Mecha Mania: How to Draw Warrior Robots, Cool Spaceships, and Military Vehicles - Softcover

Hart, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0823030563 ISBN 13: 9780823030569

Publisher: Watson-Guptill, 2002

Synopsis

Mecha, a generic term well known in the manga and anime community, is short for mechanically-based humanoids—as well as anything else mechanical, high-tech, and really cool. If it can fly, swim, fire a weapon, explode, or destroy stuff, it’s mecha.

Comic book and animation fans hunger for mecha. From the Gigantor animated TV series in the early ’60s to today’s Neon Genesis Evangelion, mecha is the king of anime. Most Japanese mecha animation features giant robots in epic battles. These giant robots are as tall as buildings—and teenage heroes enter the robot’s deathpit and navigate it like a fighter jet. Mecha is also popular in such Nintendo, Playstation, and Sega Dreamcast computer games as Mech Warriors, Battletech, and Combat Assault Vehicle.

While some budding artists may not have a feel for human anatomy or drawing the expressive faces of cartoon characters, anyone who can draw blocks and circles can draw mecha. Mecha Mania demonstrates how easy it is to draw fantastic mecha vehicles, robots, space stations, and more. The 300 step-by-step illustrations make it simple for anyone to master this wildly popular comic book genre and achieve dramatic results.

Mecha Mania features all of the coolest mecha designs and variations, along with outrageous battle scenes. Also included are informative interviews with a company that creates mecha-based games and a Japanese publisher of mecha. Whether one’s a beginning or professional artist, Mecha Mania is the best how-to reference ever published for mastering this hot, hot comic book art.

About this title

About the Author

CHRISTOPHER HART is the world's bestselling author of drawing and cartooning books. His books have sold more than 7.4 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. Renowned for up-to-the-minute content and easy-to-follow steps, all of Hart's books have become staples for a new generation of aspiring artists and professionals, and they have been selected by the American Library Association for special notice.

Reviews

Grade 5-8-Hart offers budding cartoonists a mix of basic instructions and savvy technical advice for creating a wide variety of generic giant robots, robotlike craft, cyborgs of both sexes, and bad-guy types ("Evil Scientist," "Corporate Villain," etc.), then posing them for maximum visual effect. Starting in the traditional way, with blocky geometric shapes, each figure proceeds through two or three stages to finished model, surrounded by pithy observations, comments, or general encouragement. In a tangentially relevant closing interview, Heinz Schuller, art director at Microsoft's Fasa Studio, delivers generalities about how to break into the field of digital-game design. Though Hart has little to say about drawing on screen rather than paper, his "can-do!" tone and cogent instructions, as well as the gallery of chiseled, heavily armed, hypercomplicated machines, will make this volume appealing to both casual browsers and serious young artists.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reviewed with Christopher Hart's Kids Draw Anime.

Gr. 4-8. Granted, these aren't graphic novels, but they fit right in as many kids want to draw their own comics and create their own stories. By a familiar writer of how-to-draw books, these large-format paperbacks explain the basics of drawing in the style of anime (Japanese animated films) and manga (Japanese comics). Hart's enthusiastic approach energizes the texts, and both books are loaded with full-color illustrations that will surely attract readers. Kids, for the younger end of the audience range, moves quickly through the preliminaries of sketching "big-eye" characters' physical attributes, then goes on to demonstrate how to put figures in motion and, using a few successive drawings, how to create some typical characters. Kids who want detailed anime instructions will need to look elsewhere; those who just want some basics will find plenty here. Mech Mania, aimed at older readers with more art experience, focuses on the futuristic robots, vehicles, and weapons found in anime and manga scenes as well as in video games. From the blueprints for a spaceship to advice on showing characters in action or revealing a robot's mood through its posture, this dynamic book offers a useful mix of creative inspiration and practical advice. Hart ends with an informative interview with the art director of Microsoft's Fasa Studio. Slick, heavy paper, vibrant colors, and sharply defined lines in the finished illustrations add to the appeal and make these books sturdier than most paperbacks. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Watson-Guptill
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0823030563
• ISBN 13: 9780823030569
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128