The DC comics guide to pencilling comics

If you have young people with comic books tucked under their arms in your library or older folks who still dream of drawing comics, this is the book to buy. For over 30 years, Janson has drawn such characters as Batman, Punisher, Daredevil, and Spawn for DC Comics. For the past ten years, he has been teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Here, he wisely confines himself to the fundamentals of penciling faces, anatomy, clothing, and perspective. This is followed by storytelling, composition, shots and angles, and movement. The final section offers advice on getting one's work into the hands of an editor or art director. Andy Smith's Drawing Dynamic Comics covers much of the same ground, with similar professional quality. Buy either, or both, depending on budget and demand. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Comic book art is judged by two criteria: the drawing and the storytelling. Most people can understand what the drawing part of comics is: the ability to draw in such a manner that the audience finds the world you create convincing. If anything within the drawing pulls the reader out of the illusion that the artist is creating -- characters that look like vegetables, cars that are too outdated, an unconvincing kitchen, hands that don't look like hands -- then the artist has failed as a penciller. Drawing hinges on credibility: practice. The more you draw, the better you will get. Excerpted from The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics by Klaus Janson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.