The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics And Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt

The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics And Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt Featuring Tips & Insight From Comics Masters: Neal Adams, John Byrne, David Finch, Klaus Janson, Karl Kesel, John Romita, Jr. and Many More.

This is a book on how to put together superhero comics by an editor who worked at Marvel and is now a senior editor at IDT Books. It is very much a guy book. None of the guest artists are women. The guest artists are some of the most popular artists currently working in the superhero comics business. They are featured in single page biographical spreads. The book was printed in 2009 so the information is very current.

The craft of making modern comics is covered in detail in this book. The book itself is very interesting to look at. The pages are a bright yellow, and they have many colorful images from comics including splash pages from comics like Captain America, X-Factor, Gray Area, Defenders, The Pulse and many other mainstream titles.

The book is broken up into chapters on different technical subjects in making comics; lighting, panel layout, inking, coloring, lettering, and the use of space. It is not just about the technical aspects of drawing it also covers how to create comics scripts, show emotion, and create believable characters. In the script section they have a piece of the script from Captain America #1 which was quite entertaining.

An interesting aspect of the book is that it also covers where film and photography meet with comics. There are technical sections on camera angle, point of view, lighting, and many techniques that come from film. I found this rather fascinating.

The writing is clear and to the point. It follows Andy Schmidt's maxim of first communicate then entertain. I learned a lot of technical points about graphic novels which I had not known before. Maybe I will be able to use them in future graphic novel reviews.

Daily Thoughts 6/19/2009

Herman Hesse, photograph taken 1927.

Daily Thoughts 6/19/2009

Today was another pleasant day. On the way in to work, I finished reading The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics and Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt. It is a very interesting title. I am going to probably write a review tomorrow. I think the book will give me a better idea on how to review graphic novels. There is a lot of terminology in the book which was new to me.

This morning I had a few gift books added to the collection. I also filed some looseleafs for the law collection, this time it was New York Official Code of Rules and Regulations. We are getting a lot of requests for summer reading already. A lot of people are asking for Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

The laws for immigration have changed for citizenship and green cards in the United States. The citizenship test books before 2008 are not valid. I ordered several current books on becoming a citizen as well as a few books on getting a green card because of this.

I also spent some time this morning going over Titlesource 3 from Baker and Taylor with the childrens staff and looking at it a little more closely.

They are moving around furniture today. This includes putting in new carpeting in some parts of the library.

I left a bit early this afternoon to take care of car trouble. On the way to pick up my car, I read The Visible Librarian Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy by Judith A. Siess. It talks about how customer service is essential in retaining library patrons.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009

In 1867 Hans Christian Andersen was subrenting an apartment from a female photographer, Thora Hallager, at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. This photo of Andersen was taken in October 1867.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009

I did not have any books to read on the train with me this morning. I picked up a copy of the New York Times for today instead. I read about books. There was this article from the Times which I found entertaining. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/books/16kaku.html?ref=books We have the title Fools Gold, but don't have the title Dumb Money by Gillian Tett.

Today has been a steady day. I have done some more weeding in the oversize books, this time it was in the music and film books. I mainly looked for very old technical books. There were a number of books that needed minor repairs as well. The repairs were mainly replacing old plastic covers on the books or mending tears in the books. This will go to technical services for mending.

I also spent some time thinking about doing a survey for the library. Sometimes it is good to think about things and plan. Our computer technician put a copy of Professor Teaches tutorials on the different microsoft products, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and Publisher. I have to go back and do more of the tutorial on Publisher. I may do a bookmark on writing. I am caught up on most of the detail work around the library. I kept up the current events display and checked the new books display this morning.

I also updated the list of websites for reviews which we use in collection development. It is mostly internet sites on books and graphic novels right now. Many of the sites are in my sidebar.

My diet is going well. I am down a pants size. I still do my exercises from the book Yoga RX and listen to the cd from I Can Make You Thin. It is working slowly and steadily for me. I still have quite a way to go.

I picked up two more books to read, Creative Capitalism A Conversation With Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Other Economic Leaders by Michael Kinsley and The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics and Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt.

There is another business book which looks interesting, A Complaint Is A Gift, Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong, 2nd Edition by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller. This was recommended by a librarian at the Westchester Library Association conference. I started reading this book on the train on the way home. It is about how to use complaints for "service recovery." The authors point out that most people who complain are regular customers. People who don't complain and have problems simply don't come back. Complaints are an opportunity to fix problems with service and products. The book is mainly focused on businesses, but I think it applies to service agencies and libraries as well.

I spent a little time on Google Webmaster Tools. It was rather interesting. Apparently the words most used to find my blog are "mature manga" and "jim collins good to great". The two sites with the most links to my site are http://www.chicagohistoryjournal.com and http://www.apolloalliance.org . The Chicago History Journal is a fine organization and the Apollo Alliance is a very progressive alternative energy organization. Both are excellent sites. I can say that the Apollo Alliance does have a book based on them Apollo's Fire Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy.