Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels Paperback – September 5, 2006

How come it's never occurred to me that the best way to teach is by demonstration? Scott McCloud is so effective in balancing the visual and verbal in this book, providing examples and key ideas about the art of creating comics that make complete and total sense! A lot of the "how-to-make-comics" books out there are decent, and occasionally provide a paragraph or two that has some good insights into the medium, but none of it truly made sense to me until it was applied in a visual format—a literal comic, no less! While other books focus on the "how-to" part and provide an occasional visual example or step-by-step of how it's done, Scott demonstrates every aspect of comics creating he discusses in each page and panel so that the reader isn't left with any question on clarity about the information being presented—clarity being a big point in comics writing that is a recurring theme in the world of comics creation. I especially love that he ends each chapter with some optional exercises to try that helps even a beginning/aspiring comics creator to see if they have what it takes to make their own comics by applying the skills and understanding that Scott discusses throughout each chapter into short-form comics. I know that I benefitted a great deal from testing my mettle with some of the exercises in the book.I usually end up discussing what could be improved upon when it comes to product reviews, but in the case of this book, I have nothing critical to say about it. It is criminally underrated and underread for those looking to go into the world of comics creation. I am practically devouring this book like a textbook, taking notes and marking with page flags all the key takeaways that I've gained from Scott's advice and experience in comics creation—much of which was highly researched and full of thought for any kind of comic creator, whether someone wants to write a superhero comic, a webcomic, or even a manga. Hands down, *this* book has reached the top of my list of best comics-creation resources. I highly recommend this as required reading for anyone dipping their toes in the realm of writing or drawing their own comic!

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.

This book is fantastic so far. I have been wanting for a long time to get into writing a graphic novel or a web comic, but never knew where to start. I also have a hard time sitting down and reading informative articles, posts, or other books.McCloud's book is fantastic if you're like me; the entire "book" is written as a comic book, and is also very entertaining. He goes through the various pieces of writing comics, including panel choice, transition choice, character design, word choice, etc. And in quite a bit of detail at that.Since the entire book is illustrated, there are a variety of actual EXAMPLES of the things he is talking about, as well as references from other comic and manga artists to show how they might accomplish thing A or thing B. Not to mention his own illustrations that he creates for specific examples are hilarious at times.Every chapter has a large section going into more details about specific pages and panels throughout the chapter, adding additional detail where it is needed and any clarification you might have wanted on a specific topic. Additionally, there are exercises he provides that are all helpful to reinforce the chapter topic, getting you into actually practicing writing comics.I haven't finished going through the whole book yet, have barely finished the second chapter, but I absolutely love it. It seems like an invaluable resource to anyone wanting to get into writing their own comics. I will be investing in his other two books as well once I finish going through this one!