Useful books/sites for beginners

[Ed Sullivan]

Hi, I just started getting into comic books, and they've given me a huge amount of inspiration to learn how to draw/create my own comics. I know it's not easy but I'm more inspired to create something than I've ever been before, it's a strange feeling.. Anyways, I was wondering if anyone has any good books/sites to recommend that will be useful to me in this learning process. I'd really appreciate it.

- Ed

[escapegoat]

Sounds like your best start would be with Scott McCloud's books:
Understanding Comic.
Reinventing Comics.
Making Comics.
They all provide interesting insights on the inner workings of the comic medium. A lot of good and useful information for a beginning comic creator.

Will Eisner's also has a series of books:
Graphic Storytelling And Visual Narrative.
Comics & Sequential Art: Principles & Practice of the World's Most Popular Art Form!
Expressive Anatomy For Comics And Narrative.
They cover similiar ground that McCloud's book go over. The main difference between the 2 is that McCloud's books are presented in comic sequentials, while Eisner's involve more text.

[Jaye]

I second all the books escapegoat mentions.

Also, browse around twomorrows.com - they have magazines and books, the magazines are nice bite-size chunks. I also enjoy the book "Panel Discussions" they have.

Jaye

[Ed Sullivan]

Thanks a lot. I'll be checking everything y'all mentioned out ASAP.

[crazyredlady]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel
that's the one I've picked up to get started and i've gotten some helpful hints from it. it's really good when you're unfamiliar with the background:redface:

[CBrown]

You might also be interested in a book called Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. It's set up like a text book, with assignments for each chapter. There's an associated website here (http://www.dw-wp.com/).

[CBrown]

Oh, and yeah, check out McCloud and Eisner's books, if you're really serious about comics.