Starting a webcomic, need some help.

[Sophistemon]

Okay, I figured that this was the best place to post this question, so here I am and here it is:

I am starting a web comic. (Sorry, that was a statement, not a question. I'll get the question now.) Because I don't have the financial resources to pay a monthly website fee, I have need of a free site to host a comic of moderate size until I do have the resources to afford a better one. (Augh, another statement!) Would anyone (Wukei, for example, who has her own (very nice) comic, and any others with first person experiance, or anyone at all) be so kind as to point me in the direction of a nice, free website that I could use to host my work? I would be very grateful. Also, if you would like me too, I have no objections to answering questions about the comic.

[Frojoe21]

Have a Friend who owns a webserver :P

Or just run it off a free site like tripod or geocities until you can afford your own domain.

[Sophistemon]

Okay, I think that I'll go with Tripod, as their advertisements are slightly less irritating. I mean no offence to anyone who runs a Geocities Site; this is just my personal preference. Now that that is settled, maybe you could help me with something else. I need some software that will make the art in my comic (which is sprite-based, in case I forgot to mention that earlier) better. So… maybe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator? I need some help here; I'm very new to this. You opinions would be vastly appreciated.

[RawBearNYC]

That depends so much on what you need, what you have access to and how you work. what program are you using to manipulate the sprites? Will you be taking screen shots of them? Will you be editing the images after you've created them?

[Sophistemon]

I have access to databases of sprites, which I place and manipulate in MS Paint which, though a nice enough program, is lacking in the departments that I require. Did you know that it is almost impossible to convert color images into black and white ones when using Paint? I found that out last night. To more quickly answer your questions, RawBear, here they are: I have access to a lot of sprites, I place and manipulate them with MS Paint, I do not myself take the screenshots of the sprites, but I do find them online, I occasionally need to edit the sprites to more accurately portray what I'm trying to show. I hope this answered the questions you've asked. If not, please clarify and ask again. I was thinking about buying software that would allow me to add special effects to the comic, as well as allowing me to more easily make them do what I want in the terms of manipulation.

[Lucca_Majere]

I'd say use Paintshop Pro; my boyfriend had a sprite comic and that's what he uses. Paint is ok for making images, but it's not so very good for editing them.

[Sophistemon]

Oh, thanks! Any idea on how much that would cost me? Oh, and what comic does he write?

[Darasen]

Consider looking into Keenspace for hosting needs. They cater to web comics and have scripts already in place for thing like up dating the comic. All they ask in return is that they place a banner at the top of the page and you give them credit for the hosting www.keenspace.com

For something as basic as sprites a search on Download.com should find a freeware image toll such as FastStone Image Viewer .

[Mad_Max]

What's the comic about?

[RawBearNYC]

PaintShopPro, from Jasc Software, costs about $100, much cheaper than PhotoShop. PhotoShop would also work. There's a free raster graphic editing program (the sprites you're working with are raster graphics, so, you want that instead of a vector program like Illustrator or Sodipodi) called The Gimp. It's a port of a linux application to Windows. Because of that, it doesn't really follow the Windows conventions, so the learning curve can be harder to use, but it's free and very powerful. Gives PhotoShop a run for it's money with most operations. I do wish it had adjustment layers, tho.

And you can convert color images to B&W, the best way, in PSP or Gimp are to "desaturate" the images.

[Wukei]

Keenspace is being a pain in the butt...how about smackjeeves? That's a good one that's meant for webcomics and doesn't have all the popups in the world that tripod and angelfire have...I'm about to get my own website, so soon I won't have to worry about that anymore.

As for stuff to use. Use gimp! It's free. And it's a lot like AI.

[Sophistemon]

PaintShopPro, from Jasc Software, costs about $100, much cheaper than PhotoShop. PhotoShop would also work. There's a free raster graphic editing program (the sprites you're working with are raster graphics, so, you want that instead of a vector program like Illustrator or Sodipodi) called The Gimp. It's a port of a linux application to Windows. Because of that, it doesn't really follow the Windows conventions, so the learning curve can be harder to use, but it's free and very powerful. Gives PhotoShop a run for it's money with most operations. I do wish it had adjustment layers, tho.

And you can convert color images to B&W, the best way, in PSP or Gimp are to "desaturate" the images.
Which of these programs would you most suggest?

Oh, and someone finally asks about the story! Okay, it starts off clichéd, with the destruction of the hero's hometown by a "dark and mysterious force", which leads him on a quest for revenge, but I hope to break away from clichés once the back-story is sufficiently covered. I am very proud of my villain, a man that, through necromantic energy and self-experimentation, has transcended mortality. I’ve got this really nifty dream-sequence to start the whole thing off, and that’s why I needed the black and white. Oh, I forgot to mention this; the villain is immortal in a roundabout way: He has made it so that his soul will never die and thus leave this plane of existence, but his body is constantly rotting around him. He has been able to preserve his tissues alchemically, but nothing can stop the dying of cells, and he feels each and every one. This unending pain has made him insane, not to mention giving him a rather nasty body-odor, which I plan to use a running gag. I am also very proud of my main character, a young man named Matthew. I plan on forging him into a tragic figure who, very unlike in the beginning of the comic, fights evil more because of his hate for the villain than his desire to save the world.

[Sophistemon]

Just so you know, I edited my above post for more information.

[Lucca_Majere]

Oh, he writes a comic on his website called Fruity's Random Sprite comic... If you want you can look. :P

http://www.fcmidi.net/miscload.php?content=comic

And I have no clue how much anything like that would cost. Sorry. :P

[Sophistemon]

I read his comic, and it was very funny. Does anybody have any other advice for me?

[Haggis_McCrablice]

I'm using Freebwebs myself, although mine is less of a webcomic than an actual underground series, which I am distributing monthly for a small fee. I know I've got a lot of competition from the free webcomics, but the way I see it, many of them tend to meander for months and get lost in too many side-plots. And many of the one I enjoy--like "Blue Canary" (drawn by a former coworker of mine) and "Chip and Walter"--have gone on hiatus indefinitely (though C&W has recently started back up after a couple years of languishing). So a nice, self-contained comic book is much better in that respect. You can read it in a single sitting, and then await a complete story next month, just like your favorite TV show. Plus some series, like "Electric Girl" (which I think only released a new book once a year for a decade), put together special book-length compiendums periodically, with excerpts culled from the past few issues.

My comics also use stick-figure characters, although the difference between Mr. Burlew's work is that they interact with a cast of more three-dimensional figures (and they don't seem to realize the contrast of their own minimalness). It's a teen superhero comedy-drama, sort of Archie-meets-Batman, with a hint of Tex Avery. I hand-draw each issue with pen and pencil, then scan it, electronically "ink" the lines to make them 10% darker, clean it up a bit, and color with Paintshop (though two-thirds of issue one were hand-colored, and you can see the difference; computer color is a lot smoother.) It's available in both e-book and print formats; just click the link in my sig to see solicitations and previews.

[Old_el_Paso]

You could download Yahoo sitebulder 2.0 or any newer one. They work great. They don't have any advertisements and you have your own website URL.