What I learned from John Buscema:

I remember checking out How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way from our public library, and pouring over each line that John Buscema used to demonstrate the art of drawing comics. I have recently rediscovered this gem, and believe despite my Master's degree in Sequential Art, that this book contains all the vital information that one needs to understand how to draw comics. Granted Stan and John simplified the process somewhat, but all the basics are here.

This book helped me to draw not just the contours I saw, but to draw the forms that made up my figures. In short they gave me a new way of visualizing what I was drawing. Instead of drawing outlines and shapes, I began to conceptualize things into 3-D objects and began to draw parts of the figure that were hidden from view.


The book also broke down perspective drawing for me and got me thinking not only about my figure drawing skills, but about how the camera angle played apart in the storytelling. The name of the game was drama and the book gave excellent examples of how you could utilize camera angles to heighten the emotion of the panels.

John Buscema and his work were and will continue to be a recurring influence on me as a comic book artist. I value the effort he put into this book, and the lessons I've learned from it are still with me every time I pick up a pencil to layout a page. Thank you "Big John".

- Anthony Summey