how to make comic books

King Con 2015:

How To Make

Comic BooksBy: Brendan Montgomery

Founder & President of Queen’s Comic Book Legion

Overview

Story

Character Design

Script Writing

Storyboarding

Pencils

Inking

Colouring

Lettering

Publishing / Printing / Digital

How to Make Comic Books (C) Queen's Comic Book Legion 2015 2

Story

Every comic starts with a story

Get inspiration from wherever you like

If you don’t know where to start, choose a genre then

read stories in that genre (not necessarily just comics)

Perhaps start with an interesting character, conflict,

location, etc.

You can tell any type of story in comics so don’t limit

your thinking!


Character Design

Start with their personality. Decide who they are and

how they think.

Once you are in their head then you can decide how

they dress and look to reflect their personality

You can also decide their backstory and how they got to

the point in their life of your story

Multiple characters means that you must also design

their feelings towards one another and possibly

coordinate costumes


Example: Persephone Personality: Outgoing, social, intelligent, confident,

bossy and demanding


Script Writing

Begin with an overall outline

Then break down the story page by page

Then write the dialogue and break it up into panels

The number of panels in a page varies and can be

modified in storyboarding later

Written like a movie script or play


Example Format


Page 3

Panel 1 [Subtitle: 1 Week Later]

(Wide shot of Persephone sitting in a lab with undergrads though many seats are empty)

Persephone [thought]

Where is everyone? They know this lab is crucial for passing.

Panel 2 (Persephone is walking down a hallway towards Dr. Hiddleston’s office. She is holding a lab

report in her hands)

Persephone [thought]

Finally got this lab report done! Hope my other group members have handed their parts in.

Panel 3 (Persephone is standing outside Dr. Hiddleston’s office)

Persephone (thought)

Maybe Dr. Hiddleston can tell me why the students haven’t shown up to class lately.

Panel 4 (Close of Dr. Hiddleston going over piles of notes, cellphone held up to his ear)

Dr. Hiddleston

This is impossible! All my research, everything I’ve worked for, it’s not supposed to work this way, not

like…

Panel 5 (Knocking at the door and Hiddleston turns around to the door)

Dr. Hiddleston

I…I’m sorry but I have to go, someone’s at the door.

Storyboarding

Take panels from script and plan out page layout

Just simple outlines of characters and objects is enough

Purpose is to plan out panel design and see overall flow

of the comic

Number of panels per page varies from 1 to 8 generally

Smaller panels used for close shots of faces, objects

while larger panels used for actions, settings and key

moments


Example:


Pencils

Generally drawn on special comic book paper. This

paper has the correct ratio and guide lines

Artist can then draw the page based off of the script

and storyboards where storyboard shows layout while

script describes the scenes in more detail

Style and technique can be decided by artist can vary

widely. Generally pencils do not need to be the cleanest

since inking will touch up the lines

Could also be done digitally using a tablet and drawing

program


Examples


Inking

Traditionally lines are then polished using ink on the

pages

We do this digitally by scanning in the pencil page and

tracing it over using a tablet and drawing program

Inking can add even more detail and correct mistakes in

pencils

Silhouettes are also filled in at this stage

Important in creating visual mood

Common programs include Manga Studio, Illustrator,

Photoshop


Examples


Colouring

Traditionally done with actual paint

Most commonly done digitally now

Able to get a wide variety of styles and visuals

Common programs used are Photoshop, Manga Studio,

Paint Tool SAI


Examples


Lettering

Once art is finalized then add text balloons and sound

effects

Need to be careful not to cover up good parts of art

Free fonts available online

Can vary font with character voice

Don’t forget to add emphasis to key words


Examples


Publishing - Print

Once pages are complete then need to export for

publishing

Check requirements with printer but generally need

CMYK colour, 300DPI, PDF

Many printers to choose from: local , RA Comics, Print

Ninja, etc.

Choose based on volume, price and quality


Publishing - Digital

Many options to choose from, many formats and will

constantly be changing

For top tier comics there is Comixology which allows

indie submissions but is very competitive

There is Inkblazers which is a comic community built

around regular episodic updates and popular comics can

earn revenue

Tapastic is good for short webcomics that you produce

more frequently

Comicsfix is a subscription digital comic service like

Netflix where publishers share total revenue based on

views

Many more options of all kinds


Thank You For

ListeningFeel free to ask questions now or contact me through

the club at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

how to make comic books

Design

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panel design

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larger panels