Working Methods

Professional comic artists interpret scripts every day as they successfully transform the written word into the visual form. However, rarely do we get to examine the process that is unique to each artist. Unlike any other "how-to" book, Working Methods puts the minds of comic artists under the microscope, highlighting the intricacies of the creative process step by step. For this book, three short scripts are each interpreted in different ways by professional comic artists to illustrate the varied ways in which they "see" and "solve" the problem of making a script succeed in comic form. Working Methods documents the creative and technical choices Mark Schultz, Tim Levins, Jim Mahfood, Scott Hampton, Kelsey Shannon, Chris Brunner, Sean Murphy and Pat Quinn make as they tell a story, thus allowing comic fans, artists, instructors, and students into a world rarely explored. Hundreds of illustrated examples document the artists' processes, and interviews clarify their individual approaches regarding storytelling and layout choices. In Working Methods, the exercise may be simple, but the results are profoundly complex.