How to start a webcomic: General Steps

from hsuyo

I will be sharing briefly on this topic, outlining what needs to be done to start a webcomic, as this is actually a very comprehensive subject to discuss about.

Tools or Equipment needed to start a webcomic

Before I begin talking about how to start a webcomic, there are a few things we need to take note:

Hardware tools:

1. There is no need to learn how to draw in a drawing or graphic tablet before one can start his or her own webcomic.
2. There is no need for a drawing or graphic tablet in the first place, although it will help tremendously.
3. However, an image scanner is a must, if one is not using a drawing or graphic tablet at all.
4. Last but definitely not least, an internet connection with a computer is needed.

I am not too bothered with the quality of the image scanner, as I do not see the need to get a high precision image scanner as of now.

Software tools:

1. A graphic-editing software is a must: Photoshop and Corel Painter may burn a hole in your pocket, but GIMP (open-source graphic editing software) is free. Of course I will always support Corel Painter, as this is the image editing software that my manga teacher asked me to get.

Corel Painter is much cheaper and a more powerful tool for webcomic creation than Photoshop.

Webtools:

1. Free blog hosting sites like Blogger and Wordpress.org can be used to create a blog, so that we can house the webcomic in a site. There are many free hosting sites out there.
2. Ideally, buy a web hosting domain from web hosting companies such as HostGator, install your own Wordpress blog into your domain and start publishing your webcomic online.

I strongly recommend paying for a web hosting domain for Wordpress than getting a free hosting site or blog. The reasons are simple:

1. It creates a sense of identity for your webcomic.
2. Paying for a web hosting domain allows the user to optimize Wordpress features, and many of the features or plugins of Wordpress provides automatic publicity for your blog to search engines and other sites. This is commonly called Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short.

The above point is very important because it doesn’t matter how good your webcomic is, when noone knows about it. It will still be zero readership.

Being able to market your blog or site becomes very crucial as there are hundreds and thousands of webcomics out there for competition; who is going to look at your webcomic if its obscure and unknown? Many readers online have their choices to read Naruto and Bleach scans or famous webcomics instead of our webcomics, and staying obscure isn’t going to help one bit.

Hence, the primary reason to get a web hosting domain is to be able to effectively reach out to as many as you can.

There are other reasons to buy a domain from a web hosting company:

1. Gradually, we want to be able to contain our readers and allow them to express themselves at will. Building a fan-based forum immediately comes to mind, but it is impossible with free hosting sites, and every bit possible when we buy a domain from a web hosting company.
2. Eventually, if we want membership subscriptions, purchasing a domain is necessary to be able to build a database within the server.
3. It allows us to use custom-made design themes for the overall look of our site or blog, and free hosting sites have limitations on that.

And there are many more reasons to purchase a domain from a web hosting company. I shall not go on further on the importance of having a web host.

For a web host, I recommend HostGator as one of the top choices for a web host. The reasons are:

1. It provides a very easy-to-install interface to install a Wordpress blog from scratch.
2. It also provides a very easy-to-install interface to install a forum into the domain, such as phpBB or Simple Machine Forum(SMF).
3. HostGator is relatively cheap for all the services it provides, compared to other webhosting services.
4. It also provides good support and service. My Manga Journey blog uses HostGator for its web host.
5. Of every successful blog or site that I have seen, I have always seen HostGator as one of their primary choices for getting a web host.

If anyone is interested to get HostGator, you can click here.

How to start a webcomic: General steps

1. First, draw your manga comic on paper.
2. Scan the completed manga comic into a computer.
3. Add inking and toning to the manga comic with a graphic editing software.
4. Do some clean up with the manga comic.
5. Add speech balloons to your comic, according to the script of the story.
6. Resize your overall manga comic. Save it to a web-compliant image format (like jpg, png or gif).
7. Upload into the gallery of your domain. And of course, arrange the pages within the gallery.

Therefore, we are able to use an image gallery to resemble a manga comic book, where the forward and back button will just be like flipping the pages of a book.

I am not describing in detail on the above steps; it will be for another day as this is a long article.

Final Words for this article

It wouldn’t be good to spend S$30,000 on printing manga comics and it is left there in your storeroom. The Internet sure has less overheard costs after buying a good graphic editing software, a drawing tablet, and a webhosting account for anybody who desires to publish his or her own manga or comic.

I will reveal more about starting a webcomic in future. For now, just enjoy this article!

This article is taken and edited from my blog at http://manga-journey.com, where I blog about my personal experiences and learning curve of becoming a semi-professional manga comic artist.