Comics Confidential: Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box

One of the most curious things about art is that you can know everything about a particular artist — their background, their inspirations, their influences — and yet, you can never quite grasp what makes them an artist. Art is elusive, and that’s part of its magic.

Comics and graphic novels are an artistic medium all their own, and Comics Confidential offers major creative voices in the genre the opportunity to share their stories, to tell us about their art and about what drew them to comics. This is one of the first books I’ve read that sincerely treats the medium as an art form, and to read about these award-winning writers and creators helps cement the legitimacy of the genre as a whole.

And Marcus is an apt conduit for the subjects, asking the right questions to get them going, and then stepping back, only occasionally interjecting to coax something more from the interviewee. And since each artist has drawn a short comic to accompany the interview, the reader gets creative insights about a brand-new work from behind the curtain.

Comics Confidential is insightful, but it’s designed to whet your appetite, not sate it. You’ll want more. And that’s a good thing.