Give 'em up. Figured it might be helpful for us to share the stuff we've found useful! Oh, and- This is about books, not websites. ;)

Making Comics
Scott McCloud
In my opinion, this is the best book on the market! It covers a lot of stuff that ought to be obvious- panel composition, choosing shots and angles, page flow, etc.- but that a lot of us may not be conscious about when drawing. It's also got a copious amount of resources and references. Presented in graphic novel form, it's an easy and super-insightful read.

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way
Stan Lee & John Buscema
One of the most practical and approachable figure drawing books I've ever come across- that's including about 20 "fine art" style ones that I've got in my library. It's wonderful explaining how to build up the figure, foreshorten, create dynamic poses and action scenes, plus more panel composition stuff. I actually used this as a resource when I taught figure drawing in university!

How to Make Webcomis
Brad Guigar, Dave Kellet, Scott Kurtz, & Kris Straub
A lot of the basic "how to make comics" stuff is probably covered in the two above, but I found the business aspects of this one really helpful- how to market, promote, and possibly make some cash off your comic. Good stuff from folks who have actually managed to do this.

Perrspective for Comic Book Artists
David Chelsea
If you're a complete dope about perspective, or are intimidated by attempting it, or just need a refresher course, this is the book. Another one presented in graphic novel form. One of my favorite parts about this one is that it often shows you what you're doing wrong, and then shows you the proper way to do it. I found a lot of mistakes in my own work by reading this one. It was a little tougher to get through than Mr. McCloud's, but it's made much easier by the fact that it's a comic.

What about you guys? What are your favorites?

Even a monkey could draw manga:
expart guide 2 making manga art and story


Incredible comics, tom nyugen:
I really loved this one, helped me get down superhero anatomy and points out common mistakes people make in a funny way (totally bashed leifeld at one point)

Understanding comics, scott mccloud:
Gives you a whole new perspective and respect for comics, can help give your story structure and make you want to improve.

PEN & INK manga starter guide:
This is great for anyone who likes traditional inking not just manga, tons of techniques and shortcuts, it features pro artists demonstrating and not some hackjob kawaii bimbo drawing westerner a.k.a. how 2 drawl manguh

Additionally to "Understanding Comics" & "Making Comics" of course "Reinventing Comics" by Scott McCloud.

Comics and Sequential Art;
Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative;
Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative (published post-mortem)
by Will Eisner

I also second David Chelseas Perspective for Comic Book Artists.

Other books that aren't about Comics per se but I consider very helpful for Comic Artists:
Perspective made easy - Ernest Norling: If you really don't know anything about perspective, read this one prior to David Chelseas book. The content is idiotproof. Really

Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators - Michael D. Matessi: Body Forces and Dynamics are an often neglected topic, and in my book they're incredibly important, because they convey action and life; something which plays a big part in comics.(well, unless all your characters are cardboards which can talk...)

And that's all I can think about for the moment.
Greetz :]

I'll just echo my love for the Scott McCloud books. They're such fun to read!

Finding books about comics or art catalogs is almost impossible where I live. And when I found one, the price is to much.

However, I found one reasobably priced and very useful: Martínez Roca's "Curso Avanzado de Manga" (Manga Advanced Course).

Not only covers the artistic differences between the different manga genres, but also have some usefull notes about webcomic related businness.

Hyena H_ll
Perrspective for Comic Book Artists
David Chelsea
If you're a complete dope about perspective, or are intimidated by attempting it, or just need a refresher course, this is the book. Another one presented in graphic novel form. One of my favorite parts about this one is that it often shows you what you're doing wrong, and then shows you the proper way to do it. I found a lot of mistakes in my own work by reading this one. It was a little tougher to get through than Mr. McCloud's, but it's made much easier by the fact that it's a comic.

David Chelsea's perspective work is crazy! I've seen the amount of work this guy puts in establishing vanishing points and it totally blew my mind. I haven't read this yet partly because I find it a little intimidating.

My favorite comic-making book has to be How to Not Draw Manga which was put out by Antarctic Press. Admitedly it's not really an instructional book of any kind but it does a great job of making fun of the How to Draw Manga series.

Dark Pascual
Finding books about comics or art catalogs is almost impossible where I live. And when I found one, the price is to much.

However, I found one reasobably priced and very useful: Martínez Roca's "Curso Avanzado de Manga" (Manga Advanced Course).

Not only covers the artistic differences between the different manga genres, but also have some usefull notes about webcomic related businness.

I get all mine through Amazon Used sellers. Barnes and Noble has used books too, so sometimes there- plus they take Paypal. I don't think I paid over 7 or 8 bucks (including shipping) for the four that I mentioned.

I'd recommend the DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Denny O'Neil. I'm not sure I learned very much from it, personally, because I discovered it at such a ripe old age that my thoughts on what does and doesn't work were more or less fully formed already (for better or worse!) What I did find refreshing about it, though, was this sentence (variations of which appear throughout the book!):

Denny O'Neil
There is no one absolute, inarguable, unimpeachably right way to do anything.

There are a lot of people telling you how to write. There are books about it, established writers and publishers give advice on forums and in their blogs, Zuda people talk about it on Twitter and they all have one thing in common: they all arrogantly write as if they are privy to some big secret and that every other way of writing is wrong. Denny O'Neil tells it like it is: there is no right or wrong way. Of course you should learn the basics, be aware of what's been done in the past and study the way that other writers do it but, at the end of the day, if you want to do it differently, then that's fine too.

DAJB
Twitter and they all have one thing in common: they all arrogantly write as if they are privy to some big secret and that every other way of writing is wrong.

That surprises me because i can only think of 2 comics that i've read there that didn't have awful and incoherent writing :/ The artwork is superb at least.

hmm my favorite books ABOUT comics? besides how to draws? well....

EISNER/MILLER-2 of the most legendary and innovative creators in the comics medium discuss everything from philosophy, lateness, to how to break in, continuity, fanboys, to where they get their ideas from...absolute must read. absolute.

THE COMICS JOURNAL INTERVIEWS: FRANK MILLER- all of Frank Miller's interviews with the Comics Journal, from when he was 21 and starting out on daredevil till hes in his 40s and working on DK2. not as much of a must read as EISNER/MILLER, because Miller goes off on a soapbox quite a bit and even contradicts himself, but a fascinating read nonetheless....especially seeing some of the predictions Miller makes about the future of comics back in the 80s and 90s that completely rings true today.

THE COMIC BUYERS GUIDE- fuck WIZARD, next to TCJ this is the best comics magazine, IMO. a bit too fanboyish at tmes, but always interesting.

as far as the more how to draw books go...

THE DC COMICS GUIDE TO PENCILING/INKING COMICS- more the latter than the former, its Klaus Janson talking about how to ink. you're an idiot if you dont listen when he talks about inking.

How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way- ok, so maybe its not as useful to me now as it was when i was a kid....but ive found reuse for it in my old age by inking over buscemas pencils for fun.

all the will eisner books-yeah...good stuff.

Skullbie
Even a monkey could draw manga:

I love this one, so hilarious!

Skullbie

DAJB
Twitter and they all have one thing in common: they all arrogantly write as if they are privy to some big secret and that every other way of writing is wrong.

That surprises me because i can only think of 2 comics that i've read there that didn't have awful and incoherent writing :/ The artwork is superb at least.

I wasn't actually commenting on the quality of the comics on Zuda. Obviously, when it started there was a lot of criticism of the contract and a lot of creators said they wouldn't submit any project they actually cared about. I don't know how many of the comics on there would fall into that category but I'd agree that the voting system certainly favours comics with high quality artwork rather than interesting writing.

Anyway, that's off topic. Go read Denny O'Neil's book, everyone!

Hyena H_ll
Give 'em up. Figured it might be helpful for us to share the stuff we've found useful! Oh, and- This is about books, not websites. ;)

Making Comics
Scott McCloud

Perrspective for Comic Book Artists
David Chelsea

I'd add Understanding Comics too (although Making is a little more technically oriented so I prefer it)... wasn't a huge fan of Reinventing. I actually really enjoyed the 'exercises' for each chapter in Making, they get you thinking. I keep coming back to that one periodically to refresh myself.

I think Chelsea's book is incredibly useful and accessible- but the mug head guy makes me irrationally angry. I just really hate him and his stupid mug face. I really can't understand why Chelsea did such a stupid thing with an otherwise excellent book.

I've tried reading some of the Will Eisner ones and I just can't. For some reason I find them terribly boring and they're just not clicking for me.

skoolmunkee
but the mug head guy makes me irrationally angry. I just really hate him and his stupid mug face. I really can't understand why Chelsea did such a stupid thing with an otherwise excellent book.

Ha! Me too. I want to punch that guy! lol!

I'm not exactly surprised that the Scott McCloud and Will Eisner instructional books have already been brought up. Those are pretty damn great.

Another book about comics that I'm very fond of is the Comics Journal Library Volume dedicated to Jack Kirby. It has some interesting interviews with the man, and it goes into great depth over his struggle in the 80's to get his original artwork back from Marvel.

In addition to that, there's also The Comic Book Makers by Joe and Jim Simon. It's a pretty fascinating look into Kirby's partnership with Joe Simon in the 40's and 50's.

Let's see, I've read a few more academic books about comics, so I'll be talking about that instead of the more practical ones.

Scott McClouds books have already been mentioned, so I'll waste no more time on them.
Dowd and Hignite have written a book called Strips, Toons, and Bluesies. It collects several essays about comics that deals with different subjects, one of them is about comics and animation, I don't recall the specifics of the others.
At the back there's a timeline over advancements in comics, printing technology and other things. I personally found it very informative.

And then there's the essays by Neil Cohn. Not really a book as most of them can be downloaded here: http://www.emaki.net/readings.html [emaki.net]
He disagrees with Scott McCloud on a lot of points and I recommend looking at it at least to get another point of view.

There's some other books I know about, but it'll be pointless to mention them, as they don't exist in english.

I hope somebody found that interesting. As I said, it's not as much about how to make comics as it's what comics are/how they work, but the subject was "books about comics" so I figured it was okay.