Creating comics

[kingbobalot]

Hello all. Lately I have been thinking of starting to make my own comic books but I'm not exactly sure how I should start it. I plan on writing and drawing the comic myself but I think the most challenging aspect of it would be the drawing part of it.

In regards to equipment for creating a comic I have a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet and a couple of different software so I think I'm set for what I need to get start but I don't know how to start.

Any advice is well appreciated.

 

[Mezahmay]

As someone who has experimented with comics in the past, I highly recommend practicing the art style you want to draw in. It has to be something you can replicate easily to show action without characters looking too different between panes. I did not do that enough to the point that each comic looked quite different from each other at first. That was disappointing. It leveled out later on but by then I ended up stopping.

I find that just reusing the same basic models and changing minor details (arms/expression) can also be effective if you alter enough and smooth out the sections that used to have nothing/something present. I'm sure you're aware of this since your avatar pic does this pretty well.

This is more personal opinion than a general comic rule, but I find too much dialogue is distracting. Just place enough to make a point and be entertaining, then let the action of the characters say the rest. My rule of thumb was three sentences at most, usually less depending on the situation.

The writing technique I used was knowing the characters well enough to just place them in a situation and playing out how I think they'd react. Situations ranged from parodies of other funny things (lazy, I know, but a good way to start drawing characters in various poses) to recreations of stories I'd heard or experienced. I did not stick with it long enough to make a full arc of anything due to obligations and other issues.

Good luck!

 

[Batou667]

Probably the best way to get started is just to dive in and accept that whatever you create will be a bit rough at first but you'll eventually find your style. Look at any decent webcomic, hit the "First" button and see how scrappy it usually looks.

For the technical aspects, Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is a very well-respected and entertaining introduction to the medium and has some notes on composition and flow that some professional comic artists out there would do well to pay attention to.

But like I said, just dive in for now. It's better to be an enthusiastic amateur who occasionally gets things wrong than having an encyclopedic theoretical understanding but nothing to show for it. Make up a few core characters, decide what the "angle" of your strip will be (including the likely audience) and have fun with it!