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Increasing the gutter space will definitely be a huge help.

Also, some of the confusion /u/takvertheseawitch is talking about is due to the fact that in the first two panels, the 'camera' is pointing at one side of the characters, only for it to abruptly switch sides in the third panel. That's a big narrative no-no, as it makes it seem like the characters have suddenly swapped positions, which is quite jarring.

Also, an art question: are you able to draw traditionally and then scan in your work? Because I think it is very, very important to learn to draw with basic pencil/pen & paper before you focus entirely on digital.

Keep in mind that I love good digital art, and have a huge respect for those who are adept at it. In fact, some of my favourite comic artists of all time work all-digital (Brian Bolland being a great example). However, I believe that artists should learn to at least be able to do the basics on paper before they make the jump to digital. Some may disagree with me on that, but the vast majority of those who are great at all-digital learned their craft with analogue tools.

Basically, to use a clichéd adage: you've got to learn to walk before you can run.

Also, I highly (highly) recommend you check out the excellent Scott McCloud book, 'Understanding Comics.' It's an essential read for anyone who wants to get into drawing comics, and will help you understand a large variety of visual storytelling techniques.

Oh, and you'd also be amazed what you can learn just by reading the comic work of others. The next time you sit down to read a comic that you enjoy, pay really close attention to how the panels are laid out, how the art is done in each panel. See what works, what doesn't. Look at the page not only as a series of separate panels, but also consider the page as a whole; how do the various panels work together to create a satisfying whole? I read comics nearly every night before bed and, sometimes without even realising it, I subconsciously pick up new things that help me in my craft.

The best of luck with your work!

EDIT: Also, study Wally Wood's 22 Panels that Work and The Disney Comic Artist Tool Kit like your life depends on it.

I like well-drawn comics, but that doesn't mean they have to be intricate and detailed - just that they match the content very well. For example, I think John Campbell (Pictures for Sad Children) is great because he can get the emotion of scenes across really well with his simple drawings. (Though I equally love artists like David Hellman.)

I like funny comics as well as serious comics. I dislike comics that aren't even remotely funny (but are trying to be). I dislike comics that could have been funny, but they ruined themselves by either going on too long (Ctrl Alt Delete) or by explaining their punchline ((Ctrl Alt Delete) again).

I love comics that are consistently good, or at least only foul occasionally.

I dislike comics that are nothing but essays with pictures added. (I'm looking at you, 50% of Subnormality.) I think the comic form is a unique medium in itself and should not be treated in such a manner.

I like comics that are self-contained to a certain extent, in that either each comic is a unique situation (SMBC) or they only have particular story arcs (Dr. McNinja) and don't just go on forever with no resolution (Megatokyo). This is why, when I go to comics stores, I buy comic books (like Blankets) rather than serials (like X-Men). (There are exceptions to this rule, when a comic book is finished and the entire collection is sold as one, like Watchmen or Marvel 1602.)

I'm sure there's more, these are just my thoughts for now.

I can vouch for the following being amazing:

The Ultimates Omnibus (assuming it doesn't contain the suck that was Ultimates 3, which I don't think it does) was such an amazing story. It got butchered by the wait time, but if you have it all in one collection it is amazing. Get it cheaper though and just get this and this

Red Son was a great alternate reality comic. Well worthy of the time you put into it. A great What If... if I've ever read one.

Fables. You know what, just buy the series. The whole series. It is gold.

Y: The Last Man. Just see what I said for Fables. You can get the whole series in 10 paperback groupings. Check your local library or just steal a read at Borders if you're poor.

Bone. Wait, Bone was from the 2000's? Anyway, yes, it is amazing. The description they give doesn't match the epicness of it, but it does sum it up pretty damn well. Get it in one collective easily, or you could try for the COLORED version in individual books. It didn't make a difference for me.

When I was 11, my first graphic novel series was BONE. It gets a little darker later in the series, which goes along with the macabre, but it's never too bad. There are some great images that are fantastic examples of macabre in graphic novels, while the rest seems to be lighter. The humor is slapstick and visual, but there's some good text jokes in there too. The story is pretty easy to follow. Minimal to no harsh language, and minimal to no sexualization. The art is gorgeous, and the books are very high quality. You might want to read through it first yourself, because it is quite good.
Here's an Amazon link for the big book that has all 9 books in it. I own the individuals because I bought them as they came out in color.

Kill You? okay, how about if I kill you with these great gift ideas:


My book of cartoons on Amazon. ( eisner nominated )


Same book here, but with a free custom sketch.


My author page on Amazon for the kids in your life—some award winners and NY times bestsellers.


Happy Holidays, friend.

It's a little unruly, but having it omnibus form is for reading it straight through. It's a long run, something like 13 trades all together.

I gave up "X-Books" about 15 years ago, but a friend made me read part of that run... and it sucked me right back in. It had the same excitement, for me, as when I first read those characters so many years ago. Marvelous bit of storytelling, amazing dialogue, and some truly profound and touching moments.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough.

xxxsagaxxx deleted his comments. He originally said:

>I'm sure it's awesome, and that high rez pic is beautiful, but it's TOO beautiful to be an accurate representation of the book. I think we can both agree that the high rez is flawless and without any noticeable dots, because been processed, or it's come from some pre-press source.

>This is a scan from amazon.com of the absolute watchmen hardcover (look at the first paneled page)

>Look at the top of the bus in the centre panel, You'll see a moire pattern that is created by the dot pattern of 4 colour printing. they're not the same. that's it.
-----
>or it's come from some pre-press source.

First of all, you need to let go of this fallacy.

Second of all, that link is not the absolute edition of Watchmen. The ISBN is wrong. The cover is wrong. The copyright page is wrong. And it's not a hardcover, it's paperback.

The colors have been altered by the lamp or by age or by both, as it is yellowed on the edges. Additionally, a scanner (not all scanners are created equally) picks up the texture of paper quite noticeably and tends to have a very low dynamic contrast.

The scanned image I have posted is not "too beautiful". Despite its resolution, the text is lacking in sharpness. As a result of the smart blurring to remove the noise/texture, the colors pick up a quality that is almost like JPEG artifacting and that you would probably mistake for such. It's also only about 300 dpi. How was the book printed? 1200 dpi? More?

It is beautiful, for a scan, but far from perfect. An un-retouched image is quite ugly. Scanning can pick up details that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye. The post-processing is done out of necessity, not from some place of hubris. The end result is never, ever superior to the original. I know this.

You do not.

Admit your error, silently if needed, and let us move on.

Edit:

Here are some photos from (one edition of the reprint of) the book, taken with a digital camera, with absolutely no post-processing. Now imagine that someone who knows what they're doing takes the time to scan these pages.

One. Two. Three.

Some classics, in chronological order:

• Dark Phoenix Saga
  
• Days of Future Past
  
• Mutant Massacre
  
• Fall of the Mutants
  
• Inferno,
  
• X-Tinction Agenda
  
• X-Cutioners Song
  
• Fatal Attractions
  
• Phalanx Covenant
  
• Age of Apocalypse (and the preceding Legion Quest storyline),
  
• Onslaught
  
• Operation: Zero Tolerance.
  
  Many of those stories were depicted in the animated series, were written around the same time or just after (more than ten years ago).
  
  In 2001, Grant Morrison started writing New X-Men. A few years after that Joss Whedon started writing Astonishing X-Men (Links are to collected editions). These are my two favorite recent X-Stories. Morrison really takes things in a different direction and did a great job accounting for how the presence of mutants would change culture. Whedon's run is fun cause it brings his brand of humor and understanding of heroes to an already established universe (and one that obviously inspired Buffy).
  
  If you have other questions about what to read, drop me a line.

There's not much here that I've read that hasn't already been listed.

Taiyō Matsumoto's manga Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White was excellent, and I dare say, even better the fantastic animated adaptation.

Pretty much anything by Jamie and Gilbert Hernandez under the Love and Rockets title. I'd personally recommend the Education of Hopey Glass, but then I'm partial to Jamie's work, especially.

I'll honestly say I haven't read much of it, but I've really enjoyed what little I have read of Paul Chadwick's Concrete.

BONE. Seriously, read it.

Do not start at the dawn of time. Most of those stories don't really hold up. The best way is just to dive in IMO. You'll catch on as you go. Find a character or author you like and start reading the more recent collected editions. I find DC way more accessable than Marvel mostly because DC is better with self contained stories.

If you want to be current, start with the recent "Rebirth" series' from DC. https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-Am-Gotham-Rebirth/dp/1401267777

Otherwise I recommend just diving into the classics. For the Bat you have The Long Halloween, Dark Knight Returns, Court of Owls, Year One a bunch more.

I don't read much Marvel. But the same strategy should apply. Jump in at the most recent #1 or find out the true classics and go from there.

In The Long Halloween, it was pretty clear that batman, harvey dent, and commissioner gordon were all pretty good friends because of the work/plotting they did together. Gordon and Batman were crushed that Dent fell so far-- which is basically what Nolan's The Dark Knight was trying to portray in its second half. If I had to chose one batman comic for people to read, it would be The Long Halloween. I also love Tim Sale's artwork.

I don't think I'm alone when I say Civil War wasn't actually that good of a story. It was kind of cool from the perspective of being a big event, but lots of characters acted out of character, and there was some characters dieing just for the sake of shock moments. Yes, it's where the next Captain America movie seems to be going, but the Avengers seem to be heading towards Guardians of the Galaxy into a Thanos: Infinity Gauntlet story.

Regardless, there's nothing that's so bad that it's not worth reading.

I'd actually recommend you check out Ultimates. As the Marvel universe has decades of convoluted history behind every word, they started a new series in 2002 sort of rebooting the core products in a fresh setting. Much of the cinematic adaptations have drawn from the Ultimates version of the characters. It's a good place to start for a new reader.

This book in particular is where I'd point you: http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimates-Vol-1-Super-Human/dp/0785109609

Then you can sort of follow your nose through the other Ultimate titles.

BTW, I think I recognize your username, you might be local to me. chch nz? I might have some books I could lend you, or local libraries that carry comics to recommend.

If you like that comic, I'd recommend Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware. Pretty similar, in both art style and plot.

You really gotta go buy "Dog Butts and Love. And Stuff Like That. And Cats.." My wife got it for me for my birthday last year and It's easily one of my favorite books on the shelf. Jim's a beast.

You'll probably have better luck asking at /r/comicbooks

Actually, someone asked about this very recently: http://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/20co3r/what_are_some_of_the_best_all_ages_superhero_books/

I know Bone is pretty popular for kids.

I work in cancer research, and haven't read this book but I've heard quite positive things about it. It seem to be ideally suited for an interested non-scientific audience.

Try taking a look at Scott McCloud's 'Understanding Comics' (or the more in depth 'Making Comics'). It probably covers a lot of the same things as the textbook you mentioned, only it's laid out in actual comic form. It's easy to digest, explains the importance of a lot of the different visual aspects of comics, and how they relate to the goal of telling a story.

Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-Mccloud/dp/006097625X

hardcover 11 x 8.8 x 0.9 inches 224 pages of Robert Crumb goodness. $14.58 at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Genesis-Illustrated-R-Crumb/dp/0393061027/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255995575&sr=8-1

I bought it immediately of course. If you don't know Crumb then you have a wonderful surprise waiting.

It's amazing. I'd say it deserves to be on the sequel to this amazing book that I found on amazon randomly

You’re welcome to check out the blog I’ve set up at www.bluefall.tv to learn more about the story, and if you want to read the graphic novel you can preorder Bluefall for Kindle eBook here for the very first time today!

Thanks so much!

> I on't know about him but I personally can't commit to longer storylines because I think life is too short to stick with a single story for weeks or months, when you can come up with something new every other day.

I appreciate your honest comment, but I can't help but think that some - of - the - best - stories simply need a longer effort to be narrated, or you're stuck in a much more shallow world of storytelling

I heard he was working on this about two years ago, glad to know its already out, judging by the comments on Amazon its also worth the money... I'm buying it :)

Serials? Probably not.

But I've greatly enjoyed several self contained books, or short run serials in a collected form:

Exhibit A: http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Long-Halloween-Jeph-Loeb/dp/1563894696

Your local comics shop will probably have it, since it's a newb favorite (note that the regulars might snicker at you for the same reason...)

Announced (hinted at?) last night on her twitter with spiders. Awesome spiders.

Edit: Link to her pre-order page on Amazon from the main website. Kind of weird that the big picture doesn't take you there.

Bone is just about my favorite graphic novel of all time, though it is not dystopian at all. More of a whimsical fantasy epic. But so so good.

If anyone wants to reach through the interwebs and give her a hug, why not pre-order her book?

Only 13 bucks, and Prime eligible! And they'll deliver it to you as soon as it comes out, so you will be the cool kid who has it first.

Go order it now. I'll wait here in this thread.

Sandman is one of the greats, although bits drift close to 'superhero' the vast majority if far, far from it. Lots of mythology, cosmic ideas, big questions, life & death, nature-of-man type stuff.

On the more personal side Blankets is an absolutely amazing coming-of-age/first love story.

And of course there's always Maus. Won a Pulitzer and oh boy did it deserve it.

Yeah, I would guess that that one is your most popular comic, as well.

Also, I had no idea that you had a new book out. I'll have to pick it up.

Link if anyone else is interested.

Check out Bone, it's a classic and really fun read!
Edit - fixed link

This book:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-Mccloud/dp/006097625X

And the rest of the series are better!

I liked:
Watchmen
V for Vendetta both of which are by Alan Moore.
I have just started to read Hellblazer: Original Sins I am really enjoying it so far.
All of these have dark elements, Watchmen is base on superheros are illegal, V for Vendetta is about anarcky in a faciest government and Hellblazer is about John Constantine who fights demons. All of these have been made into movies with the same name exept for Hellblazer it was named Constantine.

This might be a good start.

I highly recommend this one

Make sure you get the entire series!

Sott McCloud would like to give you a hand

http://www.amazon.com/V-Vendetta-Alan-Moore/dp/140120841X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254211371&sr=8-5

Here's the book

This one --> Understanding Comics

well shit, you should have told me that before i bought YOUR BOOK on amazon.

^(also how about a doodle instead of a check? :P)