How I Create "1977 the Comic" or An Idiot's Guide to Cartooning

Step 1: Write Funny.
A lesson I learned in my college creative writing courses was "To write funny,  you must feel funny."  Seemed like a good idea, so I tuck myself under my desk and boy, do I feel funny!

Have a droid do your menial chores for you! R2-D2 is my constant companion bringing me my daily dosages of Mountain Dew.  Caffeine is also required to write funny.  Once I have written some funny stuff, I go to my chiropractor to straighten out my spine and then I open MS Word on the ol' PC.  Now, for the serious stuff. :)

Step 2: Dialog.
I try to come up with a witty title for each comic.  Many are based on popular rock songs of the era, but "That 70s Show" did the same thing, so I tend to stay away from that as much as possible. I stage out each frame in script form best I can, keeping in my mind you have a limited amount of space for dialog and the actual characters. I like my comedy to be more visual based, though an occasional zinger will show up in my dialog.

I write about a month's worth of scripts at a crack, then I create a week's worth of comics (3 strips) in a weekend or so.  Sometimes the day before it's due. Hey, I'm an artist for a reason! :)

Step 3: Sketches.
I do all my drawing on the computer using a WACOM tablet and Manga Studio EX software.  I save a ton of money on art supplies. I haven't bought a single pencil or sketch pad in over a year.  Sorry Dick Blick.

I insert the Frame's dialog using the text tool and then try to position it best I can so I can fit in the characters. I want my comics to be easy to follow, so I use a very simple blocking procedure to allow the reader to get the point and move on as easily as possible.

Also, I create each comic at 600DPI in case I need to create any posters or printed materials for the comic somday.

Step 4: Inking.
Again, I do all my inking in Manga Studio EX. It has a nice correction feature that will take out as much or as little "wiggle" in your lines as you'd like.  All types of pen tips are available as well as sizing the beginning and ending of each stroke. One thing I really like is the ability to draw the lines over if necessary.  Inking always scared the hell out of me as you normally couldn't erase ink too easily, but now you can!

I ink in several layers; dialog, characters, backgrounds and accessories.  When I'm finished, I export these layers into a PhotoShop CS compatible file and start the coloring process!

Step 5: Coloring.
Now that my comic is exported as a PhotoShop file, I open PS and start to color.  I have created a basic pallet for 1977 and simply use the paint bucket to fill in the areas.  I ink each area to be colored as a "closed" section so the color only fills into the areas I want it.  I duplicate the original ink layer and use it as a color fill layer. Then I create an empty layer to use for shading.  I use the Darken brush at about 40% and try to create simple shadows.  I use the smudge tool to "stay in the lines." :) 

You can see in the image the three layers used.

Step 6: Finalizing.
Here's where I get impatient and it shows a lot.  I fill in the backgrounds and create the "word bubbles."  I use PhotoShop's Rounded Rectangle Tool to create the basic bubble shapes, then I apply a Stroke Layer Style (make sure it's set for inside to get a sharp point) to the bubbles to create the black outline.

These days I use a lot of simple arched shading for the backgrounds as it takes freaking forever to create chairs and tables for every comic.  Now that I'm using a smaller 4-frame format, there's not as much room for background accessories.  Also, like an idiot, I have my characters play guitars and drawing the damn strings and frets will drive you insane.  INSANE I TELL YOU! ARGH!

Then all I do is simply flatten the image, size it for the web and save it as a JPEG.  I create simple 300x200 images as teasers for my blog and the website.  And that's it.  I do most comics in about 4 hours from start to finish.