Wondering, “WHAT SHALL I GET HIM FOR CHRISTMAS?”
By Steve Whitaker (Sterling Publishing 2006)
ISBN: 1-40273-125-6
This splendid volume is aimed more squarely at the progressing cartoonist, rather than at the utter neophyte, and provides an A to Z glossary of such useful categories as Animals, Backgrounds, Clothing, Corrections, Stippling, and the more esoteric and philosophical areas of Observation, Satire and Commentary and Presentation.
A certain level of attainment is necessary but all thirty-six chapters are clearly written, and lavishly illustrated, by an author who has worked in every area of cartooning and comic strip creation. Moreover, each chapter concludes with a pictorial “swipe-file†contributed by a huge and stellar cast of working illustrators such as Nick Abadzis, Carl Flint, Peter Maddox, Woodrow Phoenix, Ron Tiner, Dan Spiegle, Brian Bolland, Hunt Emerson, Sax, Roland Fiddy, and Julie Hollings among others to perfectly illustrate, in a commercial context, the end result of each discourse.
This book is not only an ideal tool for would-be creators whose interest has not waned after the first few weeks, but can provide useful fodder for the desperate pro faced with that awful and inevitable “blank-white-page†feeling.
© 2006 Steve Whittaker & Steve Edgell. All Rights Reserved.