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How to write a short comic

Sebastian Hermida's profile picture Sebastian Hermida on
  • Why not have a short comic explaining how to write your own short comic?

  • Meta! I know, right!?

  • Before I start, let's get the big questions out of the way.

  • You don't need to have amazing drawing skills to make a comic.

  • Look at me...

    I am just simple shapes combined together.

  • The crucial part of the comic is the story.

  • If you have a story...

    You have half a comic.

  • The more details you remove from your drawings, the more people can relate to it.

  • Few people relate to this guy.

  • More people can relate now.

  • A lot more people relate to this.

  • Whatever your heart wants.

  • People seem to relate to stories with a struggle to conquer.

  • AB

    Or a trip to take from point A to point B.

  • Or a hero in the making.

  • I don't know if there is a universal process, but I'll explain how I do it..

  • I start with a text editor.

    I write the down the text that you are currently reading. Like a movie script.

  • I open some software to draw. You can use whatever tool you prefer.

  • I create an individual artboard where I copy and paste each line of my script.

  • Then it's time to choose colors.

    I search color palettes for inspiration.

  • Then I draw characters. They are super simple.

  • Don't overthink their personalities and expressions. You'll figure it out as you go.

  • The goal is to complete a first pass at the story as fast as possible.

    Keep using simple shapes.

  • And slowly come back to each artboard to fill in the gaps.

  • As I focus on each artboard, I think: What I can do here to emphasize the story? Can I animate this? But I try do not overdo it.

  • I export each artboard in SVG.

    SVG are awesome!
    I can animate the comic with CSS.

  • SVG look always crisp and are very small in size. They don't take forever to load on a page with 30+ drawings on it.

  • And that's pretty much it. All you need is a story with simple shapes.

  • That's how we started. We first made a comic called How DNS works

  • Which introduced these two characters.

  • Oh this has just begun.

  • Now go make your very own short comic!

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Sebastian Hermida's profile picture

Sebastian Hermida

Appreciates the finest things in life: clean code, good illustrations and carrot juice. Someday he will run a marathon.

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