Making Comics: A few Resources

Recently, someone at the Daz3D.com forums posted some character designs and said he wanted to use Daz Studio to create a graphic novel in the next year. I critiqued his illustrations (decent character designs, but the lighting was a bit off, I thought).

I also posted the following response, which I thought I'd share here with you guys.

As someone who is also working on some comics projects, if I may make one suggestion, it be to read some books about drawing comics (specifically laying them out and lettering them). You see, that's where most of the people who use 3D to make comics come up short. They produce beautiful single images, but they don't flow like a comic should. Of course, this is just my opinion.

 Here are some resources I would suggest:

• How to Draw Comics the "Marvel" Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema
  This is an oldie, but a goodie. It can completely revolutionize the way you look at framing, laying out your panels, and telling a story. Available at Amazon from $10 up.
• Drawing Crime Noir: For Comics and Graphic Novels by Christopher Hart
  Even if you're not drawing a crime noir comic, this is a GREAT resource for moody lighting and creating interesting characters that "pop." At Amazon for about $11.
• Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott McCloud
  This is a heftier read, and not quite the down-n-dirty basics of the other two books, but it really gives you a high-level understanding of what should go into a good comic story and then drills down to specifics. Amazon: About $20.

There are NUMEROUS other books I could recommend, but these are the three I would start with, and I have listed them in order of importance to anyone creating a comic for the first time.

In regards to lettering, I highly recommend this free, online series by pro letterer Nate Piekos, who also runs the Blambot Foundry (and, by the way, he has some great FREE fonts at his site, too). His lettering tips can be found here: http://blambot.com/articles_tips.shtml