Cartoonist S Bible

Provides advice for creating cartoon illustrations in a wide range of styles and media and includes tips on exaggerating characters, creating funny expressions, and adding backgrounds and speech balloons.

How to do almost anything.

The Cartoonist's Bible is a fun-packed illustrative guide dedicated to all areas of cartooning, from character creation to animation.

Though biblical scholars have searched for centuries, little is known about the childhood of Jesus. Fortunately, this incomplete picture gives Spencer Smith and Mark Penta ample room for their entertaining and highly imaginative cartoon book Young Jesus Chronicles. With a tongue-in-cheek premise that the book is the result of a recently unearthed account of Jesus's formative years as deciphered by Vatican-authorized experts (that is, cartoonists Smith and Penta), Young Jesus Chronicles is a clever and lighthearted collection of cartoons that celebrates the joy of puns and wordplay as much as it rewards you for paying attention in Sunday Bible school. We may never know the answer to the question, WWJD (What Would Jesus Draw)? But there's a chance (albeit very slim) the answer might be a cartoon memoir of His childhood similar to Young Jesus Chronicles.

The Cartoon New Testament explores scripture passages from the common lectionary through the use of cartoons and musings. The passages are in biblical order by book, chapter and verse. The lectionary three-year cycle is referenced at the end of the book. However, the Gospels are included in a separate book entitled The Cartoon Gospels. Why cartoons? A cartoon is somewhat like a visual form of parable. A parable is a short and engaging story with a message. The idea behind a parable is that the listener will enjoy it enough to remember it and retell it to others (just think if they had e-mail back then!). There are parables in both the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, perhaps none more well known than those told by Jesus in the Gospels. Humor, in general, goes a long way toward illustrating a point, often more effectively than serious discourse. Adam and Eve provide a running commentary at the bottom of each cartoon. Adam and Eve became the marginal commentators of choice because of their unique place in human history. In addition, cartoonist's privilege is used, which simply means that silly things like time, space, history, etc. are all there to distort and play with tongue-in-cheek. The "musings" section provides some extra context. The goal is to deliver maximum insight in minimum space; thus the one-page-per-passage format of the book. This is a makes a great companion to a trusted commentary or bible study.

Presents familiar stories from the Old Testament in comic strip format.