Draw Comic Book Action

Gr 9 Up—Although the introduction adopts a "one newbie to another" tone ("Maybe I could help other new artists out there because I was just discovering ways to do this myself"), the featured techniques are really for those who already have a base knowledge of form, are familiar with tools such as a lightbox, and know their way around an art-supply store. Garbett remains encouraging throughout, stressing research and practice. Rather than taking a line-by-line, how-to approach, he aims to spark the imagination by suggesting that readers think about the action, emotion, and scene that they would like to create and going from there. Once budding comic-book artists master these skills, they'll have plenty of punching, fighting, weapon-wielding characters to beef up their portfolios.—Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library