“How Cinema Works” is a large-scale encyclopedia of art №1 in the form of a stylish and engaging comic.

A comic is the perfect medium to talk about cinema. It provides a visual representation of what is being described in the text. It frees the narrative from monotony. It is simply more pleasant to hold and look at. And the encyclopedia “How Cinema Works” is the best proof of that.

A fascinating process

Artist and illustrator Edward Ross, an obvious fan of cinema, engagingly talks about various aspects of our beloved art. And along the way, he demonstrates specific examples to support his words, and it is truly fascinating.

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Even more fascinating are the attempts to guess which film is depicted in a particular panel. There are both super obvious choices, like “The Terminator,” “Avatar,” or “Blade Runner”, as well as lesser-known films that not every cinephile will recognize.

Notably, Edward Ross published each chapter of this comic as small standalone issues until enough material was gathered for a full-fledged book. Special thanks for its adaptation into Russian can be given to the publishing house Mann, Ivanov and Ferber.

Obvious, yet fresh

In the language of comics, Ross in “How Cinema Works” talks about the history of cinema and its modern theories. But without snobbery, encyclopedic dryness, or monotonous narration. Instead, every page exudes the spirit of a person devoted to their favorite art form.

The book has 7 thematic chapters, whose titles speak for themselves:

• The Eye;
• The Body;
• Sets and Architecture;
• Time;
• Language and Voice;
• Ideology and Power;
• Technology and Technophobia.

In the encyclopedia “How Cinema Works,” it seems to me, there are quite a few obvious things. But everything is described very, very freshly, if you will. After some notes, you start to look at familiar things differently—things you might have noticed before but never paid much attention to. And as the author himself says:

In this book, even the most seasoned film fan will definitely find something new.

In summary, I would strongly recommend this work to everyone who cares about cinema. It deserves it. And the comic is drawn quite nicely too. As a bonus, for many, “How Cinema Works” will serve as a kind of watchlist of films.