Comic authors today benefit from increased choice in terms of how to publish. Digital publishing, i.e. webcomics, are the obvious and nearly-universal choice both for those who wish to print at some point an those who don’t intend to. Print-on-demand (PoD), similarly, makes it possible for everyone to make their work available as a book; and despite its many limitations it’s still much better than no possibility at all. Digital printing and various means offered by copy centers also present opportunities for enterprising artists to print small runs of books at a relatively modest cost, with more control over the final product than PoD allows. But the most exciting development, as far as I’m concerned, is that today sites like Kickstarter give everyone a chance to access good old offset printing, which this post is dedicated to. Here I’d like to discuss a number of things to know, to do, and to avoid in order to make the most out of offset printing, based on my personal training and experience printing comics and other books with various printers (with a lot of trial and error.)
Posts Tagged: Underdog
Hand Lettering A Digital Comic, Part 1
The advent of cheap or free font packs, some designed specifically for comic books, has made it a lot easier for comic artists and cartoonists to letter their work in a clean, professional-looking manner. It may therefore seem strange to suggest applying old hand lettering principles to a digital art format. It’s not as odd an idea as it might seem, however, and has some significant advantages over font lettering. It’s also a lot easier than you might think.
The Flow of a Page, Part 1
Breaking up the Page: Pencils And Rulers At The Ready
Is something not jiving right with the flow of your panels? Welcome! Here is the first in a series of articles enumerating tips and pitfalls to avoid when constructing an effective page layout. You’re standing at the ground level; your layout is the first and most essential consideration when it comes to creating your compositions, so it shouldn’t be overlooked. Crafting well-made pages is the initial step toward effectively transmitting your story to the reader: many battles are won and lost right here.
How To Write Dialogue For Comics
Possibly one of the hardest things you’ll ever do in comic creation is writing dialogue. It’s one thing to set a scene and drop characters into it, but it’s another thing to give each character their own unique voice and do it in such a way that sounds natural and not forced. OMG RLY? (Rule #1: NEVER use TXT speak in dialogue. Show some intelligence and s p e l l o u t the words people.) In this article, I will be going over the basics on how to write dialogue for your comic as well as a recipe for great lentil soup. (connect every other letter and you’ll find it….maybe.) (more…)
Is Your Comic A Purple Cow?
I used to read an all-ages webcomic that featured two talking dogs who made humorous observations. With pleasant characters, entertaining writing, and colorful artwork, it was a decent comic (more or less). It would have fit with other comics in the newspaper. Except it had been running for five years and had only attracted about 300 “likes” on Facebook. Also, it wasn’t lucrative enough for the creator to reach her goal of being a full-time cartoonist. After missing several new posts, I felt no compulsion to return and ultimately stopped reading it.
How to Write a Script for Your Comic
Intimidated by the writing process? Having a hard time getting what’s in your head down on paper? (Do you even use paper? If so, does it have “From the desk of…” printed at the top or is it 23 napkins that you snatched from the coffee shop?) In any event, I want to teach you the “quick and dirty” way of making a script for your comic. It’s not as complicated as you might think, and you don’t need any fancy software to do it either! (more…)
How To Write An Outline For Your Comic
You have a stack of character reference sheets, lots of motivation, and five finished cans of generic diet cola sitting on your desk. The problem is you’re stuck and don’t know how to start your story, much less end it. Sound familiar? Then let’s talk outlines!
*insert semi-enthusiastic trumpets here* (more…)
Elements of Gesture
In my opinion, there are three phases to drawing the figure: gesture, construction, and rendering. None of these phases is independent from the others. Gesture captures the essence of the figure’s pose — it records the kinetic energy of a moment in time. If anything can be said to breathe life into a drawing, it’s gesture. Construction is the phase where knowledge of shape and anatomy are employed to methodically build a three-dimensional figure within the page. This is the part of figure drawing where many of the visual “problems” of the figure — problems that involve not just anatomy but perspective — are solved. Rendering draws focus to issues of appearance, primarily lighting. Proper lighting grounds the figure and accentuates depth.
Often, these phases overlap. Gesture and construction can happen at the same time, with rough lighting and shadows added before either phase is fully resolved. Some people skip construction entirely and rely on rendering to establish the form. However you choose to approach things, know this: gesture is the most important. More than a rough sketch or plan to be finalized later, it is the soul of your drawing. Everything else builds off of it and threatens to diminish its impact. (more…)
“The Humility Of The Artist” by Seth Godin (comic by Patrick Yurick)
Dialogue That Writes Itself!
Dialogue can, in essence, make or break a comic. To graciously sidestep the pitfalls of comic speech, it’s a good idea to heed these pieces of advice:
Keep genre in mind
Where is your story set? How, realistically, would your characters interact with one another? Let’s say that you’re writing a period piece set in 1800s England. Quite obviously, you would like to avoid any anachronistic words such as “derp”, or “bro”, or “hashtag.” Unless, of course, your protagonist is a time traveler. (“Hashtags! Bloody hashtags everywhere, bro!”)