Recently, I’ve been participating in a discussion over on Drunkduck with a sprite comic artist who wanted feedback specifically from people who hate sprite comics. I obliged him. Although in the course of the conversation it became clear to me that there needs to be more awareness raised for alternatives to ripping sprites for those who can’t draw. Legal alternatives that will help people who don’t feel like learning to draw (or mistakenly believe they can’t), create instant comics despite their artistic handy cap. So I’ve provided some links here in this article to software that helps you, the zero art skills dude make comics as a follow up to my first post about making webcomics if you can’t draw.

Online Comic Creation Options

Pixton

Lets start with a web 2.0 solution to webcomics, the drag and drop webcomic creation site, Pixton. While there is a pay option that gets you some extra perks as well as the full comic making product, but you can join the site for free, either with your own username or you can use your facebook ID to sign in. Pixton lets you drag and drop preexisting props and arrange and change them at will. They have layouts set up for you to use, and provide hosting for your comic as well. If you are curious about how it works, check out their teaser video. It has its limits, but at the same time, it does provide an easy way of using and modifying pre-existing art to plop into your already existent story. It seems fairly robust, allowing you to change the characters, effectively allowing you to, in a limited fashion, customize and make your own characters.

StripGenerator.com

Another web solution with pregenerated art is Stripgenerator.com.  It has an easy drop and drag system with pre-generated black and white characters, word balloons and props. The above example strip was created with Stripgenerator.com. You can register for the system or create the strip as an anonymous user. You aren’t limited to the three panel format, but it doesn’t allow for extensive modification of the characters aside from size and orientation. But it does provide a quick and easy solution for those who are art impaired.

Software options

Secondlife

If you aren’t up for learning poser or a more complicated piece of 3d software, you might consider using this huge virtual world as your canvas. Avatars are easily adjustable, and you can pretty much buy or scrounge all the content you could ever need to make hundreds of looks of original characters. Accounts are free, and there is an entire world of vistas to grab screen shots from. Couple this with some basic text bubbles and you have an instant 3D comic. You can sign up here.

Comic Life

Comic life is made by plasq and while originally for the Mac, is also available for windows. While this product is more aimed at taking pictures or other source and images and adding comic elements, it can be used to easily ‘comic up’ screenshots of digital sources, such as from something like Secondlife or other 3d software.

MangaStudio

While a lot of people might think that you have to be able to draw to use this software, its not entirely true. While it does function best with a tablet and some solid talent, it has the capability of importing .obj files and running a filter to make them look like drawings. While it can appear somewhat rough, its not hard to use them as something to trace over which is good if you are actually feeling like attempting to learn a bit of drawing. Smith Micro also has a huge source of legal, royalty free material available from ContentParadise.com. The debut version is 50$, but for the full version of this software its about 299$. Try a demo if you are unsure if this suits your needs.

Hopefully this provides you with some options that don’t involve ripping other people’s art off and copywritten properties, as many people do when confronted with wanting to do comics and being artistically handicapped. And yes, I’m looking at you sprite comic guys. Not you, the one who made their own sprites, but everyone else who didn’t.

So, you want to start a webcomic, but there’s a problem. You can’t draw. Well, that fact doesn’t have to be the end of your webcomic dreams, but it does mean you may have to go a slightly different route than those who already can.

If you have ambitions to start a webcomic, and aren’t particularly artistically skilled in drawing, chances are, your talents lie in writing. This isn’t a bad thing, but the problem is of course, with comics being a visual medium you are going to have to figure out how to bring your writing to comic reality. There are actually several options, as a LOT of writers run into this problem, and many have devised clever, nefarious, funny, or ingenious workarounds for the problem.

Option 1 – Learn to draw

Some brave writers opt for this particular option. Teach yourself to draw, or set out to draw. Many artists have to learn how to write, its not unfeasible for a writer to learn some artistic skills. Much like writing its simply a matter of learning the basics and then practicing your eyeballs out. Comics don’t have to be artistic wonders, and even very basic art can support a well written comic. xkcd is a case in point. Its extremely witty and well written, but its completely done by stick figures. No one can say that the artistry in that comic is top knotch, but it is enough to get the writing across. And that’s really all you need. But if drawing is totally not your thing, or you require much higher quality art than you can provide, there are other options.

Option 2 – Learn how to model in 3D

Many people have taken to learning another skill, 3D rendering, to bring their comics to life with software such as Poser. Poser and similar software has a huge wealth of resource available for models, clothing, backgrounds, etc, and also a very large community for support in your learning efforts. The software itself will run you some cash, about$250 USD for Poser, but there are free 3D software packages out there, such as Blender. If you are already well versed in 3D rendering, this might be a very good option for you. If you aren’t willing to learn to draw, but are willing to teach yourself how to do this, you may find it a viable option. There are successful examples of 3D rendered comics out there. House of the Muses is an example of a fairly successful 3D rendered comic.

There are however, criticisms of 3D render comics. One common complaint is that they all look the same. This is because people tend to use the same 3D models and many amateurs don’t take the time to learn to customize the characters enough, or spend enough time on their rendering to make the scenes look good. Some comic makers have attempted to fix this using filters to make the figures look more comic like, or doing the basic posing/art in poser, then exporting it to photoshop or another painting ish program and then painting over the renders to provide a more organic look. There are also complaints of the models looking to ‘plastic’ or unrealistic. Many new renderers don’t pay attention to important details of texture and lighting, or the nuances of the body. You also run into the problem of the uncanny valley. However, if you put the effort into it, it can still be a viable way of illustrating your comic.

Option 3 – Photocomics

If you don’t want to put the time into learning to render software, maybe photography is your thing? There are some comics that have turned to photography as a means of illustrating their stories. Union of Heroes is one such comic that has turned to photography rather than the pencil, and has done so with reasonable success. There is debate in the artistic community as to if this is ‘cheating’ or not, as comics are debated to be ‘sequential art’ not ‘sequential photography’, however, done right, it can be a viable means of visually communicating your story. You will have to spend the time rounding up models, costuming, lighting, and taking pictures.  There are a few comics that have turned to using items such as lego men or fantasy minis as their photographic models. An example comic that uses this technique is Irregular Webcomic!.

Option 4 – Sprite Comics

I actually hesitate to bring this up, but it is a ‘genre’ of comics that has evolved out of the massive web comic soup of the internet. Most ‘sprite’ comics are created by ripping video game sprites. I will personally say that it is morally wrong to take copywritten work, such as a video game sprite (common ripoffs include megaman, sonic, old final fantasy, etc) that is the likeness of a well known character or character design and use it as your own. It can also cause a lot of legal red tape later if you are found out to be selling items (merchandise) with those characters on it, but that being said some very successful comics, like 8-bit theater used it in the beginning with old final fantasy sprites, and Bob and George ran for years using Megaman sprites. If you do decide to go this route, consider making your own custom sprites and NOT ripping off video game sprites. Examples of original ‘pixel art’ comics include the likes of comics such as Diesel Sweeties and A Modest Destiny.

Option 5 – Team up

If none of these options have appealed to you yet, you may consider the option of teaming up with an artist.  Collaborations can be very rewarding, and there are artists out there (believe it or not) that want to draw a comic, but have no ideas or story writing ability. In terms of team ups, you have a couple of options.

Most writers, and aspiring webcomic creators are poor. Depending on the level of quality you are willing to accept in terms of artistic skill you may be able to find an artist who is willing to team up for you without pay. This is pretty rare however, and of course, artists who possess any decent level of skill are in high demand. You may be able to ‘hire’ an artist for a portion of proceeds from the webcomic itself, if you’ve planned how you are going to make money off of it. An artist may be willing to work for a percentage of donations/sales/ad revenue.

The other option is to save up some money and pay the artist for their work. This is the way you can probably get the best bang for your buck. Most comic artists have a page rate, which can vary from as little as 5$ a page, to 50$ a page or beyond. It is very much dependent on the artist. You can probably bet, the better the artist is, the higher their page rate is. Artists may charge less for pencil and ink vs full color, and if you are willing to learn to do the coloring duties, you may be able to save some money.

If you are looking to team up with an artist, forums and artist hangouts are good option to see if there is anyone out there looking for partnerships. If you aren’t offering anything, you can probably expect to be heckled a bit, as artists do get sick of people trying to sponge talent for nothing, and they get testy. Some artists DO go looking for writers to help them on their own projects, and it may be possible to exchange services, you help them on their project, and they help you on yours. A little backscratching goes a long way. A few places you may go looking for artists:

• Drunkduck Networking & Community Projects forum
• SmackJeeves Creative Collaboration forum
• The Webcomic List ‘Dogpile’ Forum
• Webcomic.net ‘Help Wanted’ Forum
• Comicscommunity forums
• Deviantart forums – two areas of interest: Projects, and Employment opportunities (if you are paying)
• ComicSpace

There are many other places to look, you can even be braisen and email a particular artist you like about the potential of collaboration, but if you do, be sure to come with something in hand to offer the artist. Even if it is simply a business plan and a sample script. Showing an artist that you’ve thought things out and know what your doing does wonders to show that you are serious about working with them.  Many writers make the mistake of writing an artist without taking into consideration the whole picture, and basically asking an artist to slave over hundreds of pages for nothing. Be considerate if you are looking to colaborate, and be prepared to answer the question, “So, what do I get out of it?”. If your only answer is “exposure and my everlasting gratitude”, its not going to be good enough for most artists that are any good. Some artists may want the practice, but those who have been in the game a while need something a little more substantial.

If you aren’t willing to learn to draw, or do one of the other options and have resorted to hiring or collaborating with an artist, remember that they’ve spend hundreds if not thousands of hours perfecting the skill you weren’t willing to learn  yourself. Make sure you reward them for sharing that skill with you in some tangible way.

Anyway, I’ve been making webcomics for years, I started way back in the beginning before webcomics were a big deal. Back when the idea was still novel, and having your own website was all the rage. Today, it has evolved into a highly competitive content industry where people can actually making a LIVING doing it. But how do you get started? This is my first in a series of posts about making webcomics.

Contrary to popular belief, making a webcomic really isn’t hard. The essence of the thing is make some sequential art and post it on the internet. With services like DrunkDuck and SmackJeeves, its dead fucking easy. You don’t even need to know HTML or anything. Sign up for a service, click upload, upload comic jpg, and voila, instant webcomic.

However, making a GOOD webcomic that’s going to stand out in today’s increasingly crowded webcomic landscape is a completely different question. And with the wealth of increasingly awesome comics out there, unlike just a scant five years ago, you really have to kick up your game and have a plan if you want to get noticed.

As a potentially aspiring webcomic creator, you may be wondering, if you want to put your best foot forward, how the heck do you get started?

Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

In the case of webcomics, and indeed anything you intend to go anywhere with, its best to have a plan. If you are going to start a business, you start with a Business Plan. If you were going to make a movie, you’d start with a script at the very least. When you plan a trip, you get out a road map. Making a comic is no different. You should have a plan. At the very least, a script or summary with a direction you want to go.

If you are just sort of futzing around with the idea, you may be interested in making money at this point, but just publishing for exposure or for the love of sharing your stories/art. This is a different goal than making a marketable webcomic you can make a living off of. Both require different sorts of planning. One is less involved than the other, but both so require some thought. Lets address the more hobbiest aspect of the craft, and we’ll worry about the heavy stuff where money is involved a little later. After all, if you can’t handle webcomics at a hobby level, you probably won’t make it at the money level.

At this point, when you’ve decided to make a webcomic, you need to consider a few more basic parameters:

Format - Is this going to be a strip type comic or a serial manga?  Both have their own challenges associated with writing and production.

Medium – Digital or traditional? Color or black and white? These factors will affect how you make your comic and how you get it on the internet.

Frequency - how often can you produce a completed page? This becomes important when you decide how often you can update.

Place – Do you want to put it on a domain you already own as a subdomain? Do you want it to have its own domain and hosting? or do you want to be a part of a free site? or a free site with your own scripts? This will affect how people find you, and how you can advertise your site and what sorts of promotional tools you can use and access. Your technical knowledge of the internet, php, html, rss, and other interesting techie acronyms will be tested here. Can you even design a website?

How long? – How long do you want to be doing this? Is it a one shot deal?  A single story with 30? 50? 200 pages? Is it an ongoing strip with no real beginning or end? Is it a finite story with multiple books? Is a series of short stories? Deciding how long or short your story is gives you the ability figure out timelines. If this is your first webcomic, I tend to suggest a shorter format before working on your opus, as it seems 98% of long form webcomics are never finished. I’d say less than 50% live past 50 pages.

Artist or Writer? - Usually, most people who do webcomics are one or the other. Not to say that if you are an artist you can’t become a writer or vice versa, but knowing your strengths lets you also address your weaknesses. If you can’t draw, but write well, you will probably have no trouble coming up with a story, although you may run into trouble turning it into a comic script, as you really have to cut down your words. The other problem you will probably have is actually creating visuals. You are going to have to learn to draw, hire an artist, use a program, or create some kind of crutch to get by. Artists learning to write can produce the visuals, but their stories are often not that well thought out, crude, and not always well executed. Since a lot of the draw of a comic hinges on the story, the artist would benefit taking the time to properly develop their story and script (and have it proofread & revised a few times by actual writers) before setting to creating visuals.

Recruit help – Even the most seasoned, awesome, amazing webcomic creators need a little help from their friends from time to time. Most become involved with the webcomic communities online in some way or another. Be it advice on plot, to help with webdesign, to artistic tips and tricks in photoshop, there’s lots of help to be had to anyone who asks. Places like the drunkduck forums are a good place to start if you are new. I’ll update this area with more resources as I track them down. But the long and short is, if you need help, don’t be afraid to use google and ask. Most creators are happy to share advice or point you to people who can help.

Equipment – You will need some actual STUFF to make comics. If you are working traditionally, you’ll at least need access to a scanner to get things into the computer. Many creators start with a pen and paper, and then scan it in and add text and such later. I’ll cover artistic process in detail in the next article. Some artists prefer an entirely digital route using an input device such as a Wacom tablet. Many use programs to aid this, including some such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and MangaStudio. Others use free programs such as GIMP or Pixia. I’ll work on providing a more complete list in another article.

Once you’ve made the above decisions, acquired equipment and connections, and you’ve got yourself a script in hand, its time to actually start making comics. Unfortunately, this takes time and work. I highly suggest that you make a buffer of comics before you consider putting them online. I use a guideline of 30 comics before debut, but you could probably start with 10, but I wouldn’t launch a comic site with anything less. Doing 30 comics gives you a good chance to get to know your own work speed, and to do refinements. Once its up, its up, and people see it. If you make a spelling mistake or need to change it, its easier to do it BEFORE you’ve launched to the world. (although the nice thing about the web is you CAN change it, as opposed to dead tree format, where you can’t.)

( I will update and flesh some areas out more as I get more articles written. )