Product Description

The ultimate reference for comic artists, this unique book/CD set is packed with photos of men and women in basic and dramatic superhero poses uniquely tailored to the comic artist's needs. "Comic Artist's Photo Reference": delivers over 500 colour images of beautiful women and muscled men in the poses comic artists need; features six step-by-step demonstrations by well-known artists, so readers can learn firsthand from the pros; and comes with a CD-ROM of over 500 additional photos for added inspiration. With this reference, comic artists of all skill levels can draw from a diverse group of models in hundreds of poses - any time they want!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30397 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Buddy Scalera is a comic and graphic novel writer who's worked on Marvel Knights and X-Men projects for Marvel as well as titles for Mad Science Media, Penny Farthing Press and more. He lives in Paramus, New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Excellent reference book
If you're interested in having a go at comic book art or even if you are a comic book artist already, this reference book is a must have. I'd allready purchased the first 2 volumes of Buddy Scaleras Artist reference photos CD roms a few years ago, but this book is even better. The book covers all kinds of action poses, cool weapons, fighting, flying, romance, facial expressions and many more aspects of the dynamic human form.

The four models are from different ethnic backgrounds so you have african american male, hispanic female, asian female and caucasian male which is cool because sometimes it can be difficult to make your characters look as close to the ethnicity you're trying for. This makes it loads easier. Comes with a CD rom I've yet to check out, but it has 600 more pics on there as well as short videos and more fun extras.

Definately a very useful reference book to any aspiring comic artist. Highly recommended! :)

Could be better
The book, for what it is meant to be, fails to deliver. For a start, the models should be totally nude, so as to be a starting point for illustration. These are wearing attire, as though the american sense of prudishness was too much and won out. It's the same on the disc, although what exactly you were meant to do with the short videos I have no idea, but they're interesting as an extra. Also, the 'realistic environments' should be photographs that could be used for comic reference, not a four year olds images that look like they were taken around the same area. There's picture of a car, a picture of some gravel, a picture of a garage driveway, and others that I'm guessing would be very difficult to use as reference for anything. The 'Surreal environments' are a bit better, but still rather disappointing, as most of them are black and white, and some seem to be standard tropical shots that you could find in a travel brochure. Basically, the book is a disappointing effort for what it tries to be.

Comic Artist's Reference: People and Poses by Buddy Scalera
People and Poses by Buddy Scalera

In the book, using four models two female, Asian and Hispanic and two male, African-American and White each photo shows the models in a variety of action and at-rest poses which include; lifting, fighting, holding weapons, standing and sitting. The guys are dressed in lycra shorts and the girls in shorts and vest tops. This attire is perfect for reference photo as the body contour lines and anatomical details are highly visible and as such tracing paper can be used without hindrance even when the models are wearing capes and street clothes.
There are seven practical workshops throughout the book from top comic artists showing how to use reference photographs in your own artwork: This is a big plus point. Each workshop is presented in detail with tips and ideas to help get the most out of reference photographs. I worked through four of these workshops before writing this review.

The CDROM comes with over one thousand reference images that can be rescaled flipped and rotated. Viewing the photos couldn't be easier. The CDROM comes with a web based viewing menu system whereby you select one of the four models found in the book, with a few more for variety, street pictures, weapons, fighting scenes with man on man, girl on girl, either hand to hand combat or with swords, from a thumbnail. Pressing enter opens the category. Using directional arrows locate the exact reference photo you want.

This has been an excellent money well spent purchase. Many thanks to Buddy Scalera for producing this outstanding photo-reference product.

David Wilson, Sheffield UK.