Get moving with Tom Hart's opus on freeing your creative self.A book about creativity, comics, writing with pictures, and staying engaged with your medium. 
Utilizing what he taught in classrooms for 10 years and drawn on for his own award-nominated comics, he details how to start from scratch with no ideas, how to develop ideas, how to find and finish stories, how to stay fearless and nimble, and how to constantly be creating something meaningful to you, regardless of your medium.
With more than 50 vivid exercises designed to get you creating.

What's in the book:

  • Introduction by Bill Griffith
  • Chapter 1 - Cartooning Like You Mean It
  • Chapter 2 - Ideas and Images
  • Chapter 3 - Characters
  • Chapter 4 - Stories and Drama
  • Chapter 5 - Poetry
  • Chapter 6 - Mining the Linefield
  • Chapter 7 - Saying Everything Forever
  • Chapter 8 - Missing Miss Cat
  • Afterword

Introduction by Zippy Creator Bill Griffith:

I have a shelf full of “How to” books on cartooning. They’re all amusing or entertaining  in differing ways, but I’ve never really taken one seriously. Why? Because they all teach the same  thing: how to draw and write like the author of the book.

Along comes Tom Hart’s contribution to the genre and everything’s up for grabs.  He doesn’t have a “one size fits all” approach at all.  Whether your interest is in one-row or two-row comic strips, gags or complex graphic novels, there’s a lot to think about here. 

Tom takes a “deep background” approach to comics. Unlike most instructional books on the medium, here every layer is peeled back and discussed, from panel and page structure to how to breathe life into a compelling character.

Tom really understands that comics are a form of literature, albeit with pictures, and that all the “rules” of fiction writing also apply here. My rule of thumb on creating comics has always been that they’re equal parts writing and drawing--with writing being a little more equal.

When you read comix, you’re really taking a guided tour of the cartoonist’s brain. Ideas and point of view are just as important as drawing and compositional skill, perhaps a bit more so if the reader is to stay involved. 

​Whether your interest is casual or professional, “How To Say Everything” will help you tap your Inner Cartoonist.