Scott McCloud - Understanding Comics
This is just a must-read. Once you read this you can't even remember what you previously thought about the comic book form. He presents so many different ways of analysing what comics are, it creates a vocabulary and a mental architecture for thinking about comics that then creates a new part of your brain. As a comic book creator I found it really interesting thinking about where my comics fell on the line between photographic realism and total abstract expressionism. And looking at what you're saying with the line work that you don't realise you're saying. Also his way of comparing storytelling from Japanese comics to European comics to American comics, and the proportion of background shots and close-ups. You can't read that book and then walk away thinking about art in the same way. Aside from comics, it's an analysis of how your perceptions take in art. Understanding Comics is just such a fantastic and interesting project that remains really unique. And the fact that it's done in comic book form allows it to get away with some really outrageous effects. It's a way of writing an essay that nobody has tackled so there's so much invention on each page in terms of ideas and the execution of those ideas. It's endlessly delightful and imaginative and brilliant.