How to Create a Web Comic
Trevor Sutch
Intro to webcomics
Web comics are a form of expression. People create them for a variety of reasons. Some people want to express their opinion, some do it just for fun. Some web comics have become extremely popular, allowing their creators to live off of the money earned from the comic. Most however, do not, and are just a form of recreation.
Some web comics have created very unique situations. Penny Arcade, http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/ , for example, is a somewhat widely trusted source of video game “reviews.” The readership of Penny Arcade pays attention when Penny Arcade says something about video games or the video game industry. As such, if PA does not like something they might write a comic about it and thus influence their readers’ decisions.
Steps on how to create a web comic
1. First, you need to decide on either a genre of web comic you would like to create. You could also begin by fleshing out the characters, if you already had some in mind, or you have an idea of what kind you would like to create.
2. Depending on which method you took the next step would be to do the other, for example, if you thought up some characters now you should think about how those characters would interact and what kind of genre would result.
3. Think up some potential “adventures” or jokes that the characters would have or that would fit into the genre, if it's very difficult then you may need to change genres/characters. If you like the jokes, that’s a good sign, especially if they came easily.
4. Flesh out and create an example strip to see how your art style fits in with the comic and how well that style would be used for how often you want to update the comic. In other words, drawing 20+ photo realistic panels would not be a good idea for a bi weekly comic. Think about whether the art style fits the genre of the comic.
5. Now your done with the easy part of starting a web comic! The next step is getting your web comic up on a website. There are many free web comic hosting websites, such as http://www.comicgenesis.com/ . However, it is also possible to host your own website and web comic, but it is a much more involved process and would take a guide in and of itself. So, unless you know how, or someone you know is willing to help you make one you’ll have to pay someone to create it for you. However if your dead set on this, this guide may be of use: http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/startwebsite.shtml .
6. At this point it's mostly up to spreading the word about your web comic, get your friends to link to your web comic on their websites/web comics even on facebook and myspace.
A few examples:
Intro to webcomics
Web comics are a form of expression. People create them for a variety of reasons. Some people want to express their opinion, some do it just for fun. Some web comics have become extremely popular, allowing their creators to live off of the money earned from the comic. Most however, do not, and are just a form of recreation.
Some web comics have created very unique situations. Penny Arcade, http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/ , for example, is a somewhat widely trusted source of video game “reviews.” The readership of Penny Arcade pays attention when Penny Arcade says something about video games or the video game industry. As such, if PA does not like something they might write a comic about it and thus influence their readers’ decisions.
Steps on how to create a web comic
1. First, you need to decide on either a genre of web comic you would like to create. You could also begin by fleshing out the characters, if you already had some in mind, or you have an idea of what kind you would like to create.
2. Depending on which method you took the next step would be to do the other, for example, if you thought up some characters now you should think about how those characters would interact and what kind of genre would result.
3. Think up some potential “adventures” or jokes that the characters would have or that would fit into the genre, if it's very difficult then you may need to change genres/characters. If you like the jokes, that’s a good sign, especially if they came easily.
4. Flesh out and create an example strip to see how your art style fits in with the comic and how well that style would be used for how often you want to update the comic. In other words, drawing 20+ photo realistic panels would not be a good idea for a bi weekly comic. Think about whether the art style fits the genre of the comic.
5. Now your done with the easy part of starting a web comic! The next step is getting your web comic up on a website. There are many free web comic hosting websites, such as http://www.comicgenesis.com/ . However, it is also possible to host your own website and web comic, but it is a much more involved process and would take a guide in and of itself. So, unless you know how, or someone you know is willing to help you make one you’ll have to pay someone to create it for you. However if your dead set on this, this guide may be of use: http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/startwebsite.shtml .
6. At this point it's mostly up to spreading the word about your web comic, get your friends to link to your web comic on their websites/web comics even on facebook and myspace.
A few examples:
This is an example of Penny Arcade, this picture is from http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/2/
This is an example of xkcd, this picture is from http://xkcd.com/661/
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