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

Picture violent, amoral swordsmen and their bloody confrontations with agents of evil in imaginary lands. Think of role-playing games, fantasy, and some of the most popular movies and novels ever created. Think ofThe Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian, Dragonslayer, Dungeons and Dragons. InSwords & Sorcery, authorBryan Baughshows artists exactly how to create bold fantasy realms populated with fantasy characters both heroic (knights in armor, barbarians, wizards, warrior maidens, kings, princesses) and evil (sorcerers, orcs, trolls, black knights). And of course there are fantasy creatures like unicorns, war-dogs, dragons, giants, goblins, ogres, and demons, plus creatures from mythology such as Medusa, Minotaurs, Cyclops, and Pegasus. A good battle needs good weaponry, and here are catapults, battering rams, and castles bursting with battlements and other defenses. From the underlying anatomy of a warrior to the underlying mythology of today's stories,Swords & Sorceryhas everything the artist needs to create a rich fantasy world.

A fabulous tale of gods, dragons ... and stones. A mix of Kylie Chan's text and stunning illustration/comic work by Queenie Chan shows the events leading up to Kylie's bestselling DARK HEAVENS TRILOGY (WHITE TIGER; BLUE DRAGON; RED PHOENIX). SMALL SHEN is the amazing story of Gold - a stone spirit and a chronic troublemaker in the court of the great Gods of Chinese mythology. A mix of Kylie Chan's brilliant storytelling and Queenie Chan's beautiful illustrations, SMALL SHEN is a fantastic treat for fans of WHItE tIGER. Readers will be thrilled to discover the events leading up to John Chen and Emma Donahoe's story in this wonderful prequel. Shown through Queenie Chan's stunning illustrations and comics, the story follows the stone spirit Gold's entertaining adventures throughout history. His escapades include seducing a dragon princess, attempting to steal one of the tiger's wives, making bets with demons, and working for the Blue Dragon of the East. Eventually, as a result of his crimes against Heaven and his constant philandering, Gold is ordered to join the household of Xuan Wu, the Dark Lord of the Northern Heavens. Xuan Wu is also known as John Chen, a Hong Kong businessman. the story then follows Gold and Jade - the dragon princess - in contemporary Hong Kong. the two small shen must help guard John Chen's beloved human wife and baby daughter from demon attack. John Chen is vulnerable to attack while living on Earth, but his family are in the most danger of all... SMALL SHEN is a unique piece of work for fans of Kylie Chan to treasure, but also a fantastic introduction to this gripping series.

In the comics boom of the 1940s, a legend was born: the Green Turtle. He solved crimes and fought injustice just like the other comics characters. But this mysterious masked crusader was hiding something more than your run-of-the-mill secret identity... The Green Turtle was the first Asian American super hero. The comic had a short run before lapsing into obscurity, but the acclaimed author of American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang, has finally revived this character in Shadow Hero, a new graphic novel that creates an origin story for the Green Turtle. With artwork by Sonny Liew, this gorgeous, funny comics adventure for teens is a new spin on the long, rich tradition of American comics lore.

When artists and designers explore or create a fictional setting, the milieu must be completely fleshed out, explained, and designed. In this book, comic and gaming art veteran Mark A. Nelson explores and demonstrates his methods for fashioning visually stunning, believable environments for fantasy creatures and characters. Scores of images and step-by-step examples illustrate how variation and experimentation lead to fresh, original designs for otherworldly beings, their environments, and their stories. Nelson discusses how to find ideas and borrow from history to add the strength of realism to a fantasy world. In describing the best ways to establish a habitat, he offers specifics about climate, terrain, flora, and wildlife. He shares insights into founding societies in terms of their means of survival, manner of warfare, spiritual practices, style of dress, and levels of technology. All visual creatives who work with imaginative material — illustrators, comic artists, and writers — will take a lively interest in this source of inspiration and practical knowledge. "In sixteen breezy-yet-surprisingly-concise chapters he covers everything from visual problem solving to spirituality to warfare to transportation, not with the idea of giving the reader lessons to copy by rote but rather as prompts to develop their own original concepts. If I were suggesting three books every budding artist should have at their fingertips they would be Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis, Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist by James Gurney, and, most definitely, Mark's Fantasy World-Building." — Muddy Colors

A step-by-step guide to all aspects of comic book creation--from conceptualization to early drafts to marketing and promotion--written by two of the industry's most seasoned and successful pros. Discover the Secrets of Your Favorite Comic Book Creators Do you want to break into the comics industry? There are many creative roles available—writer, penciller, inker, colorist, letterer, editor, and more. Each creator serves a vital function in the production of sequential art at companies such as DC, Marvel, Image, and Valiant. In Make Comics Like the Pros, veteran comics creators Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente team up with a who’s who of the modern comic book scene to lead you step-by-step through the development of a comic. With these two fan-favorite writers as your guides, you’ll learn everything from script formatting to the importance of artistic collaboration to the best strategies for promoting and selling your own sequential art masterpiece. Pak and Van Lente even put their lessons into practice inside the pages of the book—pairing with Eisner Award–winning cartoonist Colleen Coover (Bandette) to produce the swashbuckling, adventure comic Swordmaids, and giving you front row seats to their creative process. Make Comics Like the Pros provides all the answers you’ve been seeking to take your comic book–making dreams all the way to professional-level reality.

Presents a how-to drawing guide that offers in-depth instructions for creating unique and bizarre anthropomorphic fantasy creatures.