The Sculptor (comics)

The Sculptor
Creator Scott McCloud
Date 2015
Page count 496 pages
Publisher First Second Books

The Sculptor is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Scott McCloud published in 2015. It tells of a David Smith whom Death gives 200 days to live in exchange for the power to sculpt anything he can imagine. Complications set in when David falls in love.

Summary

26-year-old New York-based artist David Smith is dealing with a difficult life—his family are dead, his patron has abandoned him, and he is broke[1]—when Death greets him in the guise of a dead uncle. Death offers David the power to sculpt anything he wishes, at the cost of having only 200 days to live. David accepts, but comes to regret it when he falls in love with an actress named Meg.[2]

Background

Scott McCloud built a reputation as a formalist in comics. He first brought attention to his work with the comic-book series Zot! (1984—1990). He rose to prominence in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a theoretical work on the comics medium executed in comics. He was an early pioneer of webcomics, a form whose formal boundaries he dedicated himself to pushing.[2] In middle age he came to feel he had a "big, gaping hole in [his] résumé" in that he had built a large body of theoretical work but had not produced a substantial stand-alone work of fiction.[3] The Sculptor was the first such work McCloud had published in twenty years.[1]

Publication

Scott McCloud spent five years developing The Sculptor.

McCloud spent five years developing the book.[2] He began by making a complete rough outline, to which he made repeated revisions until he was satisfied,[4] and went through four drafts over the first two years.[3] The 496-page book appeared from First Second Books[5] on February 3, 2015.[6]

McCloud accompanied the book's publication with a worldwide promotional tour, beginning in the US and followed by Europe with planned visits to mid-year North American festivals including the MoCCA Festival, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and the San Diego Comic-Con.[4]

Reception

The Sculptor's publication drew widespread attention in mainstream media; reviews appeared in such newspapers as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian.[4]

An advance review in Publishers Weekly stated, "McCloud's epic generates magic and makes an early play for graphic novel of the year."[3] M G. Lord at the Los Angeles Times praised the artwork and called McCloud a "master of pacing", but "could not connect emotionally to the love story".[7] James Martin at The Telegraph called McCloud "a master at work" in the book, and gave it four stars out of five.[1] Tim Martin at The Guardian called the artwork "wonderfully affecting", and called the story "inventive and touching ... compelling proof that McCloud can walk the walk as well as talking the talk".[2]

Adaptations

Bidding for the film rights to the book was reported to have been heated. Shortly after the book's release, Sony announced it had gained the rights to adaptation with the involvement of Scott Rudin,[8] who was to produce with Josh Bratman.[6]

References

Works cited

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