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Manga Mania
Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics
The only step-by-step guide ever published on drawing this wildly popular style of comic book art—perfect for every age!
Take a look at the wild popularity of such shows as Pokémon, Digimon, and Dragonball Z, and you'll see the Manga style of comic-book art in action. There's no doubt about Manga is hot. And Manga Mania is the only guide that details, step by step, how young and veteran artists alike can draw fantasy robots, diabolical monsters, mythical animals, and the other exciting characters that are part of this exciting genre.
Manga art has many the young Manga style, à la Pokémon; and the more mature style popular with teens and adults. Manga Mania covers them both. Big, splashy chapters demonstrate how to draw martial arts, special effects, and much, much more. Since the Manga style stresses character rather than anatomy, Manga comics are easier to draw. So a beginning comic-book artist can easily learn the tricks of the trade.
Chris Hart, known for his very clear step-by-step illustrations and accompanying text, details how anyone can become a real Manga artist without having to reinvent the art of drawing.
Take a look at the wild popularity of such shows as Pokémon, Digimon, and Dragonball Z, and you'll see the Manga style of comic-book art in action. There's no doubt about Manga is hot. And Manga Mania is the only guide that details, step by step, how young and veteran artists alike can draw fantasy robots, diabolical monsters, mythical animals, and the other exciting characters that are part of this exciting genre.
Manga art has many the young Manga style, à la Pokémon; and the more mature style popular with teens and adults. Manga Mania covers them both. Big, splashy chapters demonstrate how to draw martial arts, special effects, and much, much more. Since the Manga style stresses character rather than anatomy, Manga comics are easier to draw. So a beginning comic-book artist can easily learn the tricks of the trade.
Chris Hart, known for his very clear step-by-step illustrations and accompanying text, details how anyone can become a real Manga artist without having to reinvent the art of drawing.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
12 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hart
155 books203 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 4, 2023
Cuenta con consejos bastante buenos para el dibujo básico de anime y manga con tips útiles para la elaboración de un bosquejo de calidad. Realmente bueno 👍
December 7, 2015
This helped me a lot with my drawing!
September 16, 2025
Awful tutorial for a manga style you better off just looking up resources. If anyone read this interested in how manga artist do it look for actual videos of their process like Manben or just copy and study their artwork, you're better off with that.
October 16, 2019
Good drawing strategies like the robot and kids
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2016
During the anime boom that began about 15 years ago, these "how to draw manga" books exploded onto the market. Naturally, as a fan of shows such as Evangelion and FLCL, I wanted to draw something similar in style, so I found myself looking for these books, and to accumulate a small collection of them. When one looks for these books, ideally you want to find works written and illustrated by actual manga-ka, or illustrators of manga. Unfortunately, while I was lucky enough to snag a couple volumes of Sketching Manga, the best "how to draw manga" books have all but disappeared from the shelves. Now their place is held by one of the biggest charlatans of the art world, Christopher Hart.
I find this unfortunate, because amateur artists are now looking into Hart's work, even though his instructions aren't actually a useful foundation for illustration. Rather than showing how to begin a character illustration, set up a pose, and so on, Hart will just start with a pose and expect the reader to do the same. How is this helpful for a beginner that wants to learn how to create original works? It isn't. Instead, they learn how to draw the poses and illustrations that Hart has created. They've learned nothing on anatomy, abstraction, or just about anything that a fresh, naive, newbie artist needs to illustrate their own characters. His level of instruction is like that of an elementary school art teacher who has you do specific projects similar to what she's done, while not cultivating the style of the individual.
So let's assume that you actually do learn something from Christopher Hart's book. Congratulations! You've learned crappy art. If you've developed even the slightest eye for talent, it's really obvious that Hart's work is really low-tier. Just compare his art with the work of actual Japanese character artists, such as Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Evangelion and FLCL, Toshihiro Wakamoto of Cowboy Bebop, and Takeshi Obata of Death Note and Bakuman. Compared to actual big names of Japanese animation and comic books, Chritopher Hart's work just can't measure up. If I were to learn art from a big name, I'd want advice from industry veterans, not a rank amateur. And while his recent works show a jump in quality, he's still not to the level where I'd want to learn from him.
Normally, I write reviews for myself. However, for Christopher Hart's books, I leave a warning. Before you decide to pick up his work, consider the question of whether or not there's something better, to which I'd say, "There is." If anyone reads this, I'll leave a list of artists and books on the subject of art instruction that are more useful.
Graphic-Sha's "How to Draw Manga" and "Sketching Manga" series
Will Eisner
Tom Bancroft
Andrew Loomis
Burne Hogarth
James Gurney
Betty Edwards
Artists to avoid:
Christopher Hart
Ben Dunn
Fred Perry
Arisa Suyama - I came across a book by her on Amazon. Strong voices tell me that most of the work is ripped off and her own work is crap.
Mark Crilley
Katy Coope
While I generally avoid telling people to torrent on the internet, I'll make an exception for the "Sketching Manga" series by Grpahic-Sha. They're my favorite books by that publisher, though it's unfortunate to say that the series was cancelled and no longer printed. The only place you'll easily find them is online, ranging anywhere into the hundreds of dollars. That's not exactly helpful to artists who are interested in the books. To that I say, "Torrent away!" After all, since you can't actually buy these books new anymore, you can't actually contribute to Graphic-Sha and its artists by buying them from resellers at extremely marked-up prices.
I find this unfortunate, because amateur artists are now looking into Hart's work, even though his instructions aren't actually a useful foundation for illustration. Rather than showing how to begin a character illustration, set up a pose, and so on, Hart will just start with a pose and expect the reader to do the same. How is this helpful for a beginner that wants to learn how to create original works? It isn't. Instead, they learn how to draw the poses and illustrations that Hart has created. They've learned nothing on anatomy, abstraction, or just about anything that a fresh, naive, newbie artist needs to illustrate their own characters. His level of instruction is like that of an elementary school art teacher who has you do specific projects similar to what she's done, while not cultivating the style of the individual.
So let's assume that you actually do learn something from Christopher Hart's book. Congratulations! You've learned crappy art. If you've developed even the slightest eye for talent, it's really obvious that Hart's work is really low-tier. Just compare his art with the work of actual Japanese character artists, such as Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Evangelion and FLCL, Toshihiro Wakamoto of Cowboy Bebop, and Takeshi Obata of Death Note and Bakuman. Compared to actual big names of Japanese animation and comic books, Chritopher Hart's work just can't measure up. If I were to learn art from a big name, I'd want advice from industry veterans, not a rank amateur. And while his recent works show a jump in quality, he's still not to the level where I'd want to learn from him.
Normally, I write reviews for myself. However, for Christopher Hart's books, I leave a warning. Before you decide to pick up his work, consider the question of whether or not there's something better, to which I'd say, "There is." If anyone reads this, I'll leave a list of artists and books on the subject of art instruction that are more useful.
Graphic-Sha's "How to Draw Manga" and "Sketching Manga" series
Will Eisner
Tom Bancroft
Andrew Loomis
Burne Hogarth
James Gurney
Betty Edwards
Artists to avoid:
Christopher Hart
Ben Dunn
Fred Perry
Arisa Suyama - I came across a book by her on Amazon. Strong voices tell me that most of the work is ripped off and her own work is crap.
Mark Crilley
Katy Coope
While I generally avoid telling people to torrent on the internet, I'll make an exception for the "Sketching Manga" series by Grpahic-Sha. They're my favorite books by that publisher, though it's unfortunate to say that the series was cancelled and no longer printed. The only place you'll easily find them is online, ranging anywhere into the hundreds of dollars. That's not exactly helpful to artists who are interested in the books. To that I say, "Torrent away!" After all, since you can't actually buy these books new anymore, you can't actually contribute to Graphic-Sha and its artists by buying them from resellers at extremely marked-up prices.
October 9, 2013
A great little instructional introduction to drawing manga. With the exception of a couple of boobie-fantastic sketch examples, I'd generally call this a good place to start for kids as young as 10+ who've taken an interest in replication this style of art (with parental discretion advised).
I'll admit, I still reference it form time to time when I'm working on a comic strip and need to work out a trickier figure angle. Granted, my skill level is still pretty rudimentary--which is why I'd describe it as a -basic- introduction.
I'll admit, I still reference it form time to time when I'm working on a comic strip and need to work out a trickier figure angle. Granted, my skill level is still pretty rudimentary--which is why I'd describe it as a -basic- introduction.
February 29, 2016
It's just meh. Some of the anatomy in there (especially facial anatomy) looks really, really distorted, and the teaching method isn't very helpful. If you're looking for these kinds of books, I'd recommend Mark Crilley's "Mastering Manga" (seriously, this book taught me sooooo much and I actually wonder how my drawing skills would be if I never found it). This book I could live without.
October 15, 2010
This book will teach you vass styles of Manga drawing and teach you techniques that will be very useful to you when it comes to drawing. This book is so AWESOME, no its more then awesome its BeAwesome!
July 25, 2008
Nice book, a lot of examples, well explained, but sadly enough does not explain much about the real basics.
November 5, 2008
I learned ho to draw
April 15, 2013
Homer Simpson says, "Irony"
June 30, 2013
It provided good instructions and pretty cool illustrations as well. I'll be reading it again.
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May 24, 2017jhjhjhj
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March 10, 2019Great Book, teaches much about Drawing Manga, and I must say I enjoyed it. You will really want to read this book, and any book by this author if you want to improve your Manga Artwork.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews