Mini Manga: Mecha Manga by Yishan Li
A pocket guide to help you master the art of drawing manga robots and machines - the exciting genre of Japanese comic-book art.Feb 10
Regular readers of ABR will know of my allergy to pocket-size booksThis is art, fer goodness sake, make it big so we can see it, will you! Small is NOT beautiful, it's hard to see and you have to force the pages back till your hands hurt in order to see them. The pages, not your hands, don't get smart with me when I'm having a rant, it makes me angry. However, just once in a while something comes along that doesn't just float my boat, it launches a whole navy, kersplash, all at once. And these little books are one of those things. No, they shouldn't work and, yes, at a fiver a pop, they are expensive, but what they do, really rather neatly, is offer you a single idea on a spread. Nothing so very unusual in that, I'll grant you, but this is minimalism taken to its absolute limit and it really is just one thing, not even a whole concept. I like that. I like that you can have just Men's Jeans or The Female Mouth just on their own. In fact, I'd recommend Manga Tips to anyone who wants to draw the human figure because it's full of basic ideas (like the more comprehensive and better value Mega Manga). The other one that comes at the same time is Mecha Manga, which is more specialised, concentrating on that I take to be robot figures you can't do without. Both books are arranged by category, so finding things is very easy, though flicking through and trusting to serendipity is a good approach too.
Like I said, a fiver's a lot for a tiny book, but it's not a fiver wasted, I'd also say. And I don't say it often.
* Artbookreview.net *| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781844485215 |
| ISBN 10 | 1844485218 |
| Title | Mini Manga: Mecha Manga |
| Author | Yishan Li |
| Series | Mini Manga |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Search Press Ltd |
| Year published | 2009-12-01 |
| Number of pages | 192 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |