Reddit reviews Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
We found 31 Reddit comments about Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
HarperCollins Publishers
I'm a comic book artist that went to school for it, still aspiring.
For understanding things like panel layout, pacing in comics, etc, check out Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Making Comics are pretty good for helping both artist and non-artist get what makes comics comics. Knowing how to create the visual comic, even if you can't draw, will help you direct your script.
Also, there is no official, streamlined way to write a comic script. Just make sure you put in all the necessary details while keeping things clear for the artist. Like if there's a bad guy with a secret weapon, make sure the artist knows that the moment he shows up so the artist can plan for it. And unless you're planning for a particular effect, don't make a guy do more than one thing in a panel.
You are not writing a story or a novel, you are writing a set of instructions for an artist and nobody will really see the script. I've seen scripts say things along the lines of, "The detective removes his hat, revealing a masculine, sexy face, like (insert actor here)".
It's also important to know about comic book panel layouts and whatnot because often it's acceptable for the writer to give the artist a drawing of a suggested layout.
What I wish someone gave me when I was 11:
Jack Hamm for general drawing skills
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/drawing-the-head-and-figure_jack-hamm/250060/?mkwid=sZCn7b9PK%7cdc&pcrid=70112899992&pkw=&pmt=&plc=&gclid=CjwKCAjwoKDXBRAAEiwA4xnqv0doVAWOVtxzsmsMnRgHRMv0_FHh3RPpLIZe_Utf-5F9iUxN0F7DkhoC4jUQAvD_BwE#isbn=0399507914&idiq=4114568
Scott McCloud series for comic book theory
https://www.amazon.com/Scott-Mccloud-Understanding-Comics-Invisible/dp/B004S2XK4O/ref=la_B000AQ1NPK_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525171935&sr=1-5
https://www.amazon.com/Reinventing-Comics-Evolution-Art-Form/dp/0060953500/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0060953500&pd_rd_r=9YT79QSGRNSNW8BV913G&pd_rd_w=9zwWY&pd_rd_wg=QoWMK&psc=1&refRID=9YT79QSGRNSNW8BV913G
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940/ref=la_B000AQ1NPK_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525171935&sr=1-2
I have some experience with webcomics. I write and draw Miamaska, which has been going on for 2+years, and I'm about to start my second comic next month.
General advice for web comickers!
(or: How I learned things the hard way and eventually stumbled into a good system)
Regarding dialogue and pacing... what I tend to do is thumbnail an entire scene (3-15 pages for me) first and read through it a few times. I'll leave mini-cliffhangers at the end of each page (like a question, or a realization, or a character entering the scene). During this little review process, I'll also make sure the view for the reader doesn't violate the 180 rule too much, that it's obvious which bubble should be read next, and where the reader is going to look first.
I don't have any experience in the print form of comics yet. So no advice there. Just make sure your comics are in print resolution as well (300+ DPI), or you'll be sorry later.
Resource time
I didn't have many resources starting out, but I'm gonna recommend these for you and anyone else interested:
PaperWings Podcast -- podcast and blog on web comic-making (ongoing, good community, regular but sparse updates, good backlog). Has even more resources on its website.
Art and Story -- podcast on print +web comic-making and the comic industry (ended, but a great backlog).
Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics by cartoonist Scott McCloud, worth a read for any comicker. A little more geared towards print, but breaks down comic theory really nicely.
Comics and Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative, by Will Eisner.
Those books are pretty popular, so you can probably pick them up from the library or find them on the web somewhere.
Scott McCLoud's got two that I enjoyed: Understanding Comics and Making Comics.
They're filled with the basics, but they also have a insight into more advanced concepts. I think what McCloud really captures is that there is not "right" way to make a comic. But he does give you time-tested and proven techniques that usually work. He also presents many methods/intents/techniques as being in trade-off with others, which is an important lesson to learn.
Even if this is supposed to be a part of something larger, it should have its own arc. You know what's supposed to happen as the author, so maybe to you, it seems like its fine. But you need to look and craft these things from the perspective of the audience.
I'll use, say, Cowboy Bebop as an example. It's almost entirely a series of self-contained episodes, save for a few episodes that touch on this relationship between Spike and Vicious. But, the self-contained episodes are often iterating and riffing on some of the same overall themes that these connected episodes are built on. Or, when they aren't, they're carried on pure entertainment value. They feel good. They're flat out fun to watch. Or they revel in the absurd, which ties into the show thematically and also rides pure entertainment value.
Fallout: New Vegas does this as well. Side-quests seem self-contained, more or less, but they build on your understanding of the world and they often build on this theme of nostalgia for the Old World, or Old World Blues, as the game eventually puts it. All of the companion character side-quests riff on this theme of clinging to the past or moving forward, the factions all follow in this theme (whether its the major factions modeling their selves after Old World powers or the Brotherhood of Steel finding that they don't belong in the world anymore, so they either need to adapt or cling to the past and die). All of these side quests are self-contained, thus having their own arc and feel satisfying to complete, but also they build on the overarching theme of the game and give the player something to think about once everything is said and done.
You can do this with your own work. You can figure out what it is that you want it to be about and make build on those themes, even just from the start. If you have ideas and themes you want to explore, you can explore them from the start in whatever way you want, and tie it all into something more grand later if you're telling an overall story, or just keep riffing on them in different self-contained scenarios. The main, best thing to keep in mind though is that if this is intended for an audience, you need to write it with the audience experience in mind. Your ideas could be incredible, but the audience would never know it if you've written it to be impenetrable to them, or just so boring that it's unlikely they'll continue to read to get to the good parts.
As an example, I love the show Eureka Seven. Somewhere towards the middle of its run, it has a small arc with a couple of characters named Ray and Charles that culminates in some of the best TV I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. But, I can almost never recommend this show to anyone. The first ~10 to 15ish episodes are a chore. The show sort of acts like you should know who all the characters are already, or doesn't give you a whole lot to work with in terms of giving you something to come back for. For this reason, it took me from when it aired back in 2005 all the way until 2014 to finally finish the show from front to back. There was a ton of good there, but it was so, so difficult to get to it through the start of the show.
So, Entertainment value. Have you read Fiona Staples' and Brian K Vaughan's Saga? The very first panel of the very first page oozes entertainment value, while also giving some great banter to help establish the characters and introduce us to the world. This is a strong opening, and even if there is some lull to the comic afterwards (which there may or may not be depending on your tastes), its given you a taste of what it is and a promise of what its capable of delivering. This is a really great thing to have. If you're aware of Homestuck, it's the GameFAQs FAQ that serves as the end of the comic's first Act that suddenly shows you how the comic will format itself: Lots of nonsensical goofing around until hitting an emotional climax that re-contextualizes the events you had just seen. This isn't at the start of the comic, but entertainment value carries the comic until that point, assuming you're into programming jokes and goofball shenanigans. But, this scene comes so comparatively late that it's likely you've already dropped the comic before getting to the "good part" if these jokes didn't carry the comic for you.
Actual Advice and Critique
Comics are hard, because, unless you have a writer or have an artist to partner with, you're doing both jobs, and the quality of the thing depends both on being well-written and well drawn (or at least some balance between the two that makes it palatable to read). I think that if you think in an actual episodic way, you could improve your writing a ton. With this comic, the arc would be "how did Lasereye become Lasereye?" It's potentially a pretty good premise, right? You'll establish a character and have plenty of chances to create entertaining scenarios because... It's your story! Lasereye became Lasereye in whatever way you decide he did. Go crazy, tell us a story! How did some young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid turn into some dude in a slum with one eye glowing brighter than ever and the other dim and jaded? Telling this in three pages would actually be a great exercise.
Your art is rough in that it looks like you could use learning some base fundamental things like human anatomy. Your palette and the food stand itself reminds me of Kill Six Billion Demons though, which is great. You've created a good atmosphere in panels 1, 2, and the last panel on the last page, despite the artwork itself being rough. That's great! You know how a thing should feel. That's a great thing to have down pat that will only continue to be a boon as your technical skill improves (and it will if you work at it!). I think that if you buckle down and grind through learning how to draw, you could make very great, visually appealing work.
There's a problem in page flow on Page 2. Here I've shown how your page directs the eye with red lines. The way the page is laid out, you end up reading the fifth panel before you read the fourth panel, which will cause a reader to have to double back to read things in order. You don't want that. You'll wanna keep an eye out for how your pages read in the future. Just give them a once-over and ask where the eye would naturally go following the lines on the page.
So, if you aren't currently, learning human anatomy would be a great place to start placing effort. If you have access, figure drawing classes and the such would be a great way to start working on that. It helps immensely to have others around who can help you if you aren't sure what you're doing at first. Books on comics in general would be a good place to go as well. Understanding Comics and Making Comics, both by by Scott McCloud, are good introductory texts. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner and Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist also by Will Eisner would be good as well.
For writing, Dan Harmon's Channel 101 guides will be great tutorials as he's one of the best working writers today in episodic TV. I'm aware this isn't directly comics, but the best writing advice is rarely going to come from a comics-focused book. Will Eisner will tell you how to use visuals to your advantage in telling a story, but the nitty-gritty of actually writing will have to come from somewhere else. The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell may help you understand structure further. This is what Dan Harmon is riffing on and working off of with his Story Circles, but adapted slightly for the sake of episodic television. Film Crit Hulk, an online movie critic/ the Incredible Hulk has a screenwriting book called Screenwriting 101. It's invaluable. I highly recommend it, even if it isn't directly about comic writing. You'll be able to adapt the advice as you work in your own medium.
I'd say your strongest point is your ability to convey action. The leaping on page 16 is particularly well executed. You also actually have a pretty good grasp of perspective drawing with the environments! It could use a little work, but I feel like every artist could do with more practice!!
The main suggestion I could give you is to start drawing from life. I know you are heavily influenced by Japanese comics, but trust me when I say that all professional manga artists are able to draw from life. What I mean is, take a figure drawing class, or at the very least pick up this book, or any other figure drawing book really. It will help you greatly with getting proportions correct, as well as help you with understanding the internal structure of the body. By skipping learning how to draw from life, and learning to draw from looking at Manga, you're really only taking the face value. Like, have you ever used a copy machine to make a copy of a copy? The original page looks crisp and clean, but that first copy has a few spots and scratches, and then the copy of that copy has big black splotches on it, and eventually the text is completely illegible. Not to say that your art is really bad! It's actually pretty decent for your first comics! I just believe that doing some observational studies will help your work greatly!
The next major thing you should work on is the writing. I get that his blindfold is what keeps his demons at bay, but by starting the comic off with the central character punching a guy's body in two, and then ripping another guy's arm off... it makes me not care about the character. I feel like if you would have shown the readers that he was a kind person, by like, helping the elderly, or defending his father or something, then I'd be like, "Why is this sweet kid suddenly a vicious murderer?" But since you didn't I was like, "Is this a violent comic for the sake of drawing a violent comic?" Therefore, when the dad was brought in to be killed, he started talking about how innocent the kid was, which is the exact opposite of my first impression. Also, why did they kill the dad? Why, then, did they let evil demon kid live, only to exile him? Wouldn't killing Kai solve all of their problems?
Anyway, I feel like you have potential, mainly because you were actually able to produce this much work! Do you have any idea how many people say they want to make comics but pale at the sight of how much work it is? You are a hard worker, and I know that you will be able to persevere and evolve into something so much better than you already are! On that note, buy Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It will change your life. I'm being 100% serious here. McCloud is not only the go-to comics theorist, but he was also one of the first professional Americans to see the potential of drawing comics influenced by the Japanese! Once you have devoured this book, because you will want more, buy Making Comics, also by Scott McCloud. While Understanding dissects the medium and explains things you never would have thought about before, Making Comics applies those thoughts into a school-like setting.
tl;dr: It's good, but could be much better. Worship Scott McCloud.
Scott McCloud's books are a good primer.
You can always pitch to Frederator. Here are some guidelines - http://cartoonhangover.com/gocartoons/
For aspiring animators, we recommend this tremendous post from Daniel Schier about getting into the business:
http://waveybrain.tumblr.com/post/8165951350/tips-for-the-aspiring-professional-animation-artist
I highly recommend buying and dissecting this book, Scott McCloud's Making Comics - http://www.amazon.com/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464296435&sr=8-1&keywords=scott+mccloud+making+comics
And in this day age, you can (and are expected to) show that your ideas are potent by doing them, posting them, and sharing them. It isn't enough to have an awesome pitch bible. Make .gifs of the characters doing lines, upload regularly, share them with like-minded people. If they are good, people will share them and you can build your fan base. Pusheen or Homestuck are good examples of people going it alone at first without the hassle of people telling your that you are wrong.
If we're talking about books about comics I must mention that Scott McCloud has another book: Making Comics (It's not as great as Understanding Comics, while I'd have to own Understanding, Making is more of a checkout from the library once sort of book) and then there are the books by legendary cartoonist Will Eisner: here's the first one
Sorry to go off topic but I love all those books soooooo much! Had to give them a mention!
I got some Cyanide and Happiness books, but I'm really stoked that I got this:
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293309970&sr=8-1
Hello! Would love good resources for Disney-style art, if you could spare those.
Here are some of the best things I've found for comic art
How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way A classic. Can be bought used for next to nothing. My only gripe is that it moves very fast and superficially
Incredible Comics with Tom Nguyen: He has a really clean style. Communicates a lot with very few lines. Excellent resource.
How to Draw: Heroic Anatomy More advanced resource. Uses a lot more lines and shading.
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels How to construct the actual comic panels and books
Making Comics by Scott McCloud is a really good read and it is done all in comic form.
Understanding Comics and Making Comics by Scott McCloud are a great place to start.
The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell is very very good.
Game AI (Millington and Funge new edition iirc) is very very good.
Some non-game-design books that are very useful for those doing game design:
Scott McLoud: Making Comics (the other two in the series are good but the section on plot, characterization, and development in this one is great)
Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things. (How design works and how people interact with technology and...)
Christopher Alexander et al A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction (Thinking about scale and design elements and modularity and...)
Kevin Lynch: The Image of the City (How do urban spaces work - essential if your game is set in a city - how do people actually navigate)
Polti: The 36 Dramatic Situations (old, quirky, examines how there are really only a few human plots)
Matt Frederick: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (how to think about and execute simple art, improve your design sense, ...)
What a lovely idea! For me, it's been fun testing out materials and finding what I like to use. Depending on her media interests, here's what I'd recommend thinking about:
A Brush Pen (especially for cartooning on the go!):
http://www.amazon.com/Pentel-Pocket-Brush-Refills-GFKP3BPA/dp/B002LJRKN8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448983878&sr=8-1&keywords=cartooning+brush
A Nice Brush:
http://www.amazon.com/Winsor-Newton-Kolinsky-Pointed-Brushes/dp/B0013E68TO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448984196&sr=8-1&keywords=Windsor-Newton+Series+7+sable+%232
Some Ink:
http://www.amazon.com/Speedball-2-Ounce-India-Super-Black/dp/B0007ZJ8TM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448983937&sr=8-3&keywords=ink+cartooning
A Brush Cleaner:
http://www.amazon.com/General-Pencil-Company-Masters-Preserver/dp/B0009RRT9Y/ref=pd_sim_201_12?ie=UTF8&dpID=512oIauSQjL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR149%2C160_&refRID=1J5XTFQ5TBWPSS5E39AV
An Ames Lettering Guide:
http://www.amazon.com/Alvin-Ames-Lettering-Guide-AL666/dp/B001DNAHRO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448984324&sr=8-1&keywords=AMES+LETTERING+GUIDE
A copy of Making Comics by Scott McCloud (SO useful!):
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1448984007&sr=8-13&keywords=cartooning
Ναι αυτό εννοώ. Κρίμα.
Καταλαβαίνω ότι το comic είναι πολύ δύσκολη υπόθεση. Το πόσο δύσκολο είναι το κατάλαβα διαβάζοντας τη σειρά βιβλίων του Scott McCloud "Understanding comics: The invisible Art", "Reinventing comics" και "Making Comics". Δεν είχα ιδέα από comics ως μέσο και μου κίνησε την περιέργεια μία ομιλία (keynote address) του McCloud σε ένα συνέδριο που είχα παρευρεθεί. Awesome stuff!
Admittedly both artistically trained and not a parent, so I don't know if this is too out of left field. Though were I to have kids, and find out they have a thing for narrative art. I'd get this book and this book off the shelf and show it to them. I wish I had these books when I was just learning how to draw.
Don't force them to do any of the lessons out of it or anything. Just keep it as a reference book for them, if they choose to want to go beyond stick figures. These two books have pretty much all the information required to render objects and people correctly, and apply that towards the conventions of comics and narrative story telling.
As an aside though, drawing in particular is a trained skill. You could learn alongside your kid if you had the time/energy.
Step 1. LOOK at the art.
It sounds like you're doing this, that's great! The artist probably spent 2–10 hours on that one page, I'm sure they'd like it if people did more than glance at it. You might find it useful if you pay attention to these things in particular: shapes, how lighting works (the shadows, shading, and highlights), line width, composition and layout, foreground/background and perspective, anatomy and proportions (which can be unrealistic and still look good), textures and effects.
Take a look at through the Escher Girls tumblr if you want to see what inaccurate anatomy can do to otherwise skilled artwork.
Step 2. Learn about what goes into artwork. For comics, manga, and other sequential art in particular, I HIGHLY recommend reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. It is not a how-to-draw book. It's also well worth your time, and odds are good you can find it at your local library if you live in an native English-speaking country. The sequel, Making Comics, is also really good.
Step 3. Keep looking at the art for multiple series, over time eventually you'll start to notice what works and what doesn't, when rules are broken to good effect and when they really should've listened.
First and foremost; write a script. Without a script you've got nothing. Let people read the script. Listen to what they have to say. If they can't visualize or understand any parts of it, then neither will the artist who will eventually draw it hopefully and neither will your audience, the readers. If you get defensive about criticism then just stop now, because you're going to hear it at some point unless you only let your mother read it.
Next rewrite it. I think it was Hemingway that said the first draft of everything is shit.
Find an artist. Listen to the artist's points. If your artist says you need more action. Put more action. If your artist comes up with a cool way to reduce 4 pages into one cool layout, let them. Don't let your script be your baby. Comics are a collaborative art.
Maybe before you start writing you should learn about comics. Read some. Definitely read Scott Adams Understanding Comics and Making Comics
Also read some really great comics like;
Frank Miller's the Dark Knight Returns,
Alan Moore's Watchmen,
Kurt Busiek's Kingdom Come,
Garth Ennis's Preacher,
Jeph Loeb's the Long Halloween,
These will let you know what come before, but also what's possible to do with the format.
This is prob the wrong sub to ask this but let me try and give you some more info as someone who has worked on comics in the past.
If you are looking how comics are professionally made usually it’s a team of a few people with the jobs of writing, penciling, inking, coloring, and lettering split up. If you wanna take on all of that on your own it’s not impossible, most webcomic artists do it all but those are very different than comic books.
To be honest if it’s just for yourself you don’t even have to get any drawing apps. You can collage images you find online to make a story or just draw simple drawing on printer paper and put that together. See if it’s something you enjoy before dropping a bunch of money on software or art supplies.
If you are really really looking into getting into comic book making I’d suggest buying the book Making Comics
First let me start with the pros.
-Pros
-Very nice simple artstyle for the characters, it's clear what the characters are doing.
Colors for the characters pleasant to look at.
-Cons
There are no backgrounds, you don't have to be detailed but you should put something more than just random colors.
The camera is always facing front which is not that interesting to read.
You should also work on anatomy especially hands.
If you want to learn more about making comics you should get this book series.
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940
Learn from the masters.
The book Making Comics by Scott McCloud is great for any comic newbies, or even more experienced folks. Very insightful and fun to read even if you never follow the advice. Probably can find it cheaper than on amazon with a little digging.
So is Making Comics
Take one Making Comics by Scott McCloud and call me in the morning.
You might find this interesting... Should help a LOT in story boarding
http://www.amazon.ca/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940
The best book on how comics work, for my money, is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. That would be followed up by Making Comics from the same author. It's a little theory-heavy but it's amazing. I'd say it's good for 14 and up, or maybe a little younger. This would get him a fantastic background in how comics work and how to create them in general. The first book is literally used as a textbook in some college "Comics Appreciation" type classes. The coolest thing about it is that it's a comic itself, and it demonstrates the things it's talking about right there on the page.
If he's younger, and/or he really just wants to learn to draw superheroes, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way is really good on the fundamentals. It's old-school (most inkers don't use a brush anymore, they use computers), but the fundamentals haven't changed all that much.
Here's a more modern one from DC that looks pretty good and has good reviews, though I haven't read it.
[Making Comics by Scott McCloud!] (https://www.amazon.com/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)
This website is based off of Scott McCloud's facial expression explanation from his book Making Comics and seems to be what you are looking for. It doesn't give you the words, but it can help you visualize your character's emotions and give your own spin to describing them. I hope this helps!
I recieved this book as a gift and found it to be incredibly helpful. If you're looking for a really thorough rundown of the entire process, I definitely recommend it.
Sup LazyJ507. It looks like nobody's really given you any tips yet, so I'll try, and see if this helps at all.
Work on drawing.
By that I mean draw from life. Often. Get a sketchbook and go out and draw a whole lot. Draw your family, your friends, your classmates, etc. Studying anatomy helps a lot! The real meat for drawing figures is in learning what things are SUPPOSED to look like. Try to find some life drawing classes.
Read a lot.
And by this I mean reading lots of comics. Read lots of comics and read lots of books about comics. See what you like and try to emulate--NOT COPY-- things that you think are awesome. I recommend checking out Scott McCloud's Making Comics and Understanding Comics. Also, check out Will Eisner's books: Comics And Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Expressive Anatomy have helped me tons. It's awesome seeing professionals in the comics world give you tips and visuals that help you learn. Also, read novels, watch cartoons, watch movies, play video games. Find the aspects that you like about each and see how you can connect that to making comics. Comics are a pretty limitless medium.
As for this comic specifically, work on size, spacing, lettering, panel layouts, and black-and-white balance. And maybe comedic timing, but that's more in the writing area.
I can't really think of any more tips, but if you're wondering about anything else, go ahead and ask.
(i'm a sequential arts student a bluh bluh bluh)