Book Description

This book is a fully illustrated, step-by-step guide to drawn, model, and computer-generated animation. It offers professional guidance on all aspects of animation- from conceptualization and script treatments to cutout animation and puppet-making. It also includes a gallery of more than 100 finished works from the world's leading contemporary animators. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Good book but lacking
This book is very imformative and educational but I don't recommend this as an animation handbook. It offers very helpful hints and displays various animation styles. I don't think it will teach you much on how to animate. More like a reference and animation library than a how to book. Great read and somewhat obsolete.

were can i found the price of the books
i will like to know how much i have to pay to get this book

Great Overview of Methodology!
This is a good book for looking over different types of animation methodology. The best section by far in this book is the one on stop motion animation. It showed the step by step building of two stop motion characters using two different types of joints. It included suggested tools you should use in building your character. It also included the pro's and cons of different types of set construction. Also included in this section was how to set up the studio for filming. The type of camera lense you should use. The visual effect different types of lenses would have on your scene. The cool thing about all this detail was that it was not drawn they showed actual full color photographs!

Concise and Diverse
The book is concise and covers the entire spectrum of animation. It is consistent with others in the Encyclopedia of Art Series. For animation students it is a good introductory book, but you will find yourself needing more information soon.

Good for quick referance
This book is good for a starter to know the animation how is work ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (7)

I Love This Book!!!
This book has so much to offer the budding cartoonist! Covering such things as: getting started, tools and techniques of the pros, developing great style and characters, creating funny cartoon ideas. turning your cartoons into cash, as well as resources and extra stuff, this book answers all the questions as well as shows you various styles of cartooning by many "strippers" from today and yesterday. I highly recommend this!!!

Good book
A very good book to develop ourselves as a cartoonists

Take it from a cartoonist...
Great stuff! Required reading for any serious cartoonist! I got more out of this book than most of my other cartooning books combined! A must read!

"GOOD " IS THE WORD
This is a extremely good and useful book for all serious cartoonists or so called 'the people who love to draw cartoons'.Lots of questions are answered, many tibs of what you need,where to send your comics to.This book deals with anything you need to know all about a cartoonist, a how-to-polish up your cartooning techniques book.Lots of great tibs from successful and famous cartoonists, by the time you finished the book, you will know that age is not a problem and it's all right for not attending some art colleges but cartooning courses are highly recommended for everyone to draw better.

What a book!
... When I bought Glasenbergen's book, I didn't know that it would become my most cherished piece of literature. Not only does it have wonderful drawing tips, technical tips, and material tips; it includes dozens of profiles on favorite and little-known cartoonists, business information that most of us arrogant artists are hesitant to learn, and an added bonus: a list of syndicates and contacts to make your work known! I've used this information numerous times and the results are always positive. The reading is easy and interesting, and the examples are excellent. I now have a published comic strip in a local paper and am looking to go furthere. For the serious cartoonist, this book is a must! ... Read more

Book Description

The foundation for drawing manga begins with the artist copying the works of an admired manga artist. The artist learns the traits of the characters' faces and figures while replicating the eyes, the mouth, and other features and recreating the overall images projected. The first chapter of this volume painstakingly explains the artistic development process beginning with copying professional artists' work to the point where the beginning artist is able to produce his or her own original manga. The second chapter covers the basics of a character's face and body, as well as portraying backgrounds. Chapter Three demonstrates how characters from professional manga artists' work are portrayed. ... Read more

Book Description

The year 2002 marks the 50th anniversary of MAD Magazine, America'slongest-running periodical of humor and satire. Throughout its long history, oneof the most immediate, defining, and influential aspects of MAD has been itsunique art; the magazine is a treasury of illustrated humor.MAD Art is a hilarious look at five decades of America's premiere showcase forparody, satire, and wit. All of MAD's "Usual Gang of Idiots" are represented,beginning with Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder and continuing on through morerecent Idiots like Richard Williams and Hermann Mejia.MAD fans will find fascinating one-on-one discussions with veteran MAD artistsabout their favorite pieces, stylistic influences, and the references they usedin creating their art. Also included are quotes from artists about each other'swork, like Sam Viviano's comments on Mort Drucker, Tom Bunk's conversation aboutBasil Wolverton, and many more.MAD's writers are essential to its success-andreaders will discover captivating personal interviews with the writers whohelped create the side-splitting text accompanying the illustrations. There isalso a section on the talented writer/artists, such as Al Jaffee, John Caldwell,and Sergio AragonŽs, who write as well as illustrate their own material.Finally, this authorized guide through MAD history includes a treasury of MAD'sinfamous advertising parodies; samples of classic cover and interior art; anddozens of rare and never-before-seen preliminary sketches, photos, and muchmore. The quintessential reference for every devoted MAD fanatic! ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A celebration of the artists who made MAD what it was (is)
The title of "MAD Art" is a nice, simple title, achieving a sense of balance by consisting of a pair of three letter words, but it is a bit off target. Even when you through in the subtitle--"A Visual Celebration of the Art of 'MAD' Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It"--we are still off the beam a bit, because what Mark Evanier has compiled here is a tribute to the specific artists who made "MAD" magazine the cultural icon it has been ever since I was a kid (and a little bit earlier than that as well). Evanier, a former assistant to the legendary Jack Kirby has written comic books (including "Groo the Wanderer" with "MAD" artist Sergio Aragones) as well as becoming a historian on the subject of cartooning, so there is a sense of scholarship to this effort. Those who comes to this rather thick trade paperback with expectations of reading some choice movie parodies and other familiar "MAD" pieces are going to be disappointed, because this is not that type of "MAD" collection.

Evanier uses a double chronology for "MAD Art," with the chapters detailing the general process by which artists join the "MAD" gang of idiots and end up producing their mini-comic masterpieces in discrete stages, while each chapter provides profiles of over five dozen artists with examples of their work, from the infamous advertising parodies, and classic front (and black) covers to the interior art, including dozens of rare and previously unseen preliminary sketches and photographs. That means the first chapter, representing the fabled time when "MAD" was a E.C. comic book, looks at the legendary artist Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, John Severin, and Wallace Wood. There is certainly something to be said for any list of artists that end up with Wally Wood being on the bottom. Kurtzman gets special credit for being the writer-editor and occasional artist for the all 23 of the comic book issues and the first five of "MAD" as a magazine, while Davis is the premier caricature artist of our time.

With each chapter revealing another wave of fan favorites, you get a sense for how the "MAD" stable of artists was created. The second stage sees Dave Berg, Bob Clarke, Mort Drucker, Frank Kelly Freas, Don Martin, and Norman Mingo being added to the ranks, while chapter three looks at Sergio Aragones, Paul Coker Jr., Harry North, Antonio Prohias, Jack Rickard, and Angelo Torres. These are the artists that defined "MAD" when I was a mere lad, and even if you do not recognize the name, you will recognize the artwork (I actually made it almost all the way to 2004 before I realized that Antonio Prohias did all the Spy vs. Spy bits when I was a kid).

However, after that point we are up to the next generation of "MAD" artists, which means those who have been working on the magazine since I moved on up to "The National Lampoon" and then abandoned written satire for weekly doses of "Saturday Night Live." So Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Don "Duck" Edwing, Sam Viviano, Drew Friedman, and Roberto Parada were all news to me. But, to be fair, how many people have actually been reading "MAD" magazine for a half-century? If the younger generation gets introduced to Harvey Kurtzman, then that justifies this entire 304-page book with its black-and-white illustrations and two 16-page color sections. As for me, my favorite of the "new" artists is Richard Williams, with his updating of Norman Rockwell for the 90's (The cast of the first "Survivor" doing the Thanksgiving dinner "Freedom From Want" bit).

For those who are interested in finding out about the favorite pieces, stylistic influence, and references the veteran "MAD" contributors used to create their art, "MAD Art" is going to be a treat. If it tries the patience, not to mention the memory, of those who have no clue who "Flesh Garden" and the "Lone Stranger" are parodies of, then that is their problem. It is about time somebody took the artists of "MAD" magazine seriously.

All I Need To Know About The Sixties I Learned From MAD!
What a rush of nostalgia this compilation of MAD art brings back! I first started reading MAD as a late pre-teen, in the early Seventies. As I collected issues, I came into possession of some older copies, from which I got my first impressions of the lately concluded Sixties. The early MAD, freshly spawned from EC Comics back when William Gaines had a buzzcut, didn't interest me. But once he let his hair down and assembled his famous Usual Gang Of Idiots, the resulting humor and satire was a surefire hit with smart-alecky adolescent boys like me.

This collection presents a couple of pages of biography on each artist, along with a few panels of their work. I remembered most all of them from my era, but some were rediscoveries for me. Sergio Aragones, Jack Davis, Paul Coker, Jr., Al Jaffee with his goony inventions, Dave Berg--to name them is to summon to mind a favorite riff in the greatest cartooning ensemble ever assembled. Possibly the most poignant was the sad case of Don Martin, who drew those jug-headed characters in those "One Fine Day" episodes. Through illness and unspecified other problems, he was forced into an unwanted collaboration with the equally talented Duck Edwing, and then decamped altogether to an imitator, before passing away not too long ago.

If you are not familiar with MAD, then you certainly can't be expected to have all these fond memories. The social satire is dated in a retrospective like this, too. But coming to the collection cold, you'll still find something to chuckle at, surely. With so much talent on display, it'd be impossible not to.

Artist only please????
I liked this book in the sense that it was a Mad sampler. I got to see art by old friends (I have been into Mad since the early 1970s) but I don't know if a novice researcher would find this book as good. There are short biographical sketches of all involved.

The best history of Mad was The Mad World Of Bill Gaines which is sadly out of print for decades now.

Also while I know that the title is Mad Art this book lacks for not talking of the writers of Mad.

too small to read
I could not believe that a book with such obvious
interest to many would be printed in the form it was.
The print is so small in the cartoons that have been
reproduced that one needs a magnifying glass to read.

And I am not exagerrating. I would rate this book
as a 5 if it were not published with such unreadable print.

The Tepid Mad
Everyone has nostalgic affection for what Mad once was, and the art generated for it in its heyday has been endlessly recycled. The names Davis, Coker, Drucker, Wood, and others are legendary. The selections for this book are nice, but the reproductions are tiny. The color section is printed in dull, brownish colors, with no chronological order or comment. There is exactly one rough preliminary sketch (from Dave Berg) to give any insight into the process.

The writing is perky and lightweight, like a testamonial speech for a retiring employee, with a little biographical information, where he was schooled, what a gifted cartoonist, how repected by his peers, what a funny guy, etc. Here and there are hints at the real pressures that must have come into play in the production of the magazine, but the fluff piece mentality always wins out, and the real story is glossed over with well-worn Madisms like, "...mainly because, (insert quip here)...!" and other breezy, hand-me-down phrases. With no glimpse into the creative life behind the vacant gaze of Alfred E. Neuman, you might as well just buy a reprint of the actual magazine from the days when it used to parody superficial stuff like this book. I would suggest Mad about the Sixties (or Seventies).

The only interesting thing about "Mad Art" is its inclusion of the newer artists who have appeared since most of us stopped reading Mad. They are technically very good (if uninspired), and it's important to see what's being done today, even though Mad hasn't been funny for a decade and a half. ... Read more

Book Description

Many young girls dream of drawing the popular "shoujo" manga, Japanese style girls’ comics.But they don’t know where to begin.This charming book takes fans on a step-by-step journey, starting with developing ideas and creating characters, all the way through making scripts and blueprints, through pencil drafting, inking and erasing, and screen tone application. ... Read more

Book Description

Japanese high school student Kagome, magically whisked back to the past, accidentally releases the legendary doglike half-demon Inu-Yasha from his imprisonment. His crime? Stealing the powerful "Jewel of Four Souls." Now he must help Kagome reclaim the jewel to prevent other demons from using it for evil purposes. Thus begins the megapopular graphic novel series that has become a Cartoon Network and DVD phenomenon. Including both colorful cell art and paintings, this book showcases the fascinating characters and dramatic sequences found in the hit show. Page after page of full-color designs are here, along with character profiles, watercolors from the manga covers, and 66 pages of colored manga pages, many previously unpublished in the United States. The book also contains a discussion between the Japanese voice actors and creator Rumiko Takahashi, along with interviews with the series' co-creators. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Great Addition To Any InuYasha Collection
I recieved this book for a present and managed to read through the whole thing the first day. It has a lot of interesting things inside, but I was left wanting more.

The book concentrates soley on the first part of the series. It starts of comparing the manga to the anime, telling differences and why the changes were made. It goes on with orginal illustrations of the manga. All are in color, and I just love all the pictures. This part takes up the first 100 pages of the book.

The next 50 plus pages hold many interesting tidbits. There's information on individual characters. It gives describtions, sketchs (along with information on drawing them), and even gives a height comparison. "One time" characters were also included. I, personally, would have enjoyed more information on main characters instead, but that's me.

Various settings are also shown, such as Kagome's School, or The Bone-Eater's Well. A layout of Kagome's house is also included. Again, I would have liked more info on places we see more often.

There's behind the scene information with interviews of Rumiko Takahashi, and voices actors of Inuyasha, Kagome, and Kikyo. There's even a glossary at the back of the book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Inuyasha.

Banzai!
Wahaha. This book rocks. Inuyasha is possibly one of the best anime's ever created, thanks, and this book celebrates it. It's a teeny bit spoiler-ish, but that doesn't really matter. You would have found out anyway, sooner or later. This just makes it sooner. The illustrations are wonderful, and it's very educational. In a sense. The price is a bit steep for an art book, but it's worth it.Especially the character profile pages. Lovely. The book - as I said before - rocks.

GREAT ARTBOOK!!!!!!!!!!!
This isn't your normal artbook, like the Art of Cardcaptor Sakura (which has only page after page of art and nothing else). This artbook actually has facts, character profiles, colored manga/anime images, you name it! Anyone who is a fan of
Inuyasha should definitly get this!
now for the price. It's not THAT expensive, seeing as how the book is SOOOOO good. Spare a few dollars and buy it...you won't be disappointed!!!

Don't get me wrong...
I'm a huge fan of Inuyasha, in fact it's because I'm a huge fan that this book gets 4 stars. Yeah, it's great to look at for someone who loves Inuyasha, and understands kind of the depth of the story and the characters. But, Takahashi Rumiko's art, even in color, though cute, is not the kind of thing that would instantly get the attention of someone who wasn't already a fan. Her stories are great and her art, cute, but not CLAMP-caliber, for example.

Greatest art book I've ever seen
This book was amazing. The pictures were spectacular. Though some of the drawings would look better in color. But all in all a very very good book. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

Great book, great artist!
"Action!Cartooning", by Ben Caldwell, is a great book on drawing cartoon figures. I am a professional caricaturist myself (I own caricature concessions in a major theme park, and wrote the book "Let's Toon CARICATURES"), and a lot of the info Ben gives about "pushing" the characteristics of your characters, in order to give a clear, instant insight into their personalities, can be applied to caricaturing as well. There's a lot of great things about this book, and a lot of beautiful drawings. If you want to learn to draw good, cartoony action figures, then this is the book for you. It is so much better than any other cartoon or comic book anatomy books on the market, that is isn't even funny. I have recommended it to all of the artists I work with, and many other artist friends, already. I'd like to know what else Ben's done, because I'd love to see more of his work!

A good starting point for young artists
Action! Cartooning is a comprehensive and well-organized drawing course likely to appeal to Saturday morning cartoon fans. This book thoroughly covers the fundamentals of cartoon anatomy, facial features, expressions, and action poses typically found in American-style animation and adventure comics designed for young audiences. Full of tips on how to improve rendering of specific parts of the human body from different angles and several pointers on how illustrate different body types and age groups, it provides all the basic tools a beginner artist might need to create his or her own original cast of cartoon characters. Bundled with some basic sketching supplies (also covered in the Materials section), this book would be a great gift for any budding artist. ... Read more

Book Description

Amazon.com

Edward Gorey's first book in 25 years, The Haunted Tea-Cosy is a classic work from that magnificently morbid master. The plot of this "dispirited and distasteful diversion for Christmas" revolves around one Edmund Gravel, an Edwardian Scrooge whose attempt to slice a stale fruitcake unleashes an assortment of guilt-inducing ghosts. There's the Spectre of Christmas That Never Was, who directs our hero's attention to a cowering orphan in a graveyard (along with some other, lower-key bits of pathos: "In the high street of the village Reverend Flannel lost his tuning-fork.") The Spectre of Christmas That Isn't also chips in with a kidnapping, a domestic dispute, and a return to the aforementioned graveyard: "To the south, in the cemetery a wrong coffin in a newly dug grave was found to contain rolls of used wallpaper." Like the Dickensian miser upon whom he's based, Gravel is transformed by this ghoulish guided tour. He renounces his life of solitude and invites all of Lower Spigot to a party, featuring "a cake taller than anything else in the room, a conflation of Chartres Cathedral and the Stupa at Borobudur iced in dazzling white sugar" (not pictured, alas). Gorey's illustrations for The Haunted Tea-Cosy are looser and less elaborately cross-hatched than some of his earlier creations. But like the text, these oddly stilted and very Anglophiliac scenes remain a model of delicious, deadpan hilarity. --James Marcus ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Hilarious
"The Haunted Tea Cosy" shows Gorey's esoteric humor at its best. Loosely based on Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," we follow Edmund Gravel through a series of affecting scenes rendered in flat pen and ink, many involving wallpaper and other absurd Edwardian commonplaces. In the end he builds a mountain of fruitcake and carries a celebration "to the very edge of the unseemly." Fans of Gorey will treasure this addition to the canon, and those unfamiliar with his brilliant "Amphigorey" collection may begin to see what the fuss is about by reading this offbeat gift book.

Amusing diversion for Christmas
Three ghosts, a recluse and an initial apparition. Dickens, right? Wrong: Edward Gorey does his own take on "Christmas Carol" in "The Haunted Tea Cosy." Delightfully verbose and filled with Gorey's surreal drawings, this is a picture book that adults will adore.

Recluse Edward Gravel is going about dreary tasks before Christmas. Then sudden an enormous insectile creature leaps from beneath the tea cosy. (Never mind what a tea cosy is) It is the Bahhum Bug, which has come to "diffuse the interests of didacticism." To escort the Bahhum Bug and Mr. Gravel, three subfuse but transparent personages appear to show him the Christmas That Never Was, The Christmas That Isn't, and The Christmas That Never Will Be. They show him distressing scenes around the grey town of Lower Spigot. It's written in a wry, twisted style, this book includes delightfully dour illustrations by the late and much lamented Gorey.

Tired of relentless holiday cheer? Looking for a dash of Halloween's darkness in the chirrupy holiday season? Then check out "The Haunted Tea Cosy," and then carry on to "the very edge of the unseemly"!

not his best
I really enjoy most of Gorey's works, usually because the pictures are wonderfully creepy. In this book, the images lack teh detail that you find in so many of Gorey's other works. The story, a strange "Christmas Carol"-like thing, doesn't make the book worth getting, without better pictures to back it up.

Gorey gone wild
There is a curious subgenre of psedo-Victorian British macabre writing penned by Americans with little or no ties to Mother England. Lemony Snicket is the most recent example, though the patron saint of the style is the indelible Edward Gorey. In Gorey's "The Haunted Tea-Cosy", we find a very oddly written story made with more than its fair share of humor. Even the title is funny. How many Americans own tea-cosies today, I wonder. And is the plural of cosy "cosies" or "cosys"? Such answers will not be found in this book. It is still worth a gander.

The plot, such as it is, follows a somewhat "Christmas Carol"ish venue. In it Edmund Gravel is enjoying his yearly fruitcake and letter-writing when a large Bahhum Bug leaps from under Gravel's tea-cosy to proclaim, "I am here to diffuse the interests of didacticism". I wish more characters in books would say this. The bug and Gravel are joined by three spirits that show him (in this order) Affecting Scenes, Distressing Scenes, and Heart-Rending Scenes. These scene include things like Alberta Stipple returning home to find the wallpaper in her drawing room gone. In the end Gravel decides to throw a party (yay) and the show ends with some suggested pornographic dealings (possibly leading into Gorey's more disturbing story "The Curious Sofa").

Gorey is very much an adult's picture book author. Kids will probably not be too terribly entranced by his fine pen-and-ink drawings or his cumbersome words. But he's the best, Gorey is. No one writes of disaffected despair more lightly or amusingly. This book won't exactly become a Christmas classic, but its worth a perusal when you find yourself on a overcast Sunday in your home with nothing to do.

How to dispose of 30 minutes of the 12 Days of Christmas
Edmund Gravel traverses through this quick but enjoyable read by Edward Gorey, including his great illustrations. A bug-like creature leaps from Edmunds tea-cozy and takes him on a Dickens-like "Christmas Carol"-like journey. The stories are sad, depressing, and amusing all in one. Great holiday entertainment, and a great gift for the scrooge who has everything but this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Manga fantasy is the swords-and-sorcery Japanese animation style featured in the most popular video role-playing games on the market. Best-selling author Christopher Hart's latest tutorial reveals the secrets and techniques that go into building these worlds of wonder. An increasingly fashionable style among both digital and traditional animators, manga enjoys unrivaled popularity among the game players themselves, allowing them entry into fabled worlds of startling beauty, terror, and adventure. Manga Mania Fantasy Worlds throws down the gauntlet for people interested in creating these scenes for themselves. Artists will learn how to illustrate detailed backdrops and landscapes, rugged weaponry, and, of course, fearsome creatures-aliens, faeries, ogres, and much more. In the straightforward style that is his trademark, Christopher Hart teaches the basics and the intricacies of creating manga fantasy illustrations that practically jump off the page. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Pretty good fantasy book
It has how to draw quite a few of the characters-like knights, princesess, fairies, fragons, etc. Has some good turn arounds, and great pictures. Would have liked more infomation on how to draw the armor and clothes for people, and how to do medevial villages.

Hart does it again!
Chris Hart is a master teacher...anyone who wants to learn how to draw Japanese comics needs to know Chris' books...and his latest does not disappoint. His step-by-step instructions, detailed illustrations and great organization makes this book a must have for anyone interested in this highly specialized area of drawing. I would find it hard to believe there is a better book on the market than this one.

Great!
I love this book because it has more characters and differences between mystical characters, ie the difference between fairies and elves. It also has basic instruction for how to draw flowing dresses and such, which is needed when you draw mystical creatures alot. Highly recommended!

wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the lovely pictures kept me occupied for a llloonngg time

One of the greatest manga books i've seen!!!
This book is fantastique! As soon as I saw it I was hooked! I could not leave it. I just HAD to have it!! As of then I have been using that book whenever I feel like drawing mang! (Wich I do alot!) ... Read more

Book Description

Walter Foster's classic How to Draw and Paint series provides aspiring artists with an exceptional array of art instruction books featuring all subject areas and media. Each title includes easy step-by-step exercises as well as finished illustrations or paintings that will inspire artistic talent in anyone.

Packed with practical information, helpful tips, and fundamental techniques, the How to Draw and Paint series offers a complete library of resources to which artists of all skill levels can refer again and again. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Fantastic Source Book
If you've ever considered drawing animation for a living, or for a hobby, this is definately one of the books you should have in your library. A must have for any aspiring cartoonist/animator whether you're doing traditional art or computer art. Many of the lessons learned in this book are used in both mediums!

The best animation book.
What more can I say about the Preston Blair book? Only that the trade paperback version is long overdue. This edition combines the two paperback versions into one and though it could have used some editing, you have everything at your fingertips. Blair's 1980 update of his 1942 classic was the better of the two books, and readers should be aware that some information in the book is contradictory, but otherwise this is without question still the best textbook on character animation yet published.

There are some weak spots. Be aware that Blair's 'guide to lipsync' has misled generations of animators and should not be taken as gospel. Synchronizing mouth action has more to do with the type of character you are working with and the type of acting you are performing; there are no 'formulas'. Once you know this, you can follow the instructions in theory without imitating the grossly overstated mouth actions in this book.

Layout and scene planning are handled cursorilly, though there is more information in the newer section. Teachers should supplement this work with other volumes. I have found it the best for Animation I students, with the more advanced ones proceeding to Shamus Culhane's ANIMATION FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN.

Generations of artists have learned animation acting and timing from Preston Blair. It makes no difference if you use a computer or a pencil. If you are trying to create a living, believable character on screen, this is the best place to learn the basics. ... Read more

Book Description

Collected here for the first time in one easy-to-dispose-of volume is an inside look at the outside of Mad. Launched in 1952 as a ten-cent comic book, Mad was transformed three years later into a twenty-five cent (cheap!) magazine. Over the years one thing remained constant: Every issue had a cover. And here they are, complete with running commentary by Mad's poet laureate, Frank Jacobs. Join idiot cover boy Alfred E. Neuman as he's depicted by the magazine's greatest cover artists, including Norman Mingo, Kelly Freas, Richard Williams, Mort Drucker, chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs, and Leonardo da Vinci.Including rare, never-before-seen art, photos, and sketches, Mad: Cover to Cover is a fifty-year roundup of Mad humor from its humble inception right up to the present as it celebrates its 400th issue as the world's foremost satire magazine.Hoohah! ... Read more

Reviews (7)

How the 'usual gang of idiots' spent forty-eight years.
The first copy of Mad I saw was issue 29 in September 1956 (still got it too) and I was hooked. How could a magazine be so funny and be so spot-on with its satire? Easy, just employ the 'usual gang of idiots' that's how. I kind of grew out of it when I discovered the National Lampoon, how could a magazine be so funny etc, etc. But I have always had a soft spot for Mad and this book of covers is a super addition to my back issues and other Mad books.

All 399 (up to November 2000) covers are in this well designed and printed book Mostly one or two covers to a page sometimes with Frank Jacobs' commentary and with a lot of the latter covers you get to see the preliminary cover roughs. As the years go by you can see how the covers changed from simple visual gags into ones that are much more graphic and busy because they have to work harder on the newsstand. The ideas are still very funny after all these years though. My favorite is issue 35 (October 1957) a wraparound that celebrated the fifth anniversary with a great painting from Norman Mingo showing a few dozen very famous American merchandising characters seated round a dining table, Alfred's at one end grinning. I would love this as a poster.

I think it is worth mentioning for Mad fans the seven CD-ROM 'Totally Mad' set, every page from the issue one thru to December 1998, the interface is very user friendly and the discs have a lot of additional aural and visual surprises.

BTW, Robert Silver's photmosaic book cover, made up from the magazines covers, is stunning.

BEST BOOK EVER
I loved this book , mostly because Im a mad magazine FAN!!! BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!! GREAT BOOK

Alfred E. Neuman: American icon!
"Mad: Cover to Cover" is a glorious full-color collection of the cover art of "Mad" magazine, from its founding as a comic book in 1952 to 2000. The outrageous covers are accompanied by witty and insightful commentary by Frank Jacobs. Since "Mad" has satirized so many aspects of American popular culture throughout its existence, this book also serves as an ironic look at five decades of United States history.

Most of the covers feature Alfred E. Neuman, the goofy red-haired kid who, as the symbol of "Mad" magazine, has become an instantly recognizable (and, dare I say, beloved?) cultural icon in his own right. We see, over the years, the many crazy incarnations of Alfred: on Mount Rushmore, as Baby New Year, as Batman's Robin, as Uncle Sam, as Michael Jackson, as a Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle, etc.

The running commentary offers fascinating glimpses behind the scenes of "Mad." Particularly interesting is the story of the long-suppressed cover depicting the first President Bush burning a flag; with the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War, the "Mad" team decided that the incendiary cover was inappropriate for the time.

This is truly a marvelous book, full of color, laughs, and memories. Even if you're not a regular reader of "Mad," you may find this book to be a fascinating mirror on American fads and foibles.

MAD Cover To Cover
Anyone who grew up with MAD Magazine would appreciate this book. It highlights memorable issues that reflect on MAD's irrevrent view of the world. The illustrations speak for themselves but the text adds a wonderful sense of history and value to the work. Makes a terrific gift for those of us who refuse to grow up!

Exactly What I Wanted
This is exactly the type of book I was hoping MAD would comeout with. It is excellent as a reference tool for the collector whodoesn't have every issue number matched with the cover in their head!

Along with the cover art, the issue number and date are listed.Also the more interesting issues have a brief history! ... ... Read more

Book Description

In Hollywood Cartoons, Michael Barrier takes us on a glorious guided tour of American animation in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, to meet the legendary artists and entrepreneurs who created Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Wile E. Coyote, Donald Duck, Tom and Jerry, and many other cartoon favorites. Beginning with black-and-white silent cartoons, Barrier offers an insightful account, taking us inside early New York studios and such Hollywood giants as Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. Barrier excels at illuminating the creative side of animation--revealing how stories are put together, how animators develop a character, how technical innovations enhance the "realism" of cartoons. Here too are colorful portraits of the giants of the field, from Walt and Roy Disney and their animators, to Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. Based on hundreds of interviews with veteran animators, Hollywood Cartoons gives us the definitive inside look at this colorful era and at the creative process behind these marvelous cartoons. "This definitive depiction of our most American medium will leave all but the most hardened Disnophobe shouting Yabba-Dabba-Doo!"--The Boston Book Review ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Comprehensive look at a dying artform
Covering much of the same ground as Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic, Hollywood Cartoons is packed with interesting insights and comments from both the author and those that participated in the creation of an American art form. Michael Barrier's exhaustively researched book covers the Golden Age of Hollywood animation and the movers and shakers that had an impact on the art form.

At nearly 650 pages Barrier's book takes a fair balanced look at Disney, Warner Bros., Fleischer and other contributors to this dying art form. It's actually a perfect companion piece to the newely released boxed set of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes classics. Barrier avoids the Disney worship that marred other books of this type and, like Maltin's marvelous but less indepth book, he manages to point out the key contributions of the most important animation directors/producers of the era.

While it does overlook or give only a cursory overview of some important figures in the industry, Barrier's scholarly aproach manages to recognize the merits and flaws of each studio, their system and directors. Although not as well illustrated as Maltin's book, the pictures do provide a glimpse of many of the essential classics that impacted the art of animation. Since much of the documentation for the creation of some of the early Warner classics are long gone, Barrier has to rely on many of the same sources and pictures as other authors. The book could have been improved if he had gone more to private collectors for rare animation cels, production photos, model drawings and notes. I also would have liked many of these illustrations to be reproduced in color. Seeing them in dark black and white illustrations does little justice to the artistry of these pioneers.

Maltin's book was clearly the work of an informed fan; his approach focused on the creation of many of the important classics but didn't lose track of the fun in the finished product. Barrier's scholarly approach is a bit drier and doesn't quite communicate the excited of Maltin's less authoriative book on the same subject. It's still an important look at the pioneers of animation's Golden Age and, as such, should be read by those who love the shorts from the various eras examined here.

Interesting, but often unfair to brilliant directors
Books on the history of animation, especially the early ones, tend to fall into the trap of Disney-worshipping, which Barrier thankfully avoids. However, in his zeal to prove he is not Disney's lap dog, he unfairly bashes some of the studio's features (including one I consider on a par with the best of them, "Lady and the Tramp.") He gives the same slash-and-burn treatment to the Warner Bros. studio--Clampett, in his view, was apparently nothing more than a second-rate hack, when Clampett in fact hit a period of sheer brilliance in the early to mid forties. "Book Revue", "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", "The Old Grey Hare" and "Baby Bottleneck" were all Clampett creations, and occupy many of the top slots in Jerry Beck's book "The Fifty Greatest Cartoons Ever." Barrier dismisses them all, as well as Clampett's abilities as a draftsman. I would say he is partial to Jones in his longtime feud with Clampett, but Jones falls victim as well. Still, it is worth reading if you like behind-the-scenes stories of the animation industry.

Behind the Hi-Jinx
This was a very good book, with a few caveats.

The first chapter, on silent cartoons, is hard going. Not until Walt Disney shows up does that chapter start flowing.

BUT from that point on, until the chapter on UPA, I had a hard time putting "Hollywood Cartoons" down. Barrier doesn't take the usual perspective on cartoons. He doesn't care how they appeal to the casual viewer but how they look to the pro. I didn't agree with all his judgments, but I respect his judgments.

I have read several histories of cartoons, and Barrier still managed to surprise me or say something new. He had the best discussion of the origins of Bugs Bunny I've ever read. His description of the working of MGM's cartoon studio was fascinating, and his views on Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones showed real insight.

Barrier states his opinions strongly. He doesn't like Fleischer or UPA cartoons, and he doesn't think Friz Freleng is worth a lot of discussion. (I would disagree about Friz, but agree on the other stuff.)

In all, this was a fine book on this subject, and I am glad I read it.

golden age...what golden age?
Michael Barrier's "Hollywood Cartoons" is impeccably researched and intellectually sophisticated; a milestone in its way, it also poses a few problems, one being the inescapable conclusion that the golden age of Hollywood scarcely existed at all. Mr. Barrier casts a baleful eye on some of animation's finest: Chuck Jones' "What's Opera, Doc?" is 'an empty triumph'; "Fantasia", hopelessly puerile and retrograde; "The Tell-Tale Heart", recently chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress, 'a total flop'. Even "Pinocchio" inspires more vitriol than praise (too much airbrush, poor planning and characterizations - Disney 'took the guts out of it', etc...) Can't these guys do anything right? Terrytoons are characterized by 'pervasive squalor', and he assures us UPA, once the shining avatar of cutting-edge animation, could be as dull, insipid and uninspired as any other studio. That's good to know. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Barrier feels a special affinity for Disney's Grumpy (Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs) though this he attributes to Bill Tytla's masterful character animation. Hubley's "Rooty Toot Toot" also receives the Barrier seal of approval. But, in general, there are few pearls to be found among the prevailing dross. There's no question Barrier takes his subject seriously...perhaps, too seriously. Lighten up...they're just cartoons!

Barrier's Tome, Decades-Long in the Making--Finally
Beautiful, complete, if Disney-centric (but then again, that's the reality, isn't it?) epic of the much-maligned and still underappreciated Hollywood animated cartoon. Barrier leaves no stone unturned in this definitive scholarly thesis on his subject, as well he shouldn't: this thing has been in the works--on and off--for almost two decades. (Only one minor quibble: not enough stuff on the Jones-Clampett feud and other non-Disney political issues.) Animation scholars rejoice! ... Read more

Book Description

This kit comes complete with its own wholly exclusive edition of the How to Draw Manga series, Mastering Manga Tools, as well as G-pen, Saji-pen, and Maru-pen nibs and holders, manga drawing paper, and tone sheets, which you can trim and etch to add exciting touches to your personal manga artwork. Use this kit to practice and turn yourself into a true manga artist. ... Read more

Book Description

This collection of sports-related uniforms applicable to all fields of art, including to all fields of art, including manga, book illustration, and animation, is full of sexy offshoot costumes such as race-queen and cheerleader uniforms.Featuring more than 3000 images, this volume presents sports uniforms from a wide range of angles.To boot, the end of the book also includes a discussion of basic uniform structure and design.A handy collection of illustrations - it's amazing something like this was not published earlier. ... Read more

Book Description

Will Eisner is a master of the comics medium, and when he got together to chat with other masters of the medium, what came of it was a collection of information vital to everyone working in the industry, and indispensable to anyone looking to get into it.Featuring interviews with Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Jack Davis, Neal Adams, C.C. Beck, Milton Caniff, Gill Fox, Harvey Kurtzman, and distribution guru Phil Seuling, Will Eisner`s Shop Talk is chock full of golden tidbits of comics knowledge.Previously serialized in the now long out-of-print Spirit Magazine and Will Eisner`s Quarterly, the interviews flow naturally into a compendium of technical secrets, light-hearted anecdotes, and informative history lessons. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Interesting Insights of Old Comics Creators! No Hype.
Since Will Eisner is a such a respected figure in the comics industry, it seems that all of the interviewed gentlemen took their interview seriously. These are interesting interviews about how each artist got started in the comics business, and how they went about their work, as well as the ups and downs of their career struggles. Most of these interviews discuss events that occurred decades earlier. These are not interviews full of fluff and hype, as would appear in contemporary trade magazines that are trying to promote some upcoming comic book product line.

Since Will Eisner is the interviewer, each interviewee seems to be taking him seriously, and respectfully as either a peer or an inspiration. Thus, these comics creators are willing to go a little deeper with their insights and experiences of their careers.

All of the interviews occurred in the early 1980's, so many of the interviewed people have since passed away. But since the subject of conversation is usually about events of the Golden and Silver Age of comics (1935-1975 ROUGHLY), these interviews read like new interviews anyway. Each interview reads like a transcript of two guys sitting around, casually talking about the good old days. So if your idea of the good old days is the Golden Age of comic books, then you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

I picked up this book to read about Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, and Joe Kubert; but I ended up being introduced to the careers of Milton Caniff, Neal Adams, Harvey Kurtzman, and others, folks who I had heard of but had never followed their works before.

So this book gave me many insights and new attitudes about the field of comics creation.

It's also nice that all of the interviews are sprinkled with many b/w photos, pictures and drawings of each interview subject, so reading this book really does become a nice introduction to artists whose work you may not be familiar with.

If you're a serious, adult comics fan, then you will probably enjoy this book! ... Read more

Book Description

Among Blake’s finest works: 21 watercolors interpreting the great biblical book and its theme of unmerited suffering. Also presented here are 11 additional watercolors, plus 28 black-and-white illustrations, including 21 extraordinary engravings based on the watercolors. All reproduced from a rare, limited facsimile edition published by The Pierpont Morgan Library. New introductory essay. Total of 60 illustrations.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

A book that changed my life
I was shown a copy of this book 25 years ago. Blake's art transformed my world. I have been a student of Blake ever since. I still go back to this book often. This book, in a few pages, gave me an entry into Blake's system. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

the action behind marvel
i got the book, opened it in my car and spent half an hour fliiping through it until i realized that i had to get to the office...finished it that evening!
i liked the whole concept and found out a lot (!) of interesting information about marvel, the people behind it, the philosophies, the characters.
the book is easy to read and easy to use.
i dropped off one star from the rating because, in the end, it is rather shallow and there were times when i wanted more information but there just wasn't any.
a good read.

THAT'S ALL ABOUT THE ART
The incredible reprinted art from a lot of old comics makes this book worthwhile. The text is very, very weak.

SERIOUS FLAWS
THis book is a very generic portrait of Marvel, with one serious flaw: the book is edited by Marvel itself. This means that the writer, altough a real expert in comic book history, could not deal with all the subjects in a neutral way all the time. So, what we have is, generally, praise after praise for this mighty (with justice) company, but no real insight into their history. Of course, there is not space for such, since the book is crowded with magnific art from various artists and various comics. I think it lacked appendices, which could have lists of Marvel's greates artists, MArvel's greatest selling books, Marvel's greates histories. The book is also clearly outdated, since it was first published in 1992. Since then, there was the "mutiny" from the artists (Silvestri, Jim Lee and McFarlane, amongst others) who left to form their own company; the writer, altough mentions it, doesn't explain why Stan Lee, whose role in the company since 1980 is to supervise adaptations to movies and animated features, permitted such lousy adaptations as THE PUNISHER, for example. It does not touch the fact of how the artists were totally underpaid until Jim Shooter was Editor-In-Chief, nor how Lee permitted one editor after another to resign due to the sheer impossibility of editing 54 books at the same time. All in all, this book is great for the art, but for text PEter Sanderson's work, MARVEK UNIVERSE, is better.

JACK! STAN! JOE! GENE! AND FANTASTIC FOUR #51, TOO!!!
MARVEL:FIVE FABULOUS DECADES is a long book with a lot of details that the average comic fan isn't interested in, but what I liked the most about it was the analysis of the work of Jack "The King" Kirby, Stan "The Man" Lee, Gene "The Dean" Colan, and INKER SUPREME Joe Sinnott!

But what made an overwhelming impression on me about this book--and forced me to give it 5 stars!!!--was the surprise appearance of FANTASTIC FOUR #51--"This Man, This Monster"-- right in the middle of the book, a comic book I had never seen before, and probably one of the top 4 FANTASTIC FOUR ISSUES EVER MADE!!!

BUY MARVEL:FIVE FABULOUS DECADES JUST TO GET A COPY OF FANTASTIC FOUR #51!!!

EXCELSIOR!!! Chari Krishnan RESEARCHKING

MARVEL;Five Fabulous Decades
I found this a must read.It explores the origins of Marvel Comics like no other book.Included is rare pictures of comics Marvel Comics no#1 to the later 1990'S material.It also shows you the P.T.Burnum Genious of Stan Lee and common sense of what is wanted by the public by founder Martin Goodman.It also shows how the likes of Roy Thomas kept Marvel afloat in latter Silver Age and how hard a job Mark Gruenward tried to survive in the post Yuppie Darth Shooter Marvel-when comic showmanship of Stan the Man had left-taking Marvels Soul with them,without saying much,but implying alot.Rare Namor,FF and Wolverine material is also added in back,along a how too comic lesson.Fun rEADING FOR ALL COMIC FANS.joseph gilbert thompson.maveric comics inc,studios,6142 torresdale avenue,phila,pa,19135. ... Read more

Book Description

Animated film is commonly perceived as children's play and is often neglected as a serious form of cinematic art. With Understanding Animation, Paul Wells aims to change that.

Part history, part theory, part celebration, this book explores approaches to animation through an eclectic range of case studies from Betty Boop's Snow White, to Jan Svankmajer's Jabberwocky. Opening with a discussion of the early history of animation through experimental figures like Emile Reynaud and J. Stuart Blackton, Wells also discusses narrative, realism and Disney-esque hyper-realism, the construction of comedy, representations of race and gender, the construction of comedy, and animation and audience research. Engagingly written, Understanding Animation demonstrates that animated film has much to tell us about ourselves, the culture we live in, and our perceptions of cinematic art in the twentieth century. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

For the students of art science
This is essentially a scholar book for students of art science: lots of texts, few pictures, and in black and white. It contains a good discussion on the origin of animation, and it tries to specify its specific characteristics. It contains many and very diverse examples, but, of course, they work best as such, when one is able to see the mentioned films. I think this book really helps the reader 'understanding' animation (at least it helps to develop an analytical view towards animation as an art form), but I don't think it is suited for the average animation fan.

Cud
The desperate need for historical documentation and 'serious' academic thinking on animation has resulted in a lot of unnecessary books (ie. cud).

Wells lamely applies outmoded film theories from the 70s to animation....and they don't fit. In general...his formalist/structuralist approach is weak (just as it was in the 70s) because it fails to situate the films within their specific contexts.

The book is also filled with spelling errors (eg. Norman McClaren!!!).

Avoid. ... Read more