Digital Comic Books: The Other Print to Digital: Create your own!

Robert PerretUniversity of IdahoILA Region 2 2015

Credentials

Why?

• “I mostly make comics as a way of processing difficult things, whether that’s moving to a new place or suffering heartbreak or dealing with a serious illness. Something also important to me about comic/zine creation is the giving part. Most of the time when I’m creating something it is for someone, an act of sharing something I’m thinking about or feeling. Like giving someone a mixtape, only in graphic form.” -Annie Gaines

What you need - Basic

• Pen, paper, ruler• A way to digitize– Preferably a scanner– Could be a phone

• Internet access• Amazing ideas!• Anyone could get started with $5 and

a library card

Going high tech

• Drawing tablets – Wacom, Huion, VisTablet ($40-$$$)– Pressure (2048 levels) and tilt– Some offer style support (i.e. manga washes, etc.)– Direct manipulation in graphics software

• Software– Comic Creator ($20, template based, scripting) – Corel Painter 2015 ($399, deep set of freeform

tools)– Free: Paint.NET, GIMP, Inkscape– Often need a separate program for scripting

Getting technical

• Make a model sheet/turnaround– Know what your characters look like and

know you can reliably draw them

• Work in RGB mode (most flexibility), but output in CMYK mode (most compatibility)

• Pages should be at least 300 dpi, posters 600 dpi. Many programs default to 150 dpi.

Where – comic strips

• Tumblr or Wordpress– Virtually all blogging platforms support

images, indexing, alerts, twitter. Plus, readers are already there to follow your strip!

• Cross promote with webcomic indexes:– Belfry– Webcomics Index– The Web Comic List– Comic Basement– Comic-Rocket

Where – graphic novels

• Amazon• Scribd (Smashwords, INscribe Digital,

BookBaby, or Draft2Digital)

Books on making comics!