Customer Reviews

How To Draw Kung Fu Comics (v. 1)

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I recently rediscovered this book, and finally decided to add it to my collection. This book provides an interesting view into the making of a Kung Fu manga. It briefly covers a wealth of concepts, such as drawing effects, perspective, character creation and character design, but there is only so much it can be fit in 136 pages. However, it is probably one of the most beautiful black and white quick reference resource on how to draw Kung Fu manga style.

This book is divided into 9 Chapters:

Chapter 1 - Birth of a New Comic
Chapter 2 - Drawing Effects
Chapter 3 - Perspective
Chapter 4 - Anatomy and Character Creation
Chapter 5 - Character Design
Chapter 6 - Illustrating Scenario
Chapter 7 - Script Writing for Kung Fu Comics
Chapter 8 - Tutorial
Chapter 9 - Art Gallery

The first chapters in this book provide a brief course on how to draw special effects, perspective and characters. Although Character Creation chapter doesn't provide anything new, it's a good preamble to the chapter that follows, Character Design. This is where this book shines, providing 12 pages full of kung fu style characters in various state of development, rendered in black and white. In this regard, only Chapter 8 and 9 comes close, with images to behold.

For a beginner, this book may be enough to wet your appetite. The more versed on drawing manga may find it too short, but adequate as a quick reference. Personally, I would have loved to see more pages dedicated to character design, tutorial and art gallery. Or perhaps, another book as a follow up to this one.