Designing comics

Girl Genius is a great looking Web comic that has been running for over a decade and has spawned numerous Kickstarter campaigns, including a game:

There are many styles of comics, printed and online, and many books, sites and YouTube guides. The most thoughtful of the authors is probably Scott McCloud. Scott has written several best-selling books and made one part available online which will give you a flavour of his style:

Comic Life is a dedicated package for creating bright and colourful comics easily – great for kids or students or certain styles. Available on Mac, Windows, iPad and Chromebook. Free trial available.

For professional and higher-level student projects, we highly recommend Clip Studio Paint (previously called Manga Studio). It is often on sale for $25 (about £21) – that is a one-time price, for much the same as just a month of Adobe Photoshop subscription – sign up to the newsletter to hear about the next sale and to learn about new features and tutorials. This complex, rich piece of software is available on Macs, Windows, iPads and Android – on Android it is free for an hour a day without paying. It has a host of features specifically for creating comics and manga.

Clip Studio Paint has built-in 3D figures that you can move, pose and change the camera angle and perspective so that you can draw over them – there is even the ability to scan a photo and the poseable character will change to match the photo! This AI-enhanced feature is joined by clever fill tools and texture brushes and the ability to import and rotate 3D models and convert them to line art.