Not Bad
This book does not spend alot of time on the basics. If you already know the basics and want to take your comics to a new level, then this book is for you.
Complimentary, Not Substantial
First off, this review is from the perspective of an artist who has been drawing for years, but is only now getting into western comic styles. If this sounds like you, I hope you can take from my experience.
I bought this book in conjunction with How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way and Dynamic Figure Drawing (Practical Art Books). After working with each for a couple of days, I have to say that Christopher Hart's book was the least useful of the three - which is not to say it's an entirely bad resource, but it's certainly not what I was hoping for.
There are several useful points brought up. I purchased this title because I was told there were several pages devoted to faces and expressions, and that promise was fulfilled. There are also useful diagrams of hands and feet, along with discussing dynamic page plotting and action sequencing.
Even so, the things I wished would be covered in this book are oddly missing. There are pages upon pages devoted to female figures, but hardly anything on generic male poses or faces. There is no cover of men's eyes and hardly anything on musculature at all (this is where the previously mentioned anatomy book became my favorite tool). He doesn't talk about men's clothing at all, and the women's clothing strikes me as Halloween at the Playboy mansion. I'm also baffled by the final section of the book that essentially takes everything you have learned about comic drawing and throws it out the window, just to show you how to draw a simplistic cartoony style. I'm inclined to wonder why he felt compelled to include an odd series of monster mugshots that have little value to the reader.
While trying not to be a raving feminista, I can say that this book was written by a man, for a man. I normally do not have a problem with the current style of women in most comics, but Christopher Hart's "cutting edge" females are tawdry and scantily clad at best. His definition of an "athletic" heroine is laughable, and the examples given put the models in slinky poses that are unrealistic. Nearly all the female figure drawings, which are just lines and circles at that point, don a pair of high-heels.
In summary, you should have a sturdy foundation of comic drawing knowledge BEFORE purchasing this book, and by that point you won't need it anyway. Hart simply tries to cover way too much material here without much success. From a perspective of an artist breaking in to this style, I'll simply say I'm glad I got it cheap and will shelve it for future reference, but I won't be jumping to replace it should it go missing.
Same old drawing book.
Normally I don't but into "how to draw" books. Drawing skill comes with practice, not by reading. I heard this was a good one so broke down and bought it (with a few others) they all collect dust on my shelf.
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