Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice

by Ivan Brunetti

From the editor of Yale's Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories , a smart and charming guide to the art of cartooning Winner of the 2012 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for the Best Academic/Scholarly Work 

"Brunetti has given the cartooning world something very similar to what Strunk & White gave to prose with their Elements of Style.  . . . Keep it right next to your desk where you can find it at a moment’s notice."—Tim O’Neil, PopMatters.com The best cartooning is efficient visual storytelling—it is as much a matter of writing as it is of drawing. In this book, noted cartoonist and illustrator Ivan Brunetti presents fifteen distinct lessons on the art of cartooning, guiding his readers through wittily written passages on cartooning terminology, techniques, tools, and theory. Supplemented by Brunetti's own illustrations, prepared specially for this book, these lessons move the reader from spontaneous drawings to single-panel strips and complicated multipage stories. Through simple, creative exercises and assignments, Brunetti offers an unintimidating approach to a complex art form. He looks at the rhythms of storytelling, the challenges of character design, and the formal elements of comics while composing pages in his own iconic style and experimenting with a variety of tools, media, and approaches. By following the author's sophisticated and engaging perspective on the art of cartooning, aspiring cartoonists of all ages will hone their craft, create their personal style, and discover their own visual language.

Genres: Art, Comics, Nonfiction, Drawing, Writing, Graphic Novels, How To

77 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2011

About the author

Known for his dark humor and simple, yet effective drawing style. Brunetti's best known work is his autobiographical comic series Schizo. Four issues have appeared between 1994 and 2006. Schizo #4 won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic of the Year in 2006.


He has also done numerous covers of The New Yorker.

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a syllabus for a 15-week course on cartooning. I like that it puts a strong focus on storytelling over art technique. By focusing on storytelling fundamentals, it ensures that the comics you create will be more interesting to read. Additionally, the author's personality comes through in his writing, which makes the book an enjoyable read.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Lynda Barry's wonderful books What It Is and Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor, I have started drawing again after a hiatus of about 10 years. I am not a very accomplished artist but I love to draw. It has been great getting back to it. Barry recommends Brunetti's book in her book, Syllabus. (And Brunetti recommends What It Is in Cartooning.)

Both Barry and Brunetti have made me ponder how one approaches the creation of a story. For me, the process of thinking in pictures helps me get out of my own head and observe the world more slowly and carefully. Using cartoons as a medium frees me from the heavy burden of telling a "big" story, which often, in my case, results in writer's block. This way, I can think in vignettes or scenes or even in a single-panel format which is a great way to try to get down to an essential element or feeling.

As I attempted the exercises, I was delighted to find that as I was trying to draw my subject I occasionally stumbled (usually due to my lack of skill) on some nuance I hadn't consciously considered previously.

I recommend Cartooning and the exercises therein to anyone generally interested in the art and process of storytelling.

[Anca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous book. Beautiful cover, beautiful typesetting, good binding, wonderful content. Though I didn't get what I was expecting (something more along the lines of Scott McCloud's books) the book was really interesting and, well... short. I would have loved to keep on reading. Thankfully, the book references an abundance of works for further study.
Last but not least, Ivan Brunetti comes across as the nicest person ever.

[Bryce Galloway]

Introduction is that odd mix of self-effacement and surety of opinion
I should reserve judgement on the greater 15 week instructional section of the book until I’ve applied said instructions, though, from the outside, they seem convincing; they’re given enough context and motivation by the author… I’m sold
Love this quote on Page 71:
“The film editor Walter Murch articulated a principle underlying the arts: “Always try to do the most with the least – with the emphasis on try,” He further explained: “Suggestion is always more effective than exposition. Past a certain point, the more effort you put into wealth of detail, the more you encourage the audience to become spectators rather than participants.””

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynda Barry made me read it.

[Greg Allan Holcomb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an activity book on cartooning. Use it to build your skills or just to keep 'em sharp. Well worth picking up if you want to comic.

This shouldn't be the first book you pick up on doing comics, but it's one of the ones to pick up when you want to get serious.


Just so you know- there's a lot of shitty books on cartooning, this is not one of those.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good for developing storytelling skills, even if cartoons aren't your forte. It makes you think about visual images as well as textual ones, and how they work together, which is a great skill now where storytelling has become more and more cinematic. If your focus is writing screenplays, all the better.

[Michael Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice is Ivan Brunetti's textbook on the basics of drawing comics. Covering a 15-week course, the book guides the student from the simplest doodles to a four-page comoc strip. There's honesty and very little hand-holding in the approach - take it or leave it. Best suited for a starting yet grown-up cartoonist.

You will understand more about the lack of hand-holding approach by considering the author's answer to the eternal student question of 'What tools do I need for this course?'. The answer is:

"The only tools absolutely required for this course are:

Paper

Pencil

Life

All else is vanity"

2011 print edition, Page 16.

The syllabus is deceptivelt simple, but in my mind well-structured and effective. The student stabegins with a doodle; but Week 1's first doodling exercise is already 'toothy': the student must draw an object in 3-4 minutes, then in only 2, then in 1, then successively in 30, 15, and finally only 5 seconds. Try it out! What if the object is complex, like a car? Or yourself? (This exercise is how I learned about this book - Lynda Barry discusses it in her outstanding Making Comics.)

The syllabus progresses quickly, focusing on principles of technique rather than creativity (in contrast, see Lynda Barry's Making Comics.) The exercises are good and push your (starter) limits. To my surprise, I found this to be yet another complement to Scott McCloud's Making Comics. There simply is so much to learn about making comics!

I also liked the links to excellent comics work. Every recommendation Ivan Brunetti makes is really good, and I liked the prominent space given to Chris Ware.

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynda Barry led me to this compact course in a book. Things I will try to remember is that the early exercises can be used to break out of artist's block, and an exercise to blend the style's of two artists, one I love and one I hate. McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 would be a good resource for the latter.

Other things I highlighted:

[O]ne can be a good instructor despite not necessarily being a great talent in that field. A good teacher, essentially, brings out good work from the students, or rather points the students toward wringing good work from themselves.

[W]hat is cartooning, ultimately, but a consistent and identifiable system of communicative marks expressing our unique experience of life?

When drawing characters quickly from memory, one can be quite inaccurate, almost as if one is inventing new characters, and these "mistakes" can serve as the basis for new character designs. This allows students to see their own styles more clearly. A page full of these doodles can help a student discern certain qualities that are consistent within his or her set of drawings. These qualities are a clue as to what makes one's particular visual handwriting different or unique, and these should be embraced by the student.
Art Spiegelman once told me of a quote by Picasso: "Style is the difference between a circle and the way you draw it."

[W]e must not force [style] upon our artwork, but rather let it grow of its own volition, from the totality of our influences and abilities (or inabilities, as the case may be). When style is not the natural outcome, the outgrowth, of all these things, we have instead a repugnant, off-putting mannerism.

From Walter Murch's In the Blink of an Eye: "Always try to do the most with the least - with the emphasis on try...Suggestion is always more effective than exposition. Past a certain point, the more effort you put into wealth of detail, the more you encourage the audience to become spectators rather than participants."

Admittedly, art is somewhat like spit. It does not repulse or even worry us while it is still inside of us, but once it exits our body, it becomes disgusting.

[Anna Sellheim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with how pretentious this book is! The exercises are generic, but MANNNN does Brunetti think highly of himself! It's honestly a joy to read him talk so highly about gag comics, how "collaboration" isn't always bad ("per se"), and how he came to be an authority on how to comics when the book he did before this was 90% dead hooker jokes (I don't care about your politics- the problem is less that it's dead hooker jokes as much it's THE SAME dead hooker joke published 20 years after their height in the 80s).

Oh also, he lectures you, the reader, about if don't want to do it his way, this book/class isn't for you (he possibly copied and pasted his syllabus?)

Materials to make comics:
Paper
Pencil
Life experience!

^^^wisdom from the book.
Ironic 5/5 stars!

[Elizabeth Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published 2011–This is the author’s university-level cartooning class in book form. It is assigned by another cartoonist, Lynda Barry, for students in her cartooning classes at UW-Madison. This brief book contains 15 lessons in short chapters, each of which has one or more drawing exercises and a homework assignment. Brunetti offers it as a means of “creative self-discovery.” He is more interested in prompting students to develop the habits, and habits of mind, of a cartoonist than he in helping them develop specific drawing skills. “The deepest realizations come to us from the daily practice of drawing.” His love for and deep thinking about the art form shine through.

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up based on Lynda Barry’s recommendation, and I guess I can see what she sees in it. Brunetti divides his text up into a 15-week program (so more or less semester length) complete with lessons and homework assignments. But there’s more philosophy here than practical advice. Quotable quotes abound. Overall the work is best suited for those seeking an intellectual approach to the art of cartooning, though perhaps folks who’ve been doing it for awhile may find some fresh perspectives as well. Absolute beginners might be better off seeking something more basic.

[Redi Bortoluzzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 Um curso de quatorze semanas para você pensar a sua arte. Ainda que tenha lições muito básicas, mesmo quadrinhistas cascudos podem conseguir extrair um material valioso ao longo dos exercícios.

O autor levanta algumas teses meio polêmicas, mas que merecem alguma reflexão, especialmente a discussão sobre charge política.

Orgânico e analógico, é um livro pra se sujar de nanquim!

[Nicholas Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

Developed as a text for a course the author delivered, it's a little dry and feels like it relies on their coursework and feedback. The exercises are well written and progress naturally, but the book is more a condensed zeitgeist of the theory of cartooning than a "Make Cartoons!" style how-to book.

[rumbledethumps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sure this would be very useful for someone who is looking to create comics. There is a lot of insight, and some fairly practical steps to becoming better at cartooning.

But it's definitely focused on a classroom environment. He often recommends using a photocopier as one of your tools to shrink or enlarge images, for example.

[JTGlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynda Barry brought me here. This one is from the library and I am sure we're going to get one for the summer when we can devote time to doing each week's exercise. I enjoyed the references to Catcher in the Rye.

[Sia Karamalegos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiny but dense with practical exercises. Will definitely pick it back up if I ever decide to do more cartooning for real. For now, it's just another way to practice sketchbook creativity. Still some good exercises

[Martina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read as prep for teaching my drawing class, on the suggestion of Lynda Barry. I really like Brunetti’s approach to learning, trying, and failing. The introduction and conclusion were especially poignant!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a perfect, short, and profound encouragement to pick up a pencil and create your own cartoons. This is a lovely, tiny book on cartooning. Lynda Barry recommended it, and I do, too.

[Haya Alkhalifa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to get you started.

I enjoyed the authors anecdotes and personal input in each chapter. The book was an easy read and a good starting point for budding cartoonists.

[mmmm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great!

[Moon Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Heard of this from Lynda Barry's books

[Kathy Brown]

I don't do stars but this is a great intro into a self-directed cartooning program.

[Lesia Schnur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. The exercises are incredibly helpful, even for a non-cartoonist.

[Melanie Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Write for yourself, do not concern yourself with pleasing your audience (it is impossible, anyway)" (73).

"It is all right not to know what it is you are tying to communicate, exactly, ahead of time. Part of the creative process is exploring our thoughts, letting our guard down, and laying ourselves on the line, as we try to work through these things" (73).

According to Chris Ware and Seth (pen name of Gregory Gallant), "when you sit down to draw, you should 'dress for work.' Have respect for your craft. Put on a pair of pants" (71).

"Admittedly, art is like spit. It does not repulse or even worry us while it is still inside of us. But once it exits our body, it becomes disgusting" (73).

This book is like a syllabus that has passages that read as if spoken by the teacher to add in explanation. Brunetti writes with the confidence of a person who is a master of his skill. I found this book to be helpful with my fiction writing and that it does not simply apply to cartooning.

[Jenny Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, spare, demanding, applicable to all art forms

A fifteen week cartooning course that might take 150-300 hours. Although there is more emphasis on visual language than writing, it will help the comics writer to be more economical and elegant. It would be fruitful to work through this course with others in a group. Brunetti considers powerful universal principles relevant to writing, music, performance, e.g. spontaneity vs. deliberation, a rough order in which a beginning artist should acquire the fundamentals (“marketing” and “making connections” is last) and cheerful encouragement to persist through reams of “bad” work. Would pair well with “Art & Fear” as well as Lynda Barry’s “Making Comics” for those having trouble getting started.

[High Plains Library District · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim book is a full 15-week class on cartooning. The best part? No drawing talent is required. Okay, for those of us who can't draw, who forget basic physiology and draw reversed hands and have no idea about facial proportion, the exercise notebook is a little embarrassing to keep around. There are some cat drawings in mine that would make an outside observer question whether I've ever actually seen a cat outside of a Master And Margarita fever dream. But hey, I don't need practice in something I'm already good at. A book on eating donuts? Not necessary. I'm great at that already. A book on DRAWING donuts in cartoon style? Okay, that I could use.

~Peter

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thoughtful take on comic art by Ivan Brunetti, whose work has appeared in McSweeney’s and The New Yorker , is the condensed version of a course the author teaches on the art of cartooning. He presents a series of assignments designed to help readers express themselves eloquently in words and pictures. One especially clever exercise walks readers through the process of distilling a complete story into a one-panel comic strip using J.D. Salinger’s classic The Catcher in the Rye as an example. Don’t be fooled by the whimsical cover; this book is decidedly aimed at adults.

[Edward O'Neill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was let down by this.

Brunetti tacitly assumes that the drawing part itself cannot nor need not be taught.

He gives problems for students to solve, but the problems themselves are so challenging, it's difficult to see how the student is helped in any way.

Perhaps this works with Brunetti's tutelage, but this book is very far from giving anyone not already adept the wherewithal to think about problems of pictorial representation and storytelling.

Basically, this is the graphic novel equivalent of the Strunk-and-White approach: be clear and get to it.

Not enough.

[Somya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Art is somewhat like spit. It does not repulse or even worry us while it is still inside of us, but once it exits our body, it becomes disgusting.” - Ivan Brunetti

This book is really good for anyone interested in cartooning. Brunetti is so precise with his wit, it's cutting. As an aside, the size, typography, graphic design and tactile experience of the book is perfect and very enjoyable to revel in.