Manga Mania: Shonen: Drawing Action-Style Japanese Comics [Paperback]

Christopher Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2008 | Series: Manga Mania

Manga devotees—especially fanboys—will welcome the latest installment in Chris Hart’s blockbuster, bestselling series. Shonen manga stories feature male protagonists in action-packed, often humorous plots. Boys in particular devour the genre’s most popular works, including Naruto, Dragon Ball, Bleach, and Death Note. With Chris’s help, they can feed their passion further and learn how to draw all the essential shonen characters: teen heroes, violent samurai, girl ninjas, hideous monsters, masked warlords, tomboy fighter girls, giant battling robot-buddies, evil martial arts masters, and more. Step-by-step demonstrations break down the drawings so that artists of any level can follow along.
Filled with top-notch art instruction, tons of visual tips, and over 350 drawings in the authentic Japanese style, this is the essential resource for all manga maniacs.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christopher Hart is an award-winning and best-selling author whose books have set the standard for art instruction, both nationally and internationally.

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Chris Hart Books (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193302769X
• ISBN-13: 978-1933027692
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thanks for taking a look at my books, and this "Author Bio." I'm a competent tennis player, who also enjoys playing computer chess while I'm watching TV at night (Hey, it prevents me from channel-surfing). I'm keenly interested in M-theory, although i have become skeptical of it of late, despite Brian's Green's full-body gushing... I love being with my family, and even my extremely evil dog, a Welsh Springer Spaniel named "Rusty." Oh, yes, he truly is that evil.

As for my work, I'm the author of many How-To-Draw books, published by Watson-Guptill,the art imprint of Random House. Thanks to a lot of the wonderful readers (and you know who you are!), I have sold over 3 million copies domestically, which have been translated into 20 languages worldwide.

I'm fortunate to also have had 26 of the Best-Selling art books in the country, according to Bookscan.(Bookscan is the publishing industry's rating system for books, which is owned by same company that does the Neislen TV ratings.)

I also have my own drawing show on the Comcast Network, called, "How To Draw Action Heroes With Chris Hart." It's on Comcast's "Activity TV." I hope you like my books, and find them a valuable adjunct to your own imagination.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, September 11, 2008

By 

G-Art (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manga Mania: Shonen: Drawing Action-Style Japanese Comics (Paperback)

Not only is this the first book I've seen focused solely on the Japanese shonen, but it is extremely well done. Well written and massive amount of step by step drawings, demonstrating the simple steps to create amazing characters. Starting with the basic drawing of the head with great mood expressions, moving on to the body (posture & action included) followed by the numerous individual types of personalities & characters make this book the best drawing guide/companion I've had in a long time. I highly recommend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wanna learn how to draw Manga? Buy this., February 1, 2010

By 

James Goulding (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manga Mania: Shonen: Drawing Action-Style Japanese Comics (Paperback)

Wanna learn how to draw Manga? Buy this book.

The bottom line for a book like this is, can you learn to draw? My answer is yes, and I did.

You can see the drawings here: [...]

I've done 8 so far, since I bought the book, 2 weeks ago.

Chris does a great job. I'm going to buy another of his books.

Disclaimer: I don't know Chris, nor am I a professional artist (as you'll see by my drawings!)

Thanks,

Jim G.

Elmhurst, IL

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great cover...decent book, May 5, 2009

By 

A. Amat "Mugetsu" (South FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Manga Mania: Shonen: Drawing Action-Style Japanese Comics (Paperback)

Thought this book bears Christopher Hart's name it doesn't contain any of his art, not a big deal since 90% of the contributing artists are great.

Feels more like a "coffee table book" than a "how to book", but then again it never really claims to be a how to book.

I have just recently come to the realization that 80% of "how to books" in the market all follow the same approach to "supposedly" teaching you how to draw...its a poor approach that unintentionally encourages you to copy and produce flat lifeless work. This book is no different, don't get me wrong the art is great and the character designs are cool, but the tutorials are poor and don't really get into any real detail or cover any basic structures of drawing (save for the head), then again its not a "beginners guide" but it would be nice to have a all in one book.

Its also covers some page design and a few other subjects.

I suppose its a great "ideas" book since it covers a wide range of "Shonen" inspired characters. But in my opinion if you really want to learn how to capture the action of "Manga" try Michael D. Mattesi's "FORCE: Dynamic life drawing for animators"