Scott McCloud, award-winning author of Understanding Comics, and Hillary L. Chute, Comics and Literary Scholar, discuss McCloud's latest graphic novel _The Sculptor_. In _The Sculptor_, David Smith, makes a deal with Death. The terms of this deal allow him to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a magnificent sculptor for 200 days. In return those 200 days are all he has left to live and this becomes an issue when he finds his true love. Smith's desire to experience captivating, young love, and to live each moment of his 200 days with passion, is played out on the streets of New York City. McCloud illustrates how comics work and how he delves into fiction using the great city of New York.
Scott McCloud is the award-winning author of Understanding Comics, Making Comics, Zot!, and many other fiction and nonfiction comics spanning thirty years. An internationally-recognized authority on comics and visual communication, technology, and the power of storytelling, McCloud has lectured at Google, Pixar, Sony, and the Smithsonian Institution. His online thoughts, stories, and inventions can be found at scottmccloud.com. The Sculptor is his most recent graphic novel.
Hillary Chute is Professor of English at Northeastern University. Formerly an Associate Professor of English at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Outside the Box: Interviews with Contemporary Cartoonists (University of Chicago Press). She is also the author of Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics (Columbia University Press) and Associate Editor of Art Spiegelman’s MetaMaus (Pantheon). She recently co-edited both the Critical Inquiry special issue on “Comics & Media” and Daniel Aaron’s Scrap Book (Pressed Wafer). She has written for publications including Artforum, Bookforum, The Believer, and Poetry.