Comic Books 3. Comics Art

Comic Book Art. What can I say about it that the images wouldn’t show better? Nothing. So below you will find a variety of art styles – and none is better or worse than the next. They may vary in realism, but that means nothing. The only real advice is to pick an art style that fits your story, and remain consistent. Clearly I’ve chosen images from things I know (and thus, that I like) so art style ranges quite a bit – and all can be appreciated.

The one thing I want you
to take away from this is:
look at these images. Are
any better than others? Sure
some are very simplistic, and
others are exaggerated. Some
are cartoonish in nature, and
others are slightly more
detailed. But in each case,
they do what they need to do to help get the story across. Ohh, and if you’re wondering, from top left, clockwise, we have a piece by Chester Brown, Transmetropolitan, Strangers in Paradise, Dumped, Gen 13, and finally Neon Genesis.
Basic Tutorials can be found here: http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/index.htm

Comics #2

Comic Books 2. Print / Web

Welcome to the wonderful world of Comics. What are comics? Are they printed on paper? Terrible Earth destroying paper (never mind that we grow trees specifically to be cut down, thus resulting in more trees now then… you know what never mind. Tree destroying bad, right? Right. We’ll just go with that.) So are those comics, or are those pretty little things on the internet comics?

Let’s be honest. They both are – one is just more accepted than the other. When we go into a store and see magazines on sale for three bucks a pop, with spider-man in them, or wolverine on the cover we feel “wow, this is a good comic.” When we come across an internet comic we think “wow, these things with the same potential quality in story and art are good, but they’re free and as such, they must not be as ‘real’.”

So most people look towards making standard comics. But, they are held back. They are limited to a page size, and all the constraints that that details.

Web comics can include hypertext, clicking in and clicking out, the infinite canvas that scrolls (you can have one page scrolling forever telling the whole story.) Still – most web comics just emulate their printed counterparts. Why? Because it’s what we have come to know and understand.

If you’re trying to make a name for yourself, sure you can try to publish them normally – but think about using the internet as your friend. A lot of comics out there have made a huge impact, and below I’ll list some of the best web comics that I have come across, as well as a link to a particularly good page. Feel free to love them or hate them, but appreciate them for what they are: real comics. Also – check out the web design. Pretty.

Penny Arcade
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/10/11/

The Perry Bible Fellowship
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF152-Scorpy_the_Forest_Friend.gif

Three Panel Soul
http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2007-09-25

Real Life Comics
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/031125.html

RPG World Comics
http://www.rpgworldcomic.com/d/20011104.html

Sin Fest
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=1

Comics #1

Comic Books #1

Comics, comics, comics… Hmm, well what is a comic anyway? There are so many different things that seem to define comics. But we’ll go with Scott McClouds: a story told by the juxtaposing of images. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s something like that.

You will be responsible for creating a comic. This means ‘publication’ (which probably means cover and binding – but might also mean web design.) Your mark will be based on quality of the visual aspect, as well as quality of the writing/scripting/dialogue. Your comic must be at least 16 pages.

Ah, but tell me more

Well, comics come in many forms. We have the manga style, which is defined not by its Japanese heritage, but by its art style more than anything else. Can there be Manga written outside of Japan? Can a Japanese comic not be manga. These are the internet seeded arguments that I will avoid. Think of it like art – you know it when you see it.

There is also the traditional North American comics (24 pages long, 8.5 x 11 pages, etc.) These are not limited to super heroes, of course, but that’s probably what they are best remembered for.

Butt he fun doesn’t stop there. There are also a great number of web comics out there on the interwebs. Some of them limit themselves to simple pages, but others expand well beyond the confines of the printed page, allowing them to be something so much – more.

What will we be learning?

1. Print / Web
2. Comics Art
3. Dialogue and Scripting
4. Publishing
5. Step 1. Idea / Step 2. ??? / Step 3. Profit.

What shall we do now?

You need to think up what type of comic you want to write. Will this be a collection of single page stories? Will it be the first issue in a potentially ongoing series? Will your comic be a stand alone one shot? This is what you right now need to think about.

What will the story be? You might want to think of a plot outline, and what type of characters you want. And a title! A title, of course a title: your comic will need a catchy or descriptive title. Let’s see what you can come up with.

Art style: you need to choose how you’re going to do the art. Will you be embracing the digital colouring? Will you black and white ink it? Or will you try to pawn off a pencil sketch comic (note to you: don’t try and pawn off a pencil sketch comic!)