- ISBN13: 9780393331264
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Two classic drawing textbooks from an American comics pioneer, revised and enhanced for a new generation. Based on Will Eisner’s legendary course at New York’s School of Visual Arts, these guides have inspired generations of artists, students, teachers, and fans. In Comics and Sequential Art, Eisner reveals the basic building blocks and principles of comics, including … More >>
Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist
Tags: american comics, art principles, basic building blocks, Cartoonist, Comics, from, Legendary, legendary course, new generation, Practices, Principles, remainder mark, school of visual arts, Sequential, sequential art, will eisner
#1 by Anonymous on April 19, 2010 - 12:31 am
More info about his book, along with a useful reading list for aspiring artists of the comic genre, available at Amazon.com, is available for your perusal at:
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Blue Boy on April 19, 2010 - 1:35 am
I have no doubt Will Eisner’s intentions were noble in writing this book. I’m also not here to disparage a widely acknowledged great in the comics industry. And yet…
It comes as no surprise that this emanates from a series of academic lectures as it smacks of a non-academic striving desperately both to sound learned and informed and to give serious academic weight to a subject generally percieved as throwaway entertainment.
Will Eisner was a great, but a great of a very different era and as such he has very little relevance visually to the world of comics today. That’s not to say he’s inferior to a lot of the hacks passing themselves off as ‘cartoonists’ these days, but if you want to work in that industry as an artist (thus producing sequential ART) then this book is a fraction of the use of the superior (that’s right SUPERIOR) Scott McCloud book “Understanding Comics”.
So do yourself a favour and buy that instead.
Oh, and using lots of big (and inappropriate to the medium) words doesn’t make you sound smart, either.
Sorry.
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by Anonymous on April 19, 2010 - 1:54 am
I rank this book at the same level as Understanding Comics. Both are good texts for the novice or someone with little knowledge of how panels, pacing, etc. function. However, for someone really serious about getting into comics I would suggest books such as The Five C’s of Cinematography (as well as books dealing with the understanding of basic storytelling from scriptwriting to crafting short stories) and any of the reprints of Alex Toth’s various comics work. What these influences add are both a better understanding of specific types of shots and framing (both Eisner and McCloud strike me as too vague) and an understanding of how and why comicbooks adhere to certain principles of filmaking (both in terms of layout and storytelling) and still must adhere to the limitations and advantages of the printed page, which Toth handles masterfully.
Rating: 3 / 5
#4 by too_old_to_be_so_indie on April 19, 2010 - 4:46 am
After reading the reviews of this book here on Amazon, and running across mentions of this book in lots of other places that talk about comics & graphic novels, I was really looking forward to reading it. But on the whole, I’ve been very disappointed. Although the book covers a lot of relevant topics, it does so in a way that seems sloppy and self-congratulatory. The book could do with a thorough proofreading to catch the numerous typos and other errors, and the author seems more concerned with impressing the reader than in making the topics easy to grasp and apply. I’m really surprised to find that this isn’t a better introduction to the art & craft of visual storytelling.
Rating: 2 / 5
#5 by Timothy S. Chamberlain on April 19, 2010 - 7:26 am
If you are interested in comics, film, advertising, web design,… anything that uses pictures to tell a story, then read Eisner.
Rating: 5 / 5