How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way

 Drawing comics the Marvel way is and always has been something of a dream, although now I don't have that dream of working as an artist at Marvel anymore, the desire to draw my own comic books I still have to this very day and have begun things set in motion for this to happen, but I guess it all started with one art book and it was this one. First published in 1977 and written by Stan Lee with John Buscemas artwork tutorials through the 155 page art book, it was a fascinating insight into the mysteries of how to draw a comic book.

I remember as a child becoming obssessed with having to draw things exactly like the artist in this book and others at Marvel, so much so that I would go and buy lots of back issues of the Amazing Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four and the X-men aswell as countless other comic books that caught my eye, even for the cover art alone I would buy them.

How to draw comics the Marvel way is a book that is explained quite clearly by Stan Lee and in simple terms as I really enjoyed reading through it as a kid as you could make sense of it and look at all the wonderful sketches and comic book panel step by step examples and actually learn something, I did announce after studying this book that I would move to America and draw comic books for a living, but that was a dream a childhood dream full of fantasy that had to be put on the back burner of life indefinitely.

What was amazing about the book initially when I read it first was that there wasn't at the time any other types of books like this and somewhere within the book it dealt with a very tricky concept of drawing in perspective and that for me at the time frustrated me no end, because I didn't understand the concept of it with the horizon lines and vanishing points etc. It's only when you've given drawing a chance and you stick with it that you start to practice and learn these mysterious yet most escaping art techniques.

The classic idea of building up comic book figures from scratch, from simple almost random sketches was one that I would follow all of my artistic life, although a stick figure or two is also most useful when drawing figures in action or speeded up motion for sequential artwork. The general idea of creating stories that follow on from each other is what must fascinate each comic book artist professional or starting out, I tend to look at comic books as snapshots of movies and sometimes vice versa. What might things look like if I drew it like a movie or if I watched a fantasy film and created ideas based upon that very movie.

Certainly this book gives you the very basics at least, it doesn't over complicate the process of figuring out comic book drawing, it breaks it down step by step and shows you the way leaving lots of space to add in your own artistic style and imagination along the way.

A great book and one that I would recommend if you are serious about drawing comic books.

The Book has Twelve individual chapters which explore a topic in specific detail and this gives a really good idea of life as a Comic Book Artist and the actual process of creating a comic book at Marvel. The book itself ages quite well, since it was published way back in the 1970's and the art within the book is top notch stuff. Now lets take a closer look at each Chapter.

What art book wouldn't be complete without a run down of the tools which is essentially the art equipment that you'll need to draw comic book stuff. And a lot of the main lingo of the trade is explained here.

Although this book could do with a slight update on technical terms. All still stand as useful terms and phrases that work to explain the different processes of comic book layouts such as the Splash page which is a term for a full page of comic book art, a single panel which covers the full page.

The Tools pages helps introduce you slightly to the comics industry and later on you'll find out about inking and the ways to use pens to ink.

Form is the magic turn of phrase that helps describe the way the characters and all the other elements that go into a comic book look like and it's the way to draw stuff that looks realistic enough.

This is a useful chapter and one that goes through the drawing process of drawing good solid 3D objects from standard items such as Guns to Airplanes, and this is to show you how to draw everyday stuff as realistic as possible.

The power of Perspective is another all important chapter and this helps your characters and situations really pop off the page and if you are lucky enough to grasp this concept in your comic book art then your art will look very professional indeed.

The section on perspective is a tight view on this drawing process and is explained very well with easy narration that guides you on the process of drawing in perspective.

How to draw the human figure with both Male and Female figures explored in this chapter. John Buscema's drawing tuition really starts to shine on this section as sure you learn how to draw the figure, but it's done in such a cool way that doesn't seem impossible for the casual Artist.

Drawing the figure in action is the main theme here and again, it's another really important chapter.

This is the more detailed figure drawing tutorial that goes through drawing figures in action the marvel way. From initial scribbles of figures right through to finished looking figure ideas. This chapter all comes down to getting the figures right, so really study this section well.