Anyway, what I am introducing here is traditional manga inking, and not digital inking where you use digital tools like Manga Studio or Adobe Photoshop. I wanted to know inking from the traditional perspective before going into digital mode.

Seriously, after going through my inking lessons, learning how to create manga comics seems to be no end; but let me share with you my journey so that you are mentally prepared for it.

Manga Journey: Intro to Inking

According to my manga teacher, inking is supposed to be done only at the final stage of your drawing. There should be absolutely no corrections nor mistakes because the changes are irreversible.

In my previous post, “Manga tools and equipment part 1“, I shared about the tools needed for manga.

Right now for inking, we will be needing 3 things which I have described in the previous post..

First, you need a pen holder with a pen nib to ink with.

You will also need a bottle of ink. It’s Chinese caligraphy ink I supposed.

Finally, you need paper quality of 100 gsm, and that’s what people call “manga paper”. However, this paper is expensive, so I just used 80 gsm paper for demostration.

Process of inking

Supposed you already have a final piece of artwork ready to be inked, and you know that you are not going to add in anymore corrections.

First, this pen nib and pen holder is very traditional; it doesn’t have a tube of ink to feed ink into the pen nib.

Rather, we need to consistently dip the pen nib into the ink for awhile for the ink to be refilled.

What happens here? The capiliaries of the nib will be soaked with ink, and when you press the pen nib onto paper, the capiliaries will release the ink on to what you are drawing.

/*Click to enlarge the photo
I wonder you can see the capiliaries here, but at least you can see a giant hole on the pen nib, and a straight capiliary down in the middle. That’s where the ink will be contained.

Why do you need to know this? This means that while inking, you will run out of ink pretty quickly.

If you do not plan or strategize your inking process, your ink will run out half way while inking, and if it happens in the middle of a line, which is not at a cross-section or a joint, it will be a very obvious mistake because the previous line and the latter line will not match.

So there needs to be some practice even with inking.

Also, the ink tends to smudge the pages if we are too forceful, or if the pen nib is spoilt, or the paper quality is too low (lesser than 80 gsm).

/*Click on the photo to enlarge

If you observe the photo, the left side of my drawing has little smudges of ink and is darker than the right side.

Somehow too much ink came out of the pen nib while I was doing some practice, and the smudges occured.

Some tips to practice with inking

When I first got my inking set, my manga teacher have me test every of the pen nibs that I was given.

Why? That’s because:

1. There is usually a layer of wax to prevent the pen nibs from rusting within the pen nibs. Traditional manga artists generally use a lighter’s flame to melt it, but my teacher said it runs the risk of spoiling the pen nibs; she rather me keep using the pen nibs to remove the layer of wax.
2. To find a particular pen nib that I would prefer so that I can practice with it, so that my inking will be consistent.

However there is no doubt that I have to use every pen nib that I was given, because the smaller ones will cater to fine details while the bigger ones cater to large areas of mass.

Also, to practice, my manga teacher advised me to get those coloring books of manga comics, such as Naruto or Bleach, carbon copy it to paper, and practise inking.

Later on, when I am more proficient with inking, I will do it on my own artwork.

Final words for this post

Inking itself is an art, because it still requires the appropriate skill to create lines that are consistent, so that our final art piece will look consistent.

It will be a long journey before I can start producing comics, but I guess that makes the journey worthwhile.

That’s all for this post! Stay tuned for more updates on manga journey!

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from Futuregirl_LeahRiley

Ever wondered what are the tools and equipment needed to create your very own paperback manga comic?

In this post I will be sharing about some of the tools that were given to me by my manga teacher in my previous lesson with her, and how it will help in creating my first manga comic.

Manga tools and equipment part 1

/*Click the photo to enlarge

As you can see above, these are the tools that my manga teacher has given me thus far. She forgot to bring brushes, tracing paper, and some other items that are needed to create my first paperback manga comic.

I will just introduce a little about these tools.

From the left, the set square and the coloring palette needs no introduction, as the former is usually found in mathematical instruments for measurements and the latter is used to contain the inks that are to be used for inking.

What really caught my eyes were the following tools.

/*Click on the photo on the right to enlarge

On the right photo, these are the inks that are used for inking.

Inking is the process of coloring for traditional black and white manga or comics.

Once the manga artist draws his artwork with pencil, inking will help to define his drawing lines to make the art look real.

I was pretty amazed that these inks were the same inks used for Chinese caligraphy, however my manga teacher told me that traditionally manga artists used these very inks for their manga comics too.

/*Click on the photo on the right to enlarge

On the right, this is the pen holder and pen nibs used for inking.

To use these tools, just attach a pen nib to the pen holder, and it will be the pen for you to use inking.

These pen holders aren’t very durable; after many uses the pen holder might not be able to secure the pen nibs tightly, and once that happens it is time to change a new pen holder.

The pen nibs look like caligraphy nibs that I have used in school. It is awhile since I have used such pens.

Just like normal caligraphy pen nibs, these pen nibs are fragile; any unnecessary pressure on it might split the nibs.

Also, they rust easily, so my manga teacher suggests for me to invest a little in sewing oil, and clean them right after every use.

Final words for this post

I have not been taught on how to use these tools yet, and as homework for my next lesson I am supposed to produce a full profile manga character artwork for inking.

So till then, I will reveal on the other manga tools and equipment when my manga teacher remembers to bring them, and I will share about how to use these tools to create your first manga comic paperback.

Stay tuned for more updates on my manga journey!

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from docpi

In this post, I am going to share about some of the resources that I used to help me improve in my manga drawing skills.

Most of my manga drawing skills do not come from these online resources, because I have a manga teacher which teaches me individually on how to draw.

And I will still suggest for you to get a manga teacher who can teach and help you draw well. It is important as online manga resources cannot help you keep track about your level of competence and improvement in your drawing skills.

However online manga resources are still important for exposure and information, and for this reason I would like to share with you some of these resources that I use.

How to draw manga tutorials resource: MangaTutorials.com

This is a screenshot by me, on the homepage of http://mangatutorials.com/.

Basically, if you have been searching for manga tutorials on Google, you will undoubtedly find this page.

It has one of the most complete manga tutorials that I have found; from the basics of becoming a manga artist, all the way to publishing your first manga comics; it truly is a near complete guide.

They also have a forum for this website as well!

What I love about MangaTutorials.com

Looks are deceiving, as MangaTutorials.com really covers a whole lot of subjects that you wouldn’t know about.

There is even a list on publishers you might want to engage if you want to print your first comic book! And really, there is too much to talk about it here.

The most fascinating subject for me is the tutorial on how to use the Manga Studio software.

If you do not know what is Manga Studio, it is a simple software which allows you to create comics easily. It has in-built panels, helps you in creating your storyline, and much more!

And as I am looking to produce black and white webcomics, Manga Studio is a great tool!

I haven’t found a great tutorial on Manga Studio online, and I am glad that there is a step-by-step series on how to use Manga Studio.

What I do not like about MangaTutorials.com

Although it covers many subjects, it does not have video tutorials for demostrations and you are left to learn by reading the words while looking at the pictures for examples.

Besides, I personally find that they are not detailed enough in their manga tutorials. After having personal coaching from a manga teacher, I felt that there are still many details in drawing that have yet to be covered.

So basically, it is really difficult for someone to learn from these manga tutorials, and if you do not like to read, probably MangaTutorials.com isn’t for you.

However, it isn’t easy to come up with manga tutorials anyway, and drawing isn’t an easy subject to teach, so I doubt that there are many better websites than MangaTutorials.com which could teach well.

Also, the information they have there is so overwhelming, your head will feel heavy after reading all those information.

How to benefit from MangaTutorials.com

1. Join their forum, post up your artwork and let them critique your abilities.

The community in their forum is good, so in most cases you won’t be left feeling condemned after others critiqued your work.

2. Read their manga tutorials slowly, otherwise you will choke from all the information.

3. If you need information other than drawing tutorials, like how to apply toning, or if you want to look for publishers and other information, this is a very good place to search from.

4. They have activities like drawing competitions and all sorts, so it helps you practice your drawing skills while you can have fun!

Well, the above is not exhaustive, but I guess I made my point that MangaTutorials.com is a website worth checking out.

Final words for this post

If you have any other comic, manga or other webcomic resources that you want to share, let me know in the comments box, and I will do up a post or review on it.

I hope this will help you in your journey to become a manga, a comic or a webcomic artist.

Stay tuned for more updates on Manga Journey!

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from Uzii

Creating our very own characters for our webcomic or manga is the most important aspect of starting our own webcomic or manga.

However how does one start to create your own character?

This is actually one of the hardest things to decide, as most of us understand that what truly captivates the audience is how we create and portray our characters in different circumstances.

So in this post, I will share with you some of the tips of how to create your own characters, by creating your own character profile.

What is a character profile?

A character profile is the traits, abilities and personalities that make up your character.

Story writers use character profiles to determine what characteristics do their characters have.

It can be as detailed as creating your characters’ bust size, and how tall they are by measurements, or it can be a just a rough guideline of their personalities’ type for you to work on.

Creating a character profile is very important because we generally do not want to create 2 characters with similar personalities or looks at the same time.

One of the characters will be redundant if it happens, unless you are trying to create twins or something.

Story writers usually write their main characters’ profile on pieces of paper as a reference, and then manga or comic artists will proceed to draw these characters based on the profiles given.

This is an important practice to help you create unique characters that your readers will love.

Doing your own character analysis

The first thing to do is not to start writing down what kind of personalities or looks you want your characters to have, but to do your own research and analysis of successful comic or manga characters’ personalities and looks.

I realize that people do not spend time understanding what a great main character should have, and they sometimes just rush into creating a character without any knowledge.

Of course, there aren’t any rules to creating a character, but we must understand that readers are not just going to be impressed with what kind of personalities you can come up with.

Readers want to be able to identify with characters and relate to them.

Spending time doing a little analysis on your favorite comic or manga characters before starting your own helps to mold your thoughts of creating a character. Look out for what actually impresses you about your favorite character, and see whether you can improve and evolve it into your character.

Tip: If you aren’t impressed with the character you have created, do not expect your readers to be impressed with your character as well.

That is why, do your research and analysis first. Learn what kind of personalities and traits do your favorite characters have, which impresses you, and evolve it to see whether you can adopt these traits into your manga or comic characters as well.

Write your characters’ profiles down on a sketch book

Again, it is to avoid similarities of character personalities or looks, as usually one or the other becomes redundant.

Also, you can use what you have already created, and use it as a reference to create another character profile by compare and contrast.

For example, in Final Fantasy 7, Tifa and Aries are two contrasting characters. It is said that Aries was created first, before Tifa was, and when Aries has brown hair, Tifa has black hair. Aries wears a dress, while Tifa wears mini-skirt.

And there are many others.

If you get the picture, by compare and contrast, with every character profile you create, you can create the alternate character profile, and it will save you from a headache while trying to come up with more character profiles.

Below is a list of the character traits you may want to use to create your own character profile:

Your character profile
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Birthday:
Occupation:
Friends:
Basic Description:

Current Information of your character
Family background:
Birthplace:
History:
Current problems your character is facing:
Items that your character have:
Pets(if any):

Physical Description (Just give a basic description and you can draw it out later)
Hair Style:
Height:
Measurements:
Eyes:
Body (fat or thin):
Physical condition:
Clothing:
Any special traits for physical description:

Personality Description
Personality Type:
Positive characteristics:
Negative characteristics:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Goals:
Fears:
Favorite food:
Beliefs, superstition or moral values:
Others:

Abilities
Physical:
Magical:
Others:

The above list is not exhaustive, and you can add others if you want, such as Zodiac Sign and whether the character is a Protagonist (Good side) or an Anatagonist (Bad side).

Final Words for this post

These are just tips about how you can create your own character by creating character profiles first, and you can start creating profiles without drawing.

After you create your character profiles, your character designs should suit the type of personality and clothing that you have first described in your character.

Hope that this little guide will help you in your webcomic, comic or manga designs.

And that’s all for today! Stay tuned for more updates on manga journey!

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from genniecru

This is a continuation from my previous post, which is “Prerequisites to start a webcomic #1“. We were discussing about some prerequisites that should be met so that we do not start a webcomic prematurely to our failure.

There are many ways to create a webcomic, but there are also many people who gave up their dream because it is a tough journey to embark on. In this post we are going to talk about the next prerequisite that is essential for a webcomic artist to have before starting a webcomic.

How to start a webcomic: Prerequisites to start a webcomic #2

Prerequisite #2: Webcomic artist must be able to produce good quality artwork that appeals to most readers.

We might think this is common knowledge amongst aspiring manga comic artists, but if we do a search on Google, you might be surprised of the amount of low quality webcomic artwork that is on the Internet.

I have met many manga comic enthusiasts, and many of them don’t like to read comics or manga that has low quality artwork.

No wonder readers don’t have a tendency to search for a webcomic online for a good read, because there are few reputable webcomic artists that produces decent artwork.

There are people who argue that a good storyline is what it takes to create a good webcomic, and that artwork is secondary. They may use the example of One Piece, which does not seem to have fantastic artwork, but is one of the best selling manga comic of all times.

Granted, we may say that One Piece is an exception, but how many other popular manga comics resembles One Piece? Not many.

As the manga comic industry matures by time, more emphasis and demand has already been placed manga comic artist to produce better and more detailed artwork for production. Readers are entertained by how a manga comic looks, and not just how good a storyline is. Otherwise they would have chosen to read a novel instead.

If webcomics do not improve in their artwork, we can be sure that webcomics will never catch up with the quality of traditional paperback manga comics.

Artwork quality dilemma.

Great artwork is easier said than done. This is because the higher the quality of artwork will mean the more time and effort is needed to produce a single page of a manga comic.

Webcomic artists do not have the luxury of time; hence many of them do not spend much time on background design and fancy artwork. Therefore most webcomics nearly always seem to have inferior quality artwork than most traditional paperback manga comics.

Tip #1: Background design can be simple, but let the character design be as high quality as possible.

Reason: Characters are the most important assets in any story, as they are most instrumental when the manga comic or webcomic artist builds their story around their characters.

Hence if there is any part of artwork you want to compromise so that you want to spend less time on, that will be background design.

Tip #2: Characters’ clothes do not have to be too sophisticated or too fancy; simple but appealing design is recommended for saving time and efficiency

Reason: Especially for fighting genres, clothes can be difficult to draw when we take into account different camera views of the character and when the character is in the midst of action.

Having very complicated clothing will certainly slow down our drawing ability, Search online and look for trendy outfits that are cool yet simple to draw from magazines and pictures.

Use them as a reference to build your wardrobe of clothes design for your characters. Plan ahead, so that when you need to draw a certain outfit consistently, you won’t spend too much time trying to make your character look proportionate.

Tip #3: Don’t compel yourself to produce colored pages for your webcomic. Focus on producing good artwork instead.

Reason: I do not know the reason why but many webcomics I have seen are colored throughout. I wonder whether if it is the webcomic artist’s effort in trying to make up for its relatively simple artwork, but the truth is it doesn’t work.

Many webcomic artists do not understand color science; their use of colors on their artwork actually spoils their webcomic instead of improving it, as some webcomic tends to use colors that are too bright, and others have colors that doesn’t suit the webcomic.

Too bright colors just makes the whole artwork look very childish. Needless to say, colors that doesn’t suit the webcomic makes the webcomic lose its appeal and realism.

My advice is, if the webcomic artist isn’t good with the use of colors, please scrape the idea of colors. Using colors can be very demanding by itself, and the ability to use colors is by itself an art.

It is therefore better to focus on improving our artwork, then to venture of something that we are not so familiar with. Only after with a decent amount of practices should one try to incorporate color into their webcomic.

Final Words for this post

Personally I strongly believe that one must have a decent quality of artwork before setting oneself to produce webcomics.

That is why I hesitated trying to produce a webcomic prematurely and I am currently focusing on improving my artwork.

Given a choice, every reader will choose to read a manga or comic that has better artwork than the one that has inferior artwork.

Ask people or your friends for opinions in your artwork before trying to produce a webcomic prematurely. It will help in the long run.

For the next update, I will be posting the next prerequisite of starting a webcomic. Stay tuned!

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In my previous post here, I have given general steps of how to start a webcomic. However we have not discussed about the prerequisites of starting a webcomic.

There are differences in starting a webcomic and starting a manga comic series in a publishing firm or self publishing. Several prerequisites are needed to fulfill for a successful webcomic, besides taking general steps of making one.

As it can get rather wordy, I decided to split this topic into several posts so that we can discuss them in detail. *I thought that the above Cloud and Tifa picture is very cool; so I put it up.

How to start a webcomic: Prerequisites to start a webcomic #1

A webcomic artist and a regular manga comic artist working in a publishing firm has major differences.

Often, a webcomic artist works alone, while a manga comic artist has about 2 assistants or more helping him alongside.

A manga comic artist then produces a chapter of their manga comic, which is about 20 pages of artwork, and submits it everyday for weekly release.

However, note that the manga comic artist has 2 assistants helping him to draw out his background up, inking and such etc.

And the manga artist with his assistants runs a tight schedule meeting each week’s demands.

What about starting a webcomic? Many webcomic artist start off with a few pages or chapters for a few weeks consistently, and then they are not able to continue producing their manga or comics as scheduled; they either run late, or they are on hiatus intermittently.

Being on hiatus intermittently or running late is bad for the webcomic, because the readers aren’t obliged to wait for the author; they may forget about the webcomic easily and webcomic artists will lose their readership.

Also, many of them stopped producing their webcomics because of the tight demands, and as some of them have other responsibilies such as a day job, they aren’t able to keep up with everything, which eventually forces them to quit their webcomics altogether.

Prerequisite #1: Webcomic artists must be able to draw fast and commit to the schedule stated for their webcomics.

These are some tips to satisfy the above prerequisite:

Tip 1. Plan out most of your webcomic in advance before publishing it.

Reason: Manga comic artist may be able to plan while drawing their manga comic, because this is their full-time job and they have assistants helping them.

However many webcomic artists are independent comic authors, and thus planning while publishing webcomics isn’t going to be time efficient.

Yes, we will not have the luxury like One Piece, who is able to run in serialization for more than 11 years, but lets not dream of that when all we need is to start small first.

Tip 2. Produce many chapters ahead before releasing the first chapter of the webcomic

Reason: This will serve as a buffer if we happen not to have the time to produce our weekly chapters or pages due to some reason, like unforeseen circumstances, holidays or day job commitments.

Tip 3. Learn how to draw digitally and master it.

Reason: As I recall in the previous post about the general steps of starting a webcomic, I stated that there is not a need to learn how to draw digitally on a graphic or drawing tablet.

However, learning how to draw digitally speeds up the process of drawing webcomics; we do not have to take the intermediate step of image scanning our work into our computer or laptop before editing it.

Yet learning how to draw digitally must be mastered before starting a webcomic. That is because in my experience, we need to adapt on how to draw on a graphic or drawing tablet, for it isn’t quite the same in drawing on a piece of paper due to the difference in sensitivity of the graphic or drawing tablet.

Tip 4. Hone your drawing skills to draw fast and well.

Reason: Self-explanatory tip.

Tip 5: Do some experiment with your drawing speed. If you aren’t able to produce 1 page a week to update your webcomic at least, that is a big sign that you need to brush up your drawing speed.

Reason: Experimenting with our drawing speed helps to tell us how fast we can truly draw, and it should remind us that we cannot promise what we cannot deliver to the readers.

If you are intending to update several pages in one week for your webcomic, make sure to experiment with that demand and whether you can cope with it.

Otherwise, be prepared for a major downfall for your webcomic.

Final Words for this post

Readers are only loyal when the manga or comic becomes popular or is attractive enough. Hence, we must not expect that readers will stay by our webcomics if we fail to meet readers’ needs.

Otherwise, readers are generally very fickle in choosing their manga or comic.

In the next post, I will post up the next prerequisite for starting a webcomic.

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from warren ford

Today I am going to share about the reasons for starting a webcomic instead of using other traditional means to become a semi-professional or professional manga comic artist.

Myths of the pros & cons of webcomics

Before I begin talking about reasons why I want to start a webcomic instead of using other traditional means, I will want to talk about some myths first.

Myth #1: Webcomics are better than traditional paperback comics or manga because the former reachers a bigger audience in the Internet than the latter.

Webcomics certainly nullify geographical & physical boundaries, and it allows exposure to the international audience through the Interent, but yet many webcomics in the Internet remains obscure or unknown. Somehow the better known comics & manga are still in traditional paperback form.

Maybe because most people are still more comfortable with traditional paperback than with webcomics.

Also, many traditional paperback manga or comics are available online because of many scanlation groups & online comic or manga websites. Therefore webcomics still face fierce competition in the Internet nevertheless.

Myth #2: There is too much competition from popular titles & publishers for manga or comics in traditional paperback form. In the Internet, everyone has equal amount of chance to prove themselves.

Like I have previously mentioned, many webcomics still suffer from obscurity, and what is going to make the readers click on your webcomics amongst the thousands of other online manga & comics?

The playing field of marketing is a little different in the Internet than marketing traditional paperback manga comics, as now webcomics are under the mercy of search engines and Internet marketing techniques. Noone will magically appear in our blogs & websites if we do not know how to market our webcomic in the Internet.

Therefore publishing traditional paperback comics or manga has the same amount of competition against publishing webcomics for the Internet community, as the former is about picking our comics or manga amongst the thousands of manga comics within a comic bookstore and the latter has similar scenario likewise.

Pros of starting a webcomic

I will discuss about the pros of starting a webcomic in my context, which more likely has similar contexts in other countries as well.

Pros #1: Publishing webcomics has significant less overhead costs than publishing traditional paperback manga comics

A full 30 colored page, US-style comic may cost about SG$8,000++ for 8,000 copies, but in Singapore(my homeland), with only a population of about 5 million people (as of 2009), selling 8,000 copies is a great achievement! I must take note that I am an unknown author amongst so many other manga comic books.

Also, I would need about SG$30,000 of investment money to publish traditional paperbacks effectively. Webcomics has significantly less overhead startup costs than publishing traditional paperbacks, easily less than a couple of hundred dollars startup fees. (See previous post about the tools and equipment needed to start up a webcomic here.)

And the worst scenario is being unable to sell our manga comics, and the stock is left at our storage room to collect dust! Therefore, webcomics is certainly a better startup option than publishing traditional paperbacks.

Pros #2: Webcomics allows time and space for experimentation, while traditional paperback manga comic doesn’t allow much experimentation at all.

Manga or comics may fail to attract readership for a number of reasons, and in many Japanese publishing companies, they will cut serialization for any manga comic that fails to attract popularity.

Imagine having a stockpile of goods in our storage room, and it is because our manga comics are just not attractive to readers for whatsoever reasons! That is one major flaw of traditional paperback manga comics.

As there is little to no fee involved in uploading our manga comics into our domains or gallery, we can experiment against time whether our manga comics are attractive without incurring great overhead costs.

Pros #3: Marketing webcomics in the Internet involves much lesser time than marketing traditional paperback manga comics

Many publishers are not too kind to authors who are just beginning their careers, and in Singapore’s context, Singaporean-made manga comics are not the best kind of books to sell; publishers will rather import well-known titles from Japan and have a translation team ready to cater for Singaporean needs. Therefore it is likely to face rejection from publishers, and at the end of the day many have to take the route of self-publishing.

Self-publishing is a great pain itself.

It is a hassle and time-consuming endeavor to go to different distributers or retailers to market our own manga comics. Distributers or retailers will so often think that self-publishing authors are rejected entities from publishing companies, and dealing with them effectively will be a challenge.

Moreover, transporting goods to distributers or retailers is by itself another big physical and time-consuming challenge.

With webcomics, all we need to know is how to market our manga comics in the Internet, which has little to no overhead fees or charges. More time can be effectively spent on developing the webcomic better, or to have private time for oneself.

Cons for self-publishing or starting a webcomic

Con #1: Difficult to earn a living out of a webcomic

This is obvious, as compared to professional manga comic artists, who are paid by the amount of pages they produce from publishing companies, it is truly difficult to earn a living out of a webcomic.

Self-publishing a traditional paperback manga comic, if in success, can rake in tremendous amounts of royalties and popularity, but compared to a webcomic, it is difficult to point a finger to where the revenue and income will come from.

The majority of readers for manga comics are mostly teenagers, which may not have a debit or credit card or paypal to purchase a good read from webcomics. Hence, webcomics have a great disadvantage in the area of income.

Con #2: Need considerable discipline to post webcomics dilligently

Readers can be fickle, if we do not post up new comics or manga dilligently, readers may forget all about the story we want to portray to them.

In publishing companies, there is pressure from editors and bosses to make sure manga artists produce their work. The company do pay the authors per page.

However for self-publishers, as we do not have a definite income or revenue for our work, our motivation to work diligently for our manga comic will suffer tremendously.

Final words for this post

As I am still a student and am still exploring the prospect of becoming a semi-professional manga comic artist, webcomics is the way to go for me. For the very reason that I do not have enough funds and I am still building necessary skills to produce manga comics.

That’s it for this post for now, more updates for manga journey soon!

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Today I will be sharing my own strategy of how I want to become a semi-professional manga artist. I am planning to start my own webcomic.

The ironic thing is, I have not started on my strategy yet; that’s because I am still brushing up in my drawing skills and will not be able to start until I am convinced I am capable of drawing like the drawings of Bleach manga comic, by Kubo Tite.

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 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.

My scanner is actually an economical HP All-in-one multipurpose machine, able to image scan, print and photocopy at the same time. 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. HP Photosmart C4680 All-in-one Printer (Q8418A#ABA) 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.

However, because I bought a bundle for Adobe CS4, I have Photoshop instead of Corel Painter. 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. This 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 post.

Final Words for this post

I wanted to become a webcomic manga artist because of the lack of opportunities in my homeland, and the Internet has considerably less overhead than trying to publish paperbacks and selling them.

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 my endeavors.

And this blog is my starting steps towards being a webcomic manga artist.

I will reveal about the elements of webcomic in future. For now, just enjoy this post!

ps. Sorry about the 3 ridiculous general ramblings post before this post. I was testing out some SEO technique and I am unable to delete them. Will be more careful in future.

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Anyway, F1 race has started in Singapore!

The above picture is taken from a screenshot of the anime series, Flame of Recca.

How to make a manga: Tips on how you want to present your storyl

Mastering manga art is difficult, but mastering the art of creating a good storyline is no where easy. We cannot assume that knowing how to draw will make us good manga artists.

So today, I will share about the two themes that I always notice in manga comics, or even in television dramas.

I have noticed that in many manga comics, or even in television, there are two distinct story plots of how the author tries to present his or her story to the audience. The first is situation focused, and the other is character focused.

Character focused manga are very common; manga comics such as One Piece, Naruto and Bleach are character focused where the characters take on the centre stage of the story plot. The story plot is generally built around the main character.

Situational focused manga is less common; one of them is actually Hatsukoi Limited, where the focus is to let readers see the different aspects of first love. Characters take a slightly lesser prominence in the story, and exists to express the theme or plot of the story well.

I will summarise the characteristics of both character focused storylines and situational focused storylines.

Situational focused storylines characteristics

1. Commonly found in television dramas rather than in manga comics.
2. Authors generally use complicated, heart-wrenching and easy-to-relate situations to pique the audiences’ interest for their story.
3. Many characters are generally used, and the focus is to unravel the mystery of the story, or to solve messy and complicated issues of the story.
4. Audience generally get entertained where there is suspence or twists to the story, and when mysteries or complicated issues are solved.

Character focused storyline characteristics

1. Commonly found in manga comics and in many korean dramas.
2. Authors generally build their story around the main characters, and they try to get the audience to be interested in the development of the main characters.
3. Fewer characters are generally used, because time and effort is needed to build the character profiles well.
4. Audience generally get entertained by relating to the main characters; if the character cries, audience will shed tears, if the character laughs, audience will laugh with the character.

Of course, I am not saying that authors only use the character focused or situational focused storylines. Many authors generally make a hybrid of the two, but I always notice that they are either more character focused or situational focused even though it is a hybrid.

Needless to say, character focused manga comic is more popular because of the following reasons:

1. Readers can easily relate to or identify with the characters better than with situations. In many studies shown, most people relate to characters better than to situations. (That is why SEGA and Nintendo will use Sonic and Mario as their icons respectively.)
2. Character development for situational based storylines is generally much weaker than character focused manga. That’s because many times, too many characters are used for situational based storylines, and the author has not taken the time to build the character profiles well.
3. On the other hand, some character development storylines are really bad at situational development; sometimes the characters are involved in very cliche and unoriginal situations that send goosebumps down my spine. I really dislike that.

Therefore, there is no ‘best’ way of how to create a story; either one of the themes is fine.

However I personally will opt for character focused storylines; I have watched many television dramas, anime and manga comics, and I prefer to relate to characters much more than to situations.

Final words for this post

Anyway, in the development of our story plots, I guess that most of us think situationally rather than by focusing on characters straight, isn’t it?

Therefore, take note that when we create a story, we are generally more focused on situations than on characters, and if we want to be more focused on characters in our story plots, we need to align ourselves back from time to time.

Today is a shorter blog post than usual, but I think too many words sometimes spoil the post.

Stay tuned for more!

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from HellKaiser

Today I am going to share with everyone about some of the manga analysis that I have been doing myself. This will be important in planning to make a good story for a manga.

A side note: I have just successfully changed my major for my university course. I am now going to major in Multimedia and Game Development instead of Digital Security Systems, as I felt that Multimedia and Game Development will help me in my pursuit in becoming a semi-professional or professional manga comic artist.

The above image from Hatsukoi Limited manga comic, by Mizuki Kawashita.

How to make a manga: Tips on how you want to build your storyline

Firstly, identify how you want to build your story.
For example, Japanese manga comics and Western comics are different from each other. If you notice famous manga comic magazines such as Shonen Jump that hosts Bleach, Naruto and One Piece manga comics, these manga comics could go on for years and years, while Western comics doesn’t seem to do that. Western comics like X-Men, on the other hand, publishes by books and I have not seen them publishing by chapters. (Unless I am outdated already.)

Therefore, Western comics are limited by the pages of the book or magazine, but Japanese manga comics could go on and on until either the author or the editor cries “Stop!”.

In my opinion, both of these styles have their pros and cons; neither one is better than the other.

Western Comics
Characteristics:

1. Storyline and theme is decided from the beginning of the book.

Pros:

1. Story plot remains consistent, concise and complete as it is usually decided before beginning drawing for the book.
2. It rarely becomes long-winded because of the above point. There are Japanese manga comics that go off tangent as they are allowed to develop their story while drawing their manga comic.
3. Comic books are less likely to be axed by editors and publishers than the Japanese counterpart, because of the story is already completed by the limitations of the book.
4. For people who want to create their own comic, this style is highly recommended because their story plot is decided from the beginning, and the story plot does not survive on popularity.

Cons:

1. New ideas or new developments cannot be squeezed into the comic easily after deciding the story plot because it is limited by the number of pages in the book. Therefore it is a compromise in flexibility.
2. It is impossible to inject new developments after the comic book is published.
3. Less revenue and popularity is expected because of the relatively short lifespan of the comic.

Japanese manga comic
Characteristics:

1. Storyline is developed only for the starting chapters and the beginning of the story. Storyline will develop as the manga chapters progress.
2. The author usually decides on the theme of the story before drawing his manga comic, which helps the author to be consistent while developing his manga comic in the midst of drawing them out.

Pros:

1. This allows the author to revisit his previous chapters and plan slowly on how to better develop his manga comic well. This is one of the major reasons why Japanese manga comic is an edge better than Western comics in my opinion.
2. Newer characters, scenes and major developments can always be added easily, therefore there is much flexibility in the story.
3. More revenue and popularity can be generated as the manga comics have a greater amount of exposure to the public due to the greater lifespan.

Cons:

1. As the manga comic is usually published in chapters, every chapter must be able to captivate its audience, or else the manga comic will lose popularity. This is a very tedious thing to do, and unlike Western comics which has everything well developed and published into a book, Japanese manga artists face additional stress in making every page count to keep its popularity.
2. Although Western comics may have a shorter lifespan than Japanese manga comics, many Japanese manga comics are axed from serialization if their popularity wanes. As a result, many manga series are forced to face an abrupt end. Therefore, Western comics are more durable than Japanese manga comics in this matter.
3. Some manga comics start off well, but as the series progress, they lose focus and direction pretty easily. Western comics are better in this respect as their story plots are already decided from the beginning.
4. If anyone is doing his or her own Japanese-styled manga comic, this style is really risky because it survives on popularity. If the story is good, it will continue, but if it ends abruptly, it is a disaster.

Although Japanese manga comics are gaining rapid popularity and recognition, for starters it is wiser to start with the Western-styled comics.

Additional advices and information about Japanese-style manga comics

As I am a fan of Japanese manga comics, I will share some of important information about Japanese manga comic artists and how they develop their work.

For Ichigo 100%, or other wise known as Strawberry 100%, when the author was wanting to serialize her manga comic, she had planned up to the middle school stage of the story. The high school stage was only decided later. The author of Ichigo 100% is Mizuki Kawashita.

For One Piece, the author was only planned up to the first 8 chapters of the story when his manga story was serialized. The author only planned to serialize One Piece for 5 years, but now it has been running for 11 years and it is still not stopping. The author of One Piece is Eiichirō Oda.

And the list goes on. What I am trying to say is that these famous authors didn’t expect their stories to be a huge success, and they only proceeded to plan for a short script, which gives them room for a good exit plan in case their manga comics did not make the popularity chart.

My second tip and advice is this: Do not be overtly ambitious in planning your script!

If any is taking the style of a Japanese manga comic for their own work, please keep it short first. If you succeed, then develop it further.

Last but not least advice for this post: Although it is good advice to start small and short, leave enough room for your manga comic to grow.

Final words for this post

I planned on sharing more, but I already hit over 1000 word count! So more will be shared in future. Any constructive comments are welcome!

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