About our textbooks

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures

The textbook Drawing Words & Writing Pictures lays out systematic course teaching the alchemical art of combining words and pictures to make comics. In it, authors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden have laid out a complete, structured syllabus that guides students from creating narrative within a single drawing to orchestrating all the skills involved in creating a multi-page, complex story.

learn to exploit word-image juxtaposition

explore panel transitions

overcome penciling obstacles

master the fundamentals of story structure

lay out comics pages clearly and quickly

apply principles of composition to your work

letter dialogue and narration and design titles

create compelling characters

learn to ink with a brush and a nib pen

develop convincing visual environments

Buy it online or at your local bookstore.

Mastering Comics is the sequel to Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, currently (as of fall 2011) in production.

What is going to be in Mastering Comics?

Mastering Comics will, like the first volume, weave together a number of inter-related streams. These include:

creating and developing stories

coloring, both by hand and using the computer

expanding your inking palette–incuding digital inking

perspective basics: both linear perspective and other systems

reviewing topics and techniques from volume one and taking them deeper

making and publishing webcomics

getting your work published, from agents to promotions

Matt and Jessica are in the thick of final editing on the book and will be posting previews and samples on the blog.

This section of the website will eventually be the companion to that course.