Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond
by Jessica Abel, Matt Madden
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jessica Abel, Matt MaddenEdition: Paperback
Published: 2008-06-10
ISBN: 1596431318
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: First Second
Book Reviews of Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond
Book Review: A Welcome Addition to Your Collection
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a BIG fan of both Abel and Madden's work. I go to BOTH of their websites several times a month and "La Perdida" and "99 Ways To Tell A Story" are part of my collection of graphic novels.
This book is great for high school & college art teachers who want to teach sequential art to their classes. I believe the content is particularly suited for art majors that are interested in the finer points of visual narrative. And you can tailor your curriculum around the chapters if you so choose. If you want to use these for middle school kids I think simpler steps need to be added. I like the fact that people can form groups: "Nomads" OR go do it alone: "Ronins" and follow the lessons independently.
This book is NOT bad.
All the chapters and lessons are made to be studied in sequence and if you are an old timer to comic art you can easily skip to other chapters; which I did alot. A seasoned pro will probably go to the chapters that interest him/ her the most. One chapter that I REALLY like was called "Black Gold" the chapter on using and inking with a brush.
The other chapters on page layout, panel construction, character design,
facial features/ figure anatomy were VERY good.
My ONLY complaint was the layout of the book. My [web]comic artist collegues & I felt there was TOO much white space waisted on each page and that neon orange color used throughout the book was TOO distracting. It was hard to read and strained the eyes.
Plus being a webcomic artist myself I wanted to see MORE about using the computer for making comics. It covered scanning, re-sizing, adjusting your line art in PhotoShop, etc. The chapter on lettering was good; but they tended to downplay the use of COMPUTER LETTERING. They make a STRONG point in favor of HAND LETTERED comics; but it would have been nice if they address lettering on the computer as well.
This book is a welcome addition to any comic artist's arsenal of graphic narrative/ sequential art references. Use it along with books by Will Eisner & Scott McCloud and you'll be fully versed in the Language of Comic Art.
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