The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I first became aware of Klaus Janson while I was the editor at Charlton Comics in Derby, Connecticut, and Klaus was a young comics fan..." (more)
Key Phrases: neutral shot, sleazy guy, panel borders, Neal Adams, Brian Azzarello, Joe Kubert (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

If you have young people with comic books tucked under their arms in your library or older folks who still dream of drawing comics, this is the book to buy. For over 30 years, Janson has drawn such characters as Batman, Punisher, Daredevil, and Spawn for DC Comics. For the past ten years, he has been teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Here, he wisely confines himself to the fundamentals of penciling faces, anatomy, clothing, and perspective. This is followed by storytelling, composition, shots and angles, and movement. The final section offers advice on getting one's work into the hands of an editor or art director. Andy Smith's Drawing Dynamic Comics covers much of the same ground, with similar professional quality. Buy either, or both, depending on budget and demand.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-up. Here's a rich, well- and appropriately illustrated resource that goes far beyond its title. The author, an artist and comics editor, writes with clarity and insight about every aspect of creating comics: techniques for drawing human anatomy, effects of light and gravity on clothing and scenery, integration of text and image, and more. There's plenty of information for comics consumers, too--for example, how comics storytelling (and storytelling in general) works. Janson doesn't limit his art or story examples to DC Comics; he uses a variety of sample pages from a wide range of publications, as well as original sketches, to clarify discussions. A valuable book for librarians and teachers as well as art students and comics fans. Francisca Goldsmith
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill; 1st edition (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823010287
• ISBN-13: 978-0823010288
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,179 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid introduction to the pencilling end of comic books, January 1, 2003

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics" by Klaus Janson introduces wannabee comic book artists and fans of the art form to a more detailed appreciation of what goes into drawing pages for "Batman" than they will have picked up through osmosis or imitation to date. Janson divides the fifteen chapters in this volume into three parts focusing on Drawing, Storytelling, and Pencilling designed to provide an introduction to one of the most difficult of art forms:

Part One Drawing: (1) Materials outlines what supplies an artist needs in terms of paper, pencils, erasers, rulers and templates; (2) Shapes are presented as the foundation of the creative process of drawing, the general concept from which the artist moves to more specific ones; (3) Faces looks at both the basic geometric elements in composing a face and the artistic range available through example of faces drawn by Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, and Neal Adams; (4) Anatomy covers both the structure and design of the human body, including all the muscles, with special attention paid to the most difficult thing in the world to draw, the hands; (5) Clothing establishes the four basic dynamics that shape the folds and wrinkles of a person's clothing; and (6) Perspective, which is covered from the fundamentals to the use of vanishing points and systems of perspective. This unit is the most instructive in the book since it deals with the basic building blocks.

Part Two Storytelling: (7) Juxtaposition establishes the uniqueness of comic book art in terms of how sequential art functions in the eyes of the reader, featuring diverse examples by Eduardo Risso, Sean Phillips, and Dave Taylor; (8) How to Lay Out a Page starts with the grid approach and then moves to the free-form end of the spectrum, starting with an example by Jack Kirby and then moving on to some by Neal Adams and Walt Simonson. Janson explains the value of insert panel and breaking borders, along with the larger pictures need for covers, splash pages, and double-page spreads; (9) Storytelling is considered as being judged by the criteria of clarity and entertainment, just like telling a joke; (10) Composition takes us down to the level of individual frames, looking at how the process of combining elements together to form a united whole; (11) Shots and Angles parallels what we know about such things from cinematography; and (12) Movement examines the one inherent disadvantage of comic art, which is trying to show movement in a static image.

Part Three Pencilling: (13) Procedure lays out how most comic books are written, so you can see where the penciller comes into the process; (14) Breaking In has Janson offering advice on how to break into the business in a professional manner; and (15) Anatomy of a Story has Janson walking us through the drawing of "Good Evening, Midnight," a story he wrote and drew for "Batman Black and White" #3.

"The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics" provides exactly what it promises: a clear-cut introduction to the fundamentals of drawing comic books. As to the fact that the vast majority of illustration examples in this volume are not pencilled but inked, I would point out a couple of pragmatic facts that would explain why. First, inked examples look better than pencilled examples. Second, given that Janson is using examples from real DC Comics, these are covers and pages of art that are already inked. Still, I would agree that more examples of pencilled art would have been nice, although I certainly like what Janson does in Chapter 15, "Anatomy of a Story," where we see layouts, pencilled, and inked pages side-by-side to have a full appreciation of the transformation wrought by the inker.

The companion volume to this work, "The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics," is authored by Dennis O'Neil. Along with Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" and "Reinventing Comics," as well as Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art" and "Graphic Storytelling," and John Buscema's "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way," these two DC volumes are worthy additions to the limited library that every aspiring comic book writer/artist should have next to their computer/drawing table.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great concepts, though not a "how-to" book, April 28, 2002

By	David Kozlowski (Alameda, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This book is really split into two major parts: figure drawing and storytelling. The former is treated very lightly and only hits the high points of anatomy, but there are some tremendous illustrations within. Buy Elliot Goldfinger's "Human Anatomy for Artists" if this is what you're looking for.

The storytelling section is the real core of this book, however. Janson really doesn't present particularly new or revolutionary ideas (for that see Will Eisner's Comics & Sequential Art), but he does clearly explain the concepts of composition, balance, contrast and reader eye movement. Honestly, I felt like there was so much more that could have been said on each of these and the dozen other topics within. Clearly Janson knows what he is talking about as each subject is supported by actual DC comic book examples (covering a lot of genres over the last 30 years, so this is not just aimed at current comic book styles).

There is a third section called "Pencilling", but it is more of an appendix of notes such as how to talk to editors and present your portfolio. Janson also breaks down a short Batman story he wrote and illustrated, showing thumbnail sketches and reference photos along the way - very insightful.

Klaus Janson is a tremendous artist with an energetic style, which is exemplified by his inking (see Frank Miller's Daredevil or The Dark Knight Returns as examples). There are over 200 illustrations within, about one third are Janson's.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book but not what I was looking for., July 30, 2008

By	Alfredo Saenz Jr. (East Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was a good book but it lacked the step by step workings of the title. It had alot of information but most it was what I was not looking for. This is a good book on the process of the comic book but not on how to go about doing it.