Cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud to present talk at Rowan

Award-winning cartoonist Scott McCloud, a comics theorist who maintains that comics are a distinct literary and artistic medium, will discuss his theories and work at Rowan University on Monday, Feb. 20, at 10:50 a.m. in Boyd Recital Hall (Wilson Hall).

McCloud's appearance at Rowan is part of the President's Lecture Series, which brings prominent speakers to campus for talks on topics ranging from education and science to history, politics, and art. The event, which is sponsored by the Department of Writing Arts and the College of Communication, is free and open to the public.

Deemed the "Aristotle of comics," McCloud is the author and illustrator of Understanding Comics (1993), a landmark book that has been translated into 16 languages. He also wrote Reinventing Comics (2000), a controversial look at comics revolutions in art, culture and technology; and Making Comics (2006), which took an extensive look at storytelling techniques in comics.

McCloud's other print comics include Zot!, a light-hearted science fiction/superhero comic book series, Destroy!! and the graphic novel The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln.

He also wrote a dozen issues of DC Comics' Superman Adventures and the three-issue limited series Superman: Strength.

Inventor of the "24-Hour Comic," which has become an international movement, McCloud created a comic book in 2008 that formed the press release introducing Google's web browser, Google Chrome. The New York Times said Google's hiring of McCloud was "akin to hiring Paul McCartney to write a jingle."

An early advocate of digital comics, McCloud has received three Harvey Awards, the industry's oldest peer-selected awards. He also won a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, widely considered the "Oscar" of the industry. Currently, McCloud is writing a graphic novel.

McCloud's dazzling, fast-paced, multi-media presentation has been presented to more than 250 colleges, universities and corporations, including Pixar, Harvard, Google, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, NYU, and the Disney comic writers.

Past speakers at Rowan's President's Lecture Series have included, among others, Cornel West, Stephen Jay Gould, Jonathan Kozol, Scott Sagan, Sergei Khrushchev, and Dan Rather.

For information for McCloud's appearance at Rowan, contact Sanford Tweedie, tweedie@rowan.edu, or Lisa Jahn-Clough, jahn-clough@rowan.edu.