More Resources Than You Could Want

A resource list that continues to evolve

I like to have my resources all in one place. As much as this is a post for me to reference as I begin, I hope it ends up being useful for anyone else who reads it.

Where can I learn about making comics? I've been asking myself (and others) this question a lot recently. A lot of online resources say, "Read Scott McCloud," "Just start making comics," or "Just read comics," and none of these answers seemed comprehensive or ultimately helpful.

Of course, when you want to make something, you turn to the experts in the field and participate as much as you can. But this sort of answer still leaves me with questions. How can you focus your efforts? Where can you go to find other creative people to collaborate with? Where can I have candid conversations with people who are more experienced than me and who are willing to share their experiences? What are the different career paths I can pursue?

The idea that just by doing something often, you suddenly become good at it has never rung true with me. Of course, those that others might consider "talented" have to spend a lot of time and effort perfecting their craft, and they are not just magically good at it. But, it is also true that some people pick up particular skills more easily than others. People's minds work differently, and different sorts of activities require different ways of thinking.

To that end, there are tricks for effective storytelling and editing that work differently for different people. Assuming a writer will intimately understand the subtleties of what makes one story work better than another simply by reading a lot of comics is setting many people up for failure. Writers can and should be strategic with how they learn from the work they read. But how can writers do that effectively if they don't know what they are looking for?

This resource list is my attempt to answer these bigger yet more specific questions. Sometimes the answer really is, "Just do the thing." Sometimes, however, invaluable resources can be tricky for beginners to find.

I will return to this post and update it periodically. I don't think I will ever remove anything, but I may include notes about an outdated source.

Classes

Jim Higgins through The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (Two classes)

Sequential Artists Workshop - Online, in-person, and free weekly workshops

Center of Cartoon Studies - Workshops and Classes

"How-to" Books

Plenty of books contain a particular writer or author's process for making comics. I can't possibly include them all, so I will focus on ones that have been directly recommended to me or that I have read and found particularly useful.

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Reinventing Comics: The Evolution of an Art Form, and Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels

Filth & Grammar: The Comic Book Editor's (Secret) Handbook