Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics

Grade 5 Up-Hart takes a small but measurable step beyond the basics in this guide to the distinctive Japanese art form. Sandwiched between an introduction to the several genres of manga and a searching interview with Bill Flanagan, editor in chief for one of the largest U.S. manga publishers, is a discussion of techniques for drawing, dressing, and posing all of the standard character types effectively ("-you want a short upper lip, which is a trademark of a youthful character. Long upper lips are reserved for older and sinister characters"). Hart covers creating animals, from dragons to sidekicks, and composing panels that are properly cinematic. For the art, which mixes dozens of step drawings with flurries of finished, usually colored, sample figures, he supplements his own work with generic examples from nine domestic artists, then uses examples of popular published manga to illustrate the interview. Though writing, storyboarding, and computer-assisted design are not covered here, and chapters that introduce a few phrases of tourist Japanese and provide brief, standard generalities about careers in the comics industry are off topic, this book dishes up such generous helpings of specific advice and general encouragement that it makes an appealing alternative to Mikio Kawanishi’s How to Draw Manga: Expert Edition (Graphic-Sha, 1998; o.p.) and the many narrowly focused instructional manuals. John Peters, New York Public Library