Perspective for Comic Book Artists
How to achieve a professional look in your artwork
David Chelsea
Artist David Chelsea has put together a great guide to the principles of perspective in drawing. Written in a comic-strip format inspired by Understanding Comics, David presents what he calls "the first user-friendly book on Perspective." The plot here isn't particularly harrowing -- David's friend Mugg, who sort of looks like a realistic Too Much Coffee Man, is having problems getting his superhero slugfests to come out right. And no wonder -- his perspective is all wrong. Enter David to save the day with example after example of the techniques of constructing one-point, two-point and three point perspectives, and short cuts to "fake" perspective.
Very nicely illustrated, with lots of elaborate examples, and a great testament to Chelsea's ability to use his visual gifts to teach a complex subject.
176 Pages
Watson-Guptill
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How to Draw Comic Book Heroes and Villains
Christopher Hart
A slightly superficial, but nice overview of the common elements of superhero-type comic artwork. Hart covers basic anatomy, perspective, foreshortening, storytelling concerns, inking, the importance of consistent light sources, and the basics of depicting action. He also presents the standard archetypes you often see in comics -- hero, villian, monster, femme fatale, etc. Much of this book won't help you deal with drawing, say, a Strangers in Paradise, but it certainly gives you a good feel for the dynamics of the typical punch-em-inna-face book, along with some basic techniques to use everywhere.
As is usually the case with this kind of book, the author is not a well-known "hot" artist -- after all, if he were, he'd be too busy drawing comics to write about it -- however, he does enlist the help of well-known artists Frank McLaughlin, Gray Morrow, Frank Springer and Alexander Morrissey.
144 pages , 64 color, and 375 b&w illustrations.
Watson-Guptill Pubs.
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on CD-Rom (Save 30%)
Note: I haven't seen the CD-ROM version; don't know what it offers
beyond the book.
ProMotion
How Today's Creators Broke Into Comics and Their Advice to You!
Brian Saner-Lamken
In this book, about 70 different comics professionals describe their first exposure to comics, how they broke in to the business, and advice they'd give to someone aspiring to break in.
There's a pretty impressive line-up here, from folks like Stan Lee, Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll to Donna Barr, Matt Feazel, and Batton Lash, with lots of pros in-between. From looking at this large selection of creators, one starts to see a pattern -- everyone breaks in to the business differently, some after years of work, some from personal connections. In short, there's no one formula for getting into the business, either at the large companies, the independents, or through self-publishing. What they all *do* advise, is to work hard at perfecting your work, and to do the work you find meaningful. Recommended -- makes a great reality check.
Foreward by Mark Waid, lots of illustrations. 190 Pages
Boardwalk Press
How to Create Action, Fantasy, and Adventure Comics
Tom Alvarez
This book is more geared to the artist who is seeking a syndicated strip deal, but its techniques are common to the world of comic books as well. Alvarez, whose work includes the syndicated Sherlock Holmes strip, definitely is a highly proficient pro capable of adopting whatever drawing style he needs for the work.
Though the book could stand to be longer, it covers some territory that others don't -- for one, he demonstrates the use of different inking tools to match the subject, comparing the same scene inked with different implements, and with a mix. He has the usual treatment of anatomy, action drawing, and facial expression. In addition, he has a lot of material covering clothing and drapery, good discussions of perspective, camera angles, and the basics of good page composition.
One part of the book I haven't seen elsewhere is a stroke-by-stroke guide to the typical "comic-book" lettering style. While he does talk about using the Ames lettering guide, there isn't enough detail to his explanation to quite get started. He also covers balloon placement, something missing from many of these books.
There is also a section about submitting to syndicates, including a copy of the King Features Syndicate submission guidelines. This part isn't that encouraging, when you see that King typically gets 6,000 submissions a year, and may select three.
Well-illustrated with samples and advice from Joe Giella (Mary Worth), Frank Springer (Hedley Kase), and others.
144 pages
North Light Books