In this second Part-Time Comics podcast, Anthony and Keith chat about their respective comic creation and production processes.
(This podcast was recorded on June 16, 2009)
Anthony's Process
The creation and production process for Brawn is divided up between several people. Anthony teams with a writer to complete the plot, then creates thumbnails for an artist he contracts to do penciling and inking. The contractor created the artwork traditionally (not digitally) and scans each page into the computer, saving each as a high resolution TIFF file. He e-mails everything to Anthony for edits or approval. Once approved, each page is shipped off to Anthony, who uses Adobe Photoshop to color and letter the pages.Once it's all done, Anthony ships the finished product off to the printer.
Anthony's entire creation and production process (on-and-off) takes about 4 months. For more detailed information on the creation of his comic check out his article entitled Modern Indie Comic Publishing, Step-by-Step.
Keith's Process
For Local Heroes, Keith is the sole creator. Each strip is one-third of a page; if you stack up three Local Heroes strips on top of each other, you'll have one standard comic page. After fleshout out each short-story plot, Keith will sketch one to three pages on scrap paper then use a lightbox to help create final artwork. He uses standard pencils, Micron pens, to make his strips, and sometimes Windsor Newton series 7 brushes, and rapidographs for special treatments. After scanning the finished work into the computer, Keith makes minor edits and lettering are done on the computer.
A single strip is created within three to four hours. New strips are posted weekly, with a small gap between storylines. Keith creates the final book one strip at a time, so that once enough strips are complete, that book is ready to go to the printer. The entire process is stretched out to almost two years.
Miscellanea
Since the recording of the first Part Time Comics podcast, we've created a website at PartTimeComics.com and set up an e-mail address at contact@parttimecomics.com.
During the podcast, we mentioned these products and services:
- Places to go
- Staple! Independent Media Expo
- Yomicon (a small anime and manga convention put on by the Austin Public Library in Austin, Texas
- Software for audio
- Software for art
- Adobe Photoshop for creating bitmap art
- Adobe Illustrator for creating vector art
- Adobe Flash for creating vector art
- Manga Studio for creating bitmap art
- Blambot fonts
- Job Matchmaking Services
- Content Management Systems
- Movable Type content management system
- Word Press content management system
- ComicPress Add-on for Word Press
- Hosting Services
- deviantART free gallery hosting service
- DrunkDuck free webcomic hosting service
- Comic Genesis free webcomic hosting service
The introduction music used in the podcast is Musette by Partners in Rhyme.
