Last week I decided that I want to design a Comic Book…
I started watching the Marvel movies when Ironman came out and have watched every one they have released – My kids love the Avengers and are always talking about ideas for designing a comic book. I was never really in to comic books as a kid but there is something about designing my own comic book which grabs my attention.
In this series of posts I am going to detail all of the steps which I take in order to create a comic book. Where I can, I will also create video tutorials on each step of the process. This way, anyone who wants to join in or simply follow along can do so easily. So here goes…
First Step: Gathering Information on Comic Book Design
At this moment in time, The only thing I know about designing comic books is that I know I want to do it. I have only ever read a handful of them so there are things that I know that I don’t know and probably a lot more that I have not even thought about yet. If there is something that I don’t know then like most people, I consult Google to point me in the right direction. After a quick search I found a decent looking article giving tips on how creating comic books. The article gives 8 things to think about and not knowing any better, I am going to follow them. The 8 things are:
- Start with a Comic Book Idea
- Write a Comic Book Script
- Plan the Layout
- Draw the Comic
- Time for Inking and Coloring
- Lettering
- Selling & Marketing
- Wrap Up
All of this seems to make sense to me at this stage and I will update each of step with links as I move forward. There are a few other things that I will add in at this stage to make sure that I have every chance of success.
Set Yourself up for Success
Like many of the subjects in comic books, I have an alter ego – In the day time, I am a business owner / product manager within a Fortune 500 company in Chicago. I will be treating this exciting journey like one of my projects at work and therefore will think about the following:
- Set a Deadline – I work best when I have a deadline so I will be setting myself a target to get my comic book finished by the end of the year (December 31st 2019). This is pretty aggressive considering my level of knowledge right now but my motivation is pretty high right now and I want to ride on that motivation wave. I have 14 weeks left in 2019 to get this done…
- Be Realistic – Just looking at the 8 steps, I have a fair idea of which ones will take me the longest. Based on this I have created a very basic project plan to help keep me on track. Perfect is the enemy of good so I should not fall in to the habit of striving for perfection straight out of the gate. Think Agile meets comic book design 🙂
- Have Fun! – I am choosing to do this because I think it will be fun. I will try my best stick to deadlines but not at the expense of quality or having fun. Even at this early stage, I know that I want to involve my kids in every step I can so I want them to have fun also
That is pretty much it for this post. I now have to go think about ideas for Comic books and have a week to think about it. I am a big fan of building houses good foundations so will not cut any corners in the early phases. I am already thinking about drawing the comic out and although I would class myself as a reasonable artist, I know this part will be tricky – There maybe some ways to simplify this process when thinking about my idea
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates…Time to get Creative!