Tips for Making Comics
Tips for Making Comics
by Ted Bergeron
@TedBergeron1
BeeBot.com
Question
Why do cows wear bells?
Answer
Their horns don’t work.
Comics
What the future needs?
You know what the future needs?
| It needs new stories and it needs you to make them. |
Pigeon Net
T.V.
With all the reality shows I think TV is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
| Write a comicbook that is a sitcom. Think of each 22 page comic book like a 22 minute episode of a sitcom. |
Hollywood
Look at all the movies made from comic books right now!
Great heros like Superman and Tarzan…
How many more remakes of Tarzan is Hollywood going to make?
Hollywood is scraping the bottom of the barrel too.
They seem to be out of ideas.
Original Characters
| Create your own original characters. The world needs new characters. |
Teeny Tiny Toads
Teeny Tiny Toads
Teeny Tiny Toads
Tools
You need a pencil (or maybe just your phone)
Writer? Composition notebook
Artist? Sketchbook
| Make marks in them everyday! |
Quote: Jake Parker
Fill up a sketchbook every month.
Everyday
| Get in a habit of writing or sketching everyday. |
Using a Sketchbook
| Draw on one side so ink doesn’t ruin art on back. |
No Standard Script Format
| Here’s my easy format for writing a full script |
pg #1
panel 1 - we see two people going up a hill.
Jack: Did you hear that?
Jill: What was it?
panel 2
panel 3
Quote: Brian Michael Bendis
95% of the artists he works with want a 'full script'.
TIP: One action per panel
Quote: Frank Miller
Describe what we are looking at.
e.g. panel 1 - We see a tiny toad leaping off a mushroom into a bed of soft moss.
| "Show don’t tell". Like writing a movie script. |
Quote: Kurt Busiek
Ask the artist for a wish list of what they want to draw. It’s a collaboration.
Snoopy fired from MetLife
After 31 years at MetLife.
Quote: Brian Michael Bendis
Write for one person: your artist.
If you don’t have an artist already, pick one you like and really study their work.
Look how much room Will Eisner leaves for dialog. Look how he does expressions.
Maybe the artist will do such a great job with an expression that you can remove the dialog. The picture says it all.
Writing Class at PCC Portland
| Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker are teaching a class on writing comics at PCC in Portland. |
Quote: Terry Moore
It’s a people business.
| Learn to collaborate |
Making money
If you are creating comics at least once a month
Self Publishing
Use social media: Twitter, FB, Tumbler…
Once you have a least a few hundred followers, you’ll be ready to launch a KickStarter campaign.
What do creators earn?
| Job | Mainstream | Indie | 22 page book |
|---|---|---|---|
Line Art | $200 - $380 | $100 - $250 | $2200 - $8360 |
Script | $80 - $100 | $25 - $100 | $550 - $2200 |
Covers | $600 - $700 | $200 - $500 | $200 - $700 |
What do creators earn? (con’t)
| Job | Mainstream | Indie | 22 page book |
|---|---|---|---|
Lettering | $20 - $25 | $10 - $20 | $220 - $500 |
Colors | $80 - $135 | $20 - $80 | $440 - $2970 |
Colors (after flats) | $65 - $120 | $10 - $70 | $220 - $2640 |
Oregon Minimum Wage
$9.75 / hr = $20,280 / yr
Starting Indie making minimum
Writing: $550 / book … need 37 per year (3 / mon)
Pencils/Inks: $2200 / book … need 10 per year ( 1 / mon)
Lettering: $220 / book … need 92 per year (8 / mon)
Word Balloons
| Make better word balloons |
Adventure Yak
Quote: Jake Parker
Finished not perfect!
Baleen, it works!
Ted Bergeron
@TedBergeron1
BeeBot.com