How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way Reviews

• 
  Greta is Erikasbuddy

  If you are looking for a book that will show you how to draw The Mighty Thor, Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, or even Captain America's Shield... well, this book isn't that one.
  
  It's not a step by step guide on how to draw characters. It's a step by step guide on how to draw THE MARVEL WAY!!
  
  And what does that mean?
  
  Well, I thought it was going to show me how to draw Spidey and Shellhead, and Cap.
  
  
  
  
  
  But no... IT shows you how to ink, draw action, start with stick figures, where to position, and what draws attention. It shows you what artists at Marvel strive to do to make their comic books and panels stand out for the enjoyment of the reader.
  
  A very interesting book that I think would be awesome for any kid 13+, it shows you what you need to do to improve at your craft.
  
  While, I'm not an artist, it was super fun to go through and see all the techniques. I even drew a stick figure or two.
  
  Lately, my son and I have been bonding over superheros and while I don't have the attention-span to draw the Marvel Way.... I know there are boys and girls out there that will eat this book up.
  
  A great manual for the artists of tomorrow.
  
  Excelsior!!
  
  
  
  
  above is the completed picture that my son and I were working on. He drew the majority while I helped with the mouths and hands. We colored and inked together. If you want to bond with your teen, pick up some packing paper and a comic book! Worked wonders for us :)
• 
  Meredith

  This is a very good little figure drawing book. I teach art in high school and have had all sorts of students buy it after seeing it in my class, but it would be appropriate for kids from late elementary up. I keep several copies of it out on TAKS testing days and kids with little to no drawing experience will happily follow the step by step to draw Spidey, but is is not just a step to step book. There is real, accurate, and practical advice about how to master the figure for more serious beginners.
  
  My first figure drawing prof in college recommended this book to college level beginners. I have not found a better $13 figure drawing book - though it used to be $7. Most libraries have it and I can usually find a few copies at the used book store. Written for beginners where some of the later marvel drawing books assume you know a good deal. Much more content than most of the manga drawing books.
• 
  J.G. Keely

  Classic instruction which started many artists on that long path (I bought a used copy, myself, as a child). Combine with a little Loomis, Hogarth, and some figure drawing and you are on your way to being a real talent.
  
  This is pretty much an introduction to the Marvel 'house style' at the time, but certainly still applicable.
  
  
  My Suggested Readings in Comics
• 
  Johnny Atomic

  When I was young, every little boy I knew wanted to draw comics (these days many little girls do too, and that’s awesome) but I had a serious advantage over all of them.
  
  I was the only kid on my block with a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way
  
  It is nearly impossible to write a book that touches upon all the essential aspects of a given art field in any relevant way. Yet, somehow Stan Lee brings us just that. It doesn’t stop with proper tools, formulas, and methods. It even approaches professionalism and best practices. All of this without going over your head, or talking down to the audience.
  
  The coolest thing about HTDCTMW is It’s really a book about visual story telling that happens to use the comic book idiom. Pacing, mood, dynamism, framing, composition, it’s all there along with a glossary of industry terms, list of materials and constructive anatomy methods, that are still as relevant today as they were in 1977.
  
  If you have children or young relatives who show the spark of talent for the entertainment art fields of story boarding, concept art/design, or sequential art of any kind, this is the book for them. If you want to pick up a book of sound advice and technique basics, over and over again and just be reminded of how fun illustration really is, this book is for you.
  
  Notes: With regard to anatomy; this book only deals with idealized figure construction, but that’s fine because it was intended for a young audience that might find life drawing techniques both confining and tedious. It is just a primer, after all. HTDCTMW is not perfect, but it is perfect at what it does.
• 
  Cullen

  I wanted to be an artist as a kid, and I have folder after folder of my haphazardly drawn monsters and spaceships and superheroes. This book was my ultimate reference work, and I carried the old blue hardback (the cover had been lost early on) around with me everywhere. While I never attained my goal of comic artistry, I still have a copy (now paperback) of the book on my shelf. It's a nice resource for anyone interested in comics, whether you can draw like John Romita ... or if stick figures are your cup of tea.
• 
  Eric

  For good or ill, this book taught me how to draw figures. Over the years I kept going back to it and trying again, getting farther and gaining confidence. We'll see if it ever culminates in an actual printed comic of my own :) I'm sure it will, even if I'm 80 years old, sitting on the back porch, still holding onto the dream.
• 
  Johnflynch

  uhhhh.... no, Marvel artists study ANATOMY before making it up with bubbles on sticks. copying other artists' renderings is a vital part of learning to draw, but that alone will not get you working for Marvel and is not how to draw "the Marvel way"
  
  
• 
  J.M. Giovine

  Obviously, this isn't a lecture as well, more like a practicing-tip guide for the comicbook artist to develop and improve the talent, getting the way that Marvel does it's work (at least, in the golden years) and it's narrated by Stan Lee himself. It doesn't get any better than that.
• 
  John Majerle

  Excellent instruction by the master.
  
  R.I.P., Stan :-(
• 
  Guilherme Smee

  Pensei que fosse encontrar neste livro alguns dos fatos e maneiras de fazer quadrinhos que fizessem dos gibis da Marvel no começo da editora terem aquelas características marcantes da Casa das Ideias. No fim das contas achei e não achei. Ou seja, encontrei algumas notas que corroboram aquilo que já sabia: o estilo dinâmico, os corpos que se dobram para caber no quadro, os super-heróis maiores do que seres humanos comum, mas nada mais surpreendente do que isso. Claro, isso porque desde o final dos anos 1960, em que esse livro foi publicado pela primeiríssima vez nos Estados Unidos, muitos outros álbuns sobre aprender a desenhar quadrinhos e muitos deles beberam na fonte de Como desenhar quadrinhos no estilo Marvel, assim sendo, as novidades minguam. Como desenhar quadrinhos no estilo Marvel serve, então, como um documento histórico, uma forma de ver como os quadrinhos eram produzidos na Era de Ouro da Casa das Ideias. O tocante é que essa forma de desenhar quadrinhos começou com o Rei, Jack Kirby, e o senhorzinho fumarento não é citado em nenhum momento deste livro. Shame on you, Stan! Shame on you!
• 
  Jamest.

  As long as I can recall, I always loved art. As a child and teenager my favorite art was the comic book. I devoured them! As I could draw a little I thought becoming a comic book arist would be the greatest. I picked up this volume and found it to be a pretty good book on a lot of drawing essentials. It really taught me a lot about figure drawing in particular. Sure some of the prose is bombastic in typical Stan Lee style, but the lessons in the book are clear, concise, and important principles.
  Eventually my style changed and I moved away from comic book art. However you can still see the influence of comic books and this guide in my work today. I still believe that artists working in comics are some of the finest around: the imagination needed to fill panel after panel, the sheer volume of the work they must produce, and the ability to tale a compelling story through drawing alone. All that makes me rank them with the best!
• 
  Steven

  I loved and devoured this book when I was a kid (in the original edition). Alas, my drawing skills never quite developed and I put more energy into the stories than into the drawings. Still, it was a step on the path to making me an author, and I still think Buscema was one of the strongest draftsmen Marvel ever had.
• 
  Stephen Theaker

  This got me drawing again for the first time since primary school, mainly by pointing out a few basic things I'd somehow never known - for one thing that drawings are things you can build, rather than just putting pencil to paper and creating masterpieces on the spot.
• 
  Bill

  When I was in seventh grade, I studied this book from cover to cover and improved my drawing and visual storytelling skills dramatically. It was great then and remains so- John Buscema was an absolutely brilliant comics artist.
• 
  Paul Smith

  This book is great for those that want to learn more about creating comics. All of the techniques are presented in a straight forward manner and is easy to understand for those, like myself, who are not artistically inclined.
• 
  Bee

  Easily the best How to Draw book I've read. Lays everything out in an easy to digest manner... And back in the 90s when I read it, you really could see the difference with the Marvel style (not so much now though)
• 
  Dan Schwent

  It was 25 years out of date when I got it. Still, if you want to draw in the Marvel house style of the late 60's and early 70's, it would probably be a valuable resource.
• 
  Maik Krüger

  All you'll ever need as an artist. Basically my bible.
• 
  Aislinn Evans

  introductory, of course. skimmed. the bits on drawing women are gross.
  
  im not a marvel fan, just wanted to flip through this bc its on my recommended reading
• 
  Eric Dubay

  This is essential reading for anyone who wants to learn figure drawing or has aspirations in any field of art
• 
  Mark Plaid

  I read this book as a tween. It's quite helpful and inspiring.
• 
  Javiera Cuadra

  The book is okay. I think it's clearly outdated, because it was written in the 70's, so it's probably targeted to children and teens who wanted to start drawing comics JUST like the Marvel ones, that's alright; it could be helpful if you're a beginner and are looking for tips and a little bit of theory to start. Anyways, it's definitely not a good idea to take this book as a guide for real anatomy, in the chapter about human heads and faces the proportions are based only on what at the times was considered great looking, I was specially shocked with the part about portraying female faces, the author emphasizes that it's esential to keep the exact proportions declared there, because if not he female wouldn't be beautiful... (!!!) obviously the proportions were for drawing white girls with an upturned, thin nose. It literally tells you not to draw different looking eyebrows, or noses with bumps or large nostrils. Like.. what?
  Anyways, this is a good book if you're a beginner who is looking for a guide with the basics to start drawing... or if you're someone who wants to copy Marvel comics and draw nothing else than Marvel white characters who look all the same.
  
  In short, I would advice this book to beginners (not sure about absolute beginners though), people who want to learn the basics of persepctive, those who want to add a little bit of more dynamism to their figures, to learn composition (this part was actually quite helpful) and to learn the basics of anatomy distribution; I would never recommend it to someone who wants to learn anatomy itself, or good character design theory.
  
• 
  Gary

  This is an instructional book on how to put together a piece of comic book art. It teaches you how to draw characters in the Marvel comics style. What's great is that it gives you fundamental advice that you can take into another style of drawing, for example, anime. Once you learn the principles, you can follow or divert from the Marvel style guide as you wish.
  
  The book covers a wide range of topics, like anatomy, perspective, storytelling, composition, and inking. There are chapters that teach you how to draw backgrounds, objects, and various parts of the body. It shows you how to deconstruct complicated objects and body types into shapes so that it's easier to draw them.
  
  The book will also show you how to draw some of Marvel's most iconic characters from scratch, utilizing the Marvel style guide. This is a good, practical book if you ever wondered how to draw and ink a Marvel comics panel. There are some fundamental art skills that are taught in this book, so I recommend it for new artists.
• 
  Antonella Vigliarolo

  I expected better and I expected more from the way the book was presented.
  
  I am an illustration student and I got this on amazon in the hope it would awake the memory of my ‘anatomy and perspective for comics’ class and take me a bit deeper.
  
  No such thing.
  The book stays superficial with more images than explanations and it does not go past the bare bones.
  
  Perspective was barely mentioned in the chapter dedicated to it. The most useful part was on the proportions to respect when sketching a face.
  
  It can work for you as introduction if you are completely extraneous to the subject, but even like that, you can find more complete books as instruction material.
  
  I had the barest introduction to the subject and I was pretty unhappy with this, so I can imagine the reaction of someone more knowledgeable. Or even someone who anticipated to actually learn to draw Marvel-style.
• 
  Beth

  I'll come back to this one day - 3*
  
  I would never have bought myself this book but my mam got it for me and I couldn't leave it so I had to have a go.
  
  I'm definitely better at drawing because of this book but it is so time-consuming and I honestly don't gave the time for this. I really don't - balancing two jobs is hard enough! I'm annoyed that Black Widow's not there because really I wanted to draw her as part of my gift for a birthday present for a friend but I can't and I don't even have the skills to do it. This book jumps from step 1-9 and for a novice (like myself), its too hard. I don't have any skills and this book doesn't take that into account.
  
  So yeah. A little annoyed and frustrated.