With the rise of the comic book in recent years, more and more author join in comic creation. For many people, their first time to create the comic, don't know how to start creating and publish. Combine my clients' experience, I sum up some steps for comic creation.

What's comic?

Before starting the comic creation, let us easy to understand what's comic.

Comic, some people also call it manga. Comic is an art form. Comic is a simple but exaggerated depiction of pictures of life or current events. Generally, the methods of deformation, metaphor, symbol, suggestion and insinuation are used. Constitute humorous pictures or picture groups to achieve satirical or eulogizing effects. The works in recent years are generally dominated by Japanese comic and American comic.The famous Japanese comic, like naruto,slam dunk, One Piece, etc.

Through the above introduction, we already have a basic understanding of the concept of comics. Let's talk about how to create and publish manga.

4 steps quickly to create and publish your comic

Step 1: Write comic script

1. Decide story of what you want to drawing

Before starting your comic creation. The first thing to decide is what the story to be told in the manga is. It is not necessary to express every detail of the story in the script. But you must have a basic idea of the progress of the story. Only in this way,  you can ensure that you still have enough material to draw after the beginning.

2. Decide your comic form

If the you plan to draw the comic is single-row or double-row. First, you need to determine the average number of frames per row.

If you plan to publish your comic or print your own comic book in paper books. It's important to keep the works all one size. If you plan on publishing your work online, don't worry too much about this.

Whether you plan to publish your own work, please keep the height and width of each row the same. In this way, you can draw a single-row comic and another double-row. All three rows being the same height and width.

3. Normalize the content of each grid

When you start creating your own comic, you need to have every frame in mind and write it down. You need to understand what's going on here, who's going to be there. Follow the rules of simplicity. The simpler a well-written script is, the better. If the description of the scene is necessary for the development of the plot, it should also be written into the script.

4. Balance the relationship between text and images

Make sure not to pack too much text into one grid. This will make comic difficult to read and take away the fun of reading comic. 

Step 2: Create comic character

1. Let the characters have hopes and dreams. 

Let personas have what they want. Having a purpose in life is an important way to move the story forward. Especially if you don't know how to make the plot develop.

2. Give the characters some disadvantages. 

There is no need for the characters to be perfect, it will make the reader feel unreal and boring. If you want readers to sympathize with and support your characters, add flaws to them.

3. Make the person specific. 

Add backgrounds, interests, and other things to your personas that reflect their real lives. This makes the characters look more real and believable.

4. Don't use those common metaphors. Such as smart Asians, dumb bombs. These modifications all look too boring. Be original! Forget those corny tropes!

Step 3: Start drawing comic

1. Draw the border.

Start by sketching the border. First, determine which frame of the comic is the largest and which frame is the smallest according to the length of the dialogue text. As long as you can ensure that you can abide by the size restrictions.

2. Draw a sketch of the character. 

Sketch out where to arrange the characters, making sure to leave enough room for the dialog. Arrange the content reasonably. So that the grid looks neither too crowded nor too empty.

3. Add dialog box

Draw the dialog on the sketch. Be careful not to cover the character with the dialog box, and don't take up too much space in the grid. Remember, sometimes changing the shape of a dialog can express a different dialog mood. For example, a dialog in the shape of a cartoon sun (with pointy edges) would make the character appear to be cheering. Please take advantage of this.

4. Drawing the sketch of background and scenes out

After arranging the positions of the characters, you can paint the background and other things on top of the sketch. Some comics have a lot of detail in their backgrounds. While others have only the necessary items related to the character's activities. You can design the background as you like.

5. Outline the lines

Trace lines with a dark permanent pen over sketches for a clean, professional look. Pay attention to the use of line width differences and other painting techniques. After the lines are drawn, the lines drawn during the sketch can be erased.

6. Add word

After finishing the draw, you can add word in the dialog box.Be sure to use a fixed font and font size. Even if the dialog box is small, the size of the text should not change.

7. To color

Color the comic if you feel it need. Remember that coloring is time consuming, and whether you color it has an enormous impact on the amount of manga you can finish in a given amount of time.

Step 4: Print and publish your comic

1. Create a schedule for updates. 

If you plan to publish your comic in traditional media (like newspaper). The publication will most likely require a fixed schedule for comic updates. You must update as required. If you publish comics on the Internet, you can have some flexibility in updating time. Remember that the plan must be reasonable.

A part of the completed comic will not be published yet. If you're planning to publish your own work, one of the first things to do (no matter what type of medium you're publishing it in) is to set aside a buffer of some finished comic. Save the completed comic as a part.

2. Publish your comic on paper media or online

If you want to earn more profit, you can cooperate with a publisher. You can select a manga printer to print your comic or through the publisher to print comic. Then publish and self through offline and online channel. If you dont have any plan to make paper comic, you can publish online. But the remuneration will be different.