What are the bare essentials you need to make a decent comic?

[atw0605]

Hi I want to make a comic but I do not know what I need. I would be grateful if someone would tell me what I need. Thanks

[Wishjacked]

Something to draw on and something to draw with.

I drew my first comic on printer paper, inked it with some old Prismacolor pens my sister gave me, and colored it with ballpoint pens. (It wasn't very good art, mind you, overall barely decent bordering on mediocre… but it made me smile a lot and my siblings loved it, so it was a good comic.) So whatever tools you have and are used to using? They'll work.

[hushicho]

Yeah, there are plenty of ways to make things work for whatever you have available! Try doing whatever you can!

You'll probably need either a scanner or a graphics tablet if you intend to make a web-based comic, but those aren't too hard to come by. Monoprice has a variety of very good tablets for affordable prices, and scanners have come down drastically in price since I started!

There are free graphics suites like Gimp, which can more than satisfy the fundamental needs for comic creation, and there are numerous other resources out there that are either low-cost or free.

[sauropasquini]

I think that you need to read this book. I higly recommend it: Understanding Comics - The invisible ink

[dojo]

If you want to draw digitally, all you need is a painting program, of which there are many free ones. Most people LIKE having tablets, but you don't NEED one to start drawing. There was a really long time there I drew 100% with a mouse when I first started using photoshop back in middleschool, and I know there are people with decent comics who also draw using the mouse, so if you want the absolute bare minimum, you can nix the tablet. It just makes drawing on a computer feel more natural and makes stuff like line tapering, among other things, far quicker and easier.

If you want to go traditional, you can totally just draw on copy-paper with whatever you have and then either scan or take a photo of it (although I'd be careful with taking a photo cuz it can be really tricky getting the pictures taken just right so that it's not obvious you're just taking pictures) You'ld still want to have a painting program so you can easily crop and resize things. I haven't tried any of 'em so I can't vouch for how good they are, but Gimp, Krita, and MyPaint are a couple. Hopefully some other folks will comment with other free paint programs you could test out cuz it's really about testing around to see which one feels right for you.

SO TL:DR. Exactly @Wishjacked's first line there, something to draw on and something to draw with. For digital that can be a minimal as just a painting program and a mouse, for traditional it can be as minimal as copy-paper and pen/pencil with a good way of getting it onto the computer. There's no reason you couldn't make a decent comic with just that.

[sarrowsmith10]

Some essentials to making a comic:

1. Have a story! This means to create some characters and maybe outline what you want to happen to those characters. Some people do full, very detailed scripts. Some people do vague outlines. Either way, most successful comics always have a story planned in some way before they begin.

2. Decide on the format of your comic. Is it a short story? Is it a long form comic? Is it a 3 panel gag-a-day? Look at some other comics and decide which layout works best for your story.

3. Decide what medium you are going to use. Traditional? Paper/Pencil/Ink? Digital? Clip Studio Art (Manga Studio), GIMP, PaintToolSAI, Photoshop? Are you going to do speech bubbles by hand or use a program? (Both ways can be done really well, so its all personal preference)

4. After deciding on the medium, go about collecting the supplies you need. Do you need to purchase paper? Download a program? Borrow a scanner?

5. Make Comics!!

*Tips: I did several short stories (that I'll never put up anywhere cus they aren't very good) to try and figure out my style and how I wanted to make pages. I started traditional for one short work and then did another short work digitally. I found that doing digital comics was faster and easier for me. But, everyone is different, you just need to find your grove. And I do recommend getting a good thing going before diving into long form comics.

[spadesart]

Everyone's got art supplies down but take it from me, if it's a story and not a gag-a-day KEEP AN OUTLINE AND A SCRIPT!! So many past projects of mine fell apart because I went straight into it with nothing. It doesn't have to be too detailed, you don't have to write a whole novel, even just bullet points work. And you shouldn't worry about it keeping you on a strict linear path, I make edits to my script as I'm drawing the pages themselves a lot. Trust me it'll save your life. I use google docs because I can get to it through any computer.

Also keep an update schedule. "Updates whenever" comics are so much harder to keep up with because "oh I can just do that later" which resulted in months between updates with my old projects.

[thomasfallaeriksen]

Art Spiegelman drew Maus on copy paper with a regular fountain pen, so it is absolutely possible to make an amazing story with just a few simple tools. As bare essentials for simply drawing a comic (at least the way I would do it) I would say paper, pencil, eraser and something to ink with. And a ruler for meassuring panels and such. I have a friend who makes great stuff with just a pencil and a ruler.

As goes for story and updating a webcomic, that really depends on what sort of comic you are going to make and what your goals are.

[NickRowler]

I remember when I met the Fillbach Brothers (known for making the Clone Wars Adventures comics). They said they mostly just use Sharpies on printer paper. So yes, you can make something good or decent with the bare minimum. However, like my professor once told me, the tools do not make the artist. So I think the bare essentials is actually having a little talent for drawing and the drive to create.

I've seen some comics which get creative with the limited tools they have. Like I saw a decent comic drawn on yellow line paper. And I once came across an interesting trippy comic made with ballpoint pens and crayon. As well as OK comics made in MS Paint (this is rare tho). But a lot of it has to do with being able to use these without making them look bad.

[tayo_rafferty]

An idea you care about. The ability to communicate that idea visually. Tools to draw it with. Time. Patience. Humility.