Step-by-step guidance on creating manga, the popular Japanese-style comics

Featuring youthful characters with oversized eyes and outsized emotions, expressive graphics, and a wide range of genres, Japanese manga (comics) and anime (animated cartoons) have taken the world by storm in the last few decades. And while much of manga still originates in Japan, American comic book and graphic novel publishers have recently begun producing their own home-grown manga. This friendly guide shows would-be manga artists how to get started, explaining manga's graphic and storytelling conventions and guiding people step by step from preliminary rough sketches to finished full-color art. Complete with eight pages of color illustrations, advice on plotlines and storyboards, and tips on drawing teens, heroes, villains, weapons, cars, homes, and more, it's the ideal beginner's guide for aspiring manga artists.

Kensuke Okabayashi (Jersey City, NJ) is a professional artist. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, his work can be seen in everything from comic books to graphic novels to advertising storyboards. Kensuke teaches art classes at the Educational Alliance Art School in New York City.