Product Description

The follow-up title to the hit title, Drawing Cutting Edge Comics which has been translated into 7 languages, this drawing tutorial shows artists how to draw the exaggerated musculature of super-sized figures in action poses. The guesswork is taken out of figuring out which muscles show through to the surface and how muscles appear through clothing. This instructional manual even gives both the Latin and the common term for particular body parts such as scapula/shoulder blade. Hart covers all aspects of extreme anatomy. The book opens by providing detailed diagrams of all of the various muscle groups, including chest, back, shoulder, arm, and leg muscles. Then he covers many of the various extreme comic book types including good guy, bad guy, insane guy, punk, genius, and brute for men; and the heroine, bad gal, trashy gal, seductress, fighter babe, and cyber chick for women. As an added bonus, this book closes with two invaluable sections to all aspiring comic book artists. One provides a roadmap of all the steps an artist must take if he or she is going to get started in the comic book business, and advice on how the comic book business works. The second section features interviews with people from two of the most significant companies in the world of comics, Marvel Comics and Dark Horse!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168396 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
Christopher Hart is the acclaimed author of countless how-to-draw tutorials, including two best-selling art books in the U.S.A. - Manga Mania and Anime Mania. He sold nearly two million copies worldwide and has been translated in more that 17 languages

Customer Reviews

Not that bad
The previous reviewer doesn't really seem to have paid much attention to the book or its intensions. This book is a guide in the exagerration of anatomy that has been found in modern comics. It focuses on the basics of anatomy, what you would need to get started with an understanding of anatomy. The poses of anatomy don't cover everything, but does give you enough to get an understanding of how to piece things together. Examples are given to clothing (hand and feet specifically) although it might be lacking if this was a book about clothing on the body. This isn't a how to draw book but a reference book, as it says on the cover. There is wealth of useful tips in this book and I have found it a great source of referrence for my own art.

Best anatomy book so far for those wanting to draw comics in a "american way"
I'm a hobbyist comic book artist and to me this is the best book on this subject.

I have a lot traditional books on anatomy (In my opinion best ones are made by Andrew Loomis but unfortunately those are hard to find) but there are only few ones that tackle really well how to pencil and ink anatomy in American comic book style.

Best parts of this book for me where "muscles in action" (where you see how different actions change the appearance of different muscles and how muscles move over underlying skeleton). Also "effects of light on the body" together with "surface rendering" (that sections really shows what kind of line should be drawn and where to get good looking muscle groups in different poses and lighting conditions).

When I compare this book with other "learn to draw comics" -books I think that there are few good generalist books of similar quality like Drawing Dynamic Comics (Cutting Edge (Watson-Guptill Paperback)) (Cutting Edge (Watson-Guptill Paperback)) or How to Draw Comics the "Marvel" Way. Those books give you good overall understanding about what steps there is to comic pages from start to finish but those are little bit lacking in details about how to illustrate specific parts of anatomy in variety of positions.

Then there are books that are excellent but bit different in style like Action! Cartooning: 96 Pages of How-to Havoc! or Cartoon Cool: How to Draw TV's Retro Style Characters. These are good to widen your skill set and build good foundation to more simplified style but don't obviously help with detailed style used in Marvel/DC/Image -comic books.

Btw. about the criticism in earlier review I can say that many books in Hart- series are well.. a bit lacking in quality vise in my opinion. This book is nothing like that. It could be even more polished on few small aspects but same thing can be said about almost all books. Also it can be said that this book don't work too well as your only book. It should be bought in addition with some foundation book that covers all the comic making process from a to z.

The fact that there is different artists used in this book doesn't matter to me at least. Actually I think it's a good thing to see a how same thing can be accomplished with little bit of a variation.

I highly recommend this book to any beginner or intermediate comic book artist interested in drawing anatomy American comic book style.

Great for Comic Anatomy
The book is well laid out and clearly illustrated. As it is an anatomy book, there aren't many illustrations of people wearing clothes. The illustrations include bones, muscles and 'popping' veins. All parts of the torso, both male and female are covered. There's even a section on how to get started. If you really want to improve your anatomy skills this is the book to have.