well.

As a story, McCloud steadfastly ignores all the possibilities for a typical Hollywood ending, and the logic of the tale remains consistent all the way to the end. It's very well done, and every time I think I have McCloud's story worked out, he surprises me with a "twist" that nevertheless makes sense in the context of the story.

The artwork of the novel is simplistic in style, though not simple. McCloud clearly understands the medium he works in and makes great use of it.

Unfortunately, the limitations of the graphic novel also has me thinking that in many ways, this story could have been told better as a movie. In the pre-CGI days, I think it would have been true that The Sculptor would be too expensive to be told as a comic book, but that's no longer true. It is true, however, that telling it as a graphic novel ensures that McCloud controls every aspect of the story, including the visual presentation, but all through reading the novel I thought it could be done just as well (with appropriate actors and directors, of course) as a film.

In any case, I can recommend the novel. It's short (2 hours reading time), explores interesting themes, and is executed competently. I'm glad I picked it up.

The only redeeming characteristic of The Sculptor is the artwork. The artwork is consistently rendered and enjoyable. The rest of the book leaves everything to be desired. The characters are clichéd, stereotypical, flat, and downright annoying. And if that's not enough they're anachronistic. It's as if McCloud created a group of sixties beatniks and dropped them into a contemporary setting. The dialogue is stilted and outdated. The plot, if you can call it that, is transparent, lacking in any element of substance. It's a preachy book but, ironically you're never really quite sure what McLeod is preaching about. You just know that he's trying to drive home some philosophical point or points. The one star that I given this review is only because I can't give no stars.

Scott Mccloud wrote a masterpiece with this graphic novel. It is pretty large but for me it could have been longer. I adored David and Meg. It was great to find out that McCloud's wife was the inspiration for Meg. That immediately pulled at my heartstrings because the love that the characters shared was vastly apparent. David gave everything he had for his art. He wanted to be remembered and make a name for himself. He could make art out of anything. He sold his soul and only had a few days to live but wanted to make it count. Along the way he fell in love with a beautiful soul, who allowed him to see the world in a new light. I was rooting for them both. I cried at certain parts, and laughed at many. This book was emotional and beautiful. It was beyond beautiful, and sad as well. I can't wait to read more from McCloud.

I read “The Sculptor” by Scott McCloud. I really, really liked this one. It might be the best graphic novel I’ve read since Jeff Smith’s “Bone.” Aside from genre, it is one of the most fully realized pieces of narrative that I’ve experienced in years. I can’t praise it any higher.

It’s a story about what you’ll do to live your dreams as well as what you’ll do for love. I stayed up too late reading it and I woke up my wife blowing my nose from the time it didn’t make me cry - I wasn’t crying I swear you didn’t see anything and can’t prove anything. That was catharsis, the Aristotelian “Purging of Pity and Fear,” that's what that was.

The only thing that might be a knock against it is that the story is told through male eyes. So the female love interest has a bit of that Manic Pixie Dream Girl thing going on, but as a reader it satisfied both the intellectual and emotional sides of my being, so it worked very well for me.

Kindle formatting is defective. It's been an issue for months. How hard would it be for the store to fix? Probably very simple to do so ... (Be glad to update my review if the simple formatting problem is addressed in the future.)

This is a beautiful book. I discovered Scott McCloud through his "Understanding Comics" book in my intro to linguistic anthropology in college; it changed the way I thought about comics and to this day I remember that as one of the key books of my education. For me this book manifested all those principles, telling a beautiful and heart-wrenching story with the incredible richness of expression that this medium affords.

A well conceived and thought out graphic novel using the tried and true plot of a man in a sense selling his soul to the devil to gain fame. In this instance he is given unlimited power to sculpt with a manic pace any material that is around and in exchange he must suffer a premature death. To complicate things he meets a girl that steals his heart away making things much more complex. The book is almost 500 pages but kept me entertained. I liked that the main character and his girlfriend are not all that good looking. Be sure to read the author's "Thank You" at the end.

A fantastic read! The story of a young sculptor in NYC who's experienced success and now is hitting rock bottom. Death appears to him and offers him a trade. Death will give him the power to sculpt any material with his hands but he'll die in 200 days. This is the story of what David does during those days. Scott McCloud's art in the book is wonderful. His characters are so expressive and realistic. I also like how he captures the loneliness that occurs even when you are surrounded by 10 million people.

Touching. Profound. Beautiful. It would not be hyperbole to describe this work by any of the three preceding words as the story crafted by Mr. McCloud will undoubtedly stay with me for quite some time. Sure, I've been moved by books before - Harry Potter, 11/22/63, Night - but, I've never been able to connect to a graphic novel the way a great traditional novel sucks me in until now. I refuse to give anything away, but be prepared for a therapeutic ride; a ride which forces you to confront the feelings of love, loss, grief, happiness, and even satisfaction. Just what (and how long) will we be remembered for? Will we live every minute of our finite existence to its greatest potential? McCloud demands you answer these questions as they pertain to your life. You won't be disappointed in the introspection.

this might just be my favorite graphic novel. maybe one of the best novels. i rented this book and immediately wished i had spent the money to buy it. i give it a 4.5 only because of some minor parts i didnt like. the ending is so great and captivating when there is all this crap with cops cracking jokes. i get that its supposed to show that even after everything David has done, the world still moves on and he will still be forgotten or whatever. then when it shows his final sculpture, everyone is awestruck. it is the happiest saddest ending of all time. anyways that is just a minor thing that i didnt like, but didnt hate, about it. definitely a must if your a fan of any type of literature. everyone should be required to read this. there needs to be more graphic novels like this one.

I was sent this advanced readers edition out of the blue.

This is the first graphic novel I've read. It is obvious that the author spent an incredible amount of time on the art. The art is not only excellent, but the story is fascinating. I sailed through this book in about three days (in my spare time). If you haven't experienced a graphic novel, try this one.

I recently became interested in comics over the last few months. I came across this book in the bookstore and couldn't put it down until the end. This was such a moving book. It had an amazing storyline that really dug into whether people can actually achieve their dreams if given the supposed talent. It took a look at the mental and emotional pains that tend to hold people back when trying to fulfill their goals. Additionally, the artwork was really wonderful.

I highly recommend this book - especially if you're looking for something of the non-super hero variety.

"The Sculptor"
Written & Illustrated by Scott McCloud
(First Second Books, 2015)
. . . . .

Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge, massive fan of Scott McCloud's Zot! series, which I maintain is one of the finest works to come out of the 1980s "ground level" comics scene, and a series that I recently proudly shared with my kid, now that growing up is around the corner. Later, when Scott McCloud established himself as a sequential art guru with his stunning Understanding Comics textbooks, I was as enthralled and impressed as anyone.

Of course, having a masterpiece like Zot! under your belt and then setting yourself up as one of the world's foremost authorities on the mechanics and psychology of graphical storytelling puts a lot of pressure on you when it comes time to return to fiction, and McCloud was surely under the microscope for this new graphic novel. Happily, it is an impressive, enjoyable book, both technically proficient and emotionally compelling.

Okay, I'll admit, his characters still can feel a little stiff and symbolic, not as richly human and nuanced as one might like. This is particularly true of the story's protagonist, the modern artist David Smith, who has an almost Ayn Rand-ian/Ditko-esque cardboard cutout quality -- he is there to represent certain Ideals and Principles that are integral to the plot. And yet, while I couldn't quite connect to the central character, many around him were quite compelling, particularly his girlfriend, Meg, her roommate and, most intriguingly, the figure of his Uncle, who (not surprisingly) steals each scene he's in. As with Zot, the female characters in "The Sculptor" are the most richly layered and believable, but even when the male actors seem a bit inert, the story whizzes and whirrs around them, and both the plot and the presentation are quite strong. There are several visual tour-de-forces, including the stunning sequence where David's life flashes before his eyes (oops! spoiler alert!) and some of the romantic scenes, which are reminiscent of the closing chapters of Zot. All in all, another great epic from Scott McCloud, and one that will leave many readers hungry for his next project. Highly recommended! (DJ Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)

In his newest work, The Sculptor, Scott McCloud explores a bevy of philosophical and pragmatic questions with regard to art, a partial listing of which might include:
• What is it for?
• Who is it for?
• What makes a “successful” artist? Is it critical acclaim by a few? The popular opinion of the many? How big of an audience defines success? Can if be an audience of one? What if that one is the artist, the self alone?
• What sort of sacrifices can, should one make for his/her art?
• What sot of compromises?
• What is the reward of art? What is the cost?
• When does creation stray into destruction?

Weighty, meaty questions indeed. And important ones. Not just to the titular sculptor or his comic writing creator but to artists of all sorts as well as to the culture at large (I like to think so at least). But McCloud is also smart enough to infuse what could have been a philosophical treatise or dogmatic allegory on art with the full richness and grittiness of real life, its high and its lows. He stumbles here and there in the process, I’d say, but he hits a lot more than he misses, and I was already loving this book even before its stunning, moving conclusion, a testimonial to the true potential of this medium (a potential, to be honest, I’ve all too rarely found fully, or even satisfactorily met).

We meet our main character, David Smith, at a pretty low point, having just been fired from his job flipping burgers. On a woe-is-me drinking binge, he’s interrupted by the sudden appearance of his Uncle Harry, who joins him and listens to the story of how David almost “made it” — five years ago he was discovered by a rich patron, had a short run of glory, then got dumped and has been struggling ever since. He confesses now he fears he’ll never finish a single one of the “big, monstrous, beautiful things I could make—so real I could almost reach out and touch them.” Uncle Henry listens sympathetically, tries to bolster his confidence, and then David remembers something kind of important—last time he saw his Uncle was at Harry’s funeral.

Turns out Uncle Harry is Death himself (how this comes about is a nice little story in its own right) and he’s here to offer David a Faustian Bargain. He can live out his life—get a wife, a place in the suburbs, a few kids, grow old. And sure, his art along the way will have transitioned from a necessity to a hobby to a forgotten thing he used to do, but as Harry says, “There’ll be good times along the way. Sweet memories . . . Love and Family. Those aren’t small things.” When he wonders if David would really miss the art, David tells him he’d give his life for it, a statement he holds to even after Uncle Harry shows him “the void”—chillingly, effectively conveyed via a startlingly-blank two-page spread.

So Harry offers the B-side—the gift to create fully and quickly as he’d wished, at the cost of dying in 200 days. After a rough day and night, including a strange run-in with the girl he’ll eventually fall in love with, Harry takes the bargain and begins a whirlwind of creation. It turns out though, that the gift, though it allows him to sculpt basically without limitations, may not be enough. And when he does fall for Meg, he finds himself torn between his solitary life as an artist and his connected life as a human being.

As mentioned, the artistic questions loom large throughout, and I loved how the text wrestled with them. David’s art does not remain static, even within this compressed time period—he goes through bouts of creativity and stagnation, he creates work for critics and art gallery people, he makes grand outdoor sculpture, transforming the city and becoming a cause celebre, he makes art that nobody will ever see (even sculpting a boulder sight unseen beneath the ground, telling Meg, “Let ‘em have fun digging that up!”). Each phase raised different questions, each phase signals not just a different artist but also a different person.

Meanwhile, even as he experiments with his artistic transformation, David has to come to terms with his emotional transformation as well. He is a figure of nearly utter isolation at the start. His father, mother, and sister have all died and he has but a single friend—a boy he grew up with who now arranges art showings and will eventually decide which artist gets a chance at a big show. When Meg takes him in at his nadir (penniless, homeless, hungry, hallucinating), his emotional life gradually grows to encompass not just Meg but her roommate and friends as well, and their lives too gradually open up to us as he learns to view them not as mere adjuncts to Meg but as lives in their own right. This, predictably, makes his ticking biological clock drum all the more loudly, just as the other part of his world—his artistry—also moves into desperation mode in the latter part of the book. What drives him as much as the artist’s need to create is his complete terror at being forgotten, to not have “made a name for himself,” as he once promised his father (a running plot throughout is his utter dedication to keeping all of his promises fully).

Meg is the one who tries to show him a path out of that terror, though I won’t say how or if she succeeds. She’s a character I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, she is a bit of a combination of two grating character types we see too often of with regard to female side characters—the Zooey Deschanel quirkily energetic and exhaustively cutesy type married to the wounded manic-depressive brooding/mercurial type. But then, one really gets the sense that McCloud is going in wide-eyed transparent on this, even in some ways playing right off of the trope, especially with her first entrance into the story and with a few sly references throughout. It’s a tough line to hew to, and I can’t see the attempt meets wholly with success, leaving me a bit at sea with her character—sometimes fully engaged, sometimes a bit discomfited. The side characters, on the other hand, no matter how small, all came fully alive for me, even, ironically, Uncle Harry/Death himself.

The dialogue is up and down—sometimes perfectly pitched and real, funny or moving or thoughtful. Other times it’s a bit flat, though never bad. McCloud’s use of foreshadowing, on the other hand, is spot on, as he uses both text and image to unify the entire work and thread it through with a series of echoes. You’ll pick up some on your first read and many more on the second read (and you’ll want a second read very quickly after the first).

Visually, the presentation is masterful. Gorgeous through most of it, beautifully and effectively colored/tinted to match the emotional tenor of the moment (s). The panels and pages elongate and compress time in all sorts of ways but always clearly. David’s isolation is wonderfully conveyed early on, as is his growing sense of interconnectedness. Backgrounds fade in and out of detail so as to let the reader focus on what is important in the moment. Points of view zoom in and out, move to overhead shots for effect, show only partial scenes to convey a sense of fracture or chaos. A nightmare sequence depicting the city entire being tilted as bodies slide off and over the edge in to the void is icily effective, as is a later image of David walking the sidewalk which in the picture has transformed into a huge calendar ending at David’s date with death, shown as a cliff’s edge trailing into what appears a bottomless pit. Just as effective are McCloud’s facial panels, especially the ones in series that convey a full sense of personality in tiny, subtle ways—the tilt of a head, the slant of a half-smile, a change in eyebrows. Two of my favorite scenes will give a sense of McCloud’s spectrum of ability. One is when David is touching Meg’s face in preparation for sculpting a series of busts. The “camera” view swirls around the two of them, moving in and out, even as the romantic tension rises to peak levels amidst a sense of concentrated stillness. Fantastic. The other is a single image of Meg on her messenger bike speeding through the streets of NY, her hair flying behind her, her body and bike in sharp relief against the background, which greys out as it recedes from the reader’s eye, a brilliant conveyance of speed and vibrancy and character.

And then there is the near-ending part. A series of wordless pages that will crawl inside your chest and that will have you moving slower and slower, then going back and looking at them from the start all over again. And then again. Those few pages alone are worth the price of entry.

As I’ve mentioned in my reviews of graphic stories before, I’ve almost always found them disappointing, my response to probably 90-plus percent of them being an annoyed “meh.” Thanks to Brad, our resident expert, my batting average has gone up a bit lately, though my last one—Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast, nominated for a myriad of awards—had me ranting to our book club yet again. Scott McCloud has washed that taste fully out of my mouth though. The Sculptor, as befits its subject, is a true work of art, a near-perfect melding of text and image, and I highly recommend it for fans of the genre surely, but especially for those like me who are a bit wary of the genre.

Wow. This was fantastic! I just finished it and cried for a solid 3 minutes after. Make sure you read the personal story Scott McCloud writes in the afterword (it's the reason I cried). This is a MUST read, especially if you like comics/graphic novels. It's about David who is an artist, a sculptor, but who's been having a hard time. He makes a deal with Death and the story goes from there. This is a very thoughtful, well-written and well -drawn book. Seriously, go read it now.

Scott McCloud’s new graphic novel door-stopper has a little bit of something for everyone, especially if you’re the creative type. It’s about a relationship . . . and about art and creating . . . and what it means to be successful and remembered . . . and what it means when you die and are forgotten . . . and why we all exist on this little planet in a giant universe and what’s the point of it all. The story is real and emotional and moving; you simply won’t be able to put it down.

David Smith is an artist, a sculptor, who loses himself in his work and really feels he’s going to make it one of these days, but he’s out of money and losing hope pretty fast. After having a conversation with a deceased family member he strikes up a deal with death and is able to create art with his bare hands. Now he feels he can create the art he has wanted to for so long, with no inhibitions, and will finally become the renowned artist he has always wanted to be. But because this is real life, even with a supernatural slant, things still don’t always go his way.

Then there is Meg, a pretty girl who has helped David along when he was destitute and who he is quickly falling in love with, but isn’t sure if she is interested in him. He has also made a promise not to tell her he loves her until she can do the same to him.

McCloud is clearly pulling a lot from past real-life experiences with The Sculptor to create a story that any reader and follow and related to and be moved by. It is art in many forms that whisks you away and never lets you go.

Originally written on January 10, 2015 ©Alex C. Telander.

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Amazing stand-alone graphic novel. It reminds me a little of Blankets - it has that same unflinching narrative ethic, and the themes of the tortured creator in love are similar, yet fresh. Unlike Blankets, which was non-fiction, The Sculptor is free to use fantastical elements that serve the story very well. The ending is brutal and totally appropriate. I loved this one.

Thank you to Goodreads First Reads and author/artist Scott McCloud for the good fortune of winning this book. This was a graphic novel. A graphic novel is sort of like a big comic book with a serious storyline. Before reading this, I had never heard of a graphic novel. I was definitely pleasantly surprised. This storyline and characters were superb! Once I started reading this, I could not put it down. I highly recommend this intriguing book!

Scott McCloud's mastery of the comic book format is on full display. His pacing with each panel is masterful as a few pages could represent months or a matter of seconds. At first glance this appears to be a long read, but it is a page turner you won't want to step away from. You will find yourself attached to the characters. I won't give anything away, but by the end of the book I found myself in tears (in a good way). I'm a fan of comics, I've read everything from Frank Miller's Sin City to Eastman & Laird's original TMNTs to Chester Gould's 1930s Dick Tracy & just about everything in between. This is not one to be passed up.

Really, really enjoyed this work, but it was kind of like watching a remake of a classic movie. In this case, McCloud adds dialogue and a few twists to the classic picture book/graphic novel in woodcuts, God's Man by Lynd Ward.
http://www.the store.com/Gods-Man-Novel-Woodcuts-History/dp/0486435008

The main character changes from painter to sculptor, but many of the plot details remain the same. Struggling artist finds success in the big city after making a deal with death. Struggles with law enforcement. Happiness and fulfillment....and I do not want to reveal the end; it is a good read, but both my son and I ended with the feeling "We've been here before". So while I strongly recommend the book, check out God's Man as well, for comparison. If you like one, you will like both, and I did.

I picked up this brick was immediately expecting to be impressed. You don't write a brick of a graphic novel unless you're talented and have something to say. The artwork is great. With some truly outstanding panels. But what disappointed me most about this book is the premise, that it is supposedly about what an artist would give for their art. So I was expecting a love story of why artists love art, and for it to be about art, and that seemed rather skimmed over in the entire story. That isn't what i got. What I got was a love story. And if you read the back bits, you will discover it's a bit of an note on love to Scott McCloud's wife and I don't mean anything bad by that. Whilst pleasant, it was a slap in the face of what the book had seemed to say it was actually about. And at the end of the book, I just didn't think it needed to be a brick to portray that.

this book is maddening - on the one hand, its handling of artistic frustration and the desire to excel as an artist is intelligent and well-considered, but on the other hand, this story is just another in a long line of "loser male protagonist is rescued by manic pixie dream girl" stories. literally - dream girl is initially presented as an actual angel sweeping down from heaven, & male protagonist professes to dream girl "i love you" after having had a grand total of one full conversation with her; their relationship unfolds as predictably (and unrealistically) from there as you might imagine. meh. it's still worth a look if you can stomach that relationship as the driver for 75% of the story's action, because the book does bounce off some very intriguing depictions of the protagonist's struggle to best utilize his new found artistic powers. i wish we spent a lot more time on that side of the tale to be honest.

This just blew me away. I'm absolutely reeling from the power of this book, it was so intricately made, the art was both simple and detailed, the characters were flushed out to a degree I almost never see in ANY work of fiction. Everyone else is saying it, and I'm just saying it again: Check out this book. Because Neil Gaiman told you to.

Imagine if great critics were also great artists. Think of Walter Benjamin writing a pitch-perfect novel, or John Ruskin painting an oil masterpiece. Think of the headlines: "Triumph of the Theorists: Ebert makes magnup opus to out-Hitchcock Alfred"; "No Cost to Commentary: Costas pitches no-hitter, closes World Series on top." It's invigorating to imagine these thinkers and explainers mastering the forms they love --- especially with the knowledge that experts on a particular creative subject rarely, if ever, master its practice.

It is a double pleasure, then, that THE SCULPTOR, the first original graphic novel by comics theorist extraordinaire Scott McCloud, is the best comics opus of its kind that I've read since Craig Thompson's BLANKETS.

McCloud's UNDERSTANDING COMICS defined the form for a generation of comics readers and creators alike, and since its publication in 1994, he's lost none of his interest in how comics are made --- he's just even more interested in how stories are told. THE SCULPTOR'S protagonist, David Smith (no, not that David Smith), is a penniless, down-on-his-luck New York artist who's lost his patron and his inspiration. He's almost lost his will to go on until he runs into his Uncle Harry, who makes him a tantalizing offer... and reveals that he may not be who David thinks he is.

A deal is struck, and suddenly, David has more drive and ability to create than he's ever had in his life. But he also has a secret --- one he must hide for 200 days, or risk everything. The issue? He falls in love. After a chance encounter with Meg, a talented, generous and troubled actor, David realizes that his secret may matter to more than just him. I'll save the spoilers for our interview with McCloud, but suffice it to say that this story --- part bildungsroman, part love story, part Faustian bargain and part superhero comic --- holds wonders at its center, like a slab of marble waiting for its true form to emerge.

During our chat, McCloud said that he hoped his creative work had finally escaped the shadow of his theory --- that people would read this comic for its story, and be so swept up in it that they'd forget, for a moment, compositional concepts like "closure" and think only of the world of THE SCULPTOR. I'll admit that I've been too well trained for that. I couldn't help but notice McCloud's sheer mastery of the form he loves, the subtle motifs and inspirations. Yet I also couldn't help but turn the pages, faster and faster, as if I were the artist racing against a ticking clock and not the reader bound by the story's spell.

In the end, the book that had made me forget the world around me brought me right back to it, where it was shaking in my hands as I sat on the train during my ride home. I had started it 50 minutes before. The next day, I read it again. Twice. Sometimes a master class and a masterpiece can coexist in one work --- and if this isn't that, I don't know what is.

Reviewed by John Maher.

I was disappointed by this and, frankly, surprised by the praise. At times, I was very disappointed. I've read McCloud's "Understanding Comics" and thought it was brilliant and his style and effectiveness with illustrations was phenomenal. So I had high hopes for this book. The artwork and basic concept are fantastic. It's a visual splendor, though maybe not as innovative stylistically as I might have expected based on McCloud's comprehension of sequential art. But there are two major issues with this work that really bothered me: CLICHES and BAD WRITING. The protagonist is the sort of run-of-the-mill artist, a nebbish, inexperienced secular Jew with the world against him and talent that hasn't translated into renown. He takes a shortcut to fame, or what he thinks will be fame (actually, infamy), and in the deal creates a deadline that pressurizes the story in a sort of manufactured suspense (which last months and months). In short, he's a PG version of all of the cliches you've seen a hundred times about artists--obsessed, overconfident and self-doubting, outwardly weird, difficult. The inventive bits (a fake angel swooping down, the amazing ability to shape metal like clay, etc.) are great but too infrequent and often strain credulity or involve cliches. Characters are very one-dimensional. For a tome like this, there is no excuse to have characters walking around saying exactly how they feel all the time or to have a character like the girl be mercurial but to never reveal anything behind it except that she's a wannabe actress. There are even journal-style entries that constantly tell us what we already know or exactly what the protagonist is thinking. MILD SPOILERS: the artist making a deal with death can work, but it's done so overtly here, without much complexity, that it just feels exploitative. The protagonist makes a deal with the devil out of desperation, not really narcissism or love of art. Then he doesn't do much with it (until the end, when he makes it meaningful). He's one of those characters that's an amalgam of thin characters we've all seen before. And while his magical art and the deal with the devil are fantastical, all other aspects of this story, and the love story, are supposed to be realistic. But a "flash mob" group of actors picking out a pathetic-looking person on the street to cheer up (with a descending angel, no less... talk about hammering the symbolism over our head) is just ridiculous. There are literally lines like, "Don't let me push you away."... "She's trying to push me away."..."I won't let you push me away." That sort of thing. Sometimes it just reads like mediocre YA dialogue. In the end, McCloud tries mightily to let the technical achievement of his art and the basic premise make this book special--and both are very good. But just like the protagonist's art for most of the story, he just can help making something superficial rather than something deep and meaningful that we can all share.

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Scott

It’s a rare event that a graphic novel moves you in the way The Sculptor does. Scott McCloud, comic theorist extraordinaire, dives into the adult market with a spark of panache and flair. I’ve followed McCloud’s work from the humble beginnings of Zot! to his seminal Understanding Comics and Making Comics; never before in his career has he taken picture and word to the commanding and resounding story of the personal demons of the artist; as the Goo Goo Dolls would say, “Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce.”

David Smith, the protagonist of the story, is a sculptor by trade, and forms quite the appealing character. A deal is all it takes and he’s pushed to and beyond the simple confines of the creative artistic process; however left without home, family or fiscal support, he becomes destitute, sleeping on the boardwalk of the streets of the Big Apple. Finding a muse, in Meg, is what it takes for him to confront those four artistic demons. His ego is batted around like a tethered ball. Public opinion, what every artist subconsciously strives to be positive is met with harsh criticism. Commercially, he’s an artist who has had his day locked out of the buyer’s market by scandal. Art drives all three in his life taking him and the reader on an intimate journey through an artist’s mind and life and soul.

Drawing on borrowed time, as it were, the story’s pace eases the reader in and out of David’s ebbs and tides. It never gets ahead of itself and continues to pull the reader through on the rollicking journey of David’s “new” career. The best thing about the pacing is that McCloud deftly weaves a sculptor, a tactile art form of its own, seemingly fluidly into the graphic novel format; tactile only in the sense of the feeling of hands on paper. An interesting standpoint from the primary theorist on comics, the sculptor’s mind has drives and visions of it’s own (having practice at both) and the mindset is easily applied to the creation of any visual art, past or present.

It’s the dealing in the here and now where the light shines so brightly in this pinnacle work. David’s living from day to day mirrors the reader’s, and the feeling of “wasted time” is all too familiar to the true artist. It truly is as Neil Gaiman, (creator and writer of the critically acclaimed Sandman):

“It’s about art and love and why we keep on trying.”
It is more as well: showcasing the aforementioned four demons of the artistic world in all there grandeur. The art literally flows from David’s hands, much like McCloud’s own hand, diligently plying the deft and stylistic drawing. The love for his chosen means of expression, Scott McCloud, pens some of his finest art in this graphic medium. The love of life flows through the words on the page.

For fans of Jason Lute’s Jar of Fools, Art Speigelman’s Maus , Gilbert Hernandez’ work, Scott McCloud’s previous work, or lovers of a heart wrenching story, The Sculptor definitely earns it’s 5 star rating and should be a must for winter’s reading. I cannot recommend a finer example of a graphic novel, and leave you with James Kochalka infamous words …

“…what is art not?”

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

The story took me by surprise and delivered several twists that were both heartbreaking and emotionally satisfying. The artwork is fluid and engaging, characters are mixed with angst and despair and love despite their impending loss of humanity, pacing and style are sharp. Highly recommended for those who feel that the graphic novel is a medium with unlimited potential.

Man! That was a good book! I was totally absorbed in the story and the storytelling. If any of my books ever make people feel the way I felt after reading this book, I will be a happy man. Good job, Mr. McCloud!

Man! That was a good book! I was totally absorbed in the story and the storytelling. If any of my books ever make people feel the way I felt after reading this book, I will be a happy man. Good job, Mr. McCloud!

Sculptor held a world of promise: A Faustian deal, an exploration of artistic urge, and a blurb from Neil Gaiman that says this is the best graphic novel he’s read in years. Neil, how could you mislead me so?!

First, why this book might be worth reading:

McCloud is at ease with the graphic novel medium – a form of storytelling more akin to theater than prose novels. And, in this case, it’s akin to an action movie: There are some heart-stopping moments that I can’t spoil, but McCloud switches back and forth between David’s inner thoughts and the outside world. He’s an introvert in chaotic New York, and McCloud is spot-on in this depiction.

He also captures the conflict of wanting to be an artist vs. being able to make art: (minor spoiler ahead) David’s 200 days dwindle down until, in his eagerness to be known, he commits vandalism. It gets him attention but not satisfaction – the work is meaningless. I imagine that if, in real life, someone were given a mere 200 days to make art, they’d rush the job and create trash instead. So A+ for psychological realism. And while David dreams of “more” and has insatiable artistic ambitions for which he’s willing to give his life, when it comes down to it, he doesn’t have anything to say with his art. Meaning: He wants the fame but can’t give to the world. He wants to be ‘special,’ but he dupes himself into thinking this has some kind of grand significance. I understand this because it describes me - a young, artistic person in New York. So while this mindset is self-centered and despicable, I approach David with a gentleness, because he is me; because he is all artists.

Why this book was a huge let down:

It submits to cliché. Death has Rules that you cannot break for Reasons! Yawn. Skyscraper-and-police-scene that exists in every NYC-based action movie ever. But final and foremost, the story fulfills the androcentric, nerd-gets-quirky-girl fantasy that I haven’t been duped into reading in years. McCloud was aware of this, according to an interview. I don’t know what’s more horrible: A writer not being aware that their women characters are sexy cardboard, or not caring.

Bogus romantic subplots aside, I’m not sure what McCloud is saying about art – nor even if he gives the reader a well-paved trajectory to draw any conclusions of their own. In the beginning, it’s pointed out that David could put his artistic aspirations to the side and move upstate, start a family, get a real job, et cetera. There’s value to that kind of life, and David recognizes this – but he wants “more.”

My issue with this book, then, is my issue with the way we talk about art and sacrifice. We create a false dichotomy between art and life. You can’t work and create. You can’t get married and be a great artist. Either life happens, or art, and a choice must be made.

Art used to be reserved for the leisure class. It’s not now, but our present attitude is a rehash of a narrative that no longer exists, and Sculptor seems to live within that false dichotomy. McCloud could have punched through our undeveloped dichotomy, but by having the detective live at the end, while the artist dies, he seems to be showing two distinct sides. Perhaps I’m misinterpreting the book, and McCloud does reject the dichotomy. You tell me.

If you’re looking for a book that accurately depicts the psychology of the yet-to-succeed artist – someone who really wants to be heard but has nothing much to say – then read this book. Or read Ask the Dust by John Fante. Either way, only approach if you aren’t bothered by annoying, vaguely sexist undertones.

From start to finish, McCloud mimics the ability of his protagonist. He brings subtle details into each panel, crafting in plot points as he builds one compelling character alongside another.

I picked this book up because of a recommendation and it blew me away. It's a solid, stand-alone story that should speak to any person who ever wanted to become an artist.

The Sculptor is the product of a lifetime of devotion to a craft. Scott McCloud has worked in his nonfiction to hold comics under a microscope and push the genre to its limit and that shows with every page of this book. To say that this book is anything less than a masterpiece is blasphemy. You owe it to yourself to read this graphic novel.

Scott McCloud has done it again: a brilliantly conceived story about art, eternity, and human frailty. The plot twists are surprising but genuine, the art deliciously manga-ish, the coloring gorgeous, but what I appreciated most about the book is the depth and size of the story itself. Highly recommended!

For anyone who struggled with life getting in the way of realizing a dream, this story captures the frustration, the joy, the despair, and the humanity of the entire process. This is an amazing medium to tell a story that everyone can relate to in some way. Highly recommended!

A bloated graphic novel about a self-centered sculptor who makes a pact with Death for 15 minutes of fame. The story is naive, the characters idiotic, the dialogue gringeworthy and the narration so bland it beggars belief.

McCloud hasn't produced much fiction in decades, but it seems he's a stranger to reality as well. It'd be understandable if the author was an emotional art student in his twenties. Or no, no it wouldn't be.

The book is without a soul. It's all surface and sugar-coated platitudes. There's nothing within. A black hole that sucks out the reader's will to live.

Something positive: graphically the book is consistent (hence two stars) and the storytelling works. Only the narrative is so bland it doesn't really matter (and the storyline is pathetically awful). There's nothing innovative in the book, except maybe for the framing story. Otherwise the story chugs along on one gear from start to finish for all it's 500-page length. It's also curious how silly the sculptures are in a book that's about sculpting. Perhaps it's a parody of New York art comminity? Naw?

But apparently movie rights are already sold, so... so what. The Scupltor is a nice testament to how little people still actually understand comics... ho ho ho, see what I did there?