Best Selling Books by Mark Crilley

It's THE book on manga from YouTube's most popular art instruction Guru! There's more to manga than big, shiny eyes and funky hair. In these action-packed pages, graphic novelist Mark Crilley shows you step-by-step how to achieve an authentic manga style—from drawing faces and figures to laying out awesome, high-drama spreads. You'll learn how a few basic lines will help you place facial features in their proper locations and simple tricks for getting body proportions right. Plus, you'll find inspiration for infusing your work with expression, attitude and action. This is the book fans have been requesting for years, packed with expert tips on everything from hairstyles and clothing to word bubbles and sound effects, delivered in the same friendly, easy-to-follow style that has made Mark Crilley one of the "25 Most Subscribed to Gurus on YouTube." Take this opportunity to turn the characters and stories in your head into professional-quality art on the page! Packed with everything you need to make your first (or your best-ever) manga stories! • 30 step-by-step demonstrations showing how to draw faces and figures for a variety of ages and body types • Inspirational galleries featuring 101 eyes, 50 ways to draw hands, 40 hairstyles, 12 common expressions, 30 classic poses and more! • Tutorials to create a variety of realistic settings • Advanced lessons on backgrounds, inking, sequencing and layout options

Master the skills to create your very own manga! Expert manga artist Mark Crilley guides you to another level with this powered-up drawing book. Complete your Crilley collection with this third installation, which elevates the instruction to focus on drawing methods to help you create distinctive and detailed professional-level manga art. Through 40 in-depth step-by-step demonstrations not covered in other Mastering Manga books, Mark reveals his secrets for adding color, how to draw manga-style animals, ways to use photo reference, his preferred art supplies and how to fix character inconsistencies. The book is broken down into three sections: • Characters and Styles. Learn how to draw characters in every manga style--elegant Shojo, angular Dark Fantasy, action-packed Shonen and cute cartoon. Includes non-human characters like animal familiars (realistic or chibi) and aliens. Break-out lessons focus on anatomy, hairstyles and all genres of clothing, from classic anime uniforms to fantasy costuming. • Poses and Action. Make your characters bold, memorable and full of vitality. Get the most out of your poses by learning how to create natural, standing and dynamic running poses, plus sword fights, romantic Shojo interactions and stances for animals, manga monsters, chibi cuties and mech a robots. Advanced lessons include how to convey a sense of motion, tips on body language and how to effectively using foreshortening. • Finishing Touches. Elevate your art with Mark's professional instruction on completing your comic. These final lessons include page layouts, logo design, how to place a character in a setting, correctly using dialogue and speech bubbles, advanced costume design (fantasy armor, wings, and more) and how to create attention-grabbing cover art. "Manga is all about fresh concepts and fascinating characters. You've got ideas. You've invented new characters. There's a whole world waiting to see what you've come up with!" --Mark Crilley

In this exciting graphic novel about stepping out of your comfort zone, a traveler finds himself lost in Taiwan with no way of finding his brother—but he soon learns that this forced disconnect is helping him explore and experience the big wide world around him. THIS WASN’T PAUL’S IDEA. The last thing he’s interested in is exploring new countries or experiencing anything that might be described as “cultural enrichment.” But like it or not, he’s stuck with his brother, Theo, for two weeks in Taiwan, a place that—while fascinating to Theo—holds no interest to Paul at all. While on a short trip to a local electronics store, Paul becomes hopelessly lost in Taiwan’s twisting, narrow streets, and he has no choice but to explore this new environment in his quest to find his way back to Theo’s apartment. In an unfamiliar place with no friends—and no GPS!—there’s no telling what adventures he could happen upon. And who knows? Maybe it turns out he has friends in Taiwan, after all.

Read This Comic and Start Drawing Today! Nominated for a 2017 Eisner Award For the first time ever, drawing instructor and graphic novelist Mark Crilley brings his easy-to-follow artistic instruction to aspiring artists in the form of a comic book, providing you with a one-of-a-kind how-to experience. In The Drawing Lesson, you’ll meet David—a young boy who wants nothing more than to learn how to draw. Luckily for David, he’s just met Becky—his helpful drawing mentor. Page by page, Becky teaches David (and you!) about the essential fundamentals that artists need in order to master drawing, all in a unique visual format. In panel after panel, Crilley provides lessons on shading, negative space, creating compositions, and more, with accompanying exercises that you can try for yourself. Are you ready to start your drawing lesson today?

Master how to draw super tiny and adorable chibi characters! This book (and your fuzzy-costumed tour guide Mochy) will teach you everything you need to know about drawing chibis! From the word "short" in Japanese, this manga illustration style features cute characters with big heads, tiny bodies and adorably exaggerated facial expressions. Play with proportions to create highly stylized itty-bitty chibis or unusually tall ones, using their big eyes and giant personalities to convey animated emotions, from surprised and joyful to sad and mad. • 32 step-by-step lessons cover everything from proportions and poses to clothing and digital coloring. • Create every kind of chibi: boys, girls, pets, witches, fairies and anthropomorphic characters. • Learn how to turn your friends, family and yourself into adorable chibis! • Includes a chapter dedicated to making chibi crafts, such as phone cases, greeting cards and do-not-disturb signs. Show everyone how awesome your chibis are!

Discover the simple secrets to drawing amazing hands, from popular YouTube instructor Mark Crilley Whether you’re drawing superheroes, manga and anime characters, robots, highly detailed photorealistic figures or anything in between, hands can be the most challenging aspect of creating compelling characters that gesture, communicate, and truly come to life. In simple step-by-step lessons along with plenty of full-color examples, popular instructor and author Mark Crilley takes you from the basics to the finer points. All you need is paper, pencil, and eraser.

An aspiring young creator learns the fundamentals of visual storytelling from three comic book mentors in this charming illustrated tale—a graphic novel that teaches you how to turn your stories into comics! Acclaimed illustrator and graphic novelist Mark Crilley returns with a new approach to learning the essential elements of making comics. His easy-to-follow instruction about comic book art, design, and storytelling provides aspiring creators a one-of-a-kind how-to experience. In The Comic Book Lesson, you’ll meet Emily—an enthusiastic young comics fan who has a story she needs to tell. On her quest to turn that story into a comic book, Emily meets three helpful mentors who share their knowledge. Trudy, a high school student who works at the local comics shop, teaches Emily how to create expressive characters and how art can convey action and suspense. Madeline, a self-published manga artist, teaches Emily how to use panel composition and layout to tell a story visually and how to develop a comic from script to sketch to finished pages. Sophie, a professional graphic novelist, guides Emily through fine-tuning the details of dialogue, sequence, and pacing to lead readers through the story. Page by page, you’ll discover more about the events that drive Emily to create her comic book as her mentors teach her (and you!) about the fundamentals of visual narrative and comic book art. Each lesson builds on the previous one, guiding you through the steps of planning and creating your comic, with accompanying exercises you can try for yourself. Are you ready to start your comic book lesson today?

Mastering Manga, How to Draw Manga Faces is an excerpt from Mastering Manga With Mark Crilley. True manga style is about more than big eyed characters, but Mark's lessons ensure that you can get them right, whether the character is facing you straight on, at an angle, or in profile. With lessons on hair styles for boys and girls, and different expressions, you'll get everything you need to know to begin drawing perfectly proportioned manga faces right away.

A captivating, step-by-step guide that teaches artists to draw and paint exact duplicates of common objects, rendered in the trompe l'oeil, hyperrealistic style of artist Mark Crilley's popular YouTube video series. Are You Up to the Challenge? With just watercolors, colored pencils, and white gouache, artist Mark Crilley takes you step-by-step through his process for producing stunning, hyperrealistic recreations of everyday items. Based on Crilley’s mega-popular “Realism Challenge” YouTube videos, The Realism Challenge contains thirty lessons demonstrating how to render mirror-like duplicates in the trompe l’oeil tradition of everything from shells, leaves, and candy bars to your very own still life arrangements. Each lesson builds off the previous one, as you’ll master essential artistic techniques like creating drop shadows, adding highlights, and building from light to dark. Learn the secrets of one of hyperrealism’s biggest stars. Come take . . . The Realism Challenge!

From the best-selling artist and YouTube art instructor, this book features step-by-step lessons that show you how to draw professional-quality portraits, landscapes, travel sketches, and animals using only two ordinary pencils. Great art doesn't have to be expensive. For the cost of a regular graphite writing pencil and an equally ordinary black colored pencil, you can create drawings worthy of framing and displaying. In this straightforward, aspiring artist's guide to rendering a variety of popular subjects with only two pencils, artist and art instructor Mark Crilley presents a direct, approachable, and achievable method for drawing just about anything. The Two-Pencil Method breaks down Crilley's techniques across six chapters of five lessons each. In each lesson, you'll learn how the two-pencil method can add depth and shading, allowing you to create bold and distinctive drawings that go beyond mere sketchbook doodles. The book moves from a primer on drawing basics to step-by-step examples of still lifes, landscapes, animals, travel sketches, and portraits. With each chapter, Crilley's confident and encouraging voice and expert insights demonstrate how to achieve stunning artistic results from the simplest of art materials.

Acclaimed author Mark Crilley tells his greatest tale yet in this intense supernatural thriller! After losing his job, his girlfriend, and his home, Brody learns that things can get even worse when he begins seeing a ghostly teenage girl watching him in the street. What he hopes is a hallucination proves all too real when the ghost tells him she needs his help hunting down a dangerous killer, and that he must undergo training from the spirit of a centuries-old samurai to unlock his hidden ghost talker powers. While Brody initially goes along only begrudgingly, the mission becomes terrifyingly personal when he learns that his ex-girlfriend is destined to be the killer's next victim. As he evades the police and his ex's criminal boyfriend, Brody enters a race against time to learn the killer's identity before the night of her foretold doom! "Mix a pinch of The Sixth Sense with a dash of The Karate Kid and a bit of The Crow, and you'll start to get a feel for Brody's Ghost." -Wired "The setting--an unidentified future city partially in ruins--is a masterpiece of drawing . . . The story is more than a match for the art." -Booklist

The world of manga (Japanese comics) has captured the imagination of artists, both aspiring and professional alike. Now best-selling artist and art instructor Mark Crilley presents the most complete look yet at the variety of creative options available in the world of manga. Crilley fills each chapter with gorgeous, original artwork created with a variety of tools (pencils, colored pencils, digital art, pen and ink, and more) and in a variety of manga-inspired styles. He pairs each piece with information on the materials used and the inspiration that led to its creation. Manga Art provides readers a one-of-a-kind chance to hear from one of the leading artists in the field of manga instruction, as he reveals the unlimited possibilities of manga and the creative secrets behind over 100 pieces of original, never-before-seen artwork.

This One Summer meets The Edge of Seventeen in this poignant coming-of-age YA graphic novel about two childhood friends at a crossroads in their lives and art from the author of Mastering Manga. Megan and Cass have been joined at the brush for as long as they can remember. For years, while spending summers together at a lakeside cabin, they created art together, from sand to scribbles . . . to anything available. Then Cass moved away to New York. When Megan finally convinces her parents to let her spend a week in the city, too, it seems like Cass has completely changed. She has tattoos, every artist in the city knows her. She even eats chicken feet now! At least one thing has stayed the same: They still make their best art together. But when one girl betrays the other's trust on the eve of what is supposed to be their greatest artistic feat yet, can their friendship survive? Can their art?

Level UP and master more manga with YouTube's most popular art instructor, Mark Crilley! It's here! The highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling Mastering Manga provides everything you need, regardless of your skill-level, to learn how to draw manga like a pro. Graphic novelist and YouTube's most popular art instructor Mark Crilley is back to lead you on your artistic journey. No matter what your experience, Mastering Manga 2 will have you creating manga in no time. You'll master the basics of facial and body proportions as your drawing skills increase to the next level. Clear and easy step-by-step instruction will walk you through the mechanics of how to draw manga. You'll learn to create characters in diverse settings and scenes, as well as a variety of styles. Lessons on background and perspective will help you pull it all together into a full manga story panel. More than 30 step-by-step demonstrations! • Proportion. Learn to draw all types of bodies, faces, ages and ethnicities in profile, from behind, and more, including how to turn a full-sized character into an adorable chibi. • Clothing and body language. Reveal your character's personality through hairstyles, expressions, clothing styles and accessories. • Useful poses. Tweak 16 classic manga poses to make them your own, or follow along with specific step-by-step demonstrations on drawing characters sitting, fighting, kissing and more. • Environments. Create all types of habitats and moods using forest elements, rain, and the effects of water and weather. • Anatomy of a manga panel. Learn how to choose the correct composition, background, depth and balance to create the most effective panel layout for your story. Grab a pencil and learn all the secrets needed to bring your manga story to life!

Akiko's always prepared for something out of this world, but when she goes on a pleasure trip to Gollarondo with Poog, Mr. Beeba, Spuckler Boach, and Gax she can barely believe her eyes--Gollarondo is a city that was built completely upside down! Forget sight-seeing. All Akiko wants to do is keep both feet on the ground. Which is not so easy. Almost as soon as the gang arrives Spuckler's robot Gax accidentally flies off one of Gollarondo's balconies and into the Moonguzzit Sea below. Good news: He survived the fall. Bad news: Anything and everything that falls from Gollarondo is automatically the property of Nugg von Hoffelhiff--the ruler of the seas beneath the city. By the time Akiko and her crew are able to gain an audience with Nugg, he has sold Gax to others. What's worse, he actually broke Gax down into spare parts to maximize his profits! It's up to Akiko and the gang to retrieve the pieces of Gax before they are spread far and wide across the Moonguzzit Sea. But the people who bought the parts run the gamut from off the wall to downright villainous, so saving Gax's neck (and body and wheels) may turn out to be Akiko's most dangerous mission yet.

Mastering Manga, How to Draw Manga Scenes is an excerpt from Mastering Manga With Mark Crilley. Learn the actual process manga professional Mark Crilley uses to create manga scenes, with lessons on layout sequences and panels, and intermediate to advanced lessons on word balloons and storytelling that will have you making manga like a pro!

Mastering Manga, How to Draw Manga Bodies is an excerpt from Mastering Manga With Mark Crilley. Get everything you need to know to begin drawing manga figures of all types, from typical teens to parents and babies--with the correct proportions and in all sorts of poses. Mark also shows how variations in height and proportion suit different manga styles, and you'll be delighted by how simple it is to get it just right!

When this fourth-grader comes home from school one day, she finds an envelope waiting for her with no stamp and no return address. The message inside reads Dear Akiko: We are coming to get you. Meet us outside your bedroom window tonight at 8:00. Don't forget your toothbrush. How could anyone meet her outside her window? She lives on the 17th floor, for goodness sake. But that evening, as Akiko is preparing to study for tomorrow's geography test, she finds a small spacecraft hovering outside her window with two odd little men inside. They have been sent to whisk Akiko off to the Planet Smoo where she will lead a team enlisted to find the King of Smoo's kidnapped son, Prince Froptoppit. Akiko, the leader of a rescue mission? She's too timid to be on the school's safety patrol! So begins Akiko's adventure across the land of Smoo to find a prince and become a leader.

Brody gets a pivotal lead in his search for the Penny Murderer and his quest to save his ex-girlfriend's life! But to follow it, Brody has to break ties with his ghostly guide Talia, just when he needs her most! * From multiple Eisner nominee Mark Crilley (Akiko, Miki Falls)! * Brody's quest races toward its climax! * Bargain-priced 96-page digest!

Billy's double life--elementary school in Piffling, Indiana, and international monster killer--intensifies as he makes his first solo creatch op in a Chinese mountain village.

Billy Clikk’s just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill . . . hero? A guy whose hobbies include skateboarding, extreme mountain biking—and a brand of snowboarding he wishes would include a few good old-fashioned body slams. Unfortunately, 12-year-old Billy’s boring home town of Piffling, Indiana, will probably never host the X Games. But that doesn’t stop him from bungee jumping off a bridge and winning the X-Sports Challenge in front of Dave’s Cycle and Fitness. Then one day, things suddenly get more interesting. Billy discovers his insect-exterminating parents—supposedly the best in Piffling—have been living a double life. In just a few short hours, he’s sucked into a world that his parents have been trying to hide from him. And this world is much bigger, stranger, and scarier than the one he left behind. How could his own dull parents have so many secrets that even their secrets have secrets? On the bright side, this could be Billy’s chance to fight some real bad guys: the huge kind with teeth and too many hairy tentacles to count. Within a few hours of learning the truth, he’s flying to India and testing out some very cool James Bond–style gadgetry, things no average 12-year-old can even imagine. But before Billy can fight alongside his parents, he’ll have to prove himself. Being a hero doesn’t always mean getting the bad guy—sometimes it means keeping a cool head to figure out what’s really going on. And at the end of the day, Billy just might get to save the world—or go down trying.

In this companion novel to Akiko on the Planet Smoo, fourth-grade earthling Akiko and her odd team are on a journey to save the kidnapped Prince Froptoppit from the evil Alia Rellapor. Unfortunately, on their way to Alia Rellapor's castle, the group has gotten lost while sailing over the Moonguzzit Sea in their flying boat. With no maps available, the team's best hope is to find Queen Pwip of the Sprubly Islands, a clairvoyant, who will be able to point them in the right direction. But the Sprubly Islands aren't like Akiko's hometown, and when Spuckler and Mr. Beeba disappear one night, Akiko is left to decide how she is to survive in this strange new world.

Akiko and her crew — Spuckler Boach, Mr. Beeba, Poog, and Gax — have faced dangers unimaginable to the average fourth-grade earthling. Now their mission is finally coming to an end. At last they’ve reached the castle of Alia Rellapor — but that doesn’t mean that things have gotten any easier. The castle is heavily guarded by robots and getting inside won’t be easy. If they do get in, they have to locate Prince Froptoppit, free him from captivity, and escape from the castle without alerting the guards or their leader, the half man — half machine Throck. Can a girl who’s too scared to be school safety leader pull it off? If anyone can, Akiko can!

“Poog’s in trouble.” Just three simple words, but they’re enough to launch fifth-grade Akiko and the rest of her crew—Spuckler Boach, Mr. Beeba, and Gax—on their next mission. And it just might be their most important mission yet: To save the planet Toog, home of their good friend Poog. Someone’s out to destroy Toog, and only Akiko and the gang can stop them. But first they have to escape from a Toogolian jail cell, zoom through a barrage of exploding drobe mines, and enlist the help of Spuckler’s old friend Fluggly Ragstubble—who’s anything but helpful. The clock is ticking and every second counts. Will they win the race against time and save Poog’s home planet?

Akiko and her crew–Spuckler Boach, Mr. Beeba, Poog, and Gax–are competing in an intergalactic race from one side of the universe to the other. Along the way they have to make it through the narrow passages of the Labyrinth of Lulla-ma-Waygo, the notorious Almost Black Hole of Luzbert-7, and the deadly Jaws of McVluddapuck. All Akiko wants to do is make it back to Earth in one piece! But when Spuckler discovers that his old rival Bluggamin Streed is also in the race, winning becomes the most important thing. And Akiko quickly finds herself caught up in the competition. Who will go home with the celebrated Centauri Cup?

Akiko's back! No longer simply a shy fourth-grade girl, she's become an intergalactic leader, taking her band of would-be heroes on a quest to find a kidnapped prince! Armed with a map showing the way to Alia Rellapor's castle, Akiko, Mr. Beeba, Spuckler, Gax, and Poog are nearing the end of their mission. But first they have to scale the Great Wall of Trudd. Like the Great Wall of China only bigger, the Great Wall of Trudd stretches across the landscape -- there's no way around it, under it, or through it. So Akiko and the gang will just have to find a way to go over it! But the Great Wall is just one of the many strange obstacles in their path that Akiko must overcome if she's finally to rescue Prince Froptoppit.

When Akiko’s Smoovian friends, Poog, Mr. Beeba, Gax, and Spuckler Boach, swing by to pick her up in an astroshuttle, she’s feeling bored with her “normal” life and more than ready to go—anywhere. What she doesn’t know is that King Froptoppit has enrolled them all in the Intergalactic Space Patrollers Training Camp on Zarga Baffa. Every planet in the universe relies on patrollers for protection, but no one from Smoo has ever graduated. Akiko and her crew are the planet’s last hope. After a freak accident at nearby Virpling Canyon, Akiko’s crew faces the ultimate final exam. Will Akiko go home, leaving the rescuing to others? Or will she stay and risk everything?

Has Miki fallen too hard? It's summer, and Miki Yoshida is learning all about love. Her senior year has blossomed with promise ever since she gained Hiro Sakurai's confidence. Now, she's resolved to keep his trust as he reveals more about his secret mission and warns: "Don't get involved." But Miki fears his work might do more harm than good, and she takes control—with disastrous results. How can trying to make things right turn out so dangerously wrong?

Is their secret safe? It's autumn, and Miki Yoshida's life is finally settling into a routine. She and Hiro are spending all their time together, and Miki couldn't be happier. There's just one problem. Hiro's breaking all the rules to be with Miki, and the more time they spend together—and the more they fall for each other—the more there is at stake. With jealous Reika on the prowl, Miki knows they can't hide forever.

It's spring—a time for new beginnings. This is Miki Yoshida's final year of high school, and she's determined to make this the best year yet. Miki is in control . . . . . . until Hiro Sakurai shows up. The tall, handsome new student is hiding something, and Miki wants to know what. As she breaks down Hiro's defenses, she is unnerved by how much she cares about him. Too bad he is the one guy who can't care for her back. But Miki is falling for Hiro, and nothing's going to stop her from getting close to him—not even his dangerous secret.

Former slacker Brody has vowed to uncover the identity of the serial killer known only as the "Penny Murderer." Will he complete his intense training to develop physical and psychic abilities before the mysterious killer strikes again? Collecting four stories from _MySpace Dark Horse Presents_, this one-shot issue continues the hilarious, poignant, thrilling tale of Brody's fight for justice. Love Harry Potter? Try _Brody's Ghost_! From the thirteen-time Eisner-nominated creator of _Akiko_!

Can love survive? It's winter, and a bitter chill of desperation has settled over Miki and Hiro. Far from home, the young couple treks through the frozen north, with Akuzu's powerful agents hot on their trail. Miki knows they are determined to tear her and Hiro apart. But she has different plans. With the help of an unlikely ally, Miki and Hiro endure a daring journey, battling freezing conditions and frightening forces just to be together. Miki is certain they can make it, hoping that love really does conquer all.