| Title | : | Comics and Sequential Art |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 163 |
| Publication | : | First published November 1, 1985 |
Comics and Sequential Art Reviews
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Comics and Sequential Art is the first of three books in a series of comic book instructional books written by comics legend Will Eisner. The creator of the widely-popular Spirit comic strip from the 1940s, Eisner wrote one of the earliest (if not THE earliest) books exploring the medium of comic book storytelling, dissecting it and distilling it for would-be creators to consume and enjoy.
I first heard of this book when reading Scott McCloud's incredible Understanding Comics, in which he makes multiple references to this book and how much it influenced him personally. Part of me wishes I would have read this one first, because compared to Understanding Comics, this book falls short on the meta-delivery of the information. In Understanding Comics, the entire book is itself a comic book, which uses comic book and sequential art precepts to communicate the instructional and educational components. In Comics and Sequential Art, the entire book is narrative and extant examples taken from Eisner's own creations (with one or two exceptions).
I can see how McCloud was influenced by this book, and how revolutionary and revealing it may have seemed. It still holds up as a book on comics theory, but pales in comparison, depth, delivery and content to McCloud's own books. -
Wow, hmm, I currently feel like the worst comics fan in the world--but I actually didn't like this book at all. In fact, it took me several weeks to read half of it, and then I just stopped. I'm not quite sure why. I found it just hard to read, even though it's a pretty short one. It seemed to be that Eisner wasn't really saying much that was particularly useful, or it just seemed really basic, I also didn't appreciate that every single example was from "The Spirit". I'm sure in it's day, it was a groundbreaking book, and I'm very grateful to it for being one of the first to treat comics with academic respect, but I just find it hard to swallow now. I strongly suggest reading Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" instead, for a much more useful, comprehensive, and at the same time much more fun read.
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(More pictures at
parkablogs.com)
This is one of the three instructional books written by Will Eisner. The other two are
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and
Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative.
The book focuses on the creation of comics and the various techniques one can use. Specifically, it talks about the why the techniques work and the concepts behind. The various lessons touch on timing, framing, composition, expressive anatomy, writing for comics and other application of comics.
Every page of comics included that serve as examples come with captions. They explain the effect to achieve on readers. One example would be to tilt a composition of a moving train to simulate the rocking on the tracks.
How Will Eisner uses his panels and framing is amazing. He can use doorways or windows on a plane as frames, and he can so easily blend his panels together using the environment. Paneling and pacing when done right really just enhances the story. You'll see and understand why it works. It's all explained.
This book will serve as a very good introduction to comic artists. Professionals might learn some new ways of doing things too.
This review was first published on
parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog. -
I read this book to assist me in developing a project for my graphic design course. Despite reading a lot of comics, and feeling like I have a vague sense of their history and development, this book caused me to look at the actual composition of comic books in a completely different way. I am legitimately looking forward to picking up my next graphic novel or comic book, since I know that I, thanks to this book, now have the means of looking at its composition critically. A lot of the things discussed feel like common sense, like the portion that focused on how readers' eyes move across the page, but it was explained in a manner which not only brings the matter to the reader's attention, but forces them to analyze it and comprehend the idea on a much higher level
While I had no difficulty reading the book,the style of writing is my only complaint. As I mentioned, it's not difficult to read, but oftentimes things are written with "fifty dollar phrases" when a "fifty cent" one would do. Simple ideas are often phrased using long, extravagantly-worded sentences, and the technicality of the writing surpasses most science textbooks I have read. At several times throughout the book, Eisner recognizes the fact that,many times, comics are not taken seriously by many critics and the general public. This frequent observation makes it appear that Eisner is trying to overcome those stereotypes by treating comics, or "sequential art", as he refers to the genre, as a very, very serious subject, with no room for humor or triviality.
This, however, is a minor complaint, since I really don't feel like it negatively impacted my reading of the material. It just made the going a tiny bit slower. -
Excelente para quem busca saber um pouco mais sobre teoria de quadrinhos e arte sequencial.
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I was torn between rating this 4 or 5; it's dry and a bit of a slog in places, but it's also a really revolutionary work, even 30 years after its first printing. Lee and Buscema's How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, which came out in 1978, told aspiring artists how to create different perspectives (bird's eye view, worm's eye view), how to lay out a page, how to pick the most dynamic pose for each panel, etc. A few years later, Eisner turned all that advice on its head: he breaks down how panel layouts, perspective, and pose all contribute to tone, clarity, and complexity of a given work. He shows examples side by side to reveal how head-on perspective, bird's eye view, and worm's eye view all create different emotional nuances, and sometimes you really do need something understated to bring out the impact of the action. He shows how the juxtaposition of words and pictures can add complexity, humor, or threat to a given scene. And, having worked as a writer, an artist, and a publisher, he's uniquely suited to talk about how the abilities and limitations of each shape the finished work: how the writer and artist collaborate or work at cross purposes, how the printing method changes the level of artistic subtlety the finished work can support.
While Scott McCloud borrowed and further developed some of this material for his book Making Comics, there's a lot here that you won't find anywhere else, and it remains an incredibly sophisticated and helpful manual that should be in any comic book artist's library. One warning, though: because Eisner's career stretches from Depression-era pulps to modern graphic novels, there's some wince-worthy racism and sexism in the illustrations. -
I'm beginning to think I'm becoming desensitized to a lot of these drawing books. They all have something solid and good to say about comics and art and what-have-you, but after a while it all starts to repeat. Still, some good stuff in here, especially if someone doesn't know anything about comics.
Just try to ignore the blatant racism in some of Eisner's sample comics. They were written in the 40s and 50s, after all. -
This book provides a lot of ideas for reading comics at a deeper level. It is well illustrated with examples from Will Eisner's "The Spirit" series. The only downside is that it tries to cover too much ground, so some sections are very light. If I were the editor, I probably would have cut all of the digital comics stuff, and focused the book more on the structure of comics.
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I've been meaning to read Will Eisner for a while, and I decided to start with his non-fiction series about making comics.
It's pretty good. Disclaimer: I'm not a comic book creator nor a person who works in the industry. I'm just a simple librarian. However, I think this is a great instructional resource for those looking to get into the industry.
I definitely recommend reading Scott McCloud's comic-making books first, though. They help get your feet wet to understand the more complex language used in Eisner's books. I don't think I would've understood a lot of the concepts in this book if it wasn't for Understanding Comics. Eisner is much more technical in his writing and comic examples. -
The only thing that makes this book less important is that Scott McCloud did with the same subject a masterpiece for the ages a few years later, building on what Eisner had started. The high prophet of comics, this is a must read for anyone intetested in understanding the medium, and appreciate its historical importance, even if McCloud makes it feel small and irrelevant by comparison. Funny that Eisner uses only examples from his own work to discuss techniques and elements of the comics syntax, but that's part of being a creator of language.
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I most certainly should have read this sooner. So well written, touching upon great points on the unique qualities of comics as a medium. A must read for folks who create visual narrative and comics.
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I went to a local comic book store to buy something for my sister (Fables: Animal Farm--Those of you who like topsy-turvy fairy tale stuff will probably enjoy this) and wanted to pick up a book for myself about drawing (a new, but very engaging activity for me) or a comic with illustrations that I liked. I flipped through a bunch of things at the counter and handed the guy at the counter a stack of things I didn't want and couldn't seem to put back in their protective plastic bags without getting the tape stuck on their covers. In the stack of items I handed to him was this Will Eisner book--still in its plastic cover. Before I got to it I decided that I had already spent too much money and would check this book out another time. He was clearly not pleased that I was putting the Will Eisner back and insisted that I get it. He was so confident that this was the book I needed, he gave me a ridiculous discount. He was right. This book is simple and succinct. Each illustration is amazingly instructive and educational. As silly as it is, I'm working on a short illustrated story (that I am sure will take me forever and be of questionable quality) and I keep going back to this book. I can't thank the guy in the comic store enough...well, I did go back and buy more stuff.
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"The sequential artist 'sees' for the reader because it is inherent to narrative art that the requirement on the viewer is not so much analysis as recognition." — Is it really, though? My favourite books are often the ones full of unrecognisable elements which beg to be analysed, puzzled together and given new meaning to.
Eisner's views are interesting, but they're stuck at a somewhat old-timey, simple perspective on art. All of his examples are from his own work, including some embarrassingly racist bits; instead of a celebration of comics, this book comes across as a celebration of himself. He lectures dogmatically, rather than leaving his readers space to make up their own minds.
This book offers some really nice insights into the structure of comics, but it's an introduction, not a comprehensive overview. -
I liked Scott McCloud better.
What a horrible way to start a review. Oh well.
The book is good, it's very instructional, very practical, and useful. It's just not very in depth and not at all concerned with ideas. That's probably why I liked McCloud better, his was all about theory and WHY things are the way they are while Eisner was just like, here it is, that's they way it is and who cares about why, just do it this way.
I did however find some excellent illustrations to use in my classes, so that's all that matters, I suppose. -
Superseded by
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, the latter would not have been that good without this volume. Compared with the junk pushed in the last two decades by the Marvel gang, it is still a very necessary book. -
A very inspiring and informative read. It's hard not to recommend this book (and Scott McCloud's Making Comics) to anyone interested in the sequential art field. Reading them has set a foundation to a lot of things that I used to do by instinct. Totally recommended.
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3.5 stars
I read this for class. It wasn't the most interesting book ever but it was enjoyable. I found that some of the example comics were actually a bit confusing because I didn't always understand the story. -
I read the 2008 edition.
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Acho que se eu posso falar de um material que seja essencial para qualquer um que deseja trabalhar com quadrinhos esse é um deles, sem dúvida alguma. Seja para roteiristas, artistas, curiosos, críticos. Eisner é um dos grandes artistas da era moderna e deu uma outra visão ao que significa fazer quadrinhos. E ele explora ao longo das páginas desse livro todas as nuances por trás da narrativa gráfica. Ele usa vários de seus trabalhos como exemplos para falar sobre um determinado assunto. E é algo único ter um assunto exemplificado com páginas de The Spirit, ou Ao Coração da Tempestade.
A obra também teve vários complementos acrescentados em que aspectos da obra de alguns autores contemporâneos como Jason Lutes e Alison Bechdel serviram para mostrar como estes abordam determinadas características chave. Inclusive há um capítulo dedicado a falar sobre web quadrinhos, suas características e importância na atualidade. Uma modalidade de publicação que serviu para lançar inúmeros novos talentos.
Podemos até dizer que a obra possui alguns pontos ultrapassados, mas isso é devido à própria pesquisa sobre o fazer quadrinhos. Como qualquer teoria, ela está sempre em reformulação. Mesmo Scott McCloud é motivo de debate hoje com suas ideias. É natural que tudo avance de uma forma ou de outra. Mesmo assim, é um livro necessário para compor as bases, as fundações para o pensar quadrinhos. -
Якщо ви хочете навчитися створювати комікси, ця книга повинна бути першою до прочитання. Тому що усі книги, які ви прочитаєте після неї, розкажуть вам приблизно те саме, тільки краще.
Мені не пощастило і я прочитав Comics and Sequential art після двох книг Скотта Макклауда (власне, саме з рекомендацій Макклауда я і дізнався про неї). Уроки, які дає Айснер - це основне, що треба знати і на жаль, я уже це проходив. Варто також зауважити, що уроки ці ілюструються на прикладах коміксів 40-их років і треба розуміти, що медіа досить змінилося з тих часів.
Усе це в жодному разі не означає, що книга не заслуговує на увагу. Особисто мені здався цікавим і корисним розділ WRITING & SEQUENTIAL ART, у якому Айснер розмірковує про взаємодію сценариста і художника. Крім того, у останньому розділі йде мова про технічну сторону видання коміксів, що цікаво для розуміння деяких тенденцій в їх історії.
Загалом, отримати задоволення і максимальну користь від ці книги можна за умови, що це ваша перша книга з теорії коміксів - це хороша стартова точка для розуміння цієї художньої форми, після якої можна переходити до більш поглибленого вивчення (наприклад, Making Comics того ж Скотта Макклауда). Якщо ж ні, то як на мене, вона несе виключно історичний інтерес. -
Found it a bit dry at times, even though I realize this is a textbook and as such I wasn't the target audience.
Had the merit of opening my eyes on the process of comic creation, as Eisner says himself, nothing on the page should be left to chance, everything has a function, everything needs to be thought out.
Expensive sections on frames and layouts, more in details than I though possible. Appreciated the long examples and the commentary. I found myself looking at those aspects now when I read a comic and trying to understand the intent of the authors.
Eisner doesn't seem to think much of the dynamic writer/artist. It seems to him that both jobs are better done by the same person. I disagree. To a point. For instance, Astérix was never the same after Goscinny's death, and frankly it shows that its just not anyone who can carry on.
Last section, about comic as instructional material, made the book feel a bit dated; maybe I am out of touch, but are comics really used to deliver instructions these days? Does show the amplitude of Eisner's career. -
DNF. Will Eisner is one of those names one risks accusations of sacrilege when criticizing. My only exposure to him were some Spirit reprints followed by a few interviews in comic fans magazines. And because I'm interested in succinct story-telling I felt I might pick up a hint or two to help me with my own writing. Only something about this didn't hit a chord with me. Maybe it was a wrong impression on my part but Eisner's personality came across as too authoritative, a kind of my-way-or-no-way approach. That and his absolute insistence that word balloons must always be the first thing done before anything else. I'm sure he has a good reason for feeling this way, but it came across as too crotchety to me. I'll give the man props for what he accomplished, except for the Ebony White character, but otherwise I didn't feel like I'd enjoy spending time alone with him.
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Read in preparation for the 24-Hour Comic Readathon
This is a very technical looking at what makes the comic reading experience so unique, and some techniques so you aren't just doing an illustrated novel or motion picture without sound. It's got a lot of practical knowledge and has quite an academic slant to it.
It's got a fair amount of application and "things to consider", as well as plenty of examples from Will Eisner's oeuvre. While Eisner is a pioneer and master--there is a slight risk that his style becomes dates as time comes on--it's definitely not involving digital computer use nor thinking about the dynamic/cinematic style that's employed so much in comics today.
That being said--many of todays current creators could probably use a little more thinking, creativity and planning in their panels rather than the impressive splash pages. -
Dude made comics for the better part of a century and obviously spent the entire time with an eye toward improvement of the craft and development of concrete theory. His points are clear and concise, and it's full of examples from his own career that he uses to explain the points along the way. He does a good job of outlining the toolkit, pointing out challenges and pitfalls, and making it clear that every decision is made with a specific purpose in mind, so although there are some generally effective strategies, he encourages the reader to use them as a springboard, not a cage.
Recommended for any skill level; it's beginner-friendly and he presents a structured, master-level thought process for anyone who's interested in refining their approach to the craft. -
Will Eisner is not a good writer. He does not use "characters"--people, pronouns, etc.--as the subjects of his sentences, instead employing abstractions like "[f]ormal or organized recorded human communication." He also begins clauses with often confusing dummy subjects like "there" or "it." Beyond his poor writing, Eisner suffers from insecurity and excessive capitulation to mainstream views of art, emphasizing that comics can be just as mature of an art form as literature or film while also stating that comics are, on one level, stupid because they dumbly give the audience everything, i.e., visuals.
However, this book represents the start to the formal study of comics and incoporates asutute analysis of gestures, panel composition, and font so read it anway.
