Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels *(pdf)
"Magnificent! The best how-to manual ever published." — Kevin Kelly, Cool Tools The renowned author of Understanding Comics offers brilliant instruction on how to actually create this widely beloved art form. Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand–in narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way. Both comic book devotees and the uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once–underappreciated art form. Read more
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Why Must Read Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels?
If you’re an artist, read this book. If you’re NOT making a comic, read this book. So, I’m not making a comic, but I’ve heard a lot about this book. What I love is the breakdown of drawing concepts into easy to understand and easy to tackle steps. For example, when discuss facial expressions he breaks the topic into four parts 1. Kinds of expressions 2. Muscles 3. Rendering 4. Using expressions in comics. The list of expressions is the most extensive I’ve ever seen in an art book. I’ve read a lot of how-tos and character design books, but this is the only one I’ve seen help you understand how a variety of expressions are rendered on the face. So that’s an example of how this breaks down drawing concepts. He does this with every topic from writing, world building, and the business of comics. This is a must have.
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