2014-12-06
Comics writer/illustrator and theorist McCloud (Making Comics, 2006, etc.) presents an artist's struggle to make a name for himself and the complications love brings to the Faustian deal he's made to gain total control of his craft. David Smith once had a promising career as a sculptor, but his abrasive personality burned too many bridges, and now he can't even hold down a job flipping burgers. Stewing in self-pity and booze, he receives an uncanny visitor who offers him a choice between the long, slow burn of the compromised life or the firework pop of the superstar. Without hesitation, David chooses to be a martyr for his art, and soon he has the ability to mold any material simply by touch—and 200 days to live. He launches into an ecstasy of self-expression, fantastically shaping slab after slab of granite like it was so much potter's clay, but his first showing of the new work only sends him spiraling further into despondency—until beautiful, free-spirited Meg swoops in on angel wings. Her joie de vivre eases David's tortured mind, and a daffy friendship eventually blossoms into mad passion. But even as David refines his manipulation of matter and his sense of life's worth, his ultimate deadline looms. At nearly 500 pages, the tale still manages a brisk pace, with crosscut scenes or subtle but telling differences between nearly identical frames propelling the gaze through uncluttered text and crisp, clear lines, while the reader's mind winds agreeably around the steadily twisting plot. McCloud can sacrifice logic in favor of function, though, and sometimes reactions feel outsized, emotions overwrought and dialogue pat, functioning more as punctuation in a sequence of panels than as the actions of nuanced characters, especially when the work nakedly addresses such grandiose issues as artistic integrity, the glories and agonies of love, and the desperate beauty of life. Masterfully paneled and attractively illustrated but populated by archetypes.
A New York Times Bestseller
“Scott McCloud's The Sculptor is the best graphic novel I've read in years. It's about art and love and why we keep on trying. It will break your heart.” —Neil Gaiman
"McCloud is a master of pacing; he compresses and expands time through the size and arrangement of his images, building to a surprise wallop at the end."—LA Times
"McCloud is engaging when he's addressing the difficulties faced by the artist in society, but when he gets to show two fetching young city dwellers falling for each other? That's when he really comes home. David's relationship with Meg, a comely bike messenger, is everything a love story should be: inexorable and ill-omened, plangent and astringent." —NPR
"This inventive and touching love story is compelling proof that McCloud can walk the walk as well as talking the talk.” —The Gaurdian
“The fluidity of McCloud's visual narrative carries us along with a sweep impossible to duplicate in prose, and, through it its climax, the story's commitment to its harsh, inevitable, but ultimately sublime outcome qualifies this as a work of stunning, timeless graphic literature.” —Booklist, starred review
“McCloud, in this gloriously romantic graphic novel, doesn't just define a genre—he exemplifies it.” —Publishers Weekly
“An outstanding achievement, extraordinarily moving and memorable.”
—Library Journal
