Customer Reviews

Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond

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I brought an advance copy of this book into a college illustration class I teach. The class was quite impressed. In fact, two students went onto Amazon online and bought it instantly. Usually I discourage shopping during class, but Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is an answered prayer for the aspiring comics artist.

This is an ideal text for a 15-week class in comics. It also has guidance for starting an informal collective class. It includes suggestions for the stereotypical solitary artist, who the authors are gracious enough to refer to as ronin. There is a wealth of info on the narrative process, page design, lettering, pens, and even Photoshop scanning advice.

The authors' individual web pages present a lot this DIY info, so search out their sites, see if their philosophies appeal to you. The book contains multiple perspectives from two remarkable artists. Matt Madden is into "formalist" styles, working within Houdini-like constraints. Jessica Abel's La Perdida is one of the great masterpieces of the long-form graphic novel.

From George Herriman to Robert Crumb, Charles Burns, to Kaz and John Porcillino, the book is crammed with a diversity of styles. Wide-ranging and inclusive, no matter what one's preferred comics style, from manga to superhero to alternative, you will find something to like here.

Instructors will find the bibliography alone is worth the price of admission, I teach a seven-week college comics course each fall. My plan is to email the students over the summer, tell them to get this book and get started on the exercises. The ronins will get a head start and their classmates will lose face.

Scott McCloud's Making Comics is also a valuable college course text for serious students, who have some background in reading comics and thinking critically about the artform. Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, however, has practical exercises for students at any level. Highly recommended.

I am a BIG fan of both Abel and Madden's work. I go to BOTH of their websites several times a month and "La Perdida" and "99 Ways To Tell A Story" are part of my collection of graphic novels.

This book is great for high school & college art teachers who want to teach sequential art to their classes. I believe the content is particularly suited for art majors that are interested in the finer points of visual narrative. And you can tailor your curriculum around the chapters if you so choose. If you want to use these for middle school kids I think simpler steps need to be added. I like the fact that people can form groups: "Nomads" OR go do it alone: "Ronins" and follow the lessons independently.

This book is NOT bad.

All the chapters and lessons are made to be studied in sequence and if you are an old timer to comic art you can easily skip to other chapters; which I did alot. A seasoned pro will probably go to the chapters that interest him/ her the most. One chapter that I REALLY like was called "Black Gold" the chapter on using and inking with a brush.

The other chapters on page layout, panel construction, character design,
facial features/ figure anatomy were VERY good.

My ONLY complaint was the layout of the book. My [web]comic artist collegues & I felt there was TOO much white space waisted on each page, the typeface was too small and that neon orange color used throughout the book distracting. It was hard to read and strained the eyes.

Plus being a webcomic artist myself I wanted to see MORE about using the computer for making comics. It covered scanning, re-sizing, adjusting your line art in PhotoShop, etc. The chapter on lettering was good; but they tended to downplay the use of COMPUTER LETTERING. They make a STRONG point in favor of HAND LETTERED comics; but it would have been nice if they address lettering on the computer as well.

My Suggestions:
A. Read the book cover to cover.
B. Do the Exercises. I am in a NOMAD group; plus I'm doing the RONIN thing as well.
C. Do the Homework.
D. Go back to your favorite chapters again and again.
E. Cross reference this with OTHER books on how to make comics.

This book is a welcome addition to any comic artist's arsenal of graphic narrative/ sequential art references. Use it along with books by Will Eisner & Scott McCloud and you'll be fully versed in the Language of Comic Art.

I bought this book for a class titled "Human Satire and Caricature". All of the projects for our class came out of this book, or were somewhat derived from the lessons, and I must say, it's one of the best classes ever.

The text is a large contributor, but not the only one. My professor's an amazing guy as well.

Definitely a great buy if you're into anything dealing with comics, technical drawing, layout, storytelling, or any combination of those. It's structured really well, and a person with nearly no artistic talent can easily be turned into a decent comic artist by reading this book front to back and following the lessons in it.

It's similar to other how-to books but surpasses them with chapters on tools AND HOW TO USE THE TOOLS. Unless you happen to know an old-time cartoonist or renaissance cartoonist, there is no resource for learning how to use a brush and nib or how to buy them. Until now. I've always been curious how to properly use a dip pen for drawing cartoons. I have recommended this book to other artists and my students.

Drawing comics may seem like a daunting task, and it is. However, all the skills needed to make a comic book can be readily learned and put together and that's where Drawing Words and writing Pictures comes in.

The book is set up as a self-contained course in Comics Making 101 with chapters broken up into weekly studies with homework and criteria critique as well as tips for following the instruction both in groups of by yourself.

Each chapter tackles a different aspect of making a comics; from writing and layout, to drawing and lettering, to inking with both pen and brush all the way to corrections and reproduction. The assignments also build upon each other in scope and complexity; ranging from single panel cartoons to newspaper-style strips up to full multi-page comics.

The book focuses almost entirely on doing everything by hand rather than computer with a little bit on scanning thrown in toward the end. This may rub some the wrong way in today's digital age, however since this book is about building the basic skills of makings comics it's well worth learning all the ink and paper techniques first before tackling their digital equivalents.

The companion website is quite the treasure trove, with teaching guides to use the book in different classroom settings and a well-maintained blog full of links and interviews with comic creators.

If you're the type who has stacks of comics and shelves of books on making them, Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is an essential addendum. I'll definitely be looking forward to the promised second volume.

I collect books about making comics, and this one was a great surprise. It is very different from its predecessors (Eisner's and McCloud's) in the sense that 1. it really feels like a course, with plenty of exercises and 2. the deepness of the technical information is just amazing. They go so far as to tell you how many mm you can use for gutters, and which brands and sizes of nibs and brushes certain artists use. Extremely through, a manual to keep at hand at all times!

I had checked this book out from the library, then decided to purchase it. Although this book is designed more for comic/graphic books,I'm doing storyboarding for a screenplay, and the step-by-step instructions are fantastic. It's helped get me back into the drawing "zone". Which is much needed since I've been procrastinating. It's an enjoyable read, and the homework assignments help with much needed drawing practice. Plus, it makes me do research. I would recommend this book as an asset for anyone that is serious about drawing, and adding to their personal library.

Even if this was quite a big book and thus, hard to handle, it contained a lot of information starting from sketching, using pencils to sketch, making different sketches, how different artists do their work, how do you actually tell a story with pictures.
It is good for a beginner, someone who likes to learn how to do comics, and for someone who likes to see e.g. how to draw a character and how to use those little wooden helpers to do that etc.
I would recommend this for anyone who likes comics and likes to know how to draw a comic and tell a story in pictures.

Thank you Matt and Jessica for this amazing resource. I usually work with much younger kids (10/11year olds) but there's still loads of ideas to use with them. I need to make myself go through and do the course myself.
brilliant, thank you!
Jim Medway

Length:: 0:24 Mins

Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is more of a course that a book on drawing comics. The authors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, both comic artists and teachers, have designed the book to follow a 15-week semester. It's easy to follow and each lesson builds on the previous.

The course is comprehensive and covers everything from paneling, storytelling, transitions, lettering, inking, character development, etc. Basically every form of education you need to create your own comic.

Each lesson has plenty of illustrated examples from the authors and other artists like Craig Thompson, Osamu Tezuka, Paul Pope, etc. You're exposed to many styles, genre and ways of creating comics. The instructions are so clear it's almost like hand holding, but of course you still have to do all the hard work. And the lessons end with homework so you can actually practice what was taught -- practical.

This is a really helpful guide on drawing comics. Highly recommended to aspiring comic artists. Well worth the price.

This is as close as it can get to attending a real comics drawing class.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)