Chapter 16. Ten (Or So) Books and Web Sites to Check Out

In This Chapter

  • Improving your character and technical drawing

  • Looking at comic creation from a different perspective

  • Finding inspiration from the past and present

  • Selling your work through on-demand publishers

  • Displaying your comics on the Web

  • Turning to community Web sites for feedback

If you're an old pro who's been at this whole "making comics" thing for a while, this chapter might be a bit boring or redundant. However, for those of you who are brand new to the concept of drawing manga — or have been doing this for a little while but aren't sure how to reach that next creative level — you might be interested in the books and sites I describe in this chapter (if you haven't already seen them, of course).

Because I personally don't see anything fundamentally different between American and Japanese comics (and because I'm influenced by both in my work), you'll see references that can apply to just one or the other, when in fact I think they apply to both. I think it's important to understand that while stylistically they may be different, there's still an underlying structure that's shared by all comics.

The references and suggestions in this chapter cover a wide range of topics, from drawing basics to distributing your work. I hope you'll take the opportunity to check out a few (or all) of them and see if they'll help you find the missing piece of your artistic puzzle you may have been looking for and not been aware of it.

Drawing ...

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