Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott Mccloud Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
Book Review: Must-Have for Aspiring Artists
Summary: 5 Stars
You need to own Understanding Comics to accompany this one. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
Making Comics is a complete book that refers to many of the topics that Understanding Comics expands upon. It is a great starting point for aspiring artists to look at approaching their own comic. McCloud explains the mutlitude of styles involved and how each of them works to engage the reader. He is truly a master of his craft.
He strips away the layers of superhero masculine fantasy to reveal comics as a storytelling vehicle. Not your typical how-to-draw book.
Book Review: Review of book
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent book - very well presented and detailed. Well worth the price. Our kids (9 and 7) are using it to create better comicsBook Review: Comics made easy
Summary: 5 Stars
Great introduction to making comics. Great presentation. It explains the intricacies of the medium very well for a beginner.
Developing the skills to create good stories or improve your drawing skills need to be sought outside this book. There are some good looking references for these. While I can understand drawing being left out, would have been nice to go through some plot/story development.
Book Review: Best Storytelling Resource Around (not just Comics)
Summary: 5 Stars
This is by far the best book I have read when it comes to defining and breaking down the elements of the visual story. As the author states, there are some things that a well chosen image can say better than any words could hope to, and vice-versa. He does a fantastic job of describing in detail when and how to choose the appropriate image, word, or combination of both. The book is second to none when it comes to teaching the storyteller how to create the most compelling readership experience possible.
AND ~ this book is not just for Comics, but for ANYONE interested in telling a story with images. Whether those images are drawn, painted, photographed, or digital art. Definitely a MUST READ for anyone interested in creating a "VISUAL STORY".
Book Review: Decent work in an under-served field
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has two audiences.
Many people will have come to this book through Scott's earlier "Understanding Comics," and read it to further their understandings of comic book history and the evolution of the comic-book language. I do not come from that direction and can not offer a review on those grounds.
Where I come from is as a long-time scribbler trying to learn how to tell a story in comic-book format. I learned of this book through mention in the blogs of practicing story-board artists, and as I understand it, it is one of a very small number of books to deal in detail with that part of comic book are that is larger than a single panel (Will Eisner's book is one of, perhaps the one, standout.)
There are a lot of "how to draw comics/manga" books out there. The vast majority of them deal with what is inside the panel. (The vast majority of them, particularly the Americanized Manga ones, tend to be less "Here's how to draw" than "Here's something I drew. Now just draw like that!")
(Ben Edlund drew a marvellous satire of this in a filler strip titled "How to draw The Tick."; "First draw a sphere. Now draw a horizontal line bisecting the sphere. Now draw The Tick, holding a bisected sphere.")
Scott is dealing with the interaction between the panels. How you break a story into parts, how you organize, how to develop moods and settings, how to pace. I could only wish for more. Perhaps the format is a bit at fault. The illustrations are lovely but too often serve more as a supporting visual for what is basically talking-head commentary. And the commentary, the meat of what he is saying, is crammed into balloons and margins and perhaps ends up being less complete than it could be.
In many cases, though, the integration of text and picture is useful and elegant.
There are odd surprises in what he chooses to cover with what depth. The treatment of various panel arrangements that work (and don't work) is surprisingly brief (perhaps there wasn't much more to say?) But there is an absolutely wonderful section on drawing facial emotion that is almost long and detailed enough to be a book on its own.
Perhaps my greatest quibble with this book is Scott can not quite step away from a larger perspective of the evolution and purpose of sequential art. He ends too many thoughts with "But who knows what the future will bring?" How about a few more didactic pronouncements on good storytelling methods, and save the musings on Art with the leading capitalization for his other books.
Scott, wisely, spends very little time on tools and perspective, and essentially no time at all on basic anatomy and drawing. However, the pages on drawing backgrounds and character design -- among others -- are great little refresher courses. But you need to know how to draw before you go into this book. You need to look elsewhere for human anatomy -- even elsewhere to find out how to lay out that perspective grid Scott shows off to good effect in several drawings. In fact, that old standby "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" makes a pretty good companion piece to this book as it give a good basic orientation to comic book page terminology, simple linear perspective, comic-book anatomy, pencilling and inking.
All in all, not the best book there could be on figuring out how to go from a script to fifteen pages of little boxes -- but one of the best books you can find that goes into any detail on the subject.
And, of course, it is a delight to read. Marvelously illustrated, cleverly scripted -- and one of those books that will send you scurrying to your own drawing pad, eager to try out some of the things he suggests.