Review: Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis

Title:Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels 
Author: Brian Michael Bendis, Foreword by Joe Quesada
Source/Format: Blogging for Books, Review Copy
Age Range: anyone
Publisher/Publishing Date: Watson-Guptill, July 22, 2014

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Book Summary from Goodreads...

One of the most popular writers in modern comics, Brian Michael Bendis reveals the tools and techniques he and other top creators use to create some of the most popular comic book and graphic novel stories of all time.Words for Pictures shows readers the creative methods of a writer at the very top of his field. Full Summary Here

     Words for Pictures (The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels) by Brian Michael Bendis, is a great guide for tips on how to structure stories for comics. It also offers an insight into the business aspect of the comic industry, and offers easy guidelines to remember.

“He learned how to fail. This is the key to success” (p.xi).

     In the beginning, this book goes over type A and B artists to give an example. But it makes a strong point, and it was all within a few paragraphs. There’s always room for improvement, and I like how the information was presented. It states some very true points on criticism and how some could take it more personal than others.

“If you’re not falling, you’re not really trying hard enough. This book is about falling, and it’s about failing. Any book that offers to provide you with a road map to success in any given field ultimately is about failure" (p.xii).

     There’s a lot to learn in this book, and I like how Bendis handled the explanation on the topics. I especially like the examples given on pitch documents, story outlines, the pros and cons of using a full script, and “a marvel style situation.” The script examples were also nice.

“I don’t want you to write like me. I want you to write like you” (p.8).

     There was never a truer statement—and it applies to all forms of writing. The book stresses the idea of developing your own individual styles, but also offers handy explanations on what different people do when working in groups. So, in the end I enjoyed reading Words for Pictures, and I will definitely keep this book on hand as a reference.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for review, thank you!

Musing Mondays (14)

  

     Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week. 

My Musings for the Week:

     Wow, it's Monday already. And where the heck did November go?  I don't know, it just seems like the month passed by too quickly.  It's already December which means that the year is almost over. Seriously, where did the time go?  

     Well, I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I did a little shopping over the weekend, and I thought I would share some of my purchases.  I actually bought a few DVDs, which is one thing I normally don't do.  I picked up The Lego Movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Sherlock, and Pacific Rim. There was a really good sale on them, so I just had to get them.  And lastly, I picked up a few books from the Book Outlet: The Keep by Veronica Wolff & The Bone Season.  I'm really excited to read both.  So that's basically it, as I said I did "a little shopping" as in, not a lot.  Question: Did you take advantage of any of the sales going on over the weekend?

Falling into Fall {#5}

     Thank you to everyone who stopped by & took a look at the Falling Into Fall posts. First, Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you're all enjoying your day. Second, this is the final Falling into Fall post of 2014.  Who knows, maybe I'll dive back into it next year. Below are the links to all previous posts which can be found on the Features Page.  Thanks for following along and happy reading!

Roundup of links:

October 2 Introduction
October 16 Food/Recipes
October 28 Falling Into Fall Extras
October 30 Halloween/Movies/TV shows
November 13 Craft Links
November 27 (Today) Wrap-up. 

 

Musing Mondays (13)

     Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week. 

My Musings for the Week:

     Today I'm going to share a few books that I would like to reread but don't have the time to.  They're all my favorites, so order on the list doesn't really apply because I love all of them.

1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there by Lewis Carroll
2. Mythos Academy Series by Jennifer Estep
3. Mistborn & The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
4. Double Vision Trilogy by F.T. Bradley
5. Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
6. The League of Princes series by Christopher Healy
7. The Archived by Victoria Schwab 
8. Dante Walker series & Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
9. First 3 books in the Agency series by Y.S. Lee
10. Daughter of Smoke & Bone & Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
11. Kat Incorrigible series by Stephanie Burgis
12. This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
13. Ink by Amanda Sun

     Well, those are just a few of the books I absolutely loved and would like to read again if and when I have the time.  Question: What are some of the books you would like to reread, but might not have the time to?

The Friday 56 (14)

     The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

""Don't wait too long," Kate said. "Hollywood is like any other place. People will take what they can get before someone else does.""--Double Vision: The Alias Men by F.T. Bradley


What's on your page 56 this week?