Customer Reviews

Superheroes: Joe Kubert's Wonderful World of Comics

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

If I had never read an instructive tome on drawing comics before, I'm sure I would find this very impressive. Being that there are several out there already, this feels like a missed oppurtunity.

First of all, the presentation is rather lackluster. For a medium as dynamic as comic books I believe the design of the book could have been a bit more interesting. It's all fairly standard and not all thay dynamic.

Of course the content is what counts the most, and there is a lot of worthy elements presented here. The problem is most of it has already been presented in other books, like the excellent How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way. The beginning section on the history of comics is the exception. It is both interesting and useful and hasn't been done in this paticular type of book before to my knowledge. The dissapointing part is that it would have been very interesting to see how a master like Kubert creates his illustrations. We are given tantalizing tidbits, but it could have been much meatier. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the final section. We are treated to the original script for a short lived character called Ragman. We get to see the rough layouts and there are interesting, but many of the pages are reproduced at a greatly reduced size. It would have been great to see some more comments as to WHY Kubert made some of the storytelling choices he did and reproducing the actual, final pages of the story seems like a bit of a no-brainer. Alas, neither of these things are done.

Definitely buy this book if you are interested in a career in comic books. It provides a solid foundation, but it is a far cry from the seminal, complete book for aspiring comic book artists we have been waiting for.

excellent book by a great comic book artist.

I thought this book was great and helped me a great deal but, after reading other books like this it doesnt have the style and ideas that artists use today.The books ideas are rather boring and you will lose intrest if you dont like his ideas for characters. Though if you do finish this book as I have you willbe amazed at how much this book helps your drawing ability.

3-1/2 stars. I like bits & pieces here, but it just seems *too* ambitious...

I'm a bit new to Kubert's work, even though he's an industry great. Famous for his comics work & his School of Cartoon & Graphic Art founded in '76, you'd think this would be a sure-fire hit, similar to John Buscema's How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. While I do like some of Kubert's art within these pages, I consider Marvel Way to be the better book. Both are comics overviews, with Kubert's detailing varying industry character types, and Marvel Way concentrating on Marvel in particular. Kubert's volume displays artwork in *color* and black & white; Marvel Way is b&w only. Kubert's book is bigger in size; Marvel Way has more pages. Buscema *also* taught classes on comics-making in the '70s, so both these books spring from professional artists & teachers. Marvel Way depicts popular & iconic characters; Kubert's book details iconic character stereotypes & generalizations. Even though Kubert's drawing ability is kind of nice in places, the actual instruction here is often somewhat baffling. Like figure proportions. Most books detail an 8-heads standard; sometimes more, sometimes less. Here Kubert doesn't give us a head measurement standard at all- he just draws a series of horizontal lines through his figures, and these lines aren't even always evenly spaced. It's like his own personal figure proportion scale, which works great for him, but leaves readers scratching their heads. And while Kubert covers many aspects of comic-making in general, he doesn't detail any aspect in *enough* detail to truly make a good & lasting impression.

Maybe Kubert fans will like this effort more than casual comics readers. It might still be worth a look, if you can find a decent price.

This is one of the best books on comic style art that I've ever read. Like many people, I taught myself to draw reading comic books. I do other types of art now, but sometimes I find the need to return to my roots, and I couldn't have picked a better book. If nothing else, this is a lot of fun! The only shortcoming of this book is that it covers a lot, but doesn't go into detail on everything.

This book has only a few flaws. They are: Lack of explanation on SOME subjects. That's it. Besides that, it's a perfect book for INTERMIDIATE students only! Beginners are more suited for something more easy to digest.

I thought this book was great and helped me a great deal but, after reading other books like this it doesnt have the style and ideas that artists use today.The books ideas are rather boring and you will lose intrest if you don't like his ideas for characters. Though if you do finish this book as I have you will be amazed at how much this book helps your drawing ability. this book is for beginners and intermediate artists alike.