Last month I posted a number of links to some great webcomics out there. This month I’ve returned with a number of new gems for your collection. Feel free to check some of these out.

The Retriever by Daniel Fu

Strange Case by Noelle Drewe

The Talos Project by Giorgos Chronopolous

Cealdian by Anne Szalba

Edge the Devil Hunter by Sam Romero

Gravity by Bryan Ibeas

Dark Wings by Ashley Ann Merrill

Red Kelso by Gary Chaloner

Battlegate by Chris Moujaes

The Phoenix Sage Saga by Joseph Sotomayor

Freak Angels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield

Last Blood by Bobby Crosby, Chris Crosby and Owen Gieni

Have a peek at some of these great series. I’ve read through a number of them for inspiration and I try to check in on the updates as much as possible. You may find yourself hooked and trying to catch up on weeks of stories, taking up all your time – but there’s no better way to spend it than by enjoying these finely crafted webcomics.

If you have suggestions for webcomics you enjoy, drop me a line or leave some comments and I’ll review them for webcomics roundups in the future.

Creating a comic/graphic novel is not as easy as it looks. In fact, a comic book is basically a set of components that work together in harmony to create a bigger picture. You need visuals to help drive the narrative and you need a story with some depth in order to keep your reader entertained. Today’s tutorial will focus on the writing and story development aspect of comics and how to achieve better results during the process.

First step, get yourself a notebook or a notepad of some sort and carry it with you everywhere you go. I highly suggest picking up a Moleskine notebook which is a durable and handy pocket notebook that is ideal for keeping track of those loose thoughts and ideas rattling around in that big brain of yours. They look like this:

…and they’re about as long as a dollar bill – easy enough to fit in your pocket. Don’t let the price fool you – these things are quality.

If you prefer to go the cheap route, any old notepad will do if you’re not worried about archiving or making sure your written thoughts don’t deteriorate over time. I endorse the Moleskine as its a tried and tested journal companion.

Daydreams and Doodles

Anytime you receive a transmission into your imagination – or if you happen to view something and it may serve as a backdrop for a story, an interesting aside, or element in your plot, make a note of it. Collect it all and archive it. These daydreams and doodles are perfect for developing new story arcs or adding spice to current ones. Draw your inspiration from anything and everything.

Categories

Once you’ve collected a wide array of people, places and things, its time to categorize them. The best way to do this is to split your ideas into the following categories:

1) Characters
2) Locations
3) Items
4) Stories

Each of these categories may have subcategories below such as:
1) Characters
1-1) Protagonists
1-2) Antagonists
1-3) Comic Relief

2) Locations
2-1) Paris
2-2) Made up Middle Eastern Country
2-3) Australian Outback

…and so on. You can also subcategorize your subcategories and get even more technical. The point is, you are keeping a record and an archive for all of your elements. With time, this archive will be so huge that you will have a character and a location and an idea you can grab at a moment’s notice without suffering from the pains of trying to recall that great character idea you had the other day when you were riding the bus and wrote it down on a scrap piece of paper which you think you may have left on your parent’s kitchen counter.

Be organized. It pays off.

Development – Outline

You have your characters, location and basic plot. Now it is time to start fleshing out the details. The easiest way to get your ideas set up and ready to be molded for drawn comics is to create a rough planner or outline for your story. Some of the best moments I’ve had in the process of creating comics has been at this stage. I recall spending evenings with writers over coffee, coming up with ideas and developing a story outline and the logistics for certain parts of the story itself.

Jot down the rough outline of your story in point-form. Be sure to include visual cues, dialogue cues, dramatic events, etc. These ‘notes’ will help you when you are crafting the actual script for your comics.

If your story is set to run over several issues or in some cases, several books – you will need to set up blocks where each issue will stop and start, and determine how much information/visuals you are capable of showing in those frames of story time you’ve created. For example, your outline calls for 7 events to happen in this issue. You will have to determine if there is too much happening or not enough to warrant the issue ending at that point. Issues are roughly 20-22 pages in length, so keep that in mind when you are making your issue breaks in your outline.

Within each issue, you will then need to take that information and elaborate even further. You will need your plots and sub=plots, character introduction and development, location establishment and then your course of action. You can follow the typical dramatic structure for each issue (classic American style) where the story begins on a low point, the protagonist rises to the challenge, there is a large point of action at the climax, and then there is a positive (or negative) resolution at the end. OR you can extend this basic structure and add in more complex plot twists and macguffins as you see fit over the course of your entire run. The possibilities are endless – but you have to pay close attention to where and how you use these devices. A carefully planned outline will make script writing MUCH easier.

Development – Script

Finally the most detailed part of all – the scripted portion of the story.

Once you have your issues plotted, your characters developed and your story roughed into shape, it is now time to think about visualizing each scene frame by frame. This part of the writing process requires you to elaborate and provide details about the characters, their surroundings and some insight as to what is occurring in each panel. A script should have the entire comic book page detailed with background information, characters, dialogue and visual cues.

For example,

Page 1

Panel One
- The scene opens in a dimly lit pool hall. In the background, dark silhouettes of downtrodden men hang around by a bar amidst a haze of cigarette smoke. In the foreground, a solitary overhead lamp lights up a table with a set of billiards balls racked up and waiting to be broken up.

Narrative: One last game. This time, for ALL the marbles.

Panel Two
- The balls are broken apart by the fierce crack of a cue ball (insert sound effect) and intense action lines surrounding the table and balls to indicate the power of the break.

Narrative: I guess I had better make this one count.

…you get the picture. Basically, you are painting a verbal picture of the events you are going to have turned into a storyboard. This is the planner for the thumbnail planner which we will discuss in greater detail in another tutorial. If you have a vision of how the scene is going to play out in your head, THIS is where you need to be precise in order to conjure that physical image from the mental one you’ve seen.

Scripts for moves and comics are quite similar. If the script is well planned, the rest of the feature will be executed well.

There’s the basics of writing for comics. I will create a more in-depth tutorial on writing techniques and plot ideas in subsequent writing tutorials, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, start collecting your ideas and organizing them properly. Develop and grow a diverse collection and stockpile that arsenal of creative ideas.

I don’t usually use idrawdigital as a platform for self-reflection or life-based posts, seeing as this is a resource site. But I do want to share some background history on why I decided to follow the illustration career path. If I was ever asked the question: What made you decide on becoming an artist/illustrator/designer, I’d emphatically answer – Heavy Metal magazine made me do it.

When I was a a kid, I loved comics. I’m sure there are a number of readers out there who felt the same way – I would grab all of my favorites and trace the panels over and over again until I was able to mimic the artwork by myself without tracing. I used to have stacks of 8.5 x 11 ruled paper in binders with comics that I replicated on my own. Honestly, I think this is how I ‘trained’ myself how to draw. The problem was, the subject matter was always the same – costumed superheroes duking it out, or Star Wars characters or GI Joe, He-Man or whatever the popular toys for boys were at the time.

I grew up and gave up the toys, but I still doodled and drew – eventually making skateboard graphics (DOG TOWN!) and developing detailed backgrounds and buildings. My cousin was studying to be an architect, so I would pore over all of his books and university work to get ideas on improving my own renderings. One day, while looking over his work, I noticed a magazine on the coffee table in his apartment. It belonged to his roommate, and I found myself drawn by the cover illustration of a scantily clad amazonian (I was 13… its natural.) Curiously, I picked it up and thumbed through it, half-expecting it to be some kind of smutty rag – but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was indeed a magazine with mature comic stories in it.

I was hooked – I recall reading a story called Attila by Antonio Segura and Jose Ortiz, a Spanish artist/writer duo who had created this post-apocalyptic world. The story itself was a bit thin, and pretty sexist and had everything that appealed to a teenage boy – the art style was different, the story was darker, and the idea that there was so much out there in the world of comics that stretched beyond the small circle of mainstream comics I was accustomed to. I was led to believe comics were what you found in the Sunday paper and on the news stand beside the Archie comics and the Disney crap for kids. If you wanted something more powerful, you made the huge stride to super hero comics.

Picking up Heavy Metal magazine and reading the stories was as powerful as waking up from a coma – or even being born. I realized that I wanted to step up my game and tell better stories. Ones that were darker, ones that were more cinematic and mature than the corner store pulp I was used to seeing. Yes, Heavy Metal changed my perception of how I wanted to draw and how I wanted to tell the stories bouncing around in my head.

I quickly found myself trying to get my hands on more of these magazines. Since they were classified as ‘mature’ due to their content, I had to basically beg, borrow or steal them in order to stay up to date. Eventually, I was able to bravely and boldly walk into a comic store, grab the latest issue off the shelf and purchase it. I think the conversation went something like this:

Clerk: Aha! Heavy Metal, eh? You like the adult comics, huh?

Me: Ermm…. uhmmm…. nooo. I… uhh… I like the stories…..

Clerk: I’ll bet. The ones that have the big boobs in ‘em, eh?

Me: Uhmmm… no…. seriously… I like the stories…..

Clerk: Sure, you do. They say the same thing about guys who buy Playboy magazines.

Me (mortified): ….

Clerk: It’s ok kid. I won’t tell your mom. The next issue won’t be out for three months. I’ll remind you when its around – and I’m just joking with you.

Me: O-ok.

Here’s the issue from that conversation:

I don’t think I bought another copy from the comics store again. The next time would be at a corner store, and when I was questioned by the old lady behind the counter who thought it was a nudie mag due to the racy cover, I quickly opened it up and showed her it was a comic book. She then thought it was like Conan or something. Yeah… or something! Funny thing is, when I’d see her while I was out side doing what kids did at thirteen, she would always call me over and give me an ‘advance’ copy before she put it on the shelf the next day. Good times.

I did that until I moved out of the neighbourhood. I remember starting high school in the fall, and I used to bike across 3-4 neighbourhoods to get there, and every season (the magazine came out seasonally) I would leave immediately after class and visit the old lady at the store. I’d buy the Heavy Metal, chat for a few minutes, then bike home. I think it took me less time to bike home uphill on those days than it did to bike to school downhill all the way.

I decided I was going to become an artist. I wanted to draw comics, and draw powerful illustrations and tell fantastic stories. So I wrote scripts and drew characters and made comics with the dream of getting my story printed and published in Heavy Metal magazine. I eventually grew older and the dream faded a bit, I decided that I needed to have a career that paid well and allowed me to live comfortably. I put the skills I had to good use and became a graphic designer and now I’m a creative director.

But I still love comics, and whenever I see a Heavy Metal magazine lying around, I ALWAYS pick it up and I remember that feeling I got at thirteen – and NO it wasn’t the ‘funny feeling’ you get in your pants. It was a feeling of enlightenment – like a door had been opened which would lead me down a path to fulfillment. So why am I telling you this? Well, I’ve been at a crossroads with my artistic career for a little while now. I like my day job, I really like blogging, but its difficult to have your voice heard amongst the screaming throngs of Twitter-ers, Bloggers and Net-o-philes, so I end up sabotaging my own projects for fears that I’ll never have any success. Its pretty strange, since I’m extremely confident with my design and direction while I’m at work, but I’m pretty introverted and lack self-esteem with my comics.

I was cleaning out some old books and came across an old Heavy Metal magazine. I sat down on the couch, opened it up and started reading, and a flood of memories and daydreams filled my head. Before you know it, an hour or two had passed – and I felt this sense of purpose again. Now I’ve gone full boar into producing comics again, and once again, I have Heavy Metal magazine to thank for opening my eyes.

If you want to learn more about the publication, check out the Wikipedia entry or the official site. Kevin Eastman (of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame) is currently the editor and has managed to keep this independent magazine alive and kicking with its blend of sci-fi, fantasy and dark graphic storytelling for the past two decades. A lot of the featured content comes from European artists who have established themselves as bonafide talent, but there are a number of North American entries, and a wide variety of short stories ranging from extremely humorous to downright horrific to completely strange and abstract.

If you’ve never read through any of these issues, check them out. You may recognize work from some of the greatest non-mainstream talents out there. I will warn you – some of the material is a bit on the racy side, so you may want to exercise some caution – its not a comic for kids, that’s for sure. The stories are campy and cater more to a male audience, but pause for a moment and just look at the craft of the artists (and in some cases) the skill of the writers. I highly recommend it.

Another week, another round-up of illustration resources from around the Internet. Check out these links and put what you’ve learned to good use – or save them for a special occasion! Whatever you decide, you can bet that there will be something of worth out there for you.

Create a Gold Chain Pattern Brush

The Hidden Power of the Average Command: Creating Swirly Type

How to Create a Textured Grungy 3D Type Design

Introducing – Hanna Thoren (portfolio)

Yuta Onoda Illustration

Super Cool Star Wars Illustrations

Fun Cartoon Illustrations by Juan Molinet

The Harvey Pekar Project

Create a Vector Labyrinth

That’s all for this week – check back next week for some more hidden gems. In the meantime, while you’re waiting for the next update, feel free to poke around in the TWILL archives. You may find some goodies in past posts that can be of great use to you. Perhaps there is some inspiring artists displaying their work – or maybe there’s some interesting tutorials and tips you may have missed. Check out these resources and enjoy!

Webcomics can be the easiest and most cost effective method of spreading your stories to a large audience. The benefits are quite extensive – you have extremely low costs for operation, you have instant publishing features and a broader reach for potential readers. Producing comics online can prove to be a very successful endeavor, which pays off in nice dividends once you have established yourself as an artist/writer with a catalog of work in your portfolio.

But you have to start from somewhere, right? Here are a few tips to get you started on how to make a webcomic.

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Step One: Translate your ideas into a story, character, place or theme

You’ve come up with a great idea for a webcomic. Your first order of business should be to fire up your word processing software or grab a pen and a notepad and start jotting down al the scenes that are playing out in your head. It doesn’t matter if the scenes are out of sequence or brief flashes or if it is just an idea for some attire a character is wearing – make a note of it. If you spend too much time trying to establish the image and committing it to memory, you may lose the thought.

Once you have taken down the idea, you can arrange it into categories – scenes, characters, plot, theme. From there, you can mix and match components to create a bigger story or add depth to your current story idea. The most important thing to note is you MUST get it down on paper or in a file for reference.

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Step Two: Organize your elements and add details

Now that you have established a setting, some characters and a rough story or theme, organize your material to fill in the blanks. You should have a main character (or characters), a main setting, and a main theme established. You can develop more as you go along – but to begin, you should have all of your details worked out for your main elements first before you move on to the next step to make a webcomic.

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Step Three: Character Sketches

Before you jump into drawing your webcomic, you should familiarize yourself with your main character(s). Create numerous character sketches from all sorts of angles and actions. If you consistently draw your character numerous times, your character drawings will develop into repetitive action and you will draw your characters in the same consistent manner.

Many webcomic artists often struggle with a consistent look to their characters due to the lack of practice sketching and development of repetitive action. Of course, you can draw your figures and continue refining them, but the key is to make sure they are always consistent when drawn.

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Step Four: Write a script

A number of artists tend to jump right into their pages/strips without having a clear idea of where their comic may be headed. This works fine if you are simply doing random webcomics here and there, but it is difficult to establish any continuity for the future. You should have a plan.

The easiest and most efficient method of developing a script is through the use of point form. You don’t need an elaborate movie style script to develop your webcomics, but it does help. If you’re a one-man show, you may want to stick to 15-20 brief point form notes for each page as your guide. If you are anxious to get into drawing your webcomics, make sure that point form plan is in place.

If you have more time, consider extending the details in your script, and include dialog, pacing, and various visual cues/effects. A detailed script will help the artist visualize and render the artwork for the story properly.

Another tip – try to hammer out a script for at least 20 pages worth of your story. Once you have that many pages established, you can make edits ahead of time, rather than writing one page, drawing one page then repeating the process and trying to make it flow. You spend more time figuring out problems than producing the webcomic. Plan ahead, and you can modify things if they do not work to your satisfaction.

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Step Five:  Render your pages.

Another pitfall most webcomic artists encounter is a lack of updates once their site is up and running. If you have already generated a script for a story arc, try and render as many pages as you can prior to launching your website. Once the site is live and operational, you will already give yourself a bit of a head start if some unforeseen circumstance appears and you are unable to do your regular update.

My suggestion is to render a complete issue (roughly 20 pages) prior to launching your site. If you plan on doing weekly updates, this gives you 20 weeks of leeway and ample opportunity for script and drawing refinements. By having your pages in a ready-to-go status, you will also create the illusion of being dedicated (which you are) and a prolific artist (which you will become!)

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Step Six: Set up your website.

If you do not have a website or domain name, you should decide on creating a site that is easy to navigate and memorable for your readers. This step requires an yearly investment, but now that hosting packages and domain names are abundant, the prices are a mere fraction of what they were years ago.

For domain names, visit NameCheap: http://www.namecheap.com – You can obtain a domain name for less than $9 a year. With coupon codes, it could be even less.

For hosting, you can’t beat Host Gator: http://www.hostgator.com – Hosting packages start as low as $4.95 a month, and they offer great technical support and loads of features.

If you can afford a yearly investment of $70 to $100, you will have full control over your site and its development. There are a number of options you can pursue in building your site – WordPress allows for blog styled setups, or you could create a Flash-enhanced site, or a simple HTML setup. The possibilities are endless.

For those on a tighter budget, you can try free alternatives for webcomics hosting such as:

SmackJeeves

Comic Fury

The Webcomic List

Drunk Duck

Comic Genesis (KeenSpot)

Comic Dish

Some of these hosting services require memberships and linkbacks to the main site, and ad banners placed in prominent areas of your pages. The upside is the support you receive from other contributors, as well as some pre-made templates to get you up and running quickly.

Your site can also double as your portfolio!

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Step Seven: Launch and Promote

Many artists worry about readers and statistics right off the bat. With any new website that appears, it takes time before the masses stumble upon it and pass it on to their friends. Therefore, it is very important during your quest to make a webcomic to continually update and provide new content to your readers. Over time the content you have produced will continue to draw in newer visitors passively.

In order to get readers interested in your site, you will need to do some active promotion.  The easiest way is to make allies and friends within like-minded communities on the web. If you are producing a sci-fi webcomic, then target the fans of sci-fi webcomics. Seek out communities and online forums, and contribute in their discussions and be a part of their community – once they see that you have valuable input and commentary to add, you can ask for their feedback on your project and have them visit your site.

A large portion of startup traffic comes from the cultivation of relationships with groups. If you do not have the benefit of a group to get you started, you will have to do some work in order to gain the respect of your peers. Be engaged in your targets interests and discussions. Support their projects and in time, they will reciprocate. Comment on blogs, give positive encouragement, jump into discussions and make friends – its the equivalent of networking in the first person. This activity is absolutely vital to expanding your reader base when you are just starting out.

Once people come to your site and experience what you have to offer, their word of mouth advertising will work for you and offer huge returns.

The key is to be patient, and not rush headlong into it. Avoid the common mistakes when you’re learning how to make webcomics, and you will become successful and ‘internet famous.’ Popular webcomics such as Penny Arcade, the Order of the Stick, xkcd, Applegeeks and countless others all started with a handful of readers. As the years passed, and based on the creators involvement with their readers, the comics and the site grew in popularity and referrals. Some of the artists have been able to make an honest living through their site, as well as additional side projects related to the webcomic.

You too can achieve that success with some careful planning and passion. Don’t ever quit when you feel it is hopeless – it’s a labour of love that pays off with perseverance. During your journey to become a successful webcomic artist, always remember this phrase: Those who quit following their dreams will never know how close they came to success.

Good luck!

The World of Illustration is back again with another week’s worth of illustration based goodness for your viewing enjoyment. Check out these links from our featured artists, tutorials and techniques from some of the internet’s leading experts in the field.

How to create a Retro Vector Invaders Illustration

Wonderful Illustrations by Tamas Gaspar

Sketching a Boat with a Graphics Tablet

Dirty Cream Typography by Tokyo Candies

Furry Water – Rafael Grampa Blog

New work from Dean MacAdam

Free Diamond Necklace Illustration Download

Short post this week as I’ve been swamped with numerous other tasks that have occupied my time. I’m still working on revamping idrawdigital for its new focus. Check back next week for more updates!