Book's great with a nice variety of cartoonists and subject matter
585285
Book's great with a nice variety of cartoonists and subject matter. Sammy Harkham is an awesome man and if you're serious about the art form, you owe it to yourself to own at least one of these!
178033
I found this to be a great reference book for drawing. There are a wide variety of models of all ages and a good variety of facial types. I personally liked the mix of facial expressions, from the normal everyday to the more exaggerated emotions. One thing that I particularly liked was that the expressions were shown from multiple angles, including side views, which is uncommon in face reference sets. So, if you're looking for a good solid set of reference photos, I recommend this book.
4511232
I am not a professional but I do dabble in illustration and story telling. This book has some great examples and the reasoning behind some of the techniques. There is a huge source of pictorial samples that the artist, himself, supplies. Excellent line art and simple explanations.
4261099
This is a great book, with both a practical and intellectual side.  It includes a wealth of examples of how humor has been successfully used in graphic design, as well as thoughts from comedians and other designers.  One of my favorite sections is on how to pitch use of humor in one's work.  On the intellectual side, Bradley includes content on both the psychology and history of humor.

As one would expect, Bradley has a great sense of humor herself.  Importantly, she knows when it is useful as part of the book, and when she needs to be more straightforward in the presentation of the content.
760052
Apparently, the person I was buying this for already has several of these collections. Thankfully, this was a new one. These are a great way enjoy a wonderful comic. They are durable enough to be read and used heavily. For the price, they contain a decent amount of content, although my girlfriend finished reading through it in less than a day. A great choice.
3651495
Whether you are an aficionado of old comic books or simply have a curiosity about their history, how they came to be, and who were the movers and shakers of the industry during its golden era, this recently published work by Michael Barrier will thoroughly please you.  I had difficulties getting the book away from my wife, but once she'd finally acquiesed and returned it to me I was able to dig into it with glee.  Barrier gives us great insights on Carl Barks of course, and Walt Kelly, as well as many other wonderful cartoonists of bygone times.  I found myself longing for the good old days of lazy afternoons and weekends spent reading well written and delightfully illustrated stories (overlooking the slapdash printing qualities, of course), swapping funny books with friends, and wishing now I'd been smart enough to hang on to some of them.
4520119
While most syndicated comics are becoming bland panels of talking heads and endless jokes about how difficult cats can be, Maakies fearlessly blazes another trail, one that leads through a forest of booze, vomit, STDs, and poo.  The strip can, at times, amaze with its combination of well-inked landscapes of sea battles and the dirtiest of fart jokes.  Everything goes over the top, and that's what makes it work, whether it's Drinky Crows liver protruding from his anus or Gabby crapping over a waterfall.  A few too many of the jokes fall flat for me to give this collection five stars, but it's worth picking up for great art and skewed take on life.
4950697
I am probably not the target audience for this collection, being a bit in the mid-40s range.  And I'll admit, which I'm sure will crack some people up, that when I chose the book to review, I thought it was a collection of funny comic strips from newspapers for the year.  Well, it's not.  It's a collection of excerpts from what I think of as graphic novels, mostly.  And I'll also admit that after the first few, I was left a little cold.  They didn't seem funny, or particularly enhanced by being in a graphic format.  However, one of the good parts of reviewing a book is that you have to keep reading, and I'm glad I did.  By the end, I did see what the big deal is.  I was truly taken with some of the comics here.  I'd say my favorites were My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf and Discipline by Joseph Lambert.  Both were based on real life (Jeffrey Dahmer and Helen Keller) but both used the graphic format to tell the story in a way that mere words would not have.  I also enjoyed a few of the more traditional but with a twist comics---American Elf by James Kochalka and Fun Strips by Evan Dorkin.  They take strip type comics and kind of make fun of them while staying within the general format of the strip.  I do have to say some of the comics here still did leave me cold.  Maybe the generation gap is just too wide for me to get some of the completely wordless ones set in a world of fantasy I don't have the references for, or the more anime type ones.  But I'm going to seek out the full versions of the ones I liked best, and I felt grown a little by reading outside my comfort zone, which I what I'd say a "best of" collection should do.
2296352
Old Peanuts are great, I love the simple, abstracted and iconic artwork and the stories are lighthearted and fun. So instead of checking Facebook for the 50th time today, read a couple strips and decompress just a little.
1518457
Bill Barker's artwork is incredibly simplistic to look at, it consists of just crisp black and white drawings, populated by stick figures, alien space ships, and wonderful depictions of buildings and structures.

The kit consists of many little toys, (stickers, key chains, instant savior, postcards), and a simple book of drawings.  Although the book is the main attraction, the other items can be very creative, they complement the ideas of the artwork well.  It's especially nice that they aren't just museum-style throw-a-popular-painting-on-a-postcard, the artwork fits in with the format it's presented on, it's this kind of thought that really goes a long way.

The book has a healthy mixture of simplistic (and sometimes hypnotic) designs, and heavy imagery that manages to say a lot about life and the world with very little.  There are a few activities to keep you busy, cutting out holes and such.  The pages are mostly single sided, with a little bit of occasional explanation on the back.

As for the content, it's a lot about life, a lot about the process of time and how we go through it.  Many of his drawings depict time in unique ways, using rooms and factories to demonstrate it's flow.  One of my favorite iamges is of an single factory that demonstrates a complete lifespan, complete with interesting news on life after death.

Of course he also says a lot about alien culture, but not so much about the aliens (who are never seen, just felt through the presence their space crafts), but about the people around them, and how they react.

If you enjoy alternative artwork, and like the feeling of opening up a great gift, I highly recommend Schwa.
3364162
I've been a fan of Tomine's graphic novels for years and this book, mostly drawings, is a great addition to my collection.  There are very few narrative pieces in here, but I found the drawings so enjoyable that I didn't care.  Especially interesting were his subway sketches -- sketches of people he saw on the subway with short explanations of the circumstances in which he observed them.
2884085
This is a graphic novel/comic book geared to middle grade students. Nate is in the 6th grade and he is that child that is always questioning, getting detentions and just a little obnoxious. There are stories that go on for several pages and some that are four panels short and sweet. This book takes us through Nate's everyday activities from school days, summer holidays and his interactions with both his friends and other adults in his life. I loved the story about the cheez doodles. One serving is 6.5 doodles and Nate just could not deal with that. His father is a healthy food advocate. We meet his dog who is afraid of squirrels, his friends and his family. His interactions with the brainy Gina, his interactions with the teachers and other staff at his school and his hilarious attempts at various sports will all give kids a laugh and they will be able to identify with the characters in this book. The cartoons are cute and colourful.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
2195333
This book is great and my children agreed! Love his cartoons. Good sense of humor.
1395123
When I first came across images from "Abstract Comics: The Anthology" online, I was worried that a lot of it would be non-objective paintings cut out and put next to each other as more of a series. When I received my order and flipped through the book, I was happy to see that I was mostly wrong. Some of the images do seem a bit uncharacteristic of comics, but most of them still conform largely to comic style, just with abstracted story telling. Upon first glance all the images might seem random, but taking the time to "read" the comic, they still are able to read as having a narrative of some sort.

I really liked the brief introduction including in the beginning of this book, it helped give a history of the idea of abstract comics and where it came from. It's hard to say how accurate it is, since there aren't any other references to compare it to. There was also a description explaining that since all comics are in one way or another abstract that "abstract" in this sense does not refer to the painting style, but to the form of story telling where characters and settings are simplified down to their basic principles.

If you're looking for more concrete narrative, you might be disappointed in this book. However if you're interested in comics or abstract artwork, I'd still recommend giving this book a chance.
3717517
I bought this because my daughter enjoys reading the Hyperbole and a Half webcomic. This book has some items from that webcomic, plus additional new material that she hadn't seen. Funny and thought-provoking. I particularly like how she draws herself looking so "cartoony," but draws her dogs so realistically (the cover illustration shows that well). The looks on her dogs' faces just slay me! Also a good purchase for someone who is trying to understand their own or a loved one's depression, as the author has a couple chapters about her depression.
3443752
I really enjoyed the different chapters being written from the point of view of the different characters. The small illustrations worked well to break up the wall of text. I am looking forward to the comics now that a solid background has been set up by this book.
4626679
I ended up buying this book after having read most of Wertz' other work. I knew that this book was compiling work from several authors, so I knew that the artwork & storytelling abilities would differ from person to person. For the most part this is actually a pretty good book.

The listings in this are pulled from craigslist as well as other venues, but seems to be predominantly craigslist. The stories run from funny to sad to downright tragic. We see possible reactions to these listings running from the embarrassing to the joyous. Some of the more memorable strips (to me anyway) had to have been the librarian strip as well as the "cute girl in the diner" mixup.

The artwork in here ranges from the cutesy to the elaborate to the surreal. Sorry I'm not more descriptive, but you'll find all types in this book. For this reason there might be some readers who will adore one style, only to be turned off by another. The overall impression I had of this book was favorable. It's a nice cute read that's perfect for picking up & flipping through at random. I'm sure you'll find your favorite but overall most of the excerpts were gems.