If you have child who is fascinated by graphic art, Scott McCloud’s  phenomenal Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is the perfect summer read for them – and maybe you, too. Why not? A number of magnet schools, high schools, and art programs all over the country have adopted this easy-to-read, highly-complex, and at-times-quite-humorous book as the foundational text for a variety of literature courses. Yet the volume flows with such lighthearted levity, it’s perfect for a pool-side splash!

Scott has replicated himself as a casual, easy-going young guide wearing round glasses and knowing the ins and outs of all things sequential art related. From vocabulary to history, from use of color to blood in the gutter, from time frames to the famed in the field, from Manga to the marvelous, pseudo-Scott tells it all in a hip, comprehensible manner. Though this book is not newly-published it is, most definitely, note-worthy – particularly for the budding graphic artist in your life.

“In comics, the cycle begins all over the world, as young readers discover comics for the first time and in a few cases, begin to develop a love for comics that will last a lifetime” (172).