Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist by Eisner, Will [W. W. Norton,2008]

Sequential Art #3

by Will Eisner

Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist by Eisner, Will. Published by W. W. Norton,2008, Paperback

Genres: Art, Comics, Nonfiction, Writing, Drawing, Graphic Novels, Reference

Unknown Binding

First published August 17, 2008

About the author

William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Omar Misdaq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cobbled together from notes following Eisner's death and it shows. But Eisner was a master and this is at least a reminder of his supreme skill at expressing emotion in his characters through his mastery of gesture, facial expressions, and human anatomy. I'll be checking out his other two since they were actually fully written by him.

[Peibols Beckham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obra póstuma de Eisner. Es un buen complemento para su estudio de la narración, ya que profundiza en lo importante que es la anatomía y los gestos en el cómic. Interesante para tener una base y de más detalle a las historias.

[Paul Hallam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great examples from Will Eisner’s art. It would have been more helpful if there was more step by step and detailed instruction.

[Angie S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn't really a how-to-illustrate type book. In fact, I think one would need to already know the fundamentals of anatomy and comic illustration to get much from it. It is, however, excellent at describing the way various emotions alter bodily postures and facial expressions. I checked this book out because I have enjoyed Eisner's work in the past, and it is full of panels of his work. I really enjoyed it for his examples alone.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative is one of the three Will Eisner instructional books. The other two are Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Comics and Sequential Art.

I bought the book to learn how to pose characters properly and create strong silhouettes. I'm glad to say that this book provides tons of examples selected from Will Eisner's years of comics.

Will Eisner started the book but unfortunately passed away in 2005 before he could finish it. Enter Peter Poplaski, an artist who have worked long time beside him. Peter Poplaski was engaged to add the finishing touches for the book with some additional drawings. The majority of art work is still from Will Eisner's archive.

The first few chapters explain the anatomy and how it affects movement. It offers a basic introduction to the latter chapters and is definitely not a substitute for an anatomy book.

The core concept of the book is actually this: human actions come from reflex and emotions.

The bulk of the book is devoted to showing examples of how certain feelings are express through body language and gesture. Each example is clearly explained and exceptionally easy to understand. Even if speech balloons are taken away from the example comic panels, readers will still know how the characters are feeling. Such is the power of a strong silhouette.

Included are also many other techniques to help breath life into characters, such as staging, composition, positioning of characters etc.

This book is very useful for any artists who wants to create believable characters people can relate to.

This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.

[Ted Henkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative is the last of the instructional series trilogy written by Will Eisner.

This was, by far, the quickest instruction manual I've ever read. That's because "Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative" is mostly composed of artwork illustrating--well--expressive anatomy. In other words: How to convey emotions through facial expressions and body language.

I was able to finish the book in one sitting, which is rare for me, even when reading graphic novels.

Not only was the narrative short & sweet, so are most of the reviews on Amazon.com.

Even just having Eisner's complete instructional series is enough for me to start off by giving Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative a 4-star rating.

But since it was so easy and entertaining to read, I'll bump up my rating to 5-stars.

[Philippe Lhoste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le dernier tome de cette série. Riche en information, en dessins inédits autant que de classiques plus ou moins complets, et de citations d'auteurs.

Ce tome insiste sur la création de personnages, y compris l'anatomie, nécessaire à maîtriser pour mieux la détourner, caricaturer, restituer des expressions tant faciales que corporelles.
L'auteur dresse un catalogue, nécessairement incomplet mais très riche déjà, de telles expressions, qui sont un domaine où il excelle.

Indispensable pour quiconque veut faire de la BD ou de l'illustration au-delà des stéréotypes.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Relative to others in this collection, this item is woefully incomplete and a relative jumble. Eisner passed before completing it on his own; and as a result, there are far too many chapters, far too little contextualizing, and little in the way of actually assessing the effectiveness of anatomy in comics. Very surface level, and inadequate at that.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicht das beste Buch der Trilogie, wohl auch, weil es teilweise nach Eisners Tod entstand. Bilder und Texte sind teilweise aus den anderen Bänden übernommen. Und überhaupt gibt es viele Bilder & Beispiele aber wenig Theorie.

[Ted]

comics,comic book,sequential art,how to,instructional

[Chris Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Two stars for Eisner's beautiful drawings, but as an instructional book on anatomy it really isn't worth it.

[Brian Bowes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best book, but let's face it, Will Eisner even on his worse day is freaking fantastic!

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of disappointed in this book; was hoping it would be more of a "how to."