Cartooning Books

First let me state that this book is primarily for intermediates and up. This book is definately not for those of you looking to be pulled by the hand (nor for that matter are most of the How To Draw Manga books). They expect you to be observant and learn from the visuals given so even beginners can pick up this book and learn the basic THEORIES of folds as it only briefly touches on drawing the folds.

If you're looking for a wide variety of clothes, this also isn't for you; however, it does explain the different lengths and shapes that clothes can take and you can merely crop the pants to make shorts and the same for skirts.

If you can draw clothes (or you plan on getting the HTDM: Costume Encyclopedia set) and can apply the theories of this book to them, then this is definately for you. With all poses and clothes you can expect to see multiple views to show the differences in folds between different perspectives.

Be warned though, if you aren't looking to see underwear, with the majority being females', don't complain when you buy this book.

All in all this is a great book that will definately aid in your progression as a manga artist.

...you're looking to depict your characters primarily in one set of pants, a skirt, one loose shirt and a leather jacket...and only if they're female. I bought this book thinking it had more information on how to draw clothing in general (folds, drapes, wrinkles) but the book only very lightly touches on that subject for about two pages in the beginning of the book. It's predominantly a "pose file" and there are other much better pose file books you can find.
A lot of the "How to Draw Manga" books seem to assume you're already an artist of some skill and training, so this book is definitely not for beginners. If you're the type that can learn by sight alone, by all means, give it a try. Otehrwise I'd suggest going with a more basic instructional.

It's ok for learning how to draw the folds in characters clothes, but you will only benefit from drawing girl characters. This book is 99% based on women characters, which is ok, but, I think one would benefit more if they had more men in it. I'm not to crazy about the character designs, but I do like that you get to see how the clothing would fit if you were sitting or standing a specific way. The book consists mainly of underwear and sleep wear, which is fine if you want to draw something like that in your manga. All in all, If you are looking for a book that gives you a run down of both sex's in their clothes, then I do not recommend this book. If you are ok with the book being mainly women, then this is a good book for practicing on your folds in clothing.

this book would defidently help with poses if you want to know what people look like in different poses i suggest you get this book. it also has alot of undergarments and underwear. but this book is very helpfull

Most people are complaining that the book is about drawing girls in underwear. (Granted, what book isn't?) But it's also good for seeing how a movement changes the entire model. There are many good angles that most people don't think to draw. Like all tools, it's in how you use it.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

A fine book that will help anyone who wants to produce a graphic novel or comic book.

There is no doubt this book is good value for money. What basically lets it down is its illustrations - much of the text is explained by illustrations and some significant examples are so poorly reproduced or so small that the meaning is lost.

On the whole, with a few exceptions, I found it skirting around the topics offering little depth.

The books gave a good general coverage and pointed out the areas to follow up with further reading/viewing.

This said, I still would recommend this book for anyone interested in the techniques of visual storytelling.

I was eagerly anticipating the information from this book, having studied the narrative artform for the past 3 years and having read through the Mcloud, Eisner, Janson and various books on film.
I couldnt believe how little actual information is in this book, it jumps from here to there with no flow and it's lack of content hidden in examples obviously from the works of those adding to the book.
Don't waste your time, buy Both Will Eisners Books on storytelling then Scott Mclouds books, leave this boring jumble of arse on the shelf.

This book belongs in the library of anyone who is or would like to be a storyteller whether it be comics, animation, film or any multimedia field. This is one of those rare books that doesn't get published enough. The fact that it covers more than one medium makes this an invaluable reference title. Besides, how often do you find a book that tells you how Steranko does it?

This book is unfortunately very misleading in its content - Aimed as a multi format guide, the book rarely strays away from comic book technique.
For filmmakers/animators, this book offers little beyond rudimentary film theory and skills. Plus the majority of the example material is very sub-standard. Avoid this one.

This is a book more so about TRADITIONAL animation techniques. It hardly touches on using flash to animate. If you want to learn how to use Flash to animate look elsewhere. In fact, this book isn't even that good of a traditional animation book. I would like to return this book to writer...in person.

The book is really informative and well written; it is aimed at beginners in Flash animation, but also advanced users will benefit from the principles presented here. I read it from start to finish while on holiday and could comprehend everything though I did not have my computer with me to try everything out at once.

When I first started taking my flash animation class, it was, unfortunately, before this book came out. I was a bit concerned that it might be just like all of the other books and only focus on one thing, or two, but avoiding the main topics. I was very much mistaken. I read this book & found that it, not only, covered all of the topics and such concerning flash animation, but it also went into some cartoons as well. I would rate this book a 5 star, because that's just what it is, a 5 star. I think that it was wrong of this novel to be rated a 2 star, I consider that an insult. I would encourage all who are looking into flash animation and cartooning to grab a copy of this book. It will not only teach you what you want to know, but it will keep you awake, unlike most of the other boring flash books. Enjoy the read, people, I did! ^-^

There are few books out there that cover using Flash as traditional animation medium, and even fewer that are any good. The Art of Flash Animation is another book in the "not so good" column.

The fact that this book came from a small publisher like Wordware means you don't get a lot of the frills you'd expect in an animation book. The illustrations are a bit sparse and in black & white. There's no CD of examples or finished files. A lot of the projects he mentions can be found on his website, which I wasn't particularly impressed with; especially the audio on his personal cartoons.

Even though the book spends a lot of time talking about animation and Flash, not a lot of usable information comes out of it. A few tidbits of animation knowledge come out, but still the best advice this book gives is to read The Animator's Survival Kit. I don't need a $23 book to tell me to buy a $20 book.

The Flash instruction is also rather lacking. If you've never touched Flash before in your life, you might learn something. If you already have a working knowledge of the program, you won't learn a thing.

All in all, it's quite a bit of money to spend on such a small amount of learning.

I have been trying to learn to animate, draw, model, 2d, 3D . spend time as and when its available on books, software, pencil and paper.
I try my hand at Maya, Anim8or, Flash, ToonBoom, Blender .. anything that lets me draw and animate.
I started looking at Flash recently with renewed vigour. I picked this book up along with a few others.

The book addresses the newbie. teaches traditional style animation using Flash. which involves quite a few things.

character design
Character construction
Thumbnails
storyboarding
Camera shots
sound track
acting etc..
which are general pieces, and then specifics on Flash such as,

basic tools to get the characters into flash,
symbols, scenes,
library
rigging etc.

This is a nice walkthrough of all the tools you need as part of mastering the trade. I would think this is a very good primer. Gets you going. then you go fill the gaps, build on it. The book provides an overview of the various stages , very simple and easy to read. The style of writing is more like that of a fellow student trying to figure out things.

I wouldn't say this is 'the' book, but certainly provides a good starting point.

The best description of the power of Superman as a cultural icon is the answer that former science fiction writer Isaac Asimov gave to the question: "How is it possible that Superman is capable of flying faster than light?" His answer was, "Einstein's theory of relativity is based on theory, while Superman's powers are based on fact." While Asimov's answer is of course presented with tongue in cheek, it does demonstrate the influence Superman has over our lives. He, along with Batman, have been the primary characters in the DC comics group of characters.
However, the DC comics group has featured many different characters over the years, and even the main characters have undergone dramatic changes. This book is a recapitulation of those characters as well as their origins and in some cases their demise and rebirth. Even Superman was once killed by a super villain, an event that made national headlines. Many people considered the death of a hero to be intolerable, yet the issue where Superman was killed sold more than any other issue that was not a premiere issue. Unusual and short-lived characters such as Deadman, the Creeper, and the team of the Hawk and the Dove are mentioned.
If you are serious about comics, then this is a book you must read. The television and movie incarnations of the comic heroes are also included. Until I read this book, I never realized how many different television series and pilots featuring DC super heroes have been created. Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Batman, Flash, and Wonder Woman have all been the star of one or more television series. While some never progressed beyond the pilot stage, others are timeless. Even though the special effects are weak when compared to what can now be done, the strength of the characters still makes the Superman series starring George Reeves well worth watching

Buyers beware, apparently this is an updated edition of Les Daniels' earlier book, so don't fork out the money if you already own the earlier book, unless you think 16 pages of new material is worth the price. Otherwise, this is an excellent introduction to the world of DC Comics. It summarises the history of most of the major DC characters, from their humble origins to their glory days and beyond. Much more so than Marvel characters, DC characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League have, over the last half century or so, worked their way into the very cultural fabric and the psyche of the American public. With the advent of globalisation, their influence now extends well beyond the shores of America into the wider world - just show anyone in Australia, which is on the opposite side of the globe, a picture of Lynda Carter in her star-spangled costume, and they can tell you that she is Wonder Woman. A great reference for all comic book lovers, especially fans of DC characters.

This is a beautiful coffee table book, thoroughly illustrated and full of much fascinating trivia about comics. When reading it, though, it's important to remember that the book was fully approved and virtually coproduced by DC Comics, and so basically represents DC's PR department view of its history. For example, it mostly rationalizes or dismisses the company's appalling treatment of Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. For history, there are non-corporate approved books that do a much more realistic job. But for beautiful pictures and an overview of the comics themselves, this is great.

Although the content still rates 5 Stars this edition has been deceptivly marketed and doesn't.This is essentially a reprint of DC Comics :60 Years from 1995. Ok it's an updated edition with 16 additional pages but that's only printed on the back cover.If you liked Les Daniels work on the first book you can easily be suckered into buying this edition online thinking it's a new book. It's not!

This book goes over the history of DC Comics. It is a "coffee table" type book with lots of colorful pictures. It does a good job of discussing most of the major characters and genres published by DC over the years. Of course, superheroes get more pages than anything else, but they also cover things like romance comics and horror comics. Movie and television adaptations of DC Comics properties are also covered. Very well produced book that should appeal to anyone with an interest in comic books.

This product is great! It gives good tips for both the beginning and intermediate digital artist. I love it!

I flipped through this book at the local shop and thought it might be a good buy. What I found inside was actually pretty insightful. One thing though, this book is not an instruction on how to draw. So if you're not familiar with drawing fundamentals I'd suggest an instructional book instead.

This book contains all the basic ins and outs of creating manga utilizing digital means. From inking to coloring and including different types of color work it's pretty extensive and is a great book for beginners who don't exactly know programs like Photoshop or Illustrator but are eager to learn.

Definitely a good surprise and it even goes into the publishing side of the business which is always good for those who want to work professionally.

I like the book fairly well. The technique described works in my experience. The first half of the book is spent describing manga to an audience that doesn't not know it very well. I found myself skipping pages on Shojo, Sci-Fi and so on. To me, who has been reading and writing manga for years now, it was all review. When I got to the second half of the book which showed a few dozen techniques that I have been using in the past 6 months, I decided that it was a good book to have 6 months ago. If you haven't touched mouse to canvas, haven't scanned 20 pages of art into your computer, then this book will solve your problems before you have them. But if you're familiar with brush size, texture, layers, and opacity in the digital realm, you probably will only get a brief insight from this book. Tracing, filling with anti-aliasing, and so on are problems that digital developers face. The simple solutions that are obvious are the ones pointed to in this book. I was hoping perhaps that it would solve them better than I have already.

Overall, a warning for those who know the craft, a recommendation to those who want to.

I purchased this book with the idea that it might teach me something new, but I was mistaken. If you already have basic Photoshop knowledge, this may not be the book for you. I returned it because my money would be better invested elsewhere. If you have no idea where to begin with digital artwork, then I would recommend taking a look here. This is for the novice, not the intermediate or advanced user.

I've bought a few different 'how to draw manga' books but most of them seem to focus too much on the basics, which is annoying because I've already got a little experience in drawing. This book explains more about different genres and how you can apply them to your artwork and what you can do to emphasise the manga style, and a lot of useful tips for character design.

The photoshop tutorials are very comprehensive! They really helped me to improve how I was making my photoshop coloured pictures so I have a lot more control over how they look now.

I also like the section the book on making comic pages and applying screentone! You can get some pretty impressive manga style looks by following the steps in the book.

My only criticism of this book is that some of the introduction was stuff I already knew, but only about 15 pages or so and the artwork was good in those bits anyway.

Highly recommended!

Eric Stanton takes Female Domination to the hilt. The women art bigger than any Fellini film or Russ Meyer picture. Just when you think they've done it all, there's several more pages in store for the poor guy.

The art is rich in color, amazing female figures, incredible action. Eric Stanton is just amazing and this book is chock full of page turning domination. A must-see, gentlemen!

there should have been some indication that this book was far from the standard size. it is so small that it's hardly worth the effort of looking. Stanton is a master of the form, but this meager volume is hardly the best one to enjoy his work. even as a sampler it fails.

I ordered DOMINANT WIVES AND OTHER STORIES at the same time I ordered this little, bity book which made this much smaller collection of Stanton's pictures, stories, etc. seem poor in comparison. There are a few good things here but spend the extra money and get DOMINANT WIVES if you want to see a more impressive view of female dominance, bondage, punishment,etc. provided by the strange, but fun, world of Eric Stanton.

For those men with a special fondness for Female Superiority, this book is a keeper. It is a generous volume of some of the late Stanton's best artwork with graphic examples of women getting the better of men. Apparently, these items of work were the product of commissions, and it is interesting to ponder how widespread the desire for women to be in control of men is. There is great variation within what could be a limited field: women of colour in charge, women ganging up on single men, women in the mafia, women reassigning the house keeping chores etc. Plenty to keep one titillated. Minor drawbacks are the, at times, typographical errors, and rather hard to follow (text being very compressed) three or so stories at the start of the book. There is one story that is pure graphics with no speech. At first I thought this was deliberate but I gather it is not since the messages from the frames are not clear. But these should not get in the way of the overall enjoyment of this great compendium. All the women are beautifully drawn, quite voluptious and well endowed, and Stanton presses buttons with the mandatory sleek looking high heels supporting shapely calves: Awe inspiring art forms that tower over snivelling looking men, who appear quite insipid and rightly deferential to the REAL Stronger Sex. Great stuff!

This book is really worth more than three bucks, but it is a bit short. If you like Eric Stanton book, this is a really good and cheap buy.

I have several books of how to draw and this one is firmly in the middle of the pack usefullness wise. Some of the shortcuts to figure construction are worthwhile, but like many of this genra of how to books, it spends too little time on storytelling and too much on pin-up drawing. Still, it is better than just about any Christopher Hart book.

When I bought this book I was expecting to see an explanation on how to create different emotions and body frames. Well...not exactly. The emotion information they shared wasn't really helpful. Just showed a bunch of odd faces.

As for the body. It had many different poses to put a "female" character in that I have to admit were really cute. But it would've been nice to get a detailed explanation how to get all the different positions. They didn't have any on males, but they did draw out the different sizes of a male's body. Not really helpful.

Then they gave a little info on the hands and feet and the other pasrts of the body and yeah. That was pretty much it. They did have a few pictures of different kind of men and women in the back. But it really wasn't helpful.

But hey, if you're wondering about doing different poses for your character. This is the book for you. They have different pages of positions for miles.

This book is pretty good, except it as a huge part on girls but barely anything about boys. Don't get me wrong the girl part shows a lot of different poses and there really good. Its just if your looking only for boys you shouldnt by this book.

I really liked this book a lot, the majority of this book is how to draw TONS of different poses! i didn't even think about drawing some poses that i do in everyday life.And she shows the difference between the anatomy of a human body, and the manga body! which i thought was a total plus! One of the only things i was dissapointed with was the facial expressions, it didn't show how to draw them at all, and thats what i really struggle with! It's a great book for learning all about different poses, anatomy and posture, but not a great book for expressions.

This was my first purchase outside of the official How To Draw Manga collection, and I chose this book because of the promise of emotions and facial expressions. But despite the official description and even the text on the book cover, this book did not live up to that implied promise.

This book focuses heavily on how to draw bodies, and the advice it gives is sound and helpful. The tone of the text is occasionally arrogant but generally constructive. But almost all of the "emotion" shown in the book is through body language and posture; indeed, half the drawings don't have faces at all.

If you're looking for simple anatomy lessons or an assortment of poses, this book could be helpful. But if you're looking for a reference for facial expressions, this is not suitable; you would find more facial expressions by picking a random book from the How To Draw Manga series.

This little reference book has a quality of fandom and charm about it. While it has its flaws, its easily read in bit-sized bits that leave you wanting to go find out more. The numerous mini-essays give an overall sense of the trends and fads of the industry over the years, from the brief affair with martial arts to monsters as protagonists. Makes a wonderful beach holiday read for yourself, or to page through to encourage younger comic readers of the way things were.

This book covers a lot (and I mean a lot) of material. As a nice, quick overview of Comic Book heroes and their history, as told from a loving and friendly point of view, this is fairly good. There were characters in here I did not know about, or had forgotten about (and I'm a lifelong comic fan).

However, Mike Conroy could have used some fact checking. With the sheer amount of detail, I suppose we can forgive a few small errors, but here are a couple of details I found to be more than incidental:

On page 149, he refers to the character Starseed as "malevolent." In fact, the opposite was true. Starseed did drop a mountain in the middle of Sunset Blvd. - but he was merely returning it from when he took it ages ago. He was actually benevolent, and offered to cure Morbius, Man-Thing, Ghost Rider and Werewolf by Night of their afflictions. Unable to control their monstrous selves, the monsters killed Starseed rather than accept his gift. The tale was a tragedy, with Starseed as the hero that dies in the end. Next time, read more closely, Mr. Conroy.

On page 141 he refers to the character of Blade, the Vampire Slayer as "African-American." I find it hard for a man who was born and raised in England to be an American, but maybe his citizenship changed later in life (although all Blade's early adventures take place in or near London, where he was living with his girlfriend Safron).

If these two small errors don't bother you (they actually don't bother me all that much), then the other errors likely won't bug you either.

A good, solid book of capsule histories and an accessible, quick reference work.

If I had to pick the most important feature of a reference book, it would probably be accuracy of information. Almost as important would be the comprehensiveness of information; a dictionary, for example, would be of little use if it only covered the letters A and Q. Finally, a reference book should have easily accessible information; that same dictionary would be hard to work with if the words weren't in order. Mike Conroy's 500 Great Comic Book Action Heroes scores well enough on the first point and decently on the second point. On the last item, however, it is not very good.

In terms of accuracy, the book does a good job. While I am a comic book fan, I am not nearly enough of one to truly say if every detail is accurate; for all I know, the fact that the first Blue Beetle appeared in 1939 may be right and may be wrong. On the other hand, the information I do know fits with what is presented in the book, so I'll take the other stuff as true until told otherwise.

Comprehensiveness is harder to judge. Certainly, most major superheroes (and other action heroes) are here, but anyone familiar with the genre can probably name a few that are not mentioned. For example, such "classic" heroes from the 1980s as Rom, the Micronauts and Ka-Zar (all of whom had decent runs) are basically omitted, as well as other folks like the Moon Knight and Luke Cage (Power Man) and the Question. On the other hand, we do get to read about some interesting but obscure heroes such as the Badger and Congorilla. It's a mixed bag. Are there even truly 500? I never bothered to count.

The big problem is with organization. While the heroes are basically listed in alphabetical order by category (such as Male, Female, Teams and War Heroes), each section is interrupted by special items on specific items and trends. There's a lot of fun information here, but it's often hard to find. The Table of Contents does provide some help, but the lack of an index is a major problem.

Overall, the book looks nice, with plenty of art and nice paper, but I am hard-pressed to give it more than a high three stars. On a fundamental level - organization - this book is sub-par, so as a reference book, it doesn't do the trick as well as it should.

I had hoped that this volume would prove an informative guide to assorted characters and series in the comic book world, and it is true that it covers a lot of ground. It doesn't just focus on the "Big Two", Marvel and DC, but also has plenty of information on some of the current so-called independents, various defunct companies from the Forties to the present day (many of which were absorbed by DC), and also a smattering of entries on non-American comics.

However, a heck of a lot of the detail that is presented is in the way of simple timelines about when a given series was published or resurrected and who might have been writing or drawing it. So we learn a lot about the year in which a title first debuted, when it was canceled, when it was re-started, and what issue numbers were involved in each run. There's just a good amount of strangely mundane detail that would be of little interest to anyone but the specialist. This book is sort of the equivalent of one of those super-focused tomes on the military costumes of the Napoleonic Wars. Sure, somebody wants to know that stuff, but most people want to get to the good parts about battles and generals and kings and campaigns, and not dwell on what kinds of buttons and flashings your average Austrian grenadier had in 1805. So the relative lack of commentary on the actual characters themselves and the key plots is rather disappointing.

The organization is also idiosyncratic and a bit off-putting (a simple A-Z listing would've sufficed), and there are a fair number of spelling and grammar errors. The entries themselves basically give equal weight to every selected character or group, so the Avengers get the same number of paragraphs as comparative unknowns such as the Challengers of the Unknown.

Really, this book is best used as a resource to learn about some of the more obscure non-mainstream or now-unpublished characters or to find out see which artist or writer was working on which title. Definitely not for the casual fan.

As a kid, I looked forward to every Sunday paper's new and amazing /Gordo/ color strip. Gus Arriola's sense of style, his humor, his clean and accurate technique... those were great strips. I was heartbroken when he decided to retire.

But here we are with a brand new collection of strips, including some of my favorite stories, along with a biography of the cartoonist and a truly fascinating look at the evolution of Gordo, from /campesino/ to tour guide, from stereotype to the cultural envoy who gently and gracefully gave many of us north of the border our first exposure to Mexican customs and traditions. And there's no lack of attention to all the other characters that populated Gordo's world -- Tehuana Mama, the Poet, Juan Pablo Jones, Panchito, the Widow Gonzales, Mary Frances... and the wonderful animals (Poosy Gato was always my favorite).

I would only have been happier if there'd been more color strips -- in fact, more strips, period. I'd adore to see a complete collection through all the years of /Gordo/, though it'd probably take up multiple volumes. Still, until and unless that ever comes along, /Accidental Ambassador Gordo/ is a fine sop to my nostalgia. /Gordo/ truly belongs among the great comic strips of all time; this is a dandy introduction for those unfamiliar with it.

And don't miss the "Beans weeth Cheese" recipe! ;)

I enjoy comic strips, especially ones that have art as beautiful as Gus Arriola's "Gordo." This book gives an extensive biography of Arriola, along with extensive commentary by the biographer, Robert Harvey. Once I got past Harvey's writing, I enjoyed the book. Unfortunately, there are very few strips reprinted in the book. Harvey merely samples "Gordo" strips, putting his unnecesary commentaries in the margins, inbetween pages of prose. I think most people, like me, would prefer to have just a collection of the strips, so that we can enjoy Arriola's wonderful work without the "help" of a commentator.

Like so many others here, I remember Gordo fondly from a very young age. The bright colors on Sunday appealed to me. So did the combinations of adult themes and animal themes. Gus Arriola was the first person in my life to bring home to me that life is life, animal or human.

The cartoonist has a great sense of humor and a unique drawing style. The book is essentially the story of the life of Gus Arriola, which is an interesting one, interspersed with many, many samples of his cartoons, both daily and Sunday. So this book has to be taken as a biography rather than as a compendium of the cartoonist's work.

This story of the life of Gus and Mary Frances Arriola is a nice one, full of laughter and good friends and fulfilling work. It is also very, very good to relive some of the cartoon moments that are also provided. No, this book is not the complete works of Gordo, and I would like to see that happen someday soon. But in its own right, it's a great book.

If you like cartoons and have an interest in cartoonists, you should have fun with this one.

I read "motogrrl"s review, and share the sentiments. Born in 1947, I read "Gordo" with gusto for as long as it was in print. Arriola's aesthetic style is still unparalleled. Do I remember strips entirely without dialogue? I think so! What I really would like to enjoy and review is the ENTIRE collection of all syndicated "Gordo" strips---so what if it amounts to 20 volumes? What does it take to get all of "Gordo" published? A plea? A complaint? This is a plaintive plea! Please!! WE WILL BUY IT!