Cartoons Books

This book reveals many answers to the questions even I asked when I started my career in cartooning. The interviews and thoughts, efforts put in to this book is one reason why even after 16 years as a cartoonist I still enjoy being able to read through this book and get something out of it every time. This isn't just for those starting out, it's also a reminder for those in the industry.

I can't recommend this book highly enough! If you are serious about getting into the cartoon business, this book will tell you how!

A very good book to develop ourselves as a cartoonists

Great stuff! Required reading for any serious cartoonist! I got more out of this book than most of my other cartooning books combined! A must read!

This book has so much to offer the budding cartoonist! Covering such things as: getting started, tools and techniques of the pros, developing great style and characters, creating funny cartoon ideas. turning your cartoons into cash, as well as resources and extra stuff, this book answers all the questions as well as shows you various styles of cartooning by many "strippers" from today and yesterday. I highly recommend this!!!

I recieved my purchase in a timely manner. I was sooooo excited to have been able to add this book to my collection. I would purchase other items from this buyer in the future if they had something i liked.

I have been a faithful FoxTrot reader for years. Roger, Andy and their kids Peter, Paige and Jason are always good for a reality check with a large dose of laughter. I've got two girls and let me tell you, I see a lot of my kids in Paige with, I believe, even a healthy dose of Jason thrown in. And they have Peter's bottomless stomach. Of course, they're faithful FoxTrot readers too. I used to read the strip to them, explain what was going on, but now they get it just fine and we three all laugh together. Then my girls try and explain the strip to their dad, who pretends he doesn't get it.

The FoxTrot folks are a great family, one we sort of got used to checking up on every day, so we took the news that Mr. Amend was going to cease daily distribution of his wonderfully funny people and turn his strip to Sunday only, with a bit of sadness. Still, we have these terrific FoxTrot books to keep us going with our FoxTrot fix. Mr. Amend is to be commended for his great gift to our culture and his great gift to so many lives. I truly believe a laugh a day, helps keep the blues away and the FoxTrot gang are always good for a laugh. Heck there are a lot of laughs in the FoxTrot books. I know, I have them all and I am, along with my girls and my hubby dear, eagerly awaiting the next one.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, we don't have an iguana, but my girls do have a pet gecko and, you guessed it, his name is Quincy.

I've been a Foxtrot reader for a long time and personally I think there is something suspiciously wrong with people who don't find Bill Amend's characters funny as all get out. If you want a good laugh, check out Bill in your local newspaper, or better yet, get one of the Foxtrot books. They are all great, really, they are.

Like many of Mr. Amend's fans I'm a bit disappointed he's switching his strip to Sunday-only, but fortunately I can still read him daily in the Foxtrot books. Get them one and all and you can keep right on a laughing.

Of course it gets five stars. You like Foxtrot, and you get the Foxtrot humor. If you like the comic, you'll love the book. Mine was brand new and perfect condition (as promised by amazon) and came at expected date.

Jason and Marcus, the ultimate geeks. I got'em all. This is my alltime favorite comic strip. It sure beats 1 strip a day. Don't do the little books just get the giant treasury books and you won't get repeats.

After spending some time in Japan, I find that Meghan Murphy pokes delightful fun at the culture of kawaii.

Besides the bountiful collection wonderful four pane commic there's a few treats like the manifesto, kawii-o-scope and a short story.
As an added bonus, I find that the way the book is constructed lends itself nicely to turning each commic into a postcard. My friends love recieving them.
I'd recommend this as a gift to anyone over 13, seeing as some references and wording are a more adult.

If you want to get an idea of what the humor is like, Ms. Murphy has constructed a website: [...]. Most of what you see there is also in the book. I hope you enjoy!

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

randomly found this in a book store & started flipping through it and i couldn't put it down! I love the (sometimes) inappropiate humor...but it definitely says the things I'm sure some of us think of! :)

Showed it off at my office & my friends LOVE it too!! We're picking up more copies so they have their own...

Looking forward to another collection! (HOPEFULLY SOON!!)

I bought this for a friend for her birthday. I have never even heard of the website. My friend knew about the website and absolutely loved the book. I plan on giving it as a gift to at least 5 other people.

It's both a humorous and "keeps your mind in the gutter" type of fun. Every page is funny and cute at the same time! I love it! I can only hope the author brings more books as adorable as this one!

I have the book sitting on my desk and people come in all the time to flip through it. Everyone leaves laughing! It's not too raunchy (well minus a few that might be considered not exactly 'work safe') and the majority of them of hysterical. My personal favorite is the chainsaw "whir!" but a lot of the engineers are partial to the can of botulism.

I love the way it props up even though the cover gives me a bit of trouble sometimes. It's a great book to share.

Excellent series. Extremely funny. Great artwork. Great storytelling. Recommended for any one who likes manga.

Ken Akamatsu, Love Hina vol. 6 (Tokyopop, 1999)

Akamatsu's series continues on as strong as ever. The group encounter Matsumi again, who is also, it seems, studying to get into Tokyo U., but what an odd method of studying she has! And what's worse, Keitaro, who was finally getting somewhere in his relationship with Naru, finds the well-meaning, but clueless, Matsumi is driving Naru green with jealousy, even if Naru won't admit it. You wouldn't think a simple story about two people trying to fall in love with each other could be so engrossing (and funny), but it certainly is here. ****

Vol. 6 of Love Hina marks the return of Mutsumi, the girl Naru and Keitaro met on their travels during volume 3. As Mutsumi establishes herself in the Hinata household so she can work towards the Tokyo U exam, she and Keitaro start to grow closer. And by the cliffhanger end of volume 6, Naru discovers a revelation that could mean Mutsumi is Keitaro's long lost "promise girl."

For my money, this volume is the climax of the love triangle aspects of the Love Hina series. In fact, a similar scene was played as such in the anime, and it works just as effectively here despite this being the less-than halfway point of the series. Did Ken Akamatsu plan on finishing the series early at one point? Who knows, but while he does come up with several fresh and intriguing plot threads down the line, none match the emotional angst found here. Next to Naru, Mutsumi has always been the only other serious contender for Keitaro's affections. And with her habit of randomly kissing people, who knows what the next volume will bring?

An important volume of Love Hina. Don't miss it.

This hilarious manga series continues. This time around, we learn who Keitaro's "mystery girl" is (maybe). If you enjoyed previous volumes of this series, you are sure to enjoy this one, too.

I have no idea how or why I picked up this amazing book. But I like to think it was divine intervention.

Myself being a 17 year old high school student, felt like I had no real direction in life. I was dragging through the days, trying to get by as fast as I possibly could.

But this book... It showed me something.

Much like Keitaro, I lack any major skills and have a lot of doubt in myself. But unlike Keitaro, I wanted to give up, call it quits, try to get by. This amazing story showed me that there's always hope. Hope for new love, new friends, ... a whole new life!

All I can say is that this absolutley breath taking book changed my life for the better. I see now that I can't live my one life by just coating through high school. I have to live it to it's fullest facing all chalanges head one with each and last fiber of my being.

I understand now, and this book showed it all to me. The story, artwork, dialouge, all flawless.

Please, if you haven't read this book, manga, comic, whatever, yet.... Then go out and read it. If a loser like me can pull a 180 and change everything with just 14 volumes of bliss, then I imagine that you can gain even more from these amazing pages.

I've been a fan of Modesty and Willie since the books first came out, and I was a loyal reader of the strip in the London Evening Standard for many years.
If you like action novels, with unusual villains, fast-moving scenes, and plenty of tongue in cheek humor, Modesty Blaise is the girl for you, and 'Modesty Blaise', the first novel in the series, is a good place to start.
After writing non-fiction for many years, I turned to fiction in 2003, and my first novel 'Snides' is available on Amazon. As a gesture of homage to Peter O'Donnell, I created an action duo, John Pilgrim and Sally Brandon. They're not straight copies of the originals and the best, Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin, but I've tried to hit their target of plenty of action, with a little humor.
I own the complete series of Modesty Blaise books, and one of them is always on my bedside table. I must have read them all dozens of times, but I still keep re-reading them!

Tony Walker
Scottsdale, Arizona

Modesty Blaise is the perfect woman. That is if the perfect woman is a different sort of beautiful, witty, funny, sophisticated, terrifyingly focused and a lethal killer without commitments.

If you like your superheroes or thrillers to be up close and personal, you need to read O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise. There are gadgets, guns, and impossible missions, not to mention hand to hand combat poetry.

In this book, Tarrant, of the British Secret Service, has a problem. He wants Modesty's help, but really has no leverage, except to play on how much she cares about Willie Garvin. The reasons why are revealed.

He does so, and they go into action. A very dangerous situation, and they must be captured by a ruthless man named Gabriel, to stop a diamond operation.

I became an instant fan from the beginning pages of this lst of a series. Modesty and Willie are fascinating, likeable characters with almost superhuman powers between them. They fight the evil doers of the world and win against all odds. The strong, fast moving plot is deeply satisfying with unexpected twists and turns. Even though it was written over 40 years ago, the characters are still fresh and compeling. Modesty can hold her head high in the world of superwomen who break rules when necessary for the greater good. A winner for both male and female readers!

Modesty Blaise started life as a cartoon strip, but O'Donnell then put his creation into novel form, and did a superb job in both formats. This is the first novel in the series, and introduces the setting and most of the main characters.

Modesty Blaise is a former refugee and survivor of the terrible disruptions caused by the war, and as a child drifted across Eastern Europe and the Middle East in the company of an old professor. She had to be tough to survive; but her companion instilled in her a strong moral code. She took over a small criminal gang and built it up into a powerful criminal organisation infused with that moral code--they never touched drugs or vice, and occasionally co-operated with the police and intelligence services to help clean up such crimes. She retired a wealthy woman at the age of 24.

As the novel opens, Modesty and her friend and former second-in-command Willie Garvin are finding that retirement is boring and adrenaline an addiction they cannot shake. Sir Gerald Tarrant, the head of British Intelligence, exploits that addiction to recruit them for an intelligence operation for which they are peculiarly suited. What follows is a thrilling caper novel pitting Modesty and Willie against a bizarre criminal mastermind. Tight plotting and wonderful prose make this a very entertaining read, with a unique pair of heroes. It's wonderful to see Souvenir Press reissuing the novels, making them available again to both a new generation of fans and those with fond memories.

It is hard to say whether the Modesty Blaise novels or the Modesty Blaise comic strips are better, but the lucky reader doesn't have to choose. Read both. The comic strips have been reprinted by Titan Books, Ken Pierce Books, Manuscript Press, and in Comics Revue magazine, and now the novels are being reissued. Also highly recommended are the books Peter O'Donnell wrote under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent.

If you love the comic strip, Mutts, you will love this beautiful color edition of the comic strips with large, easy-to-read type. It'd look great on your coffee table. Mr. McDonnell relates what inspires his strips, his personal history, and thoughts about his characters. There are roughs showing his thought process, sketchbook drawings and examples of his pre-Mutts artwork. As I suspected, Krazy Kat, was a big influence on his artistry. This is the kind of book fans enjoy.

You might want to check out a book on a collection of Krazy Kat cartoons to compare the style.

Mutts and Patrick McDonnell should be household names by now. The comics are sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, but always entertaining and thoughtfully done. The drawing is artistic and passionate with homage paid to other comics and various cultural styles. One of my favorite comics up there with Dilbert, Rose is Rose, Foxtrot, and For Better or For Worse.

I really am a fan of Mutts. This book is worth the price. I just want everything of Mutts, so if you are a fan, you have to buy it! And no, I do not own some Amazon stock!

Patrick McDonnell's work is among the very best gracing the newspaper comic strip pages today. There is a genuine quality to his work; an honesty that shines forth from the funnies. It is truly wonderful to see Abrams honor McDonnell and "Mutts" with this absolutely terrific monograph. The design of the book is scrumptious. Each page is carefully considered and I love the way that the designer combined sketchbook doodles and finished comic strips. It was also great to see references given for the Sunday page logo panels. They bring you just a little bit closer to the work.

And the work is really the main event here. The reproduction quality is glorious, giving us a sneak peak at what originals might look like. The color--oy, what color--is beautifully printed. If you can't see the original drawings, this book is the next best thing. The selection of work is great. They chose some of Mutts' very best, including the wonderful ice cream cone gag! That one remains one of my very favorites.

There are some really nice insights here, though they're not overblown. Like the strip itself, McDonnell writes in a true, succint way, then he lets his strip do the talking. You really get a sense of how invested he is in his creation.

If you're a Mutts fan, you can't pass this book up. And if you know of any Mutts fans who don't yet have this book, you can bank a bunch of karma by buying a copy for them. They'll love you more than a pink sock for it.

One of the best new comic strips to come down the pike in the last ten years is Patrick McDonnell's Mutts.

Cute doggie Earl and rascally Mooch have an understated charm that's reminiscent of the relationship between Snoopy and Charlie Brown before Snoopy took to the air in his imaginary Sopwith Camel.

Mutts is a down-to-Earth examination of how pets fit into the lives of their masters and vice-versa.

McDonnell's sensitivities derive from his simple yet eloquent style that draws upon the love and empathy that the strip's characters have for each other.

The book itself is a wonderful reprinting of many of his best daily and Sunday color strips. Also included are notes that cite the sources of the title panels of the Sunday strips that pay homage to old record albums, comic book covers, famous works of art, and movie posters.

The true fan of the Mutts strip will consider this book a 'must-have'. However, I have to admit that if you've been purchasing the Mutts collections printed so far, there's scant new material in this book. For a book of its size, the autobiographical information is very lean. There was probably more to read about McDonnell in a recent Star-Ledger newspaper interview than in this book.

I bought it for myself as a frivolous, self-indulgent treat. You might not want to do likewise.

I was never much a fantasy fan before. I watch the Si-Fi Channel and I love the fantasy movies but I would refuse to read. Then my dad gave me the original hardcover copy "MYTH Adventures" (Another Fine Myth, Myth Conceptions, Myth Directions, and Hit or Myth) with the original cover illustrations (just to show how old my copies are) and ever since I have been addicted to fantasy books. Especially the MYTH series.

Just to warn you this is a laugh-out-loud story. I would not recommend reading this in public. You might get some odd looks from people that obviously have no sense of humor. Everything is a play on words and the characters are amazingly thought up. The plot is actually imaginable and it flows smoothly. The magik (not magic, there's a difference) has rules. What Skeeve and Aahz can and cannot do in the world of magik does not change throught the series.

To make a long review short, get this book. If you don't enjoy it then don't read it. It just means that you are a boring and unimaginative slouch. However, I can guarantee that from the very first chuckle you'll be hooked. Take it from a fantasy skeptic turned MYTH addict.

First, if you haven't read the first two books in the Myth series, this book is a great chance to correct that. If you own the first two books, there's not much point in buying this collection. However...

According to the Asprin's new publisher, Meisha Merlin, the next few books, Myth Adventures 2 and 3 will both have NEW Myth Adventure novellas written by Asprin and Jody Lynne Nye. The short story in number 2 will be Myth Congeniality.

Also according to Meisha Merlin, there are at least two new Myth titles forthcoming, both of which will be by RLS and JLN. The next is due sometime in 2003 and will be called Myth-Alliances. The one after that is is Myth-taken Identity and is due August 2004.

Just thought you might want to know.

If you like fantasy books, if you don't like fantasy books it doesn't matter you'll love this series of Books. Robert Aspirin (who by the way, edited the theives world books) has written an inceredibly hilarious series of books. Skeeve and ahz are the main characters and the situations they get into and the witty and inventive way they get out of those situations is very comical these books have everything from demons ( not demons as we know them but demons= short for deminsion traveler) to dragons ("Bleep"). I have been blind sided more than a few times by these books they are anything but predictible... you can't even count on the main characters being alive at the end of a book..( of course it's just a cliffhanger for the next book). Each book is a continuation of the last. I could talk about these books for hours, and i can get lost in them for even longer.... I have never met anyone who hasn't finished one of these books after starting it.... It is a good idea to start with the first book in the series, Another fine Myth, that way you have a good idea of what kind of relationship ahz and skeeve have and how they became friends.... the myth series is hilarious witty inventive and overall the funniest books i have ever read. I have read and re-read these books a hundred times and they never get boring

In reading the back of the book you would think this is anything but the first book in the sieres. But it is. Other then that I only have good things to say about this book.

ok! I'm a long time Myth fan, so I was very suprised to see the new (old?) books brought to life again! Now, I hate to say it, but I always felt that pretty much all of the Myth books have pretty....short endings. Some are cliffhangers, some, maybe the publisher said, no only X # of pages and are very abrupt, and some are just totally unexpected.

But the concept of the Myth books is fascinating, and I have gone back many times to read then again and again... Much better when you have the whole series to continue on to! But the series is a must read for anyone who considers themselves a sci-fi fantasy fan! They are hillarious and definately worth the read (I don't suggest reading them IN a library cause I always end up stiffling my snickers and laughs!)

This was fantastic and everything I expected. I was familiar with Pekar from his appearances on Letterman in the 80s and could not locate the graphic novellas at that time. When the movie came out, I began my search again and someone informed me the collections were on Amazon.

If you can't love Harvey Pekar, you can't love anyone. He is a lovely man, with as many neuroses as the rest of us, who listens and watches and reports on the people and world around him. His kindness and caring for the people who populate his world - these are real stories with real people Harvey knows, including his family- is obvious and makes reading his work a delight. I found the Pekar books to be like peanuts - I kept wanting more and more and hate to finish one - unless I have another ready to read. Harvey's 'comics" are the first graphic novels I've spent time reading, and I am hooked. The drawings add immeasurably to the story - a format I would like to see developed further in the future.

This is the second American Splendor Anthology. It features material that was written after the first Anthology came out, plus some older stuff that was left out of the first book. If you like Harvey Pekar's stuff, you will love this book. For people who became interested in Harvey because of the movie based on his life, you will be interested to find the comics based on his David Letterman appearances here. Also, Toby and the "Revenge of the Nerds" story is featured here. For Harvey's hardcore fans, there are some rarities here, such as pre-American Splendor comics from the early '70s, and Harvey's Forwards to other people's books. Buy this book, Harvey can use the money.

This new collection of Harvey Pekar's quotidian American Splendor comic is not only an excellent introduction for those new to his work; it's also a great anthology for those of us who have read and loved him for years (especially since, toward the end of the volume, some of his very early stuff is collected).

Some of the most gemutliche, warmest pieces in the collection feature characters from Pekar's VA hospital days. Toby is present several times, but my personal favorite of all the VA panels is "Walkin' an' Talkin," where in just two pages Pekar captures the warmth, humor, and generosity of his co-workers. Three stories beautifully speak to Pekar's paranoia and his obsessive-compulsiveness: "Hysteria," "Lost and Found" (a story which introduced me to the novelist Italo Svevo, whom I've since come to really love), and "Time Flies...Time Drags." Three more stories speak to Pekar's painful history with David Letterman, including a documentary on his final appearance on the Letterman Show in which he tried to let the world know that GE, ABC's owner, engaged in morally dubious practices. (If you get the chance to watch any of the Letterman/Pekar exchanges, it's a real experience. Letterman comes across as such a smarmy yuppie, who really seems to delight in trying to humiliate Pekar.)

Also included in the volume is one of the delightful oral histories of Cleveland's Jewish life in the early twentieth century, illustrated by R. Crumb, and three single page stories illustrated in Drew Friedman's wonderful faux-photographic style.

But there are also a couple of disconcerting stories: "Broken Window" and "Festering." Both of them suggest that Harvey was attacked on at least a couple of occasions by an out-of-control father. Could this be true? Just a couple of years ago in a radio interview, Harvey described his father in quite different terms.

A great collection from a guy who walks an' talks the ordinary life.

Seinfeld, a show about nothing? Pbbbb. Never thought it was that special. Heard about this guy named Harvey Pekar who writes comics about well, nothing. Not nothing really but ordinary, mundane everyday things. Saw the movie, liked it, picked up the Anthology at the library. Hooked. Want more. More. The first friggin' page had me hooked, the old fella telling Harvey about the rag peddlers cry. 'PAAAY-PER REGGS'. The thing is I don't think Harvey needs every dollar now. Between the movie and his work being reissued and the new found interest in him and his comics, he's probably laughing, or brooding, all the way to the bank. Good for you Harvey Pekar!

Ms. Chast should be able to retire now based on the amount of money I've spent just buying copies of this wonderfully witty book. It's good, clean humor that anyone would love. In fact, one of my friends has permanently borrowed MY copy . . .

I've always loved Roz Chasts cartoons, so having the collection in one book is a real treat. Recommed this to anybody with a sense of humour!

Roz Chast is hands down my favorite cartoonist, and I grew up reading her cartoons in The New Yorker. They were among the funniest and hands-down the most accessible in the magazine. In fact, as a teen, hers were often the only ones I COULD understand! Her humorous outlook on family and life in today's world are as distinctive as her drawing style.

The only issues I have with this book are far too minor for me to subtract any stars. For one thing, there are no page numbers, so in order to find your favorite cartoon, you just have to flip through the entire book, which is colorful and fun but inconvenient. Then there's one New Yorker cover included, from 1990. However, she does not include the title of the illustration (which normally appears inside the magazine, not on the cover) and since it's from 17 years ago, finding the title will prove difficult. Not knowing the title doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the art, but it would be nice to know it!

If you're like me, The New Yorker is the only place you've been exposed to Roz Chast's work. Apparently she does cartoons for a number of publications, and many of them are included here. Therefore, I hadn't previously seen most of the cartoons in this book, which made it a fun new treat for me. I'd recommend this book to people who've never heard of Roz Chast (What better way to be introduced than this?) and to people who are already fans. most of the cartoons are hilarious. I actually bought this as a gift for my aunt, but I couldn't resist reading it myself first. I don't regret either decision for a minute. It's a great book and it'll make my aunt very happy. Make someone you know -- or yourself! -- happy today, and check this one out!

Favorites in the New Yorker, these cartoons' self-effacing, on-point humor will tickle you. The battles of the sexes, the generations and things (guilt, social angst) we maybe didn't realize till Chast shows us. A middle age travel book that's perceptive, well-drawn, unselfconscious and funny best of all.

Since her first cartoons in the New Yorker I have found Ms Chast to be absolutely in line with my own sense of the absurdities we find around us. Maybe it's generational, I find the same with Matt Groening and both the Simpsons and his other cartoons. A great book with an excellent chronological collection of some of her best.

---I'm sorry to do thid to you, but the previous review was actually meant for a book of the same title. (Pose File volume 1). I do not own this particular book you are researching, but If I get a copy, I will be sure to get back to you on this.--I am not saying that this book is good or bad, just that I cannot speak for it personally...

Cobalt

This book has one unusual strength: most poses are shown from many angles, up to about two dozen in some cases. This gives extra insight into unusual foreshortening and into how the figure articulates.

The weakness of this book is that, in order to show so many different views on a page, each figure photo is relatively small. This is especially disappointing because the models are all Japanese, where most pose books show only European features and figures. This book never meant to document details of faces, though, so I really can't complain,

From moderate shadow to deep chiascuro effects this is a beautiful addition to the Pose File series. The other books excellently describe the figure, in proportion, motion and moving through space, but mostly in an even tonal scale. This volume emphasizes the extremes of that scale, making it a necessary addition to the set.

---You may be wary of the idea of buying a japanese book, where 99% of the text is in Kanjii. Rest assured that this book is as useful in the states as it is in Japan, because the main body of these books are beautiful photographs of female models taking every pose one could imagine in any studio.--Being a fellow who works in cartooning and graphic novels more than any fine art. I find this series endlessly useful as an excersise in my spare time.--Just pick a page and draw all it's figures until your arm is sore, and you will be all the better than trying to glean useful practice from old Playboy Magazines.--Pose File books are for, and will always be about fine artists who have a passion for the ultimate machine.

Cobalt

PS. THIS is the right review for the right book Sorry about any confusion

I'm trying to learn how to draw, and the books in this and similar series would be really helpful--if I could afford any of them. I found this book in a store where I live and decided to buy it until I checked the price tag that the store had stuck onto it. because I lived in Japan for a while, I'm used to the printed price that appears on all books, so I had just looked there. I have decided to wait until Christmas when I can buy it myself for a decent price. Blah.