Hari's Corner

Humour, comics, tech, law, software, reviews, essays, articles and HOWTOs intermingled with random philosophy now and then

Creating online comic strips

Filed under: Bits and Bytes by Hari
Posted on Wed, Nov 7, 2007 at 09:38 IST (last updated: Thu, May 7, 2009 @ 21:38 IST)

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For a long time, I've been looking for tools to create comic strips, mainly because I find that GIMP is not exactly suited for the job even though it's an excellent image manipulation tool. Even though I couldn't find a single Linux-based comics creation program (or even a decent, free Windows-based program), I did come across an interesting website when I searched for one: Stripgenerator.com. I personally wouldn't use it, but for those who have no skill in drawing but have a lot of creative ideas for cartoons, this seems to be a good idea.

Pre-built graphics aren't really my thing and in my opinion you miss the creative satisfaction of drawing your own characters, but at least these tools will keep you playing with your ideas for a while. I did look at some of the strips on display there and while most of them aren't too clever, there are a few which I enjoyed. Even so there is an element of repetitiveness in them, mainly because of the shared graphical elements.

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7 comment(s)

  1. I think any kind of web comic needs to start as a hand drawing. Once scanned, colors can be changed or added and other tweaks can be made with the image-manipulation software.

    I were graphically-inclined, that is how I would do it.

    Comment by RT Cunningham (visitor) on Wed, Nov 7, 2007 @ 16:04 IST #
  2. But I draw using the mouse myself. I have a printer-and-scanner but I prefer this method since I'm able to draw fairly reasonably on the computer.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Wed, Nov 7, 2007 @ 16:13 IST #
  3. You should pick up a pen/graphics tablet, lots of designers swear by them.

    Comment by ray (visitor) on Wed, Nov 7, 2007 @ 17:12 IST #
  4. Ray, yes - I'm looking for a better method to draw my cartoons, but will that work with a laptop? And under Linux?

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Wed, Nov 7, 2007 @ 17:31 IST #
  5. Perhaps try a Wacom tablet? I know that lots of artists like those.

    http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/

    Comment by tim (visitor) on Wed, Nov 7, 2007 @ 23:10 IST #
  6. I think that the Wacom is a good idea. I've been looking for one of those as well. They're not the cheapest thing to buy, though.

    Comment by MrCorey (visitor) on Thu, Nov 8, 2007 @ 01:33 IST #
  7. Thanks for the suggestion, tim.

    MrCorey, until I get one, I will stick to the mouse. At least I'm used to it at present. I will explore all options. :-)

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Thu, Nov 8, 2007 @ 06:53 IST #

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