Erin: I get a lot of questions about how exactly I make the comics, so here’s the step-by-step breakdown, using this Sunday Edition as an example. Next to each step I’ve shown the last panel (reduced to half the size at which I work with it); the times given are for the whole strip.
[Wearing my glasses so as to look professional. Wearing the cat ears for no very good reason.]
Step 1: Sketch/Layout (17:43)
I draw the panels in the arrangement that they’re going to be in, and sketch out their content. The text gets jotted in wherever it will fit (sometimes outside the panels).Step 2: Lineart (31:47)
The lineart needs to be clean so that it can be colored neatly. I like mechanical pencils (0.7 mm lead); they give nice, even lines that the computer handles well.Step 3: Scanning/Cleanup (8:45)
The scanned comic is reduced to black and white, then I erase any specks and extra lines. I also make the borders straight and even; this will help any strip immensely.Step 4: Coloring (9:53)
With the text out of the way and the lineart clean, coloring is easy. All the colors I use are in a little image for easy reference. (By the way, this is all done with Paint Shop Pro 7.)Step 5: Shading (24:41)
A very time-consuming step, which is why I’ve stopped doing it with the daily strips. The shading colors are also in that reference image.Step 6: Text (17:47)
I type the text in Microsoft Excel, and create the speech bubbles on a new layer, above the artwork. This makes them easy to organize without disrupting the coloring.Erin: The total time for this strip was about 110:36 (that’s an hour, 50 minutes, and 36 seconds). That’s typical.
Daily strips take maybe half that (less now that I don’t shade ’em).
There are exceptions, of course. When I do a strip that doesn’t need as much coloring, like December’s sketchy Christmas special, it goes very quickly, since I don’t have to worry about cleanup. HellSING! strips are entirely mouse-drawn. But this is how I usually work.
Okay, that’s it for the meta-comics. Back to the comedy!
