How to Make a Webcomic
As webcomics are becoming an increasingly popular medium, many aspiring cartoonists are electing to bypass traditional publishers and take their creations straight to the Internet. While the Internet offers cartoonists a substantial amount of creative freedom, there are a number of important steps you'll need to follow to make your comic a success.
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Instructions
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Write a comic people will be interested in reading. If you're relatively new to the world of webcomics, it's a good idea to read through the archives of popular strips like "Penny Arcade" and "PvP" to give yourself a feel for the type of characters and situations readers find appealing. To this end, you can also consult one of the informative books on webcomic creation. While Scott McCloud's "Reinventing Comics" is largely considered the standard, 2008's "How to Make Webcomics" is becoming a popular resource for aspiring web cartoonists. As an added bonus, both books discuss effective ways to market your creation.
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Ink your comics digitally. Because webcomics are a digital medium, the best way to create artwork for them is by using an assortment of digital tools, chief among them a graphics tablet. After using a scanner to transfer the penciled version of your comic to your PC, you can open the newly created file with a program like Microsoft Paint or Photoshop and go over your work with the tablet's stylus in much the same manner as you would with a traditional ink pen. For artists who are used to working at drafting tables, this can take some getting used to, but the finished product looks much better on a computer monitor than a traditionally inked and colored comic. Additionally, artists prone to making mistakes while inking are sure to find that digital inking makes their errors much easier to erase.
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Color your comics digitally. Although a fair number of webcomics are presented in a black-and-white format, computer software makes coloring your creations easy. Using the paint bucket tool found in programs like MS Paint, you can fill any area of your comic with the color of your choosing simply by clicking on it. Alternatively, you can use your graphics tablet and one of MS Paint's digital paintbrushes to color your work manually.
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Letter your comics digitally. This can be accomplished by placing the word balloons from MS Paint's default shapes menu into your comic's panels and using the program's text feature to insert your dialog. This can be tricky, since it requires you to estimate how large a word balloon will need to be before having a chance to insert your text. Alternatively, higher-end programs like ComicLife, which are designed specifically for tasks of this nature, will automatically adjust a word balloon's size to accommodate the amount of text. After giving your comic a quick proofreading, use your art program of choice to convent the finished product to a PNG or JPEG file and upload it to your website.
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Tips & Warnings
Having a small collection of strips in the bag before launching your website and posting your first comic is an effective way to prevent yourself from caving under pressure to produce new strips before your creation has a chance to take off.
To help draw attention to a fledgling comic, list your strip on one of the many free webcomic directories such as Comixpedia and Top Web Comics.
Few webcomics become profitable, so have realistic expectations.
Be consistent with your updates. Even if your comic is great, readers will lose interest if new strips are few and far between.
References
Resources
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