What is it about reanimated corpses that captures our fascination? Aside from the “ew” factor, there’s a degree of horror that exists in zombies that vampires, even the non-sparkly ones, Frankenstein’s Monster or mummies just don’t quite capture (even if they are, technically, also animated corpses).

I’ve been thinking about zombies a lot, which has made my sleeping time quite…interesting, let me tell you. The prospect of Friends and family turned into shuffling, mindless strangers is one that sends shivers down my spine.  But what I realized, even in just a quick perusal of resources online, is that I’d need a lot more than just a blog post to even begin parsing through all of the various zombie lore and incarnations, as well as their cultural significance. From Haitian zombie potions to humorous sendups (Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland), to biological weapons of mass destruction (28 Days Later), the topic has been covered in a variety of ways, and by those far more capable than me.

Shaun and Ed being menaced by zombies

Simon Pegg (Shaun in Shaun of the Dead, pictured wearing the red tie), wrote rather eloquently in The Guardian about why the zombie strikes more fear and dread than their undead cousins.

As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster. Where their pointy-toothed cousins are all about sex and bestial savagery, the zombie trumps all by personifying our deepest fear: death. Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable.

Simply and rather clumsily, zombies are death, the ever-creeping, impossible-to-escape fate that awaits us all. What’s more terrifying than that?

Zombies beware! (Zombieland)

Well, maybe Woody Harrelson.

In any case, I don’t see our zombie love going away anytime soon. So if you’re going to host a Walking Dead marathon, why not do it in style? You can get great zombie makeup tips from Extreme Face Painting by Brian and Nick Wolfe. If you like zombie poetry, check out Zombie Haiku and Dawn of Zombie Haiku, published by our sister imprint, HOW Books. And David Okum gives some tutorials on zombies and the zombie lord in his book, Manga Monster Madness or check out Jim Pavelec’s Hell Beasts.

Happy Chinese New Year!

It’s appropriate that today, I’ve spent most of my afternoon working on a book about dragons. Hint: it’s from one of IMPACT Books’ best-selling, most-loved authors and the art, as usual, is gorgeous!

The Daily Mail has a great gallery of images of the celebrations happening in the East, and the colors and celebrations are absolutely captivating! I think it’s a sign that this is going to be a prosperous, great new year!

So why not celebrate by picking up a copy of one of these three favorite IMPACT Books?

• Dragonworld
• DragonArt Evolution
• Dracopedia

Scape, Graffiti Artist and Author, will teach kids about urban art at 10 Portland schools for one week, Jan 30 through Feb 3, 2012. He will then appear at the Grand Opening of the new Dick Blick Art Store Feb 4th, 2012.
At the 2/4/12 grand opening, from 4 – 7 PM Scape will demonstrate urban art techniques on Crescent’s “Graffiti Paper”.  Scape will be signing copies of his two books Graff: the Art & Technique of Graffiti and Graff 2: Next Level Graffiti Techniques.

At the schools, Scape will engage the youth with this often misunderstood art form by articulating the benefits of expressing oneself through art on paper (not walls). These school presentations allow Scape to empower the youth in a positive and powerful way. Mays Mayhew, Product Manager for Crescent, said “Graffiti Paper is the perfect way to get urban and street art onto paper. Graffiti paper is the first substrate designed to accept aerosol paint, paint markers, and other urban-type mediums. Debuting both Scape and Graffiti Paper at Dick Blick’s new store is the perfect triad.”

Check out this free demonstration from Mastering Manga With Mark Crilley, which will be hitting shelves soon!

The Father Figure

Some manga stories take place in a world populated only by teenaged characters, where adults have seemingly been banished from the scene. Still, even the most youth-obsessed story will have at least a couple representatives of the adult world, and if you’re going to draw them properly, you’ll need to learn an entirely different system of body proportions. Manga grown-ups are much closer to real human anatomy. Many of these adult characters have smaller eyes and fully rendered noses that we are more likely to associate with Western comic book characters.
1 Build Your Frame
Begin by drawing eight horizontal lines, equally spaced. You’ll want them to be at least an inch or more apart to allow for details
later on. Draw your character’s head between lines one and two.

2 Create the Torso
Draw the neck, shoulders, torso and right arm with a rough indication of his hand. His left arm is hidden behind his body. The bottom line of the torso is about two-thirds of the way between lines four and five. This guy’s pretty big: almost three heads wide across the chest. His hand extends just a touch beyond the bottom line of his torso.

3 Sketch in Legs and Feet
There’s no need to worry about the width of his ankles because his pants cover them. The right foot touches line eight. The bottom line of his left foot is about one third of the way up between lines seven and eight. There is a slight diagonal lean to the legs. This will help to convey his solid, confident stance.

4 Add Fingers and Hair
Add a hairstyle suitable to his age and personality. You could even leave him bald. Refine the hand, showing the curve of his fingers. The angle he’s holding his hand makes the index finger look longer and hides the thumb.

5 Draw Clothes
Place his tie, lapels and buttons closer to his left because he’s standing at an angle. Suit coats don’t wrinkle much, so draw just a few lines near the elbow and shoulder.

6 Fine-Tune
Add folds to his trousers and drape the cuffs following the curve of his foot. Add soles to the bottom of his shoes.

7 Finish It
Add ink and, if you like, gray tones or color. He doesn’t look like a teenager, and that’s exactly what we want. 

2012 is going to be an exciting year! Do you do resolutions? If so, what are some of your goals this year relating to your art?

Here at IMPACT Books, we want to help! We have a great year ahead of us with some exciting books coming out, including Mastering Manga With Mark Crilley, an awesome book showing you everything you need to know about drawing characters and scenes in a true manga style. Mark doesn’t just cover the basics; he shows a wide variety of figures and faces; characters that you need to make a dynamic story, but aren’t covered in other how-to books. Check out his website at markcrilley.com and look for his book to be in stores in March and you can preorder today!

In May, look out for some fun Color Workbooks heading your way. I don’t want to give too much away yet, but I can guarantee you’ll love the the instruction from a variety of your favorite IMPACT Books authors, plus lots of line art you can color yourself!

You’ll start Fall off right with some breathtaking dragons, and be ready to mark your holiday wishlist for new, adorable furries and their friends.

And that’s just a small sampling of what we’ll have on offer. This year we plan to offer you more comics, more fantasy, more graffiti, and more everything you love to draw and want to learn!

Here at IMPACT headquarters nothing says “Happy Holidays” like a copy of Dracopedia. That’s why we’ve put together a list of our favorite dragon books, DVDs and downloads. Make all the dragon-lovers on your gift list happy with these top picks:

1. DragonArt

2. DragonArt Fantasy Characters

3. DragonArt Evolution

4. Dracopedia

5. DragonWorld

6. Fantasy Artist’s Pocket Reference: Dragons & Fantasy Beasts

7. Sketch Dragons

8. Drawing Dragons (DVD, also available for download)

9. Digital Dragons (DVD, also available for download)

10. Dreamscapes Myth and Magic Section: The Dragon (digital download)

It’s been a great year at IMPACT Books and we’d like to share some of our highlights with you! Learn how to draw some of our most popular subjects with the help of these free tutorials and then gift someone with your artwork–and a copy of one of the books they come from, too! When learning a new skill is this fun, everyone benefits!

Check out Supittha Bunyapen’s tips for Cloud Do’s and Don’ts, then go in-depth with a skin color tutorial using Copic Markers. You can pick up a copy of her book, Shojo Wonder Manga Art School for more great lessons.

Like Unicorns? Want to learn how to draw one? You can with this great tutorial from Denise Vasquez and Randy Martinez’s Sketch Card Mania.  You can follow that up with Emily Fiegenschuh’s tutorial on how to draw a flying fish from The Explorer’s Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures.

If graffiti is more your style, check out Scape Martinez’s demonstration on how to create your own abstract letters. Scape Martinez shares his vast graff knowledge with you in Graff and Graff2.

Extreme Face Painting went wild this Halloween, but makeup special effects can be used for all kinds of reasons and seasons. If you have your own Miss Piggy, why not show up to a screening of The Muppets in fine style?

Want some fantastic resources for the aspiring comic artist in your life? Check out these IMPACT Books titles in our shop or through your favorite retailer for some great gift ideas for the holiday season.

1. Comic Books 101 by Chris Ryall and Scott Tipton
2. Creating Comics from Start to Finish by Buddy Scalera
3. Cartoon 360, Secrets to Drawing Cartoon People and Poses in 3D by Harry Hamernik
4. Colossal Collection of Action Poses by Buddy Scalera
5. The Insider’s Guide to Creating Comics by Andy Schmidt

Marvel Comics have given people many iconic super heroes as well as villains. With one of the most popular super heroes to ever hit book shelves being Spider Man, it is only natural to give the ever popular web slinger’s most ruthless villain a mini series of his own. The villain I am talking about is none other than “Carnage.”Only being spotted very seldom throughout the Spider Man series, Carnage has been on of those villains that you love to hate. Now with Marvel giving him his own mini series aptly titled “Carnage USA,” readers will have a good chance to learn the origin of Cletus Kasady (aka Carnage).

Click here to view some of the images for the new Carnage mini series.

Judging from the preview art, you are in for a visual treat. There is a lot that goes into creating vibrant comic book characters, and it is safe to say that everyone has to start somewhere.  So if you are a new artist, or just someone who wants to refine their technique, be sure to check out some of our reference books to get you on the right track to leveling up your art–like this one from master artist Brian Hitch, Brian Hitch’s Ultimate Comics Studio.

Let’s face it: One of the very reasons we love drawing fantasy is the fact that the possibilities are virtually unlimited! You can populate your world with all kinds of great creatures, weird foliage, cityscapes as far as the eye can see and so much more. You want humanesque characters with wings? Why not?

Here are ten awesome resources for creating great fantasy backgrounds and companions for your characters.

1. Dark Art: How to Draw and Paint Witches and Worlds
2. Dreamscapes: Creating Magical Angel, Fairy and Mermaid Worlds With Watercolor (e-book)
3. Ink Bloom, Draw and Paint a Fantasy Adventure
4. OtherWorlds, How to Imagine, Paint and Create Epic Scenes of Fantasy
5. DragonWorld, 120 dragons with advice and inspiration from 38 international artists
6.  The Explorer’s Guide to Fantasy Creatures
7. 100 Ways to Create Fantasy Creatures
8. DragonArt
9. Dreamscapes, Myth and Magic Demonstration: The Dryad Digital Download
10. John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop

And you want to know what’s even cooler? We have some great sales events coming up in the next several days starting with free shipping on Thursday. And with the temperatures cooling and the holidays coming, it’s kind of like I made your Gift Wish List for you!