Drawing Cutting Edge Comics: Amazon.ca: Christopher Hart: Books

Product Description

Comic book artists are now developing cutting-edge, extreme comic book characters that go beyond the traditional heroes and villains. The heroes are grittier. The women are sexier. The pages are designed for maximum impact. Heroes have been turned into highly cool antiheroes, such as the famous characters Spawn and War Blade. Cutting-edge comics venture beyond the traditional boundaries to extreme anatomy, extreme costuming, extreme special effects, and extreme methods of storytelling.

Drawing Cutting Edge Comics is the first-ever guide that shows readers, step by step, how to draw the radical characters and cutting-edge techniques that are the gold standard for designing extreme comics. Dozens of fantastic, how-to illustrations demonstrate the basics as well as how to create such intense coloring techniques as knockouts and glows. Plus, several leading cutting-edge artists describe how they spin original character designs, many created exclusively for this book.

About the Author

Cartoonist, author, and teacher Christopher Hart is Watson-Guptill’s top-selling author, with a track record of phenomenal sales totaling over a million copies. He lives in Westport, Connecticut.

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Customer Reviews

21 Reviews

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.1 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Not as cutting edge as you'd expect, Dec 8 2006

By

Christian Major (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Drawing Cutting Edge Comics (Paperback)

I've been drawing for a long while, and in different styles, and I was looking for another approach to consider, and Christopher Hart's book caught my interest. "Cutting Edge", it claimed. My curiosity got the better of me and I ordered it.

While at first you can be taken aback by the very Image Comics-like pencilling inside the book, once you get to the text you get disappointed. Hart does not go anywhere near the depth of comics drawing that others do, and does quite frankly a botched job of letting us know what the composition of comics is all about. A very big emphasis is put on run-of-the-mill superbabes as the eternal beauty icon, based on a single, Xerox-ed body type whose only diverging trait from others is some facial construction, attire and hair length and color. The men's anatomy is muscle-bound and not very imaginative, and for such an artist, I would've expected more of a discussion about anatomy and the importance of knowing the various muscle groups.

The definition of "Cutting Edge Comics" is very limiting, claiming in-between lines that publishers like Top Cow and Chaos! Comics are at the forefront of the comics industry, presents a very nearsighted portrait of a very varied and constantly-evolving industry. Some of the redeeming qualities that made me decide to keep this book after all was the good discussion on "cutting edge" perspective, comments by up-and-coming artists, a small interview about comic agents for artists, and some interesting reference shots here and there.

Finally, the very anorexic section on page composition didn't belong in such a work. For anything of the like, I would point artists to Scott McCloud's 1993 "Understand Comics", or more recently, his 2006 "Making Comics".

Overall, I feel this book is more of an attempt to sell the writer's skills to the general populace and beginning artists rather than portrait any realistic outlook on the comic business. If you wish to become the next Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane, this could be a beginner's book for you. If becoming published under an independent label, or a grittier one such as Marvel MAX or Vertigo, is what you aspire to, I highly recommend you look elsewhere, as this book will bring next to nothing for you.

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5.0 out of 5 stars You want to draw better?, Mar 22 2004

By

JAK "Wolfsrock" (Manchester, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drawing Cutting Edge Comics (Paperback)

I'm a begining artist and I must say this book helps a lot. I would recommend you start with Hart's earlier book on human anatomy made easy to get you started. This book is for advanced artist looking for that extra something. This book will definately help with that.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Good compliment, but can't stand on its own, Feb 16 2004

By

Mad Track (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drawing Cutting Edge Comics (Paperback)

The good thing about this book is that most basic drawing ideas are covered: faces, basic anatomy, and perspective. One of the articles I particularly like is the drawing comparison between different top artists (from using the same reference). It gives an idea of how to develop your own unique style rather than copying someone elses. The focus in the "cutting edge" comic market today is to give a "dark" feeling. Hence inking is exaggerated and skin tones are darker (compare Witchblade to Wonder Woman and you'll know what I mean). If you're interested in these aspects of drawing, then this book will give you a taste that no current other book can offer.

Despite the uniqueness of this book, the problem is that book is NOT a stand-alone (all-in-one) guide to drawing "Top-Cow" and "Chaos" style comics. If you are a newbie in drawing, then this book is more eye-candy than an aid to help you. You will have difficulties reaching Al Rio's level of quality on this book alone. There are little step-by-step instructions or diagrams. Since there are different artists contributing to different sections of the book, it can be a distraction. No offense, but I don't really think Chris Hart's artwork is "cutting edge." It looks rather cartoony as another reviewer said. Hence, I think this book can be better streamlined and edited. In addition, there should be more about shading, more about anatomy and poses, and more about creating impact. I think Andy Smith's "Drawing Dynamic Comics" has better basics than this book. In fact, it would be good to pick up that book as well because it gives a different perspective from another author. In any event, this book tries to do too much. I would rather have this book dump all the "basic stuff" and dig deeper into the advanced stuff.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The tutorial for comic artists
I ordered several comic drawing books, and being an artist for many years, this book adds punch to your drawing arsenal. Read more

Published on Feb 14 2004 by albn

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST OF THE BEST
This book is realllllllllly good. Real good tips and examples too. Tons of examples. I can nit pick and say the section on muscles could have been more detailed. Read more

Published on Jan 7 2004