New Titles, Resources, Story Ideas | September–December 2008 ARTS The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Drawing Superheroes & Villains Illustrated 9781592577958 HOME The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Graphic Design 9781592578061 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Country Living 9781592578016 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Drawing Manga Illustrated, Second Edition 9781592578238 MUSIC BODY/MIND/SPIRIT The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Buying a Piano 9781592577187 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to 2012 9781592578030 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Playing the Fiddle 9781592577682 BUSINESS PARENTING/ FAMILY The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Working Less, Earning More 9781592577989 The Pocket Idiot’s Guide™ to Play Groups 9781592578054 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Coaching for Excellence 9781592577835 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Life as a Military Spouse 9781592577873 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Starting & Running a Winery 9781592578184 PERSONAL FINANCE COMPUTERS/TECHNOLOGY The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Active Trading 9781592577453 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Website 9781592577880 SCIENCE COOKING/BEVERAGE The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the Science of Everything 9781592577965 The Pocket Idiot’s Guide™ to Martinis 9781592578139 SELF-HELP/PSYCHOLOGY The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Tapas 9781592578245 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Self-Testing Your Personality 9781592578146 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Wine Basics, Second Edition 9781592577866 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Your True Age 9781592578221 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to High-Fiber Cooking 9781592578207 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Changing Old Habits for Good 9781592577804 GAMES The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Enhancing Your Social IQ 9781592578160 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Chess Openings 9781592577767 TRAVEL The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Self-Testing Your IQ 9781592578115 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Walt Disney World, 2009 Edition 9781592578900 HEALTH/FITNESS The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to New York City 9781592578122 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Secrets of Longevity 9781592577408 TRUE CRIME The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Boosting Your Metabolism 9781592578009 The Pocket Idiot’s Guide™ to Spanish for Law Enforcement Professionals 9781592577842 HISTORY WRITING/GENERAL REFERENCE The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Middle East Conflict, Fourth Edition 9781592577910 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Study Skills 9781592577996 Create the next superhero or villain! 9781592577958 • $19.95 • September 2008 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Drawing Superheroes and Villains, Illustrated is the series’ fourth release in the step-by- step, how-to-draw arena, and the first to venture outside the realm of manga. But like the two manga books before it (The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Manga: Fantasy Creatures and The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Manga: Shoujo), this guide follows the same four-color format in which readers learn how to create a variety of characters. With more than 400 illustrations that are broken up into six- to eight-step series, color is used to clarify how the new strokes add to final full-color character. In this book, readers learn: • To create original superheroes and villains that are patterned after the underlying traits associated with well- known characters, but without replicating what’s already been done by the likes of Marvel and DC Comics • To draw unique figures and see how they are both similar to and different from the established superheroes and villains • To gain inspiration for creating their own truly original characters ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Matt Forbeck (Milwaukee, WI) is the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Manga, Illustrated: Fantasy Creature and The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Manga: Shoujo. He has designed collectible card games, role-playing games, miniatures games, toy lines, and board games and has written short fiction, comic books, and novels for companies including IDW (Dracula’s Revenge), Wizards of the Coast (The Lost Mark trilogy of Eberron novels), Games Workshop (Blood Bowl novels), WizKids (High Stakes Drifter trading card game), Artbox Entertainment (Monster Rancher trading card game), and Playmates Toys (Marvel Heroes Battle Dice collectible miniatures and dice game). Projects he has worked on have garnered twelve Origins Awards and five ENnies. Yair Herrera (San Diego, CA) started his professional career working in several underground comic projects in his native country, Argentina. After working for the Spanish Sulaco Studios and for Eadultcomics, writing and drawing comics, in 2006 Herrera drew and inked his first graphic novel: Zombies: Eclipse of the Undead! for IDW, with scripts by El Torres and color by Pablo Quilogotti. idiotsguides.com For Information: Gardi Ipema Wilks (708) 366-8389 [email protected] A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Dawn Werk (317) 428-3326 [email protected] Graphic Design Made Easy 9781592578061 • $24.95 • October 2008 New graphic design programs and software allow the average consumer or small business owner to design business cards and marketing materials, launch a blog with a logo and design, and create fun CD covers or graphic T-shirts. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Graphic Design is a one-stop reference for creating a variety of projects without a graphic arts degree. Presented in an intuitive, accessible format—in full-color—The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Graphic Design quickly gets readers up and running on the fundamental elements of design and then teaches readers how to apply those ele- ments to a variety of projects. Contents include: • Available software products • Typography • Visual hierarchy • Image creation • Photography • Layout ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Marjorie L. Crum (Pittsford, NY) is the program chair and a past president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. In addition to being the owner, head designer, and creative director of her own Happy Creek Studio, she is a graphic design instructor at Monroe Community College. She previously served as an adjunct professor and instructional developer at Rochester Institute of Technology. Marcia Layton Turner (Rochester, NY) is an award-winning writer who has partnered with numerous graphic designers in her career. Some of the titles she has authored or co-authored include The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Staging Your Home to Sell, The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Webkinz, the Unofficial Guide to Marketing Your Small Business, Successful Fine Art Marketing, and How to Think Like the World’s Greatest Marketing Minds. Learn to Draw Manga 9781592578238 • $19.95 • December 2008 The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Drawing Manga Illustrated, Second Edition, makes it easier than ever before for read- ers to create their own manga characters, landscapes, and stories. This new edition is even more visual, with over 100 additional step-by-step illustrations that guide readers from the basic strokes to the final ink renderings. From bodies and faces to backgrounds and mech (manga for anything mechanical), readers learn all the basics necessary to start rendering the exotic worlds and a creative cast of characters that attracted them to the genre as readers. Coverage includes: • Body building basics • Bodies in motion • Faces and facial expressions • Villains • Weapons & Vehicles • Backgrounds and environments • Storytelling basics ABOUT THE AUTHORS: John Layman (Seattle, WA) has been involved in not just manga, but all sorts of comics, for more decades than he cares to admit. He is the current writer for Gambit for Marvel Comics and has written two Thundercats miniseries for WildStorm and two Species miniseries for Avatar. He is also the creator of Puffed for Image Comics and Bay City Jive for WildStorm. Layman has edited for Idea + Design Works (IDW), WildStorm, and Image; lettered comics for almost every comic company under the sun; and was once a comic book columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. David Hutchinson (San Diego, CA) is a freelance illustrator who specializes in manga. He has contributed to many of Antarctic Press’s How to Draw Manga volumes and has worked for Idea + Design Works as a contract illustrator. idiotsguides.com For Information: Gardi Ipema Wilks (708) 366-8389 [email protected] A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Dawn Werk (317) 428-3326 [email protected] 2012—The end or the beginning? 9781592578030 • $16.95 • October 2008 According to the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, referred to more familiarly as the Mayan calendar, the world will come to an end in 2012. Perhaps, instead, the year 2012 is the dawning of a new age. Could 2012 bring good things instead of bad? The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to 2012 gives readers a look at what the Mayan prophecy is all about and what it means, including: • The Cosmic Calendar and how the ancient Egyptians, the Bible, the Koran, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and other sources all refer to an end time in 2012 • Global warming and climate change, and how the Mayans predicted these • Personal journal, and the tools needed to survive into the 6th Age • After 2012—the end of the world or a Golden Age to come? • Glossary of terms and symbols, resources for a changing world, and exercises to assist you in your journey. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Synthia Andrews (Guilford, CT) began studying the Mayan prophecies in the 1990s after an inspira- tional meeting with Mayan spokesperson Hunbatz Men, author of Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion. Andrews is a respected energy/bodywork practitioner and teacher. She is currently finishing her doctorate degree in Naturopathic Medicine. Colin Andrews, a native of England, is the foremost researcher into the global mystery of crop circles. He and co-author Pat Delgado wrote the first book on the subject, Circular Evidence, in 1989. Through his research and first-hand experience he has developed a personal connection to the prophecies of 2012 and their relationship to political, social and ecological happenings of today. Work Less, Earn More 9781592577989 • $16.95 • September 2008 In an economic recession can Americans still transition from a workaholic culture to one that places more emphasis on family and recognizes the value of downtime? Absolutely.