This is the first in an irregular series of reviews I’ll be writing on the many comics instructional books available, as well as other instructional books that might be of relevance to aspiring comics creators.

And believe me, there are a lot of them out there.

Since I’ve already made a thorough study of these books, my reasoning here is why should you have to sift through them all when I already have. Thus, I’ll recommend those you should definitely check out, those you can take or leave, and those you won’t miss by missing.

So without further ado, let’s begin.

THE ART OF COMIC BOOK
INKING, VOL. 2
by Gary Martin

This is the second volume in a nice little series (if two books can be said to constitute a series) called The Art of Comic Book Inking, assembled by veteran comics inker Gary Martin and published by Dark Horse Comics. As with the first volume, this book brings together a fine group of professional comics inkers and shows you examples of their inks over the same penciled pages. Four penciled pages are each inked by four different inkers, for a total of sixteen samples. The author inks an example of each penciled page, so we have the work of thirteen inkers in all.

The book is broken down into four sections, one for each of the different penciled pages. The original pencils are shown first, followed by the various inked pages which illustrate how the different inkers approach the same pencils. Each inker also includes a page of text discussing the materials they used, their approach to inking that particular page, and thoughts about inking in general, working with pencilers, and so on.

As instructive as this is, this volume is on the whole less enlightening than the first. The artists, both pencilers and inkers, are in general lesser known than in the first volume–and sometimes for good reason. The penciled pages vary widely in style and quality, which I think is the point: to show the range of possibilities a professional inker may be faced with when accepting an inking assignment. However, the weakness of some of the pencils and the occasional mismatch in styles between pencilers and inkers renders this volume less instuctive overall than the first volume of the series.

Next Wednesday: I’ll continue the review in: The Art of Comic Book Inking, Vol 2, part 2!