First thoughts

"If ever there was a medium made for over-achievers, it's comics. Where else can a creator make mischief on a cosmic scale; tell tales in which worlds rise and fall in the space of a few panels, where battles may shake the stars, and every emotion -- grief, joy, rage, hope -- is felt and expressed on a mythic scale?" (Barker:1993:3)

 Now we have been given the title of our projects, I was both looking forward to and nervous of the work to come.

I felt I had a good knowledge base for the work concerning graphic novels but I had no idea how to make one interactive. I also had very little knowledge of website and showreel making so they would be good skills to learn.

As with all briefs the first thing I did was to start my research.

I immediately joined some comic book art forums such as the following...

http://www.comicartfans.com/
http://www.comicartistsdirect.com/
http://www.millarworld.com/

These websites would come in extremely useful later on for critique on my works in progress.

I also went straight to the library and looked for the best books on sequential art. Although I  wanted to look at the best examples of graphic novels and comic book art, I also wanted to research the actual process behind them so I withdrew the following books...

For examples of the best...

Watchmen by
Sandman
Death: The high cost of living
Old man Logan
Ultimate Wolverine Versus Hulk
The Ultimates Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch
Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears

For research on the process...

The DC Comics guide to digitally drawing comics -- Freddie E. Williams
Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics -- Stan Lee
Comics and Sequential Art -- Will Eisner
Graphic Storytelling -- Will Eisner
Bryan Hitch's Ultimate Comic Studio -- Bryan Hitch
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art -- Scott McCloud
Panel Discussions: Design in Sequential Art Storytelling -- Durwin S. Talon

Unfortunately a lot of the entry-level books on comic art, particularly the 'how-to' guides tended to repeat themselves and would have the obligatory sections on anatomy, perspective and dynamics but very few about the diversity of styles or the history and depth of comic books. It seemed to be the case that most books on comic art were primarily concerning themselves with how to draw muscular characters but spent very little time on 'why'.  One of the few books that was concerned with the question was the Eisner and Scott McCloud books.