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Tim Pilcher
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How Comics Work Paperback – September 15, 2017

by Dave Gibbons (Author), Tim Pilcher (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 106 ratings
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Learn how to make comics from one of the most prolific comics artists working today. How Comics Work is a masterclass taught by Britain s first Comics Laureate, Dave Gibbons. Packed full of rare and unpublished material from Gibbons archive it reveals insider tips on how comics such as 2000 AD and Watchmen were made.
Written in collaboration with award-winning writer and editor Tim Pilcher, the book is ordered sequentially and takes the reader through each stage of the comic s creation process starting with scriptwriting, moving through character and superhero design, lettering and colouring and finally on to covers and logo design. Each chapter ends with a spotlight on Gibbons artistic and creative heroes such as Wally Wood and Chip Kidd. Replete with real-life examples of Gibbons original art, this insightful course provides a unique, behind-the-scenes perspective on the creative process.
Dipping into Gibbons extensive archive, scans of original artwork, sketches and rarely seen workings illustrate Gibbons creative process. Learn about character design from the preparatory sketches of Star-Lord and Dan Dare; understand the stages of layout and page planning via the initial designs of Give Me Liberty; discover Gibbons handy tips for lettering using extracts from The Originals; and find out the secrets of successful writing with sample scripts from Superman vs. Batman: The World s Finest and The Green Lantern Corps.
 
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Rotovision
  4. Publication date
    September 15, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    10.24 x 0.83 x 9.09 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    2888933411
  7. ISBN-13
    978-2888933410
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rotovision (September 15, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 2888933411
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-2888933410
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.87 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.24 x 0.83 x 9.09 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 106 ratings

About the author

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Tim Pilcher

Tim Pilcher

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Tim Pilcher is a pop culture expert and has worked in and around the comics industry as an award-winning writer and editor. He initially started as an assistant editor at DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, based in London, working on ground-breaking titles like The Extremist by Peter Milligan & Ted McKeever; Enigma and Face by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo; The Mystery Play by Grant Morrison & Jon J Muth, Rogan Gosh by Peter Milligan & Brendan McCarthy; and Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison & Phillip Bond.

In 1992 he co-founded of the bi-lingual comics publishing house, Les Cartoonistes Dangereux, with Paul Peart, Brad Brooks, Dylan Horrocks and others. They published several critically acclaimed one-off graphic novels in English and French, including White Death by Robbie Morrison & Charlie Adlard, The Malice Family by Fareed Choudhury, Aunt Connie and the Plague of Beards by Jonathan Edwards and the first appearance of Fred the Clown by Roger Langridge.

He has written comics for the BBC, DeAgostini, Weldon Owen and the Young Telegraph and has worked for numerous book publishers including Penguin Children's Books and Dorling Kindersley.

As a journalist he has written for Deadline, Comic World, Tripwire, Education Today, Comics Forum, Criminal Justice Matters and G-Spot Magazine and Star Trek Magazine. Pilcher became an associate editor at Comics International, the UK's then-only comic book trade paper, alongside Dez Skinn. Pilcher has written numerous books on comics including The Complete Cartooning Course and The Essential Guide to World Comics with Brad Brooks. He has also contributed to numerous other books including, Comix: The Underground Revolution, 500 Comicbook Action Heroes, The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide (1st Edition), 500 Essential Graphic Novels and War Comics: A Graphic History. His Erotic Comics: A Graphic History Volumes 1 & 2,were the first serious survey of this genre in over 20 years. The books have been translated into French, German, Polish, and Czech and were Publication of the Year finalists in the 2010 UK Erotic Awards.

He regular gives talks on everything from Tijuana Bibles, Indian comics, the history of Ecstasy and other esoteric subjects and has lectured at Trinity College Dublin, Cambridge University, UCL, The Imperial War Museum, The British Library, Wilderness Festival and Port Eliot Festival and many other places.

He was a commissioning editor at Ilex Press, where he devised and launched an entire gift range of over 40 products and commissioned The Art of Neil Gaiman by Hayley Campbell, Alan Moore: Storyteller by Gary Spencer Millidge and The Art of Osamu Tezuka by Helen McCarthy, among many others.

He is the Chair of The Comic Book Alliance (www.comicbookalliance.co.uk), a not-for-profit organisation and "The Voice of the British Comics Industry" promoting books, graphic novels, webcomics and sequential art in its many forms. He occasionally updates his intermittent blog, Sex, Drugs and Comic Books (www.sexdrugsandcomicbooks.blogspot.com).

He has also written several non-comic related books including: Pilcher's Marijuana Miscellany (AKA Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Marijuana), e: The Incredibly Strange History of Ecstasy, Spliffs 2 & 3, and the bestselling The Cannabis Cookbook.

He successfully published his Kickstarter memoir of working at Vertigo UK called Comic Book Babylon: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs and Comics in November 2013. He performed the book as a one-man show at 2014's Brighton Fringe Festival and was nominated for Best Literary Event Award.

He edited and mentored the writers on two anthologies Brighton: The Graphic Novel and Brighton's Graphic War for Queenspark Books. Pilcher and Dave Gibbon's book, How Comics Work was nominated for a 2018 Eisner Award, and the two have run numerous workshops both together and separately.

He lives in Brighton, England.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
106 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

N. L. Passmore
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on all the technical facts of making comics
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2023
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I borrowed this book from the library, intending to just flip through and read bits here and there. However, I started at the beginning and found it so interesting, I read it all. Not only that, but I bought my own copy so I could go back and underline bits.

Dave Gibbons has more than 40 years experience as a comic book and graphic novel artist. As a Brit, he's worked on some UK classics like Dan Dare and Dr Who, but he's also worked for DC Comics, drawing characters such as Superman, Batman and Green Lantern, as well as other comics and graphic novels. In short, he knows a lot about comics.

The book looks at all the facets of comic book creation, including scriptwriting, visual groundwork, sequential storytelling, lettering, colouring and design. There are lots of examples of artwork to illustrate each point, mainly by Dave, but also by some other featured artists. The co-author Tim Pilcher, provides most of the commentary and picture captions, using Dave's words and practices.

The only very slight criticism I have is that I wish there were more exercises at the end. He gives some great suggestions, but it's only four pages of the whole book. It might have been useful to have some exercises at the end of each chapter. Though of course there's nothing to stop you from taking the info from each chapter and doing your own exercises.

If you're interested in creating your own comic books or graphic novels, this book should be essential reading. However, you'll still find much to enjoy if you are a fan of comics, art or graphic design. Highly recommended.
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Bill Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars It is among the best of the how-to books
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2018
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How Comics Work is the new instructional tome by Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons. It is among the best of the how-to books, earning space on the shelf next to UNDERSTANDING COMICS and the DC COMICS GUIDES to creating great comics.

There are loads of sketches from his work on GREEN LANTERN, WATCHMEN, MARTHA WASHINGTON, THE ORIGINALS and more.

The design tends to dedicate the double-page spreads to one topic or aspect of the process. Script writing, Logo design, lettering, coloring, character design and visual storytelling are all covered. Dave Gibbons also shows respect to the trail-blazers of the medium as he cites his influences.

Highly recommended.
7 people found this helpful
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What The
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2018
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Good insight into comic books.
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Dave Kender
5.0 out of 5 stars Dave Gibbons is a legend in comics. When legends share their process, it’s worth hearing what they have to say.
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2017
(Full disclosure: The publisher sent me this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Dave Gibbons is a legend in comics. When legends speak, it’s worth hearing what they have to say.

Pros
- A living legend shares his process for creating comics
- Straightforward organization of information
- Best practices that are valuable for beginners and veterans

Cons
- May read as “thin” to anyone wanting detailed step-by-step instructions
- Advice on digital processes a little behind the times

There are a host of books about the comics process, and I’ve read a number of them. “How Comics Work” is a solid primer for beginners, as well as a useful resource for veterans who might want a little kick in the pants to get out of their habits.

It is decidedly not a detailed how-to or step-by-step instruction manual—a fact that may frustrate some readers. That said, the internet is awash with material that can fill in the gaps. While I’d love to see Dave Gibbons expand on his practices, that’s not what he gives us here.

This is a process book. Specifically, it’s Gibbons’s storytelling process from ideation, through sketches, pencils, inks, lettering, and layout. Another Amazon reviewer wrote (with some frustration) that it should have been titled “How Comics Work — for Dave Gibbons.” There’s a lot of truth there, and perhaps the title does oversell it a little. But it doesn’t change the fact that Gibbons is a master of the form. We should absolutely want to know how comics work for one person, if the person in question is uniquely and intensely talented.

“How Comics Work” has a great layout and structure. I can easily imagine an artists finding themselves stumped mid-process—maybe working a tricky page payout—and saying “What was it that Gibbons said?” and then jumping to that chapter.

His examples are well-curated, pulling from a long back catalog of titles. Obviously we all would have enjoyed a “how I made Watchmen” book, but it only gets the occasional reference. Maybe it’s a usage rights issue. Maybe he’s just sick of being known as “the Watchmen guy.” Either way, I enjoyed being introduced for the first time to some hidden gems.

While Gibbons’s advice on character design, sketching, and all things analog is solid, he’s on shakier ground when it comes to digital. This is where co-author Tim Pitcher or an editor could have stepped in a little to provide some cover, or perhaps the whole issue could have been sidestepped.

“How Comics Work” is not the be-all end-all book on making comics. I doubt such a book exists. But it’s a powerful reference tool and source of inspiration for the motivated comics creator.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful for Beginners and Professionals
Reviewed in Canada on March 23, 2022
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I think anyone interested in the process of creating comics will find this useful. It's not a book on drawing theory or another How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. I find it more akin to Scott McCloud's Making comics. If you're looking for insight on the architecture of creating a comic from one of the best to do it, I think you're going to get value out if this purchase.
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JOHN FARRELLY
5.0 out of 5 stars Stop reading this and go and buy it.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2017
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I decided fairly recently that Dave Gibbons is my favourite comic artist of all time. I don't say this lightly as I have greatly admired the work of many other superb artists over the years but Dave wins out as he is such a great all-rounder. His career has encompassed all of comic art's disciplines that are normally divided between other people - writer, penciller, inker, letterer, colourist, cover artist and designer - a few times all of these things at once. So I was delighted when he finally authored (with Tim Pilcher) this beautifully produced, comprehensive and great-value-for money tome that should be on every comic artist's shelf. As well as being packed full of Dave's own beautiful work, he has included the work of fellow professionals to illustrate his points and those who provided inspiration. Also, he does not balk at showing us his older work, some of it dating back to the early 70s. This warts an all approach shows his growth as an artist and that yes, there is hope for the rest of us if we just stick at it. Dave is a stalwart on both sides of Atlantic and he is definitely one to listen to and learn from, giving us the benefit of his more than 40 years of working in the business. I rate this book very highly for its clear, concise instruction as one of the best on the art of making comics - and I've read quite a few. Stop reading this and go and buy it.
3 people found this helpful
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Lorenzo
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on May 15, 2018
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Fantastic looking book...Can't wait to dig in and absorb all of Dave Gibbons Knowledge :)
One person found this helpful
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SteveDeeGreen
5.0 out of 5 stars unless they really wanted a hardback or didn't like the stock used
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2017
Verified Purchase
Not sure what the reviewer above means by production quality - I couldn't see anything wrong with it, unless they really wanted a hardback or didn't like the stock used.

Paper stock is matt, which I prefer to glossy - clear layouts, some great roughs from older pieces to more modern pieces from Dave, as well as a recurring few pages on influences.

I've only scratched the surface, but I guess I'd say it's more accessible than most to the casual reader - many topics with a few pages on each.

I guess it could have gone more in-depth, but it would have read more like a technical manual.

Well worth the money for anyone with a passing interest in comics.
3 people found this helpful
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pierre bourgouin
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book!
Reviewed in Canada on September 11, 2018
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I like the book, very complete!Altough I was expecting a bit more on the technical side...
One person found this helpful
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