Serious comic fans will be delighted by this step-by-step guide to drawing, writing, and creating your own comic book. Instruction, tips, ideas, and tricks are mixed into the narrative of two friends living their daily lives and enjoying art and writing together.While visiting a comics convention, Lila & Ecco chase Lila's little sister into a presentation on making comics. Inspired, they decide to make their own. The rest of the story is a detailed guide to creating your first comic, interspersed with Lila & Ecco's everyday life, dealing with annoying siblings, hanging around with friends and just having fun.
The black and white art is easy to follow and while there's a lot of text it's spread out and mixed in with the kids joking around, so it's not too much of an infodump. Kids who are only casually interested in creating their own art and comics are probably going not going to be interested - this book makes it clear that creating a comic is a LOT of work! But kids who are seriously interested in creating a comic, writing, or art will find this a great resource. A glossary of terms and further resources for writing, drawing, and lettering are included. Like all KCP graphic novels, it has a great binding and is well-designed.
Verdict: Recommended if you have patrons (kids, teens, or adults) seriously interested in creating comics or if you're thinking of trying to start a comics club for middle grade kids or teens.
ISBN: 9781554534388; Published September 2010 by Kids Can Press; Review copy provided by publisher through Raab Associates.
2 comments:
You know, until I saw this book I didn't realize it, but I've always wanted to try cartooning. Maybe I'll pick it up and see if I can get some middle grade kids interested. :-)
It's very detailed - but it's tons of work! I'm way too lazy to try it (asides from my complete lack of artistic ability) (-:)
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