The Comic Book Lesson: A Graphic Novel That Shows You How to Make Comics

by Mark Crilley

Overview

An aspiring young creator learns the fundamentals of visual storytelling from three comic book mentors in this charming illustrated tale—a graphic novel that teaches you how to turn your stories into comics!

Acclaimed illustrator and graphic novelist Mark Crilley returns with a new approach to learning the essential elements of making comics. His easy-to-follow instruction about comic book art, design, and storytelling provides aspiring creators a one-of-a-kind how-to experience.
 
In The Comic Book Lesson, you’ll meet Emily—an enthusiastic young comics fan who has a story she needs to tell. On her quest to turn that story into a comic book, Emily meets three helpful mentors who share their knowledge. Trudy, a high school student who works at the local comics shop, teaches Emily how to create expressive characters and how art can convey action and suspense. Madeline, a self-published manga artist, teaches Emily how to use panel composition and layout to tell a story visually and how to develop a comic from script to sketch to finished pages. Sophie, a professional graphic novelist, guides Emily through fine-tuning the details of dialogue, sequence, and pacing to lead readers through the story.
 
Page by page, you’ll discover more about the events that drive Emily to create her comic book as her mentors teach her (and you!) about the fundamentals of visual narrative and comic book art. Each lesson builds on the previous one, guiding you through the steps of planning and creating your comic, with accompanying exercises you can try for yourself. Are you ready to start your comic book lesson today?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781984858436
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	07/26/2022
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	259,740
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Mark Crilley is the author of the Eisner–nominated The Drawing Lesson, Mastering Manga, Mastering Manga 2, The Realism Challenge, and Manga Art, as well as several graphic novels, including the Akiko, Miki Falls, and Brody’s Ghost series. Since being selected for Entertainment Weekly’s “It List,” Crilley has published more than forty books and developed a massive YouTube following for his drawing demonstration videos. His books have been featured in USA Today, the New York Daily News, and Wall Street Journal, and on CNN Headline News.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

I had this idea: to teach people how to make comics by presenting lessons in the form of an actual comic book story. The two things seemed like a match made in heaven, but showing someone how to make comics is no small task. Even the simplest comic involves not only writing and drawing, but also designing characters, laying out pages, and wrestling with the surprisingly tricky matter of knowing where to put all those speech bubbles.

Unfortunately, many aspiring comic book creators get distracted by matters of style, focusing all their energies on learning how to draw particular things such as superheroes or manga characters. But you can’t make a good comic if you don’t grasp the basic nuts and bolts of how comic book storytelling works: that delicate dance between words and pictures that occurs the moment you begin putting one panel next to another.

So, no, this book won’t show you how to draw specific things, or tell you what kinds of ink pens or software you should buy. Because you can’t make great comics simply by buying a bunch of stuff, or by learning how to draw awesome-looking capes.

It really comes down to learning how to think the way a comic book creator does. Each new panel presents you with endless options for what you’re going to show to the reader, and how you’re going to show it. Your job is to consider those options, weighing one against the other, and then choose the one that will best convey that next little beat of the story. This is at the heart of every comic anyone has ever made, whether it’s about intergalactic aliens, the French Revolution, or a couple of dudes sitting around playing cards.

My hope is that you’re at least a little like Emily, the main character in this story. She’s not looking for drawing lessons, or for a list of things she has to buy. She’s got her sights set on something much more fundamental than that: How do you transform an idea that’s stuck in your brain into an actual comic book story? If that’s something you’re eager to learn, then read on. This book is for you.

Editorial Reviews

07/25/2022

Crilley (Mastering Manga) returns with an accessible but simplistic guide for readers keen on making their own comics. Instead of a textbook format, Crilley disguises his teachings through a narrative focused on Emily, a naive young teen eager to bring her pet detective story to life. While looking for a book that will show her “how to make comics” she finds Trudy, who is “working on a comic book project” herself. She offers to help Emily get started and quickly introduces her to Madeline, an outgoing zinester—or as Trudy puts it, “the real deal.” Between these two expert figures, Emily and therefore the reader are provided lessons on paneling, character designs, and scripting. However, the plot lacks much propulsion aside from being a vehicle for cartooning basics. Crilley’s art style has a YA feel, and employs some clever devices, such as leaving his sketch layer under the panels to hint at how students of the volume could letter and draft objects in their own projects. But compared to exemplar comics explainers such as Scott McCloud’s Making Comics or Lynda Barry’s Syllabus, this feels more like a companion or junior version. It’s best for younger readers wanting to dip their toes into comics creations. (July)

Publishers Weekly