Upon reading the June To-Do List, which promised to address con-travel checklists, Penny Arcade’s Robert Khoo kindly offered the one they use when packing for a convention:
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As promised, here’s a technique for drawing graceful word-balloon tails in Photoshop. It’s based on the same approach I shared yesterday. You may want to read yesterday’s post (below) because I’m going to use some of the same terms.
First, start with the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
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Last Wednesday, during a discussion about word balloons, a Webcomics.com reader wrote: “…Now if I could only figure out how to make those curved tails easily.” Here’s a method for making graceful word-balloon tails that will work in several applications including InDesign, Illustrator and FreeHand. The instructions will assume you’re working in InDesign, but it will be easily adaptable for other software.
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Over at CBR, Brigid Alverson has a wonderfully written piece in which she shares her “8-Page Rule.” This is a concept that applies more to longform comics than comic strips, but any comic that follows a continuous storyline should take heed of the general principal.
In short, any new reader should be able to find their bearings in the story within the first eight pages.
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How can you stop people from downloading your comic from your site? For example, I’d like to have the image protected using password / encryption / unable-to-copy-mode etc., so that it cannot be physically downloaded by the viewer.
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Want to make a small change in how you do your comics that will elevate your game overnight? Improve your word balloons. It’s the single, most common flaw in most beginners’ work that immediately identifies them as novices in the eyes of their readers. And, amazingly, they are problems that are ridiculously easy to solve. Address these problems, and your work will take on an air of professionalism that is bound to be noticed by your readers.
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With Comic Con mere weeks away, here are some baggage guidelines for a few of the major airlines that fly into San Deigo International Airport. Many airlines are charging fees for checked luggage — and levying heft penalties on oversize and overweight luggage. If you’re planning to bring merchandise on the plane to sell at the convention this can add up substantially, so measure and weigh your bags before you leave for the airport, and take a few moments to check your airline’s Web site for additional details. You may want to check out the TSA’s baggage guidelines while you’re at it.
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It’s June. Comic Con International is only six weeks away. Many of your readers are out of school and enjoying summer. And you’re planning a month of webcomicky goodness. Reach for your calendars in 3…. 2… 1…
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Is there are more under-sung hero on the webcomics home page than the About page? In one, simple file, it allows us webcartoonists to achieve something that no previous cartoonists were able to efficiently do: Quickly indoctrinate a new reader. Newspaper comic strips have to be ruthlessly standalone. Every day they have to be completely accessible to a new reader. While the same is somewhat true for the daily webcartoonist, we have an ace in the hole. The About page, when organized and presented well, takes that moderately interested onlooker and prepares her to become a new reader. It’s easy to become jaded with the About page. It’s as obligatory as the copyright at the bottom of the page. But with that familiarity comes a degree of contempt. Many webcartoonists aren’t using them to their full potential. So let’s look at some aspects of About pages that work:
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A few years back comics legend Neal Adams recorded a podcast in which he recounted several stories of his years as a Silver Age legend. The man is an excellent storyteller, and for the life of me, if I could find the link, I’d send you there in a heartbeat. (Li’l help?) In the interview, he was asked to give young comics illustrators advice on their craft. His answer wasn’t focused on shading or perspective or composition. Instead, he spoke about posture. Comics pro Dan Berger agrees:
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