How to Create Own Your Comic Book for Free
- 1). Write a good story. If you are planning to distribute your work, this should be a story you have written or one you have permission to use or one that is in the public domain.
- 2). Create a story board. This is a quick sketch of the picture frames that will tell your story. Write rough captions, dialog and basic actions. At this stage, none of the pictures need to be finished. Keep in mind certain comic book techniques that have grown up over the years: thoughts go in puffy cloud-like balloons with graduated cloud puffs leading back to the thinker. Speech goes in hard-edged balloons with a pointer leading back to the speaker. Narration usually goes in a text box located near the top or bottom of a frame.
- 3). Create finished drawings once the story board is finished. Focus on creating one frame at a time. Each should be a complete picture on its own. To avoid eye-strain and to enable adding fine detail, take advantage of modern technology by creating each frame as a typing paper-sized picture that will fit on a flat-bed scanner. Re-size the pictures to fit your format after scanning.
- 1). Scan your drawings of each frame. Size them to fit your book format. You may want to make some larger than others to emphasize important plot points. The centerfold pages of a book offer a chance to dramatically show off your abilities as an artist.
- 2). Create a mock-up of your book. An easy way to do this is to fold sheets of legal-sized paper in half, matching the short ends together to create book pages about the size of a standard child's paperback picture book. Nest them together as if you were going to staple them at the center to form a book. Print your sized pictures, and glue them onto the nested pages in the correct story order using rubber cement. Rubber cement will allow you to move the pictures if you find that you need to change the way they are arranged. Be sure to include a title page and a page where you give credit to anyone who helped make the book. Number the pages.
- 3). Proofread your mock-up. Check for continuity, spelling errors, missing plot steps and so on. Don't be afraid to create a new frame or two that were not in the original story board, or to get rid of any that aren't working or that don't move the plot along.
- 4). Select the design layout in the publishing program. Arrange your digital pictures on the pages using the mock-up as a reference. Pay close attention to page numbers.
- 5). Print a copy of your book pages. Assemble them in order. Double check for errors, continuity, color balance and other needed changes.
- 1). Feature one of your best frames or create a completely new picture that epitomizes the story without giving away the end.
- 2). Design a title and a by-line. A by-line is where you tell who wrote the story, who drew the pictures, and give any other credits to people who worked on the comic. There are many ways to arrange the information. If a lot of people were involved in making the comic book, some of the information may need to go on a verso page on the inside of the book. A verso page is where publishers list all of the special information about a book, including library of congress numbers, international standard book numbers, name of the publisher, and any long lists of credits to be given. It is usually the page on the back of the title page.
- 3). Print out the cover on card stock using the manufacturer directions that came with your printer. If your printer will not handle card stock, print the cover on plain paper and laminate it. Clear vinyl shelf paper makes a good laminate if you do not have access to a laminating machine.
- 1). Complete the cover using the directions in Section 3.
- 2). Print the pages. Nest them inside the cover in correct order.
- 3). Fasten the pages to the cover. This can be done using a long-armed stapler. If using the stapler, open the nested pages to the centerfold. Place the assembled pages and cover face down on the plate of the stapler. Staple the cover and pages together on the spine at the top, at the bottom and in the middle. If a stapler is not available, sew the pages and cover together using a bold running stitch from top to bottom using needle and thread. Some sewing machines can be set to make this seam.