Tusserk
Member since: 2009Hey!
So, the idea of making 'a comic' is something that's been in the back of my head since forever, and I've dabbled and doodled and made many silly single-page things over the years, but never really knuckled down and attempted something halfway serious or polished.
HOWEVER, I currently have a few ideas/potential projects floating around in my head that I might one day actually try to MAKE something of (not with the end goal of professional publication or anything; maybe something I'd self-print a few copies of for friends or stick on the Internet, that sort of thing); but the one area I am admittedly really quite lost with is in regards to text! So I'm curious about anyone else's experience or knowledge in the area... seriously, what is the best way to go when it comes to the text in a comic, if there is indeed a 'best' way?
Is doing it by hand preferred? My handwriting isn't the all time greatest, but if I concentrate and take my time I can generally stay pretty neat and uniform- though my 'speech bubbles' are uniformly hopeless. Digital bubbles around hand-written text? Are there some widely used, trusted and acknowledged fonts that are easy enough to come by? I just... barely know what to even aim for, let alone where to start!
So I'm very curious to hear other folks' thoughts on the matter, or even any ideas/suggestions/opinions on comic creation in general.
Hey Tussy - this would be awesome to see!!
I have no idea what is 'normally' used, but I always thought good old Comic Sans font was okay... plus, the bonus of lettering everything on the PC is that you can go back and change stuff and those pesky speech bubbles are re-sizable!
As I say, SO no idea how this is usually done, but I for one would love to see some of the squad's antics brought to life. Or, you know, whatever!
Can I suggest looking at some of the web-comics out there and find something you like?
A few I like...
Order of the Stick - epic level funniness about a group of PCs from the D&D world.
Hanna is not a boy's name - supernatural themed craziness, well worth a look-see.
Wormworld Saga - short at the moment but I am so hanging out to see more!!
Phoenix Requiem - Pure talent. Professional level work. Also MASSIVE!
Goodnight Dune - not really a web-comic but I had to mention it for the awesomeness...
There are some great comic layout tools out there, where you can choose your fonts, choose your bubbles, drag frames wherever you want them, etc, and most of them have free trials, so you can play with 'em a bit for free.
I used one because I wanted to add voice-bubble captions to some still photos, and it worked like a dream. I don't recall what the name of the program was though, sorry... but I found it very easily with Google! :)
[EDIT: found it! Comic Life (http://plasq.com/products/comiclife/mac). It's for Mac, though.]
Manga Studio 4 is a great bit of software dedicated to drawing comics - its like having photoshop built into a comic layout program. You can draw with your wacom from scratch, create page layouts/templates etc. and do all the lettering too! I haven't really had time to explore it much, but a friend of mine is a pro comic artist and swears by it. I think the Debut version is reasonably inexpensive.
http://my.smithmicro.com/manga/index.html
Alternatively, it wouldn't be too hard to do in photoshop either, since you can create word bubble shapes and fill 'em with text [but I am assuming you use photoshop for your digital colours, Tuss. I don't know if other painter programs have text options]. I'd be very surprised if anybody does text in comics by hand anymore, its just too easy to do digitally.
And that Goodnight Dune is totally awesome, Mercy!!!
Heh!! Isn't it, though?!
Hah! Thanks for the responses, guys! Alas, I.J, I'm on Windows... but you did lead me to find and have a poke around with 'Comic Book Creator', which wasn't too bad, but the trial period is so short I don't think I'm going to spend too much time getting to know it!
Grendel, I'm having a look at Manga Studio now... and you're right, the price is fairly reasonable. Maybe, maybe... I work in Painter, and am not friends at ALL with any of the 'shape' tools, haha. I really don't have the patience or inclination to try ruling up all the panels/boxes myself... I think I really will stay better motivated if I have a program that does all that 'making it look slick and neat' nonsense for me!!
You could also download a free brush to make the thought bubbles, and the speech bubbles for you.
Like this one:
Ooh, hey I like that download, man!!
Heeey! That's pretty neat, Xan!! Now, to see if I can make it work in Painter, or whether I'll get myself some Photoshop happening on this computer once again...
Also thanks for all those comic links back there, Mercy! Haha, I forgot to say anything before, I think I was making myself late for work. But always good to have some neat recommendations to poke through- already familiar with Order of the Stick, hahaha, but the rest were all new to me! That Wormworld one looks absolutely beautiful... I am totally going to have to take a bit of time staring at those 'pages' again!! And, gosh darn it, one of these days I'm just going to have to properly familiarise myself with Dune... all I know is I'm meant to walk without rhythm? Sandworms will always be from Beetlejuice, to me!!
Ma ha ha!!
Yeah, I am a bit of a Dune fan - takes a while to get into it cause you're thrown into the Dune Universe and it's easy to feel overwhelmed, but it's really worth perservering with! Haven't read the other books though...
Anyway! Glad you liked the comics, I'm sure there are WAY more cool ones out there too!
Dune is great....just don't bother with the prequels written by Frank Herbert's son and that hack Star Wars writer. Horrible. Totally not in the spirit of the true Dune books.
In fact...the Dune Prequels are worse than the Star Wars prequels as far as destroying the feel and spirit of the respective universes.
Hmm, I might have to check out those Dune prequels...
Boshuda
WTF??
Did I miss something? I wasn't endorsing them Asok! Wait...is this kind of a round about way of saying you believe the Star Wars prequels were better than the OT?
This is my roundabout way of saying I hate Dune. HA HA!
Boshuda