World Famous Comics: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel (The Complete Idiot's Guide)
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel (The Complete Idiot's Guide)
By: Nat Gertler, Steve Lieber Publisher: Alpha Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Alpha Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: July 06, 2004 Release Date: July 06, 2004
Product Description: Tools for creating the next great graphic novel!
What do the movies Men In Black, Road to Perdition, Ghost World, and X-Men all have in common? Each started out as a graphic novel-one of the fastest growing segments of the book publishing industry. Now, here is the first book to provide a comprehensive and detailed look at the process involved in creating a successful graphic novel.
Author doesn't seem qualified This had the usual "chock fulla" feel in the store but a closer reading indicates the author thinks too highly of his qualifications. The kind of people who latch onto this idea, then that, achieving nothing substantial, are the kind who like to tell others what to do and meddle in debates. I'd like to rate this book higher, but in the end it doesn't even reach the low level of the genre.
Disappointing This book predominantly covers American stereotyped super hero comics. Although graphic novels, the best types, can be painted novels, or use mixed media or digital compositions, manga to realistic style - these aren't really covered in this book. The title is very misleading. The picture selection is extremely sparse and poor quality. The case study is silly. Overall ... uninspiring and dry.
Good book to start with Creating a graphic novel (or a comic book) is hard work. Getting someone to read it, other than friends or relatives, is an herculean task. This book is a good place to start, along with some fine books written by Scott McCloud.
I gave it only four stars because of the shallow treatment of so many themes, but that's natural, because of the wide spectrum of subjets that the comic form implies. And I sustracted a star because the writing style... well, tries too hard to be funny, and it gets annoying at times (insert a joke here!- Ed.)
A good beginning. Very well thought out and organized presentatation. It guides the artisist/novelist to-be effortlessly through every phase of graphic novel creation. I truely enjoyed it and thought it was easy to understand even for those who are not familiar with comic book or printhouse jargon. I highly recommend this guide as one of the best I have seen.
Helps My Students Develop Their Writing Graphic novels seem to be quite the hot ticket. While most traditional English teachers would scoff at this genre as a serious direction for students, I find my at-risk pupils captivated by the entire process. Graphic novels help me keep their focus...I don't have them read too many, but I try to get them to write for me in graphic novel form. Some of them are unbelievably gifted, and I want them to see this as a viable avenue for themselves. I have a group of 4-5 who fight over this book regularly.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
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