How to Make & Sell Your Own Comic Book
Comic books start with a detailed script and then are drawn in pencil. Dialog is written on the pages in black ink, then the pencil drawings are covered in black ink with a pen or brush. The finished pages are scanned into a computer for book layout and design. A graphic file of the comic book is sent to a printer for production. Comic book publishers seek to sell in high quantities to comic book distributors. Many work with individual retailers and attend conventions as well.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Computer
- Scanner
- Script
- Drawing paper
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Black ink
- Drawing pens
- Ruler
- Lettering pen (optional)
- Water color brushes, #1 and #2
- Marketing plan
Instructions
-
-
1
Create a premise for your story, then create characters to carry out the premise. The better defined the characters, the more interesting the story will be. Calculate the major plot points and the resolution to the story. Comic book writers work in many styles and genres, including super hero, fantasy, mystery and autobiography. Decide how long the comic book will be. Comic magazines may be 32 pages, while full-length comic book novels, known as graphic novels, might run 200 pages or more.
-
2
Write a script for the comic book. Break down each page into a series of panels, these are the boxes that the words and pictures appear in. Most comic book pages have four to six panels, with the first page of a story often having one to three panels. Write a description of the scene to be drawn in each panel, including location and which characters are present, along with pertinent details for the setting. Create dialog for each character as necessary, illuminating their attributes while moving the story forward. Write the appropriate number of pages as planned for your comic book.
-
-
3
Draw each panel in pencil as per the script. Some comic books are written and drawn by the same person, others are written by one person and drawn by another. Most comic book art is drawn at a larger size than the finished book, and is reduced before printing. Upon completion of the pencil art, add all captions and dialog in black ink. Draw a cover image for the comic book in pencil, and the title or logo.
-
4
Cover the pencil drawings in black ink, using pen and ink, brush and ink, or technical drawing pens. Once the ink is dry, erase remaining pencil lines.
-
5
Scan the art into a computer as black and white line art at high resolution. Reduce the art to the final printed size in an image editing program. Coloring the pages is optional. The cover image should be colored.
-
6
Lay out the comic book in a graphics program. Open a document with the appropriate number of pages and place a page of comic book art on each page. While most comic books are sized 6 5/8 by 10 1/4 inches, many comic book graphic novels are produced at the standard trade book size of 6 by 9 inches.
-
7
Comic books are sold through a network of comic book specialty stores. These stores buy most of their books from Diamond Comic Distributors. Once you have finished a comic book, print out a copy, or generate a PDF file of the book. Send a copy of the comic book to Diamond Comic Distributors. They will consider listing the book in their monthly catalog, "Previews."
-
8
If your comic book is accepted by Diamond Comic Distributors for their "Previews" catalog, they will send you a purchase order for the book the month after it is listed. Send the book to a printer specializing in book work. They can print the book and ship it to Diamond Comic Distributors. Upon shipping the comic book, send Diamond Comic Distributors an invoice for the comic book. Usually, payment is sent in 30 days.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Diamond Comic Distributors typically pays publishers 40 percent of the cover price for a comic book. To set your cover price, calculate printing and shipping costs and add a reasonable profit. This is your price to Diamond, from which you can calculate the retail price. Consider selling directly to retailers for 60 percent of the cover price.
Comic book publishing is a competitive field and can be difficult to break into.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Tooga/Digital Vision/Getty Images
