Resources!

Heres some basic comic stuff for getting started or some FAQs i guess.


Where to post a comic

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Comicfury This option is free and relatively easy to customise, up to using your own url. My comic is hosted there!
Drunkduck Another free webcomic hosting site. Less popular these days. I foudn it confusing to use, but that was many years ago now :v
Smackjeeves #3 standard free webcomic site. From what i remember it was easier to use than drunkduck, though a bit basic.
Tapastic Instead of navigating by pages, tapastic goes by chapters and you scroll down. It would probaby be better navigated on mobile? A lot of people crosspost to here
Tumblr There are a few webcomic themes floating around; this is one of them. Its really easy to upload and share etc if you're already familiar with the site but its a lot less easy to navigate from the reader's end, so be aware.

What program do i use

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Photoshop cs2 has been released by adobe so you an probably find that floating around! There's also Sai, which from what i gather is better for painting (compared to shotoshop doing better editing of images).Firealpaca and GIMP are the free equivalents.
Inkscape is also free and does vector art, if that's your thing.
Mangastudio: "sometimes on sale for really cheap if you strike at the right time and still generally a lot cheaper than Photoshop. It's optimized for comics- with panel tools and speech bubble presets along with a LOT of screentones already built in!" (Thanks Mel)

How do i file type

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Jpegs or pngs are the way to go here, as per usual. Pngs do well with pixel art. Jpegs need to be saved ONCE and at high quality for they'll be an artifacted mess. Probably save your files as psd or the equivalent for your program and keep them around for later, in case you want to print a book or something.

Speaking of: minimum dpi for printing is 300! Web resolution is 72. I don't care what your ultimate goal with the comic is; start out in 300+ dpi so you don't regret it later. Also be aware you can resize the dpi down but not up- if you did it at 72 dpi thats how its going to stay, friend

Traditional or Digital

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Digital has a high starting cost (if you want to buy a tablet and legit art programs) but after that you're home free. Traditional prooobably won't knock you back so much to start but it has ongoing costs (paper can get pretty expensive!) You also need to consider storage space.

Really this is up to what you feel comfortable with, though. Will you be happy painting a page every few days?

Collaborating

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TBH ITS PROBABLY EASIER TO LEARN TO WRITE/DRAW YOURSELF.
If you're looking for someone to collab on your story, pay them decently or they'll probably flake. Comics are a really heavy time investment, and with no real motivation it's really easy to just forget about the project. Alternatively: Get a friend to collab with you.

Things of interest

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Inkstuds podcast Interviews with various comics folks about their art and process. Super interesting!
Dirty old Ladies podcast 3 ladies who have been doing webcomics successfully for a while now. Also v interesting.
Wally Wood's 22 panels that always work
Speed comicking! For when you need to get a lot of shit drawn in a small amount of time.
Open Panel Another comic podcast, which looks like it features a bunch of webcomic folks whose stuff i read? Neat

General art help thread!
ALSO heres the forum adventure critique thread! Lots of crossover skills here, so check it out.

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I also use MangaStudio, which is sometimes on sale for really cheap if you strike at the right time and still generally a lot cheaper than Photoshop. It's optimized for comics- with panel tools and speech bubble presets along with a LOT of screentones already built in!

I do not webcomic but I got a copy of Sai from Romy and it has served me very very well

/5c

here's another podcast, from countershot press. I haven't listened to it yet but it seems interesting? they also have a LOT of links and resources at the bottom.

also I know everyone says this but everyone PLEASE READ UNDERSTANDING COMICS AND MAKING COMICS BY SCOTT MCCLOUD they are seriously the best? they are generally available at public libraries, too!

-omg plaid I was gonna link to that post by ryan estrada but then I realized you ALREADY HAD. stuff that explains workflow like that is honestly soooo good if you struggle with executive dysfunction


(yeah I don't think PS is good for webcomics, unless you intend to use a lot of photo collaging in your pieces. which...most people don't. it doesn't even have a line stabilizer! I mean their filters and adjustment layers are way better, but generally you don't need those? unless you intend to print it someday, or scan your traditional art, in which case you should prooobably get your hands on photoshop. Sai's main problem comicswise is that you can't really do text with it. ofc manga studio's kerning sucks iirc.)

Photoshop's text tool is the worst too; slows the program down immeasurably and is really sub par compared to the other adobe products. If i did digital comics i would be using indesign, but i use it for day to day design stuff too and i wouldn't expect people to learn it just for text bubbles.

On a related note: You would be horrified by my concept art class; we're all doing digital painting in ps :v

Also also: a lot of webcomiccers lately have been discussing how understanding comics isn't really a must read any more! It was a fascinating twitter discussion which i would find if i wasn't literally falling asleep right now. Its still a pretty interesting read but tbh? I didn't get through all of it and i didn't find it that helpful. I had already been soaking up comic info from any industry professional i could find online though, so.

oh no, photoshop makes total sense for digital painting for concepting. (I mean, I'm using it for that rn...) but that type of drawing is so different from what most people want out of webcomics usually? (ofc I have to put here that sarah stone, the artist who drew the transformers comic my icon is from, draws REALLY GREAT speedpaint-y backgrounds in her comics. a great example of beautiful, beautiful pages that don't slave over every last detail.)

photoshop's adjustments, transform tool, liquefy, and user-friendly layer palette are definitely the best even if all you're doing are a bajillion thumbnails. my main complaint when it comes to concepting in PS is that it doesn't have a "transparent color" like sai & the workarounds for that (masks, darken layer settings, alpha channels) really slow you down compared to just hitting a hotkey, even if you make actions for them. (I know it has an erase tool but that's just not the same, dammit)

huh, different strokes I guess about the importance of those books. I still find rereading the two volumes to be pretty enlightening? it #speaks to me even if I already know all the lessons. obviously parts of it are dated, and there's been a lot of innovation since, but imo there's nothing else that lays it all out in one spot the same way. plus I really like the way it doesn't feel like it's telling you the One Right Way and the heavy use of examples.

While I really do love Scott McCloud, I really don't think his books are like THE DEFINITIVE comic textbook like they once were.

I personally really love Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Matt Madden and Jessica Abel, and it's continuation Mastering Comics. Both books show a ton of different ways to comic and go over tools, places to host, and a ton of that. PLUS a TON of fun exercises and stuff that's presented in a way that's really fun to do by yourself or in a group. I own both and they've been so incredibly valuable to me.

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PaintDotNet is a pretty good free program for image manipulation. It's quite a bit friendlier than GIMP but it has a bit less functionality for more advanced operations.

OH my desire for transparency is nothing interesting, it's just easier when working with multiple layers to have stuff like linework and shading all separate. y'know, so the lines are just what you see and that layer's transparent in the parts where the lines aren't. it makes moving stuff around and adding new layers in a lot simpler. (really I need it more for concepting where I'm constantly hodgepodging things than comics)

(ryan estrada's speed comicing piece mentions a quick workaround (using the darken layer mode), buuuut that becomes a hassle if you're doing stuff more complex than the coloring he describes. you can always "fix" lineart like that through the use of the alpha channel in PS (I can explain how if anyone cares), but it's still slower than just having transparency built in. (in sai you just use luminance to transparency ofc))

Updooped to include bigro's forum adventure critique thread.