How to Make Your Own Comic Books

So you've been reading comics for a while and want to try your hand at it? Dive right in! A comic does not have to be difficult to make. Start simple, then build up to more ambitious projects.

Instructions

1. Decide on your audience. Nowadays, comics are read by people of all ages. Knowing who you are writing for will help you plan out your plot, writing style, dialog, and relevant themes.

2. Decide on the genre. Comic books can range from superhero episodes to horror stories or autobiographical sketches. Write about a topic or theme that moves you.

3. Decide on a short, simple, story. Your first comic book should not be too ambitious. Keep the content to eight or fewer pages. Try to cover one brief episode. You can always begin a more ambitious project later on.

4. Create a character(s). Decide on each character's appearance, motivation(s), and narrative relevance to the story.

5. Write the story. Although this step isn't necessary, it can be useful to write out the complete story in paragraph form. This will assist you as you write dialogue and direction for the comic book.

6. Decide on a drawing style. There are a variety of conventional ways for drawing comics illustrations and sketches. Decide if you will use photo-collages, for example, or simply draw stick figure characters.

7. Write the script. For each page, write how many frames are used and what happens in each frame. Include a description of the frame's appearance, as well as relevant dialog and/or sound effects.

8. Make the comic. Go through frame by frame and draw it out.

9. Add the actual dialog and sound effects to be used in the comic book. You can hand letter it or scan the comic into your computer to do in a comic font.