Cartooning Books

If you don't know the work of Mary Fleener, you should. She has a unique style of art, which she calls "cubismo." She breaks down the basic tenets of cubism for the comic page. It is a wild, wonderful, exciting art style. Tho the cover is a bit deceptive, as Fleener is very adept at producing a readable, literate comic book, with characters that look normal, and with very readable action and movement. The cover is one of her fantastic stand alone works.

This is a collection of Mary Fleener's work previously published in anthology comix. Her work has appeared in many adult titles. If you are a fan of Fleener's, you may already have read many of the stories in this book. The book is a hundred and fifty pages long, with over twenty stories. I had not read many of them, and the ones I had read, I enjoyed re-reading. Her stuff is scattered thruout my comic collection, so it was nice to have it all in a TPB.

Fleener's autobiographix, as she calls them, are quite good - and this is from somebody who is sick to death of the trend, but Fleener was one of the pioneers of autobiographical comics, along with Dori Seda, Aline Kominsky-Crumb and other bedrocks of the comix field. Fleener is a higly literate writer, and her stories are generally that, stories with a beginning, middle and end. Only one or two stories are rambling, disconnected barely strung together pieces of memory. Additionally, Fleener has actually had the kind of life that bears writing about; she has experienced all kinds of strange things, met all sorts of extreme people, and had various adventures - and yes, be warned, there are drugs and drinking involved, tho not exclusively, and the partying life is neither glorified, nor are these cautionary tales. Fleener also has had a penchant for making bad decisions, which, tho painful for her to live through, she turned into entertaining fun for us. There are times when reading these stories that I would grip the pages, and like that moment in a horror movie where you know the protagonist is doing something stupid, but you can't turn away, I would know that she was about to really get into deep trouble.

Fleener also avoids the awful, melodramatic, angst ridden, whining that often accompanies biographical cartoons. No, Mary just gives it to you strait, with little psychological tripe - the emotions in the comix are the emotions of the situation at the time, rather than the rueful commentary of looking back. When emotions are at their highest, is when the cubismo takes over the most. Fleener's work is in black and white, and she is very good at high contrast. She will split a character's face in half, or use geometric shapes to break down facial features. She will give you several angles of a face at once, and if a character is being dishonest, she will show that visually, by drawing them "two faced."

These comic stories span about twenty years, so you can see Fleener's style change, though the order of the stories was chosen for artistic reasons. They are neither in chronological order in their creation, nor in the period of time they took place in Mary's life, but they are put in an order that makes sense creatively. As Fleener got older, she got more interested in depth in her art, and sometimes she played down the cubistic effects, in order to work more with three dimensionality, panoramic views, and background scenery. The art in the stories during her transition period are the weakest. When she finally conquers the new territory, and finds a way to blend it with her original, heavily cubist style, the results are astounding.

The reproductions are up to Fantagraphics usual high standards. Card stock cover, with beautiful colors, heavy stock true white paper, rich dark black ink, with beautiful line reproduction quality, and well covered blacks. Fantagraphics products are so high quality, it makes you want to read the book. They sort of cast a spell on you, and you can't help but want to pick it up, just to see the rich black ink. A beautiful book, with wonderful comic stories. Fleener is one of our top comic book artists, with an original art style, and a highly literate writing style.

Great stuff. You need all three of these. The third one with the Melvins story is my personal favorite. I haven't seem anything better on the band. It is like a documentary but better because its a comic. They eat at Cracker Barrel, Buzz watches Lawrence of Arabia. It is wonderful stuff. His stories and drawings are honest and approachable. He is the Harvey Pekar of our generation.

Im fully pleased with this item. It had exactly what i was looking for so i can into drawing anime and manga.

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.

I just got into drawing manga about half a year ago, so you can imagine that I've looked up and bought quite a few "how to" books and so on to see if any of them could give me a better understanding of Creating impressive comics and to improve my drawing skills in general. This book definately fits the bill! It covers everything from the basic tools needed to create good pieces of art work, coloring and Perspective, to characters, story design, and my favorite, comic page design. This book has it all. the thing I love the most about this book is the fact that it shows each comic page being created step by step, and for me, being able to see what other books just explain in writing, makes a BIG difference. So if your looking for a book that can advise you in all of the afore mentioned areas, this is Definately your book!

well i took a chance on this book , i read a review in sketch magazine about this book , and decided to check it out , as i already own two other books that were decent , but not amazing.
i figured for the price.. if i didnt like it , i could just return it. well i have to say this book took me by suprise , it is a very good beginner to intermediate book , especially for the price.it gives alot of good pictures of the various body parts that make up a mech. this book in combination with How to draw manga : giant robots by hikaru hayashi , and mecha mania by christopher hart will have you drawing uber cool mechs in no time. if you are more advanced then this isnt the book for you. if you are just starting out , then i highly recommend this title. chapters are : before you begin drawing , drawing the head , body , arms , legs , and variety of robot design. it even comes with 4 sheets (of pre ruled non repro blue 1 ply) art boards for you to put your designs on . i can also recomend Let's Draw Manga: Transforming Robots by yasuhiro nitta if you want to draw transforming mecha.

This book is alot more helpful than vol 7. This book is cute and it makes it fun for you to follow along with the characters as they teach you how to tone in your characters. What's so great about this book would be that it gives you tone examples as well as knowledge of tone paper. This book contents include: Chapter 1- How to apply tones, Chapter 2- Scraping tones, Chapter 3- Stacking tone, Chapter 4- Various uses of tone, and Chapter 5- Summary. This book is perfect for beginners who want to learn how to use tone paper! I would definitely recommend this book! Another cool thing that they did with this book was putting in some manga paper at the back so that you can practice your toning. Get this book, it is well worth your money!!

The fourth volume in the series on comix and graphical novel artists, Modern Masters: Kevin Nowlan is a clear and deserved tribute to Eisner Award-winning artist Keven Nowlan, perhaps best known for his superhero comic book art of such four-color heroes as Batman, Superman, Doctor Strange and Jack B. Quick (a character Nowlan has co-created with Alan Moore). Nowlan is truly a renaissance man of the superhero comic industry, skilled at cover art, penciling, inking, lettering, coloring, and even writing. Featureing an in-depth interview with Nowlan, numerous black-and-white examples of his art - some never before published - plus a gallery of color plates, Modern Masters: Kevin Nowlan is a "must-have" for his legions of fans and all who appreciate Nowlan's contribution to modern comic art.

This is a huge book. It is also a heavy book due to the high quality paper that is used. The book goes through 9 themes; everyday, fashion, princesses, fantasy, magical girls, professions, sports, festivities, heroines.

There are more than 50 projects in here. Each project is a 3-7 pages section where every step is displayed, from the basic sketch lines to the finished drawing. The drawings are beautiful and detailed without looking too complex.

This is the best manga book I have ever purchased. There are other "monster" books in this series and they are all of very good quality. Together with "Sketching Manga-style", this is a book that really helps me becoming a better artist !

A sweet note to me from Mort Walker: "Dear Jason, I got the book today and it's beautiful! I read some of it this morning and had a great time remembering a lot of stuff I'd forgotten. Thanks for all your hard work and devotion. Sincerely, Mort."

Mort Walker has said that a successful comic strip character should be instantly recognizable. We should immediately understand who he is and what he's about. Walker calls this "see-ability" and "readability." Publishing professionally as a child prodigy at the age of eleven, and going on to hold numerous positions as an editor, designer, and creator of nine syndicated strips, it is ironic that Walker's most recognized character is known as the laziest fellow in the funny pages.

This volume begins with a syndicated article from 1938, which ran with the photograph of Walker at his drawing table, a sailor's cap perched back on his head. Walker's young face beams with joy and ambition. He seems to embody the Joseph Campbell catch phrase, "Find your bliss." In 1989, Bill Watterson addressed a festival at Ohio State University, expressing that the comic pages were full of doddering, dinosaur strips. A similar plea by Berkley Breathed came in 2003, asking the old guard to step aside in order to make room for younger creators. In both cases, Walker responded in Cartoonist Profiles (#89, #139), re-stating his devotion to his work. To Breathed he wrote, "I love what I'm doing. It would kill me to be told to quit." Walker's continued enthusiasm reveals that the boy with the sailor cap continues to beam from the drawing board, and that to "follow one's bliss" remains as valid and vital at age fourteen as it does at age eighty. Indeed, as this collection illustrates, that is Mort Walker's "see-ability" and "readability" as a character.


Mort Walker Conversations collects interviews and articles that span from 1938 to 2004. His engagement with the Museum of Cartoon Art- which he founded- is discussed in these pieces, along with the politics involved in working with cartoonists' unions, artistic communities, and syndicates. In these conversations Walker shows how he has managed to keep his art and stories fresh for over seventy years of production.

I had a blast reviewing interviews and articles from Mort's long career, and an even bigger blast spending time with Mort and his assistant, Bill Janocha, while I prepared this book. So many great comic strips have sprung from this self-proclaimed "human inventing machine." And for a year before launching Beetle, he was even the top-selling magazine cartoonist in the country. Mort's done it all, and it's really interesting to read through his colorful history of conversations about writing, drawing, and about working with many of the greats on strips and in the NCS, like Dik Browne, Rube Goldberg, Charles Schulz, Al Capp, Milt Caniff, and Walt Kelly.

Most of the pieces in this volume are quite rare, including a number of interviews Mort gave on television with Mike Peters and Bruce Blitz, and special interviews with me, Lee Nordling, and Bill Janocha. Mort Walker Conversations is an excellent resource for those interested in Walker's career and about the world of comic strips. Fans should also seek out these books by Walker: Backstage at the Strips and Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook.