Marvel Try-Out Book

by Marvel Comics and John Lewandowski

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0785102744
• ISBN13: 9780785102748
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Marvel Comics Group
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 2.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great place to start practicing, but...

This is the sequel to the popular "Official Marvel Comics Try-out Book" of the mid- '80's. That book was the first place that writers, pencilers, inkers, letterers, and colorists could all find raw material to practice on so they would have something they could submit in the hope of getting a job at Marvel Comics. The original book was actually published as a contest and it started the career of Mark Bagley (he says so in the introduction to this book). The book would describe the job that a penciller, inker, letterer, etc. would have to do, what tools they could use, and then give pages ready for that person to work on (pages without color, pages without letters, pages without ink, etc.) The reader was then invited to go to town on the pages and submit the results.This book maintains the same overall format, but it updates it so that the story is about the X-Men, it is drawn by Andy Kubert, and the instructions take into account advances in technology, most especially how much computers can be used these days. These updates are very valuable, however there are fewer pencilled pages to ink over than in the original book, and they are printed in black ink, rather than "non-photo blue," as the first book was. This means inkers must use tracing paper rather than being able to ink directly on the art. Also, the Kubert pencils are exceptionally challenging to ink. I'm not suggesting that prospective artists shouldn't have to work hard, but rather that it is sometimes hard to tell what Mr. Kubert was trying to draw, especially wiht the word balloon placements indicated in black marker right on top of the art.There are five blank, pre-ruled pages in the back for pencillers to use. This is a good thing...the pages are very big. The full size, in fact, that Marvel uses for its originals.So if your need something to practice your comic art skills on, get this. But if you can get the original version, get that too.