desktop publishing

Ok I'll be brief because my written English is not so good. If want to actually print your comics and you own or have access to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop then this book is very useful to you. The book explains pre-press procedures so that you can understand how to get the juice out of your work. Now, the information is very technical so I wouldn't recomend this book to people that are not really interested in taking comics seriously. There is a fair amount of lettering tips in Illustrator and a huge amount of information about improving your scans and "retouch" your work in digital format. It also contains a chapter on Quark Xpress to achieve a good composition (having worked in comics myself I know this chapter is important).

Bottom line: If you are an independent comic book artist with a small staff and you want to do the pre-press yourself then this book is a must. If you are only interested in the area of color and lettering then "maybe" you should get this book, it will definitely help you, thats for sure. Please also note that this book will not teach you how to pait using Photoshop but it will show you how to balance and work with color FOR PREPRESS.

He could have used another penciller for the examples but thats just my opinion. :)

I got this book from Mr Tinsely himself at a convention in San Diego. My Graphic Arts instructor himself has it, and suggested it for us. My instructor himself is also a well know comic colorist. He too makes the distinction of how important pre-press details are, just as Mr. Tinsley does in this fine book. I will definitely take the pros words for it! Its terrific for both pros and people like myself (I am just starting down the comic book colorist career path). This book goes into literally every aspect of getting a comic to press and having it look as professional as possible, even for the "little guy". My main focus is on the instructions for coloring of comics (You definitely want to have a recent version of Photoshop around while coursing through this book!). It gives wonderful, detailed illustrations. The writing is to the point, but doesn't leave one in a sea of technical terms, and speaks to you as a kind instructor standing over your shoulder would. A+!!!

I was under the impression that this book would focus on how to take completed comic book pages and ready them for the press. Yet there were extensive sections on how to produce a comic book using a computer -- Photoshop coloring, electronic lettering, and that kind of stuff. I found it difficult to access the info I wanted and re-sold the book for a few bucks. On a personal note, I was disappointed by what the book symbolizes for the comic book industry: a shift away from hand drawing, inking and coloring in an artists studio, towards computer production that can be done cheaply, but also looks cheap. That's my opinion. You may disagree if you're looking for a book on how to CREATE comic books on a computer.