The Beginner’s Guide to the Best Cartooning Books in Print

Growing up in the 1980’s – finding books on the subject of cartooning was tenuous at best. Every week, my parents would take me to the public library, and I was lucky if I could find just one book on cartooning instruction. And if I did find such a book, I’d read it cover to cover.

Thirty five years later, the amount of information on cartooning both online and in print is staggering. Given the wealth of resources that are available for budding cartoonists, I wanted to pass along a few of my favorite books on the subject. If your tastes skew towards creating characters, you can’t go wrong with any of these books.

In no particular order, here are my favorites:

Fantasy Cartooning and ACTION! Cartooning by Ben Caldwell are loaded with detailed examples on character construction using volumetric shapes along with action poses. Each page is filled to the gills and dripping with Ben’s dynamic cartoony artwork, accompanied with his design notes on the process. I’ve personally learned a ton in studying both books.

FORCE Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators by Michael Mattesi. The first of Mattesi’s FORCE book series is still my favorite. This book bridges the connection between life drawing and creating stylized cartoony characters. I wish I had this book in my figure drawing classes – it would have made the world of difference in understanding how important life drawing is to excelling as a cartoonist.

Creating Characters with Personality and Character Mentor by Tom Bancroft: Imagine having a former Disney artist looking over your shoulder and giving you tips as you draw. Tom’s books are the next best thing. Creating Characters with Personality focuses on the mechanics of shape and size. In addition to a copious collection of Bancroft’s art instruction, the book does a solid job of showing how character designers of differing styles tackle the same design problem. As a bonus, each chapter comes with homework to reinforce what you’ve learned. Character Mentor is geared towards the intermediate cartoonist looking to better their craft and is an excellent follow-up to Bancroft’s first book.

The MAD Art of Caricature by Tom Richmond. This book is pure gold, for caricaturists and cartoonists alike. I reviewed this book some time back and I stand by it still to this day.

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema. A popular favorite among myself and my cartooning friends, many of whom discovered cartooning by way of this very book. As a kid, I found this book to be very intimidating, but over the years, I’ve come to really appreciate the wisdom dispensed in this book. It’s a classic for a reason.

Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair. My earliest cartooning book was the oversized print edition of this book. Sadly, my original copy (purchased when I was 8 or 9 years old) was lost during a move – but the expanded edition has all the same info (and more) within its pages. If you’re a fan of drawing classic cartoon characters, I honestly believe that there is no better book to learn from than this one.

ImagineFX: How to Draw and Paint Anatomy: Okay, this isn’t a book – it’s a special magazine edition that features excellent tutorials and tips for drawing both human and animal anatomy. If you want to learn how to correctly draw bones and muscles with clear, simplified instruction then you should run (not walk) and track this edition down.

Not pictured is the second cartooning book I ever owned: Cartooning the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm.

What are some of your favorite cartooning books? Share them in the comments below!

-Krishna