Friday Archive Dive: Creating Comics in Adobe Illustrator

Today's Archive Dive comes from July 25, 2012, when Margaret Trauth, creator of Decrypting Rita, shared a tutorial on creating comics in Adobe Illustrator.

I figured it might be interesting to write a bit about my very idiosyncratic process of making comics directly in Adobe Illustrator. So here’s a start-to-finish about how a page happened.

Each page starts with me doing file->new from template and choosing the “Rita” template. I made this near the beginning of the story, and it’s slowly evolved along with the story. Up pops a new document window.

I figured it might be interesting to write a bit about my very idiosyncratic process of making comics directly in Adobe Illustrator. So here’s a start-to-finish about how a page happened.

Each page starts with me doing file->new from template and choosing the “Rita” template. I made this near the beginning of the story, and it’s slowly evolved along with the story. Up pops a new document window.

Read the entire post and comment there.

Each page starts with me doing file->new from template and choosing the “Rita” template. I made this near the beginning of the story, and it’s slowly evolved along with the story. Up pops a new document window.

Weighing the importance of reader feedback

Having wrapped my first Kickstarter campaign, I'm finding that I've learned an awful lot about crowdsourcing -- and webcomics in general. I want to share one of those general lessons with you today. It's about gauging the significant of reader feedback.

This is a topic we've talked about here before under many headings -- whether to allow negaitive comments on our site; gauging reader interest in a new piece of merchandise; and so on. And I thought I had a good handle on it. But this Kickstarter proved otherwise.

The issue started when I heard repeated comments about how great it would be to include PDFs of the original How To Make Webcomics book in the reward tiers. And, fresh off acheiving my $10,000 goal in three days, I was eager to do whatever I could to reward the people who has rewarded me. Of course, that book is not mine to make unilateral decisions over, but a short time later, I included a PDF of the book at a special reward tier.

I placed it at a level that would benefit the vast majority of my supporters. And some of them took advantage of it. But it was, by no means, a groundswell. That should have been my first tip-off.

I received this response from a commenter who listed a first name, but was otherwise anonymous (shoulda been my second tip off).

Hi, several people, including myself, would like to know: Will people who pledge more than $29 will get the PDF of How to Make Webcomics?

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On Kickstarter (and counting chickens)

Here's another bit of advice that I'm able to pass along having done my first Kickstarter campaign.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

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Member Benefit: Webcomics Bootcamp at Chicago Comic Con

Chicago Comic Con: Sat., Aug. 10, 4-5:30 p.m.

More than ever, aspiring cartoonists are looking towards the Web as a means of distribution and business. But does your comic really have what it takes to be successful online?

Webcomics pioneer Brad Guigar, founder of Webcomics.com, co-author of the book How To Make Webcomics, and author of the upcoming Webcomics Handbook is offering his popular Webcomics Bootcamp for aspiring webcartoonists.

Sign up to get a personal, one-on-one consultation (30 min. - 1 hour) of your webcomic from the top down using the button below.

Then plan to attend the public Webcomics Bootcamp panel in which Brad will discuss -- in general terms -- ten ways anyone can improve their webcomic right now. These will be tips and techniques that you can apply as soon as you get home and see immediate results.

SPECIAL TO WEBCOMICS.COM MEMBERS -- Cost of the one-on-one consultation is a discounted $39.99.

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Google Adsense and Comic Easel / Word Press

Here's another handy Word Press tip, aimed specifically at Comic Easel users (but possibly useful to users of other Themes).

Good Adsense requires two pieces of code to work. One gets places where you want the ad itself to display, and the other gets placed in the header....

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