Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Author: Scott McCloud
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by MokiMokiKing   2021-12-10

The artist is Scott McCloud. He has a lot off informative books on making comic books.

https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X

by zstone   2021-12-10

Absolutely! Here's a short list of non-magic books that I commonly see recommended to magicians.

Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud

Purple Cow - Seth Godin

Delft Design Guide - multiple authors

An Acrobat of the Heart - Stephen Wangh (shouts out to u/mustardandpancakes for the recommendation)

In Pursuit of Elegance - Guy Kawasaki

The Backstage Handbook - Paul Carter, illustrated by George Chiang

Verbal Judo - George Thompson and Jerry Jenkins

Be Our Guest - Ted Kinni and The Disney Institute

Start With Why - Simon Sinek

Lots of common themes even on such a short list. What would you add to the list? What would you take away?

by sloppyquickdraw   2021-12-10

Copy and pasting artwork from one frame to another is obvious and lazy. I know that sounds mean, but I was a comics major in college and my professor would have said the exact same thing. Avoid shortcuts if you want to get better. Also, the textured frame is distracting. May I recommend a book? Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was incredibly useful when I first started out, and it's always great to go back to it. You're prolific enough to continue creating, so maybe it's good to develop good habits over bad. If I'm going to keep seeing your comic, I'd like to see you improve.

https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X

by igravious   2020-11-15
By analogy you're pretty much saying that you don't understand Sesame Street -- educational material plus silly gags. What's not to understand? It's a comic, a comic strip whose putative subject matter is the teaching of a particular programming language. What's not to get? Why does that conceptual union go over your head?

If a counting numbers tutorial can be taught by a vampire puppet in a TV show then a programming tutorial can be couched in the form of a comic strip with talking foxes.

Maybe I'm taking you too literally. I mean, are you saying that the Poignant Guide is not to your taste? I'd understand if you were saying that it isn't to your taste. But you don't appear to be saying that -- you appear to be saying that you essentially don't get how the genre is meant to work.

Consider Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Logicomix-Search-Truth-Apostolos-... -- a biographies of Frege, Russell, and Gödel and the history of predicate logic in comic book form …

Or consider The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-Bab... -- a history of early mechanical computer science in comic book form …

Or consider Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Sc... -- literary criticism of the comic book form in comic book form!

by AMAducer   2019-08-24

WOOOO! You should pick up a copy of "Understanding Comics". I'm not a great drawer, but I love making stick figure comics that tell stories.

Whatever you decide to draw, this will help your composition and choice in what to draw! I hope you enjoy it.

https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X

by mrxulski   2019-08-24

That sounds amazing. If you can, let me know when you finish. You can show me drafts too if you want. This book might help you understand drawing comics/manga better. https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X

by Tehbeefer   2017-08-19

Step 1. LOOK at the art.

It sounds like you're doing this, that's great! The artist probably spent 2–10 hours on that one page, I'm sure they'd like it if people did more than glance at it. You might find it useful if you pay attention to these things in particular: shapes, how lighting works (the shadows, shading, and highlights), line width, composition and layout, foreground/background and perspective, anatomy and proportions (which can be unrealistic and still look good), textures and effects.

Take a look at through the Escher Girls tumblr if you want to see what inaccurate anatomy can do to otherwise skilled artwork.

Step 2. Learn about what goes into artwork. For comics, manga, and other sequential art in particular, I HIGHLY recommend reading Scott McCloud's *Understanding Comics *. It is not a how-to-draw book. It's also well worth your time, and odds are good you can find it at your local library if you live in an native English-speaking country. The sequel, Making Comics , is also really good.

Step 3. Keep looking at the art for multiple series, over time eventually you'll start to notice what works and what doesn't, when rules are broken to good effect and when they really should've listened.

by ChickenInASuit   2017-08-19

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics would be a good start.

>A comic book about comic books. McCloud, in an incredibly accessible style, explains the details of how comics work: how they're composed, read and understood. More than just a book about comics, this gets to the heart of how we deal with visual languages in general. "The potential of comics is limitless and exciting!" writes McCloud. This should be required reading for every school teacher. Pulitzer Prize-winner says, "The most intelligent comics I've seen in a long time."