What's involved in making a comic strip, anyway?

[pendell]

In another therad, Kish says:



Multiple-length strips always take longer to make.


I'm curious -- what's involved in the process of making a comic strip, anyway?

I've never done it, but my first guess would be something like this:

1) Outline. Write out the general flow of the strip and how you want it to go.
2) Draft art. Really simple stick drawings (even simpler than OOTS is by design -- no back ground or coloring or anything like that), with balloons that would have filler for the actual dialog like '[V taunts Elan]' '[Bandit Leader reacts to his daughter's death]' .
3) See if this is A) funny, B) advances the strip C) was what I wanted to do.
At this point, probably throw the darn thing in the trash and start over. I'm a perfectionist. Repeat loop as often as necessary.
4) Fill in details of punchline, action, writing.
5) Show to 'first reader' (wife, best friend). Get initial reaction. Go back and revise 1-4.
6) Final art. Fill in backgrounds. Add colors. Final touches on lettering.
7) Sanity check. Any obvious spelling mistakes? Boots going the wrong way?
8) Post.
9) Read forum responses. Be gratified at 80% of the responses. Shrug shoulders at the 20% who think it's "filler" or "not funny". Groan in pain at two or three multi-page threads over a controversy that never entered your mind at all when you wrote it.

That's just a guess. I guess I'm just curious as to the process -- what's really involved in making a strip like OOTS or Erfworld or any of the other gems we read?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Heroic]

I once wrote a comic. It's exactly the way you described it.
The only change is:
Be gratified at 70% of responses.
Shrug at 20%
And 10% stare at the wacky theories of delussional fans.

Meh, I think it's way over 10%.

[Kish]

In another therad, Kish says:



I'm curious -- what's involved in the process of making a comic strip, anyway?
I wouldn't know the details, I just know what I've observed before a multi-page OotS strip goes up. :smalltongue:

[mockingbyrd7]

I imagine it goes something like that if you take it seriously. I've written comics for fun before, but never posted them or gone far with them.

[The Giant]

In another therad, Kish says:



I'm curious -- what's involved in the process of making a comic strip, anyway?

I've never done it, but my first guess would be something like this:

1) Outline. Write out the general flow of the strip and how you want it to go.
2) Draft art. Really simple stick drawings (even simpler than OOTS is by design -- no back ground or coloring or anything like that), with balloons that would have filler for the actual dialog like '[V taunts Elan]' '[Bandit Leader reacts to his daughter's death]' .
3) See if this is A) funny, B) advances the strip C) was what I wanted to do.
At this point, probably throw the darn thing in the trash and start over. I'm a perfectionist. Repeat loop as often as necessary.
4) Fill in details of punchline, action, writing.
5) Show to 'first reader' (wife, best friend). Get initial reaction. Go back and revise 1-4.
6) Final art. Fill in backgrounds. Add colors. Final touches on lettering.
7) Sanity check. Any obvious spelling mistakes? Boots going the wrong way?
8) Post.
9) Read forum responses. Be gratified at 80% of the responses. Shrug shoulders at the 20% who think it's "filler" or "not funny". Groan in pain at two or three multi-page threads over a controversy that never entered your mind at all when you wrote it.

That's just a guess. I guess I'm just curious as to the process -- what's really involved in making a strip like OOTS or Erfworld or any of the other gems we read?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

This isn't entirely off-base, except that there is no "draft art" stage for me. I pretty much draw it one time only, because of how simple my art is. It would take me longer to do a separate draft stage than it would to simply change the art if it doesn't fit. If I were doing a hand-drawn comic, though, I would indeed use a draft art step.

If I had to write out my own steps, it would amount to this:

1.) Decide what this strip is going to be about, and how it is going to advance the story (or will it be just a gag).
2.) Figure out what will happen at the end of the strip-- the punchline and/or cliffhanger. This is critical, and often takes up more time than the rest of the process put together.
3.) Sit down and write the script, word-for-word.
4.) Take a blank "frame" and put the text into oval-shaped paragraphs, to make sure the text fits in the proper number of panels. Edit as necessary. This step often includes adding little jokes that occur to me as I work.
5.) Place all of the figures in the panels. Colors are already included in this.
6.) Add all the backgrounds. props, sound effects, motion lines, etc.
7.) Draw the balloons around the text and place the balloon tails/connectors.
8.) Double check everything. Post.

Step #9 you pretty much nailed, though. :smallwink:

(I really only read a handful of responses to each strip, though, to make sure that the ideas were properly communicated and I didn't do something like use a colloquialism in my punchline that 99.9% of the world doesn't get.)

[Samurai Jill]

Step #9 you pretty much nailed, though. :smallwink:

9) Read forum responses. Be gratified at 80% of the responses. Shrug shoulders at the 20% who think it's "filler" or "not funny". Groan in pain at two or three multi-page threads over a controversy that never entered your mind at all when you wrote it.
Awww... wait- is that because of the multi-page part, or because of the never-entered-your-mind part? :smalleek:

[Underground]

(I really only read a handful of responses to each strip, though, to make sure that the ideas were properly communicated and I didn't do something like use a colloquialism in my punchline that 99.9% of the world doesn't get.) Very efficient ... OTOH I fear reading this forum throughoutly would be a full time job.

[pendell]

If I were doing a hand-drawn comic, though, I would indeed use a draft art step.

If I had to write out my own steps, it would amount to this:

1.) Decide what this strip is going to be about, and how it is going to advance the story (or will it be just a gag).
2.) Figure out what will happen at the end of the strip-- the punchline and/or cliffhanger. This is critical, and often takes up more time than the rest of the process put together.
3.) Sit down and write the script, word-for-word.
4.) Take a blank "frame" and put the text into oval-shaped paragraphs, to make sure the text fits in the proper number of panels. Edit as necessary. This step often includes adding little jokes that occur to me as I work.
5.) Place all of the figures in the panels. Colors are already included in this.
6.) Add all the backgrounds. props, sound effects, motion lines, etc.
7.) Draw the balloons around the text and place the balloon tails/connectors.
8.) Double check everything. Post.

Step #9 you pretty much nailed, though. :smallwink:

(I really only read a handful of responses to each strip, though, to make sure that the ideas were properly communicated and I didn't do something like use a colloquialism in my punchline that 99.9% of the world doesn't get.)

MANY thanks for the peek behind the curtain. I was curious as to what happened in the workshop, and now I know.

... and knowing is half the battle!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Shadic]

4.) Take a blank "frame" and put the text into oval-shaped paragraphs, to make sure the text fits in the proper number of panels. Edit as necessary. This step often includes adding little jokes that occur to me as I work.
5.) Place all of the figures in the panels. Colors are already included in this.
6.) Add all the backgrounds. props, sound effects, motion lines, etc.
7.) Draw the balloons around the text and place the balloon tails/connectors.
8.) Double check everything. Post.

Not that's it's likely that you'll read this, but I've done some work in Adobe Illustrator myself, and have noticed that it can be a bit difficult to cram the background into a panel without it overlapping the frame and showing into the next.. Which is probably one of the reasons (Besides looking better) than you switched to straight-lines for the panels as compared to the "by-hand" ones that were in the original comics...

Is there anything cool/specific you do to fill the panels in without overlapping to the next? Or am I a fool that has missed some tool that would make this all simple? It's easily the most annoying part of getting a comic together in illustrator for me.

[The Extinguisher]

I'd put it in a layer underneath the panel lines, and chop off the excess.

[XenoTherapy]

I'd get Inkscape and Gimp (or Gimpshop if you're into that kind of thing).

:tongue:

[Shadic]

I'd put it in a layer underneath the panel lines, and chop off the excess.

It's the chopping off that gets me.. Should I just fool around with the tools?

[Caleniel]

It's the chopping off that gets me.. Should I just fool around with the tools?

It's really VERY easy to do in gimp. You make a frame-layer with frames on a white background, place the background scenery layer behind the layer with the frames, mark up the white bit _inside_ the frame and hit delete. Then your background scenery shows up inside the frame, while any bit that is outside is covered by the white area. If your scenery doesn't quite fit the way you want it to, activate the background scenery layer, and use the resize/move tools to make it fit.

The shape of the frames doesn't matter at all this way.

[Rad]

For this kind of drawing Gimp is just... not appropriate. One would have to use Inkscape, which does use vector graphics.

[Caleniel]

For this kind of drawing Gimp is just... not appropriate. One would have to use Inkscape, which does use vector graphics.

Mmmm... taste?

You may be right. I mostly do science illustrations - but some of them in cartoon-form though.

I used to use vector graphics, and just used GIMP for photo editing, but recently I've started doing everything in GIMP. After all, the brush tool allows the same type of drawing as a line in vector graphics, and you can fill in colours just as easily, and I find the palette tools and the whole handling of layers far easier in GIMP.

But maybe it's just that I got used to GIMP working with photos, and that's why it seems easier and more versatile to me - because I know it better.

What would you say was the advantage of vector graphics? I haven't tried inkscape, so I'm not really qualified to compare the two.

[The Giant]

Not that's it's likely that you'll read this, but I've done some work in Adobe Illustrator myself, and have noticed that it can be a bit difficult to cram the background into a panel without it overlapping the frame and showing into the next.. Which is probably one of the reasons (Besides looking better) than you switched to straight-lines for the panels as compared to the "by-hand" ones that were in the original comics...

Is there anything cool/specific you do to fill the panels in without overlapping to the next? Or am I a fool that has missed some tool that would make this all simple? It's easily the most annoying part of getting a comic together in illustrator for me.

Well, most of my backgrounds are just big blocks of color, which are pretty easy to shape to the panel size. However, in situations where there are trees or windows or whatever, I use a clipping mask.

First, you put your scenery in the panel, letting it overlap to the next panel however is easiest. Next, select everything that you don't want to be go over the border and group it together. Then draw a box that matches your panel borders (fill and stroke don't matter). Select the new box and the group that is overlapping and go to Object --> Clipping Mask --> Make. The color in the new box will vanish and it will be masking your group so that only the artwork inside its borders is visible.

[Shadic]

..Awesome. I figured that I was missing something, but I didn't know that it would be that complex. There's no way I would have tripped over that on my own. :smallsmile:

Anyways.. Thanks much, Rich. Next time I get around to making some comics, I'm definitely going to try that out.. Heck, I may try it out immediately.

Also, obligatory "Thank you" for making a great comic.

[Chronos]

What would you say was the advantage of vector graphics? I haven't tried inkscape, so I'm not really qualified to compare the two.The biggest advantage is the potential level of detail. If you zoom in on pixel graphics, you see pixels, but you can zoom in as much as you want with vector graphics. So, for instance, the Giant only needs one template to draw a character way off in the background, or normal size, or filling up the entire page. This can be especially relevant when putting the comics into book form, since the printed books have much better resolution than the online ones.

You can achieve this effect in pixel graphics by just drawing everything much larger than the final size, and shrinking it at the end, but that can get awkward, and takes up a ton of memory.

[Shadic]

The only annoying thing with vector art is having to change the line sizes so that they look right when you shrink/expand them.

[Samurai Jill]

What would you say was the advantage of vector graphics? I haven't tried inkscape, so I'm not really qualified to compare the two.
Essentially, vector graphic apps store image components in the form of (relatively) simple mathematical formulae, whereas photoshop and the like store data as bitmaps, on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

[mago]

MANY thanks for the peek behind the curtain. I was curious as to what happened in the workshop, and now I know.

... and knowing is half the battle!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

what's the other half? clubbing the giant and taking over? make a comic and take all his readers? viri?

[Spiky]

Instruction manual from an actual webcartoonist:
http://ubersoft.net/comic/hd/2007/09/webcomics-made-easy

[Heroic]

Giant, I have a question. When is it you decide the title? Before or after the creation of the strip itself?
And, does the title serve as inspiration for the strip or does the strip serve as inspiration for the title?