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Recommended reading...

Posted by Al Nickerson on February 7, 2018 at 7:23am in ART MENTORING & LEARNING

Here's a list of books that I recommend to my students. The top section are books on how to make comics, and the bottom section are books that deal with the history of comics...

SEQUENTIAL ART:

COMICS ILLUSTRATION

 

Recommended reading

 

-MAKING COMICS (Scott McCloud)

 

-THE CEREBUS GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING (Dave Sim)

 

-COMICS & SEQUENTIAL ART (Will Eisner)

 

-PANEL DISCUSSIONS (TwoMorrows Publishing)

 

-UNDERSTANDING COMICS (Scott McCloud)

 

-REINVENTING COMICS (Scott McCloud)

 

-DC COMICS GUIDE TO COLORING AND LETTERING (Mark Chiarello & Todd Klein)

 

-THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CREATING COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS (Andy Schmidt)

 

-DRAWING WORDS & WRITING PICTURES- MAKING COMICS: MANGA, GRAPHIC NOVELS, AND BEYOND (Jessica Abel and Matt Madden)

 

-DYNAMIC ANATOMY (Burne Hogarth)

 

 

Comics History

 

-JACK COLE AND PLASTIC MAN: FORMS STRETCHED TO THEIR LIMITS (Art Spiegelman & Chip Kidd)

 

-MEN OF TOMORROW: GEEKS, GANGSTERS, AND THE BIRTH OF THE COMIC BOOK (Gerard Jones)

 

-WILL EISNER’S SHOP TALK (Will Eisner)

 

-A SPIRITED LIFE (Bob Andelman)

 

-KIRBY: KING OF COMICS (Mark Evanier)

 

-COMIX: A HISTORY OF COMIC BOOKS IN AMERICA (Les Daniels)

 

-THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES (Jules Feiffer)

 

-EXCELSIOR! THE AMAZING LIFE OF STAN LEE (Stan Lee)

 

-MASTERS OF AMERICAN COMICS (John Carlin, Paul Karasik, & Brian Walker / Yale University Press)

 

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Replies

  • Alyssa February 24, 2020 at 6:50am
    The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics: How to Create and Sell Comic Books, Manga, and Webcomics by Comfort Love and Adam Withers is another great read. They cover coming up with a concept very well.
  • Amy Michelle Fusco February 12, 2018 at 10:54am

    Thanks for this. I went through to see what my local library system has and plan to check them out!

  • Aaron Uglum February 10, 2018 at 3:55pm

    "Peanuts Jubilee" by Charles Schulz has some good info on producing comic strips. It's primarily a 25th anniversary collection, but with some writings by Schulz mixed in. Some of it is more autobiographical, but it also gets into the nuts and bolts of writing a strip, and for lack of a better term, Schulz's philosophy of cartooning. It's a fairly old book though (1975).

  • Yoshi February 10, 2018 at 12:12pm

    I agree about Mark Crilley, he's good at showcasing technic. I mostly read Christopher Hart's manga guidebooks. 

  • Yoshi February 10, 2018 at 3:59am

    I read "Comics and Sequential art" by Will Eisner from a library, but that's it. 

  • Al Nickerson February 9, 2018 at 6:41am

    Has anyone else read any of these books? I'm curious to know what other folks think about the books on this list.

    • Alyssa > Al Nickerson February 24, 2020 at 6:47am
      Anything by Scott McCloud is worth looking into. I found DRAWING WORDS & WRITING PICTURES to be very informative. They talk about lettering, placing panels, and all sort of other topics.
    • Jeniah Daniels > Al Nickerson February 9, 2018 at 8:05am

      I have UNDERSTANDING COMICS (Scott McCloud), REINVENTING COMICS (Scott McCloud), and THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CREATING COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS (Andy Schmidt) in my collection. Speaking purely from the perspective of an amateur, I've found these books to be very insightful and definitely worth checking out.

      I'm also a fan of:

      'How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way' by Stan Lee and John Buscema

      'Drawing Dynamic Comics' by Andy Smith

      'Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers' by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

      'Creating Comics From Start to Finish' by Buddy Scalera

       

  • Kevin D. Lintz February 7, 2018 at 1:15pm

    I really enjoyed Matt Madden's "99 Ways to Tell a Story". It is a very interesting look at tons of different variations of a few simple panels.

    https://www.amazon.com/99-Ways-Tell-Story-Exercises/dp/1596090782

    99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style: Matt Madden: 9781596090781: Amazon.com: Books
    99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style [Matt Madden] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>99 Ways to Tell a Story</b> is a se…
  • Al Nickerson February 7, 2018 at 9:06am

    DC Comics published a book/guide on inking. I think it was by Klaus Janson. I've never read it, though.

    Also, Scott McCloud's books are always a great read. I especially like MAKING COMICS... and not just because Scott had mentioned me in the book. :D

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