Posted by
Steve from College DownTime
A great sense of comedy is key to being awesome in college. With some spare time, why not capitalize on it? It's not difficult to draw a comic, though many folks who do try to draw comics typically just doodle. Plus, no one nowadays knows how to draw. We at CDT have noticed the public generally believes someone who can accurately draw... well anything, is more cultured and intelligent than a non-drawing counterpart. Capitalize on their misjudgments now!
Step 1: Find something interesting most people in your niche knows about. For instance, we at CDT understand our niche probably watches a fair amount of TV. We would therefore make a TV-related comic. If you're an 90 year old WWII vet drawing for your army buddies' amusement, make a parody of a
Victory Garden!
Protip: Research your joke before making the comic. This way you'll know if it's stale or if you generally have a good joke going for you.
Step 2: Figure out your medium. Pen/pencil and paper is the easiest and probably fastest method for making a comic, unless you use Adobe often enough to have a library of character files for quick placement. If you're new to the drawing hobby, best to just draw by hand and scan. I like to first draw elements by light pencil and then use OT 3,5, and 8 pens to ink them. I use charcoal to add texture, depth, and light.
Step 3: Look up famous comics, like Gary Larson (the only comic we know by name). Try to copy details piece by piece, like eyes, hair, environment style, chin clefts, etc. This way you don't have to come up with characters yourself until you feel comfortable enough
.
Step 4 (optional): Draw each item for your comic individually first. Grab a scrap piece and draw elements several times. If you want a comic with two bears fighting over a bowl of corn flakes, draw a bowl of corn flakes until you like the perspective, and draw the bears separately until you like their pose. Then copy/paste. You'll get better results by going through this step, but it will take longer. Only follow to make a decent comic.
Don't add color unless necessary or unless you know how to draw. Too much rendering ruins a comic's appeal.
Now scan your comic and print tons of copies. Post around your place for nice conversation in the future. Oh you want to know who made that comic? Yeah, that was me. Please, please, more applause.
6/11/2011
Great writeup. This is something I've thought about doing many times. I just think I'd run out of ideas really fast.
6/12/2011
Oh yes, it's interesting to do. Granted this is an old one I did in like a half hour, but it's just one of dozens of ideas I have typed in a .TXT files.
6/12/2011
Comics are always awesome to make! lol
6/12/2011
I love making comics, I made one about a time when an asian girl turned me down. Sad times. Sad times.
6/12/2011
I've got into the idea of art a lot but it's so hard and I can't wrap my head around it. Have you ever heard of xkcd and Ctrl+Alt+Del?
6/12/2011
lol good comic bro +followed
6/12/2011
Funny comic, I smiled.
6/12/2011
Really neat guide, brother.
+Followed
6/13/2011
Yeah I've read some Ctrl alt del, but not the xkcd. Just looked up xkcd, pretty decent stuff in there.
Otherwise, there's always explosm for all your twisted joke fixes.
I've also in the process of drawing Gandalf telling his students they will not pass.
6/13/2011
Funny comic, keep creating.
6/13/2011
Haha good stuff man.
6/13/2011
Haha, awesome comic, i miss these geico commercials, they're funny.
6/13/2011
Meio fraca a piada, mas tudo bem, nos contentaremos com isso. Valeu!
6/13/2011
I always feel like somebody's watchin meeeee~
6/13/2011
your really great mmmm
6/15/2011
Haha great guide, definitely going to try it