How did you make your first comics?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I used to do that thing where you use the lines on notebook paper to make boxes, and then draw in those. ^^

For a long time, notebook paper was the only thing I had to draw on...but when I got to middle school, where there was lots of blank printer paper available (to steal~), I started trying to be more professional. That was also around the time my family was gifted a printer/flatbed scanner combo, so I started scanning my art to make digital comics...with PowerPoint!

Microsoft Office was my best friend back in those days (before you needed a subscription for it...), and I did EVERYTHING with PowerPoint. I knew that program inside and out, like the back of my hand, and I made some damn fine comics (and other visual media) with it for quite a few years.

Then I found Paint.NET, and I started doing actual digital artwork. But for comics, I still leaned on PowerPoint for formatting. It just had so many handy tools, and I felt so comfortable there...but eventually I decided I needed more artistic freedom (plus, they were starting to make radical interface changes with the new yearly updates, and I couldn't keep up), so it was time to leave the nest.

Deadeye was the first comic I did without help from PowerPoint, and it's only 3 years old, to give you some perspective. In fact, if you look closely at the first few pages, you can still see some WordArt (I was having a hard time letting go...we're okay now, though). ^^;

I kinda don't wanna do this, but here's a short sample of my PPT/P.Net fusion style...this was during my later days; most of the stuff in the pages was my own work at this point, even the speech bubbles. You almost can't tell I used PowerPoint at all.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I remember copying a flip note I saw on YouTube into a comic on printer paper. I think it's somewhere in my house still.
Every other comic I make was "professionally" made on sketchbook paper with, multicolored ink pens, rules and colored pencils. The first incarnation of The Black Belt Society, my ongoing comic, was done like this. Any other offhand comic I've made is probably in an old sketchbook some where. They were a lot of fun do mainly because there was no presser to gain or maintain an audience.

[Kann]

With a ballpoint pen in notebooks way back in elementary school. They were bad... xD

[Humbug]

During class in college with printer paper. PRINTER PAPER, I don't know why I didn't use a proper sketch book. I think it was more convenient to scan.

[lil-sea-salt]

my first comic is actually on tapas. it's still up. i made it after a couple years of not doing art. it took me a week per page for about four pages and i thought it was the worst thing ever, but i posted it and people said it was ok. i got a couple views, but i didn't keep up with it as i just kept doubting my art ability and felt like i wasn't good enough.

[teasidesketches]

I never posted any comics publicly until I started my current comic, but when I was much younger I would staple together some printer paper and make little comic books like that with ordinary pens and pencils~. I didn't get much further than a couple pages, but it was still fun!

[VibrantFox]

i never did whole comics until the past few years here on tapas but it started as pencil on lined paper drawing canon x oc shorts or 4-koma styled comics inspired by fandoms i was invested in at one time or another.

I didn't start doing sketchbooks till high school but the content was essentially the same with fan characters or ocs set in world based on stuff i was into. I'd actually written a script of a story that was inspired by the sonic franchise that i'd wanted to make into a comic but never actually drew the thing out save for a few random sketches.

i didn't go digital until a little before and as soon as i was on tapas and those were in photoshop. I'd draw the things out on printer paper and either scan or take a photo of em then draw over it in PS. I think I'd attempted to use csp but when i realized i couldn't save in the demo version i'd draw everything out, take a screen shot and then edit in photoshop. it was the least convenient method and the level of quality is obvious but they were a thing and somehow got attention

it improved once i switched to medibang maybe a year later (still early in the digital art journey) but quality wise it looked somewhat better (none of the pixel grid from csp). it's still super weird looking at those old comics but kind of cool seeing the changes and improvement over time.

[Lucca_Vendramel]

My first comic ever was a recap of the 6 Star Wars movies, but with my friends and relatives as the side/other characters and me as Luke
That thing was thicker than a J.R.R Tolkien book

[djwaglmuffin]

Lol. Pencils and pack after pack of printer paper.

When I was practicing that's what I would do. I then got my first tablet and started doing everything digitally. As long as you're productive it pays for itself.

Also: My first comic was a Slayers doujinshi. I also did a thing for Poltergeist and an original old west title before I started working on my magnum opus

[Freemints30]

Other than the typical pencils and wax crayon and later with colored pencils. My first digital comics were on a tablet(not for drawing) with my finger, as I couldn't find a stylus that would even work with it. Now that tablet can't charge anymore so I guess its days have ended. I have never posted any comic just drew a couple of pages and got bored after at most a month.

Example:

[vothnthorvaldson]

It's so old (29 years ago!) that I only recently remembered, but I actually draw a comic before the current one. It was on a calendar-type notebook, in pencil, and it was a sort of digest of all the Gulf War related news I was reading in different newspapers. Compiled by a 10 year-old I wish I still had it, I would have a good laugh

[joannekwan]

Age 5 - 12 Ball point pen on printer paper stapled together, with each page as its own scene. So I guess they were more like storybooks, but had speech bubbles.

Age 13 - 17 Ball point pen in spiral bound notebooks. I had one on-going series about a bunch of kids mucking around, it lasted over 40 individual spiral bounds of varying thickness, from 60 pages to like 200+ pages each. I always got a bunch during back-to-school shopping.

[baasinsimple]

Well, my first online comic attempt is not publicly available and hasn't been for over two years now. Which is both good and completely sad, but whatever. It was a less evolved version of my "current" webcomic, I've learned that things like FireAlpaca aren't great ways to make comics, while it's brother programs like Sai, and Medibang are amazing. I've been using the same art tablet for over four years now though and I don't think I'm getting a new one any time soon.

[lynestjules]

You're all so fancy with your ballpoint pens, printer paper and staplers. lol

My very first comic was made back in 1994 in elementary school. I used lined paper and an HB pencil. I kept everything together with a paperclip. lol. I was just starting to learn English, so there were spelling mistakes absolutely everywhere! I remember it being a VERY DARK and violent comic about domestic abuse.

We didn't get a computer until I started High School and didn't get the internet until my senior year. I got my first scanner and wacom tablet in college.

Even the original Megami Shiizun comic was made in High School 19 years ago with a small sketchbook, HB pencil and a black liner pen. It's absolutely terrible!!!!! I still have it up on a shelf in my studio. It's nice to see how much I've grown as an artist and as a writer. The comic available online is the re-write which is only 6 years old. As you can see with this old piece of artwork from the original, I've come a long way..

[Rhonder]

I have many many comic drawings from when I was a little kid that are mostly colored pencil and regular pencil on printer paper I would do tons of fan comics for series I liked (pokemon, zelda, digimon, etc.) and get like 5 pages in before dropping it to move on to something else. Lots of fun though! I continued starting and dropping projects all through middle school until I finally settled upon this really cool, big, magnum opus-y story that I was sure I wanted to work on! Then I spent... like 10 years doing and redoing and writing and rewriting that. And then finally dropping that to move onto something new is how I wound up on my current tapas comic

[Strontium]

The first comic I ever made was in the first grade! It was really more like a picture book but it was my intent for it to be a comic. I just... really knew nothing about comics XP

I have it archived on my tumblr - you can read all of it here!

[TeddyLemon]

I doodled comics on my school notebooks when i was in elementary i wanted to be a manga artist in japan in the future so i thought i didn’t need to learn how to color cuz mangas are all black and white (i hated coloring too, it always hurt my wrist lol) and then i learned digital art and webcomics. My passion flared up some more and now i love coloring haha.

[Hysterical_Ryu]

The first comic I remember making was back in 8th grade about an inside joke I had with my friend. It was mixed with Pokemon (and another inside joke, which was about... Pokemon lol):

Back when I made this I was already considering starting a webcomic so I guess it was good to have some practice! There's also another slightly longer comic in this same sketchbook that was a side story of the webcomic I wanted to make.

[DiegoPalacios]

For my first comics, as a kid, i colored like a toddler and had a horrible calligraphy. I had to read it out to my family and friends because only i could read my own writing.

i was the target of many jokes about becoming a doctor because of that XD

[silverraven0]

I remember back on my elementary school I made some sort of comic with cats with pencil on a lined book. I never get around to finish the second page I think.

Then if I don't get it wrong, at 2015 I started to draw some sketch draft for a comic (on also a lined papers with pencil) that even until now is half finished but I already know what I want to made out of it. A few pages of it :