Thursday, July 9, 2026

Book Review – How Comics Are Made

How Comics Are Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed PageHow Comics Are Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page by Glenn Fleishman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Glenn Fleishman possesses an impressive amount of knowledge about the historical relationship between printing and cartoon creation, a subject I find fascinating. And yet I found myself disappointed by this book. It’s poorly written, with far too much time and space devoted to points that have already been made or points he hasn’t gotten to yet. But more surprisingly, the layout is also awful. The main flow of the text is chopped to bits by side bars, pull quotes that look like sidebars, illustrations that don’t appear on the same page with their descriptions, and interruptions that hit in the middle of paragraphs and sometimes go on for pages before the narrative resumes. The book is also plagued by technical glitches including shifting font sizes and words that run together. The author has plenty of interesting facts and important insights to share, so it’s a real shame that the bad design work gets so thoroughly in the way.

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