The Nuts and Bolts of Drawing Cartoons and Comic Books

I have been a collector of comic books, art books and just about any books that professed to be able to make me into the Cartoonist, that I always wanted to be.

As you might imagine, over the course of the last fifty years, I have amassed a rather large collection and these days, when I go looking for items, that I know I own, I spend a lot of time just trying to find them.

There was a sense of guilt, even after I retired, in spending time, unproductively and it has taken me five years to get over it.

These days, with an eye to my own mortality, knowing that there are fewer years ahead of me, than there are behind me, I have had an epiphany... if I don't enjoy the collection and actively pursue rereading the books that I own, 

THEN WHAT IS THE POINT IN OWNING THEM?

A good case in point, would be the volumes written by 

Scott McCloud:

Understanding Comics and Making Comics.

I bought my copy of Understanding Comics, when it was first published, way back in 1993 and I was rather disappointed in it, at the time, because it didn't give me what I was looking for... the quick and easy secrets to being able to draw comic books, like the cartoonists that I admired.

It has taken me 25 years to realize, that all of the information, that I have laboriously dug up for myself, by dissecting comic book techniques, was already given to me, right here in this book and I was just too blind, back then, to see it!

Making Comics, for some reason, perhaps my disappointment over Understanding Comics, was a much later addition to my collection but once again, the insightful Scott McCloud has been miles ahead of me, at every point and has already answered questions that have only just occurred to me.

There are many more, similar volumes, in my collection and one of the earliest of them was

Alan McKenzie's, How to Draw and Sell Comic Strips...

which has been a steady companion, ever since I found it, on the shelves of the now, long gone, World's Biggest Bookstore, here in Toronto.

One of the best parts about the book, was that much of the art, done for demonstration purposes, was executed by the very talented Steve Parkhouse.

I can heartily recommend all three books, to any aspiring comic book cartoonist and I wish you all well, on your own quests to draw like a professional.