The Sculptor
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4.8 • 40 Ratings
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
David Smith is giving his life for his art—literally. Thanks to a deal with Death, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands. But now that he only has 200 days to live, deciding what to create is harder than he thought, and discovering the love of his life at the 11th hour isn't making it any easier!
This is a story of desire taken to the edge of reason and beyond; of the frantic, clumsy dance steps of young love; and a gorgeous, street-level portrait of the world's greatest city. It's about the small, warm, human moments of everyday life…and the great surging forces that lie just under the surface. Scott McCloud wrote the book on how comics work; now he vaults into great fiction with a breathtaking, funny, and unforgettable new work.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After previously explaining the art of making, reading, and understanding comics in his trilogy of essential guides to the medium, McCloud, in this gloriously romantic graphic novel, doesn't just define a genre he exemplifies it. David Smith is a morbid, prickly New York sculptor tortured by the one-by-one deaths of his family members and his inability to make art, when he runs into his Uncle Harry, who just happens to be dead. Harry's Faustian offer is all the better for being delivered deadpan ("Trust me, it'll all make sense at sunrise"). In exchange for gaining the ability to mold any material into any shape he wants, sans tools, David is given just 200 days to live and achieve his dreams of greatness. But having this skill doesn't allow David to escape from his grumpy, rules-bound personality. Success and happiness don't come easily, even after a beautiful actress with a surplus of personality and baggage flies (literally) into his arms. The fractious love story and operatic swoons of despair play out against the harsh reality of a cutthroat art market and deftly handled flights of fantasy. Drawn in sharp, sure-handed lines that jump from intimate blocks of wry but poignant interactions with other characters to dramatically realized city scenery, McCloud's epic generates magic and makes an early play for graphic novel of the year.
Customer Reviews
A Must Read
This was one of my first experiences with a graphic novel, and I must say that McCloud set the bar high for future reads. A friend recommended it to me, so it's only right I pay it forward once more. This is a truly incredible and important read.
Necessary as part of your McCloud collection
Beautiful story (although a bit trite)… My only caveat is that the message behind the story becomes less credible as the art depicted is not THAT good (Rather sophomoric) … so the artist was not believable to someone like me (educated in Fine Arts). I do not expect comic artists to be experts on everything they draw… but perhaps a bit of research or outside consulting would have helped this piece become more relevant to an artistic audience, a pretty relevant one as graphic design and illustration are closer than other disciplines and the interested“"user base" might overlap.
The Sculptor
My eye was caught on the cover of this book while on liberty at a Barnes and Noble looking for new reading material. After reading this book in only two sittings, I can say with certainty that this is one of the best graphic novels I have ever read.
As a younger man who desires to create yet craves something more out of life the message of this book resonates firmly.
We all have dreams. We all have hopes, aspirations, and plans for our own futures. And they ARE possible to attain. To make those come to life, we have to stand up on our own two feet and fight to keep the dream alive...
But no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. And for all of us who are still breathing that enemy is, has been, and always will be, time.
Time, but not life.
You will not have time to fulfill all (maybe even any) of your dreams. Every moment is one moment closer to the end. Our own personal plans are, by default, selfish in nature. And the clock is always ticking.
But life is unpredictable. And even though it may not turn out quite the way we envision it, life will always be there to present us with new paths that just might be richer than what we originally hoped for. And it might just instill in you the simple joy of being alive.
I highly recommend this well thought out and drawn novel. The artwork is evocative, fluid and presents spectacles ranging from the mundane but human moments to the abstract fantastical images born from the limitless depths of the mind of a creator to the heat of love filled moments.
The story is, by and large, human. The prospect of imminent demise and how best to utilize time is well constructed and paced. And the relationship of two damaged people coming together to become each other's world is realistically portrayed through the characters of David and Meg. The relationship of the secondary charters, David's friends and family, and even his enemies, escape the print and emulate the togetherness, joy, and, and heartbreak of the human experience. And ultimately, it all comes together in one solid piece that delivers an important lesson to those who need to be reminded, myself included.
Life only happens to you once. Its waiting for you. And your clock is ticking. Get up, make it happen, and live.
You never know who else is out there looking for that same joy... and for you.
5/5
Thank you to the people responsible for the publication of this think piece.