Create Comics is a sketchbook based guide to planning and creating comics. Collected and collated from Quarto publications from 2017-2020 and published (in this edition) in Dec 2020, it's 204 pages and available in paperback format.
This is a streamlined look at the comics creation process. A very short introduction is followed immediate by short one-page step by step tutorials with line drawings of characters, villains, facial feature drawings, some action tutorials (battles), speech bubbles and text/lettering, some introductory info on inking and textures, and very (veeeery) general story arc advice.
The actual book and "instructions" are contained in the first 60 pages of the book. There's a one panel exhortation on page 60 "now it's time to take everything you've learned and make your own comic" followed by literally 144 pages of empty panels which the reader is supposed to fill in themselves. The panel pages are also repeated. There are 3 different layouts on repeat throughout the last two thirds of the book.
I'm not really sure who the intended audience is. It might make a good choice for a youngster who would like to draw their own comics or for a group/class as a hand-out exercise, but I'm not really seeing enough instruction included to make that more than an exercise in frustration. It's available in paperback format, so presumably would be readers will flip through it before buying and see that 2/3rds of the book is blank/DIY, but for potential readers who order online, my advice is to proceed with caution. If I had bought this one sight unseen, I'd be disappointed.
Two and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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