Puss Reboots: Blog: May 2010: Adventures in Cartooning

Recent posts

Reviews:
Adventures in Cartooning by James Sturm
Amulet 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Aya of Yop City by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie
Bad Matter by Alexandra Duncan
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
Civil War on Sunday (Magic Tree House #21) by Mary Pope Osborne
A Country Mouse in the Town House by Henrietta
Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss
Dingoes at Dinnertime (Magic Tree House #20) by Mary Pope Osborne
Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House #37) by Mary Pope Osborne
Gossamer by Lois Lowry
Horrible Harry and the Ant Invasion by Suzy Kline
Hurry Freedom by Jerry Stanley
I'm Not Going to Chase the Cat Today! by Jessica Harper
Inside Time by Tim Sullivan
Inside a Zoo in the City by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer
Lost Worlds: Adventures in the Tropical Rainforest by Bruce M. Beehler
Loudmouth George and the New Neighbors by Nancy Carlson
Mermaid by Robert Reed
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks and Sue Hendra
Never Blood Enough by Joe Haldeman
The Nine Lives of Aristotle by Dick King Smith
The Order of Things by Barbara Ann Kipfer
Owly Volume 3: Flying Lessons by Andy Runton
Pigsty by Mark Teague
Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant

Previous month

Adventures in Cartooning: 05/24/10

Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles into Comics by James Sturm was short listed for the middle grades graphic novels category for the 2009-2010 Cybils. There were a lot of excellent books on that short list and I think in a different year this book could have won.

The book uses the medium to teach the methods behind the medium. The focus is on the method of building a good story, not on drawing in a certain style. In fact the illustrations are done with stick figures and doodles very much like Order of the Stick or similar web comics (in terms of style, not content).

The book though isn't strictly a how-to. It's also a graphic novel in that the stick figure knight has a quest and a story apart from the lesson plan. Best of all, there's an excellent twist at the end of book.