Step by step, Tom Alvarez is here to teach beginning and intermediate artists every aspect of working in the adventure style of comics.

After reading this book's lessons and working through its exercises, you'll be ready to enter the exciting profession of adventure cartooning! Comic artist Tom Alvarez is here to teach you the ropes - from how to pick the right tools (throw out those old no. 2's!), to industry lingo you need to know (like "splash page"), to how to submit your work for syndication. You'll learn, step-by-step, every aspect of drawing and writing in the adventure style of comics - including how to: draw the human figure, head and hands (It all starts with combining basic shapes.); create dramatic settings; compose each frame (just like a film director composes interesting shots and camera angles); use light and shadow to create suspense; perfect your inking and lettering skills; and adapt a story or write your own (including proper script terminology and formats). Focused exercises in each chapter help you develop your drawing skills and stretch your imagination. Throughout, you'll pick up real-world advice and tricks-of-the-trade from prominent adventure cartoonists.

Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Predator, The Matrix - part of the appeal of great science fiction is its distinctive look. Now, withZap! How to Draw Fantastic Sci-Fi Comics,artists everywhere can learn to create their own sci-fi realities and to draw space heroes and heroines, intergalactic villains, robots, spaceships, blasting rockets, slimy aliens, and much more. A history of science-fiction comics is followed by an overview of the genre illustrated by the masters, including Alex Raymond (creator of Flash Gordon), Wally Wood (who shaped the look of 1950s sci-fi), and Basil Wolverton (whose bizarre art launched a thousand mid-century sci-fi stories). Then readers turn to Bryan Baugh’s clear, detailed step-by-step instruction on how to draw dynamic cosmic action figures plus all the futuristic technology they can dream up. Perfect for artists, fans, even writers,Zap! How to Draw Fantastic Sci-Fi Comicslets the art of the future spring from the art of the past.

A light-hearted interactive guide to comics and cartoon-making that uses an activity book format and creatively stimulating prompts to teach the fundamentals of cartooning in a fun and easy-to-follow fashion. From a working cartoonist and comic book making instructor, this all-ages activity book uses humorous and informative one-page comics and exercise prompts to guide young readers (and readers who are young at heart) through easy-to-master lessons on the skills needed to make comics. The activities cover a range of essential comics-making tasks from creating expressions for characters to filling in blank panels to creating original characters and placing them in adventures of their own. Each exercise can stand on its own or work together with others in the book to stimulate creativity via the comics medium. In the end, readers who complete the activities inside the book itself will have created several comics of their own, and will have generated many ideas for more sequential art creations. Praise for Let’s Make Comics! “At once playful and complex, this book is a perfect introduction to cartooning, as well as a lovely (and lovingly crafted) tribute to the comics form and a timely reminder that artmaking can be fun.”—Roman Muradov, creator of Vanishing Act and On Doing Nothing “Let’s Make Comics is a book I wish I had when I was 9, but 29 works too! It’s so fun and brilliant and packed with oodles of awesome activities. Great book for learning to make comics or for a seasoned cartoonist to find some new inspiration.”—Ben Clanton, creator of the Narwhal and Jelly books “It’s fantastic! This book will make you a better writer and a better artist and show you how to think like a comic star.”—Charise Harper, creator of the Fashion Kitty and Crafty Cat books “Warning! This book will make you make comics, and it will be fun!”—Greg Pizzoli, creator of The Watermelon Seed, Number One Sam, and The Book Hog “If only we'd had this book! Our comics would be much better.”—Elizabeth Pich and Jonathan Kunz, creators of War and Peas

Presents a guide to stylized figure anatomy for artists wishing to emulate one of today's popular streamlined comic book styles, with step-by-step demonstrations and studies of major muscle groups, heads, hands, and feet.

This text details how to master the art of drawing fabulous females for comic books. From basic anatomy and musculature to more advanced poses, costumes and hairstyles, it covers all the various types of comic book women, along with how to compose a comic book panel and how to tell the story.