How to Create Action, Fantasy and Adventure Comics [Hardcover]

Tom Alvarez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

Step by step, Tom Alvarez is here to teach beginning and intermediate artists every aspect of working in the adventure style of comics.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Alvarez, creator of the daily Sherlock Holmes comic strip and a teacher of comic art, has put together the most substantial book yet on this increasingly popular art. Comics, sometimes known as "sequential art," are a multimillion-dollar business, with their original panels collected like fine art and shown on museum walls. This comprehensive volume covers cartooning elements from human anatomy, clothing and drapery, light, and composition to lettering, inking, and writing the text. Tips from leading cartoonists like Sy Barry (The Phantom) round out a book that dabblers and aspiring professionals alike will enjoy. For a good companion to this, see Lurene Haines's Writer's Guide to the Business of Comics (Stabur, 1995).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Tom Alvarez creates the daily comic strip Sherlock Holmes, which appears in newspapers around the US. He lives in Port Charlotte, Florida. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 143 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; First edition. edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891346619
• ISBN-13: 978-0891346616
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,059,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book you should own as an aspiring comic book artist, December 20, 2002

By 

Carlo R. Montoya "Toy photographer" (Cebu City, Cebu Philippines) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Create Action, Fantasy and Adventure Comics (Paperback)

I didn't buy this book here because I was lucky to find it here in the Philippines. I found this book almost complete in its goal to teach its readers to become comic book artists. The book could have been 100% complete if it had a few pages on muscle structure (male and female), more pointers on drawing hands, foreshortening the human body and coloring. Despite these, I still rate it 5 stars.

One particular chapter that I believe stood out was the chapter on Clothing and Drapery. Learn the principles Tom outlined here and you will be able to draw clothing and drapery from memory.

It's not the only book you should buy if you want to draw comics but it definitely is a must-own book. I also bought Stan Lee and John Buscema's "How to Draw Comics - The Marvel Way" from the same bookstore. I haven't finished reading it yet because I'm already practicing breakdowns (posing your character using basic shapes prior to filling them in with muscles and covering them with clothes or costumes) as Tom suggested we do for at least a week or better months or a year (what a perfectionist, ey?).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It has EVERYTHING!, August 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Create Action, Fantasy and Adventure Comics (Paperback)

I've read this book many times and it has the most info I've seen in a book on how to create comics, by far. It even goes so far to include instructions on drawing clothing! Tom Alvarez gives a two page lesson on the compostion of a comic page, explains different techniques of the inking job, and even gives dimensions of a typical comic book pencilling page with instructions to size it down! There are also many tips he throws in at the end of every chapter to help you get going in every aspect. Like watching some dramatic movies and studying angles to re-drawing an existing comic book. Extremely detailed! No regrets! A must-have for artists!

3.0 out of 5 stars Much better books out there., December 26, 2009

By 

T. Wright (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Create Action, Fantasy and Adventure Comics (Paperback)

I was very disappointed in this book. I realized when I purchased it that it was a bit older than most books out there but I really wanted to see this artist's take on things. The overall content of the book is pretty much the same as the rest of the books of this type. It covers very basic anatomy and human proportions, but the problem is that the illustrations are just terrible. They look like high school drawings of an unskilled fan boy. Some of the drawing are very out of proportion with one arm longer than the other or heads too small for the body. This is surprising to me because I have seen the author's Shelock Holmes comic strips and the art in them is phenomenal, in my opinion. Those strips are what prompted me to want to see this book in the first place. The drapery section is its saving grace. However, this is a very small section at only a few pages and if you are familiar with drawing at all this section may not be of any help to you.
For more in depth coverage and better rendered art, I recommend Draw Comics with Dick Giordano, Drawing Dynamic Comics by Andy Smith, and Comics Crash Course by Vincent Giarrano.