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Good morning, evening, and afternoon, fellow Neopians of various timezones! This, as you may have guessed, is Pacmanite's comic guide (so far as I know, the first comic guide of this scale and thoroughness)! It is I, H33lix, who sacrificed their petpage for this.
First of all, Pacmanite does not even once consider herself a complete expert on the subject or the Universal Supreme Comic Empress. She hardly ever laughs at her own comics, so it's not like she can reliably compare her work to other's anyway. But at the same time, she reckons she knows a thing or two about writing comics, and that's enough for others to benefit from ;)
Let me also add that comic-making is a sort of art; it CAN (repeat: can) therefore be learned and taught and analysed, and there is so much to say that people have written volumes of books on the subject (though all the ones I find tend to boil down to "how to draw a cartoon face with the magic of circles" tutorials D: ). Pacmanite updates every once in a while, and will continue to do so; this page is likely never to be totally finished.
Oh, and remember, everything Pacmanite created on this page is protected under International Copyright Law :D
June 24 2008: It's officially been two whole years since the page started :D Whoa, two years sure feels oooollld... like, really ooolld... I also added a thumbnails tutorial and shoved the sample facial expresssions into a scrolling div, because they were just waaaay too tall for this page. I'm thinking of putting the FAQ's into a scrolling div too, though that might just be overkill  June 14 2008: Gaaah, the PSP7 tutorial is so ridiculously out of date. I need a to do list for updating, once I get the time and my midterm exams are over. Oh but wait. I can just write it here :P To do list:
May 31 2008: Interestingly, someone stole my page. Huzzah. (edit: removed the name from this newsflash.) May 18 2008: Wow, I can't believe I didn't know about the effect of putting target="_blank" in the coding for links. Shows how wide and deep my HTML knowledge is. May 10 2008:Finally handed out a few more awards - congrats to axelthedude, hoeiva and chichikokoyamma! I've also made this little Newsflash Section look a whole lot snazzier. May 8 2008: 10,000+ hits at last! Wooo! *starts setting off fireworks* H33lix's counter has now got FIVE digits on it =D I could never have guessed this lil page would be read and enjoyed by so many people. Thank you, thank you all of you. May 7 2008:Finished most of the writing for the Establishing a Successful Comic Series section. May 4 2008: Just did a bit of editing. The artwork section was waaay too long (length-of-page-wise, not really content-wise), so I put all the tutorials into scrolling divs. Also made the poorly coded hands + arms tutorial much easier on the eyes xD Gotta love these soft pink tables. I also (FINALLY) made the links on the contents list compatible with Firefox as well as IE, which had really been annoying me for some time since I use FF more. So, now I can type Grab a link button! and the link will work in both IE and FF! =D May 1 2008: Time has passed on since I've won the site spotlight (I would have loved to win it multiple times, it gave H33lix such a huge spike in pagehits and feedback *claps*), and as far as strategic Google-hogging for my comic guide is going, searching for Meanwhile, I've been searching for any other NT comic guides I can look over and gain inspiration from, which has been useful. April 3 2008: H33lix's petpage has won the site spotlight competition! *collective cheer* And as a result of being mentioned on the new features page, typing in Meanwhile, I'm still affie-hunting :P If you own, or know any page related at all to the NT, or to comics, or humour or anything, please show me so I can corner them and demand an affie! Certainly, affiliates are more than just advertisements. They direct guests to useful related sites beyond this one petpage ;) So you can all further your knowledge of comics. And of course, linking back is still very much appreciated :D March 21 2008: H33lix's petpage has made it to Google. Enter in the keywords    and it will be the very first link to appear, however if you simply enter in  and you'll have to scroll over alllllll the way to the 68th page and click "repeat search with ommitted results included" and THEN go to the second page of THAT.
A lot of bother :P The solution: H33lix needs more people to link back to this website. That's what makes it move up the search engine listings. And it's YOU, guest, who can help. Grab a link button from the Link Back section and spread the word to comickers in need! Goals: 5,000 hits on my counter by the end of this year, and to have several key Neopet fansites link to here. | ||
One of Neopia's many competitions is the Neopian Times, hereafter referred to as the NT. It's a great competition, and you get a spiffeh trophy, and it can give you two (VERY rare) avatars for your trouble.
| Neopian Times Star
Awarded after your tenth publication into the NT Less than 1% of avatarlog users own this avatar. |
| Neopian Times Writer
Awarded to those who got into a "50th" Issue of the NT: 200, 250, 300, 350 etc. This is a yearly event and extremely difficult to get accepted for; you may need to submit a month in advance. Less than 1% of avatarlog users own this avatar. |
Additionally, getting published in certain special issues will get you a prize. These things don't come very often, but when they do, it's usually worth quite a bit - Pacmanite has so far received a Faerie Queen Negg (for the Fyora Day special), the book "A Seasonal Pea" (Christmas issue) and a Postal Weewoo Action Figure (issue #300). They were priced at 200K, 1.4 mil, and 2mil respectively, if I remember.
And of all the parts of the NT, Comics are the quickest to read (unless you count the editorial), which means Droplet is able to flick through quite a lot of them in a week - so there is a better chance that a good comic will be noticed. For the same reason, comics tend to have more readers and get more reviews than, say, a ten-part written series.
But MOST of all, you should write and draw comics because you find it fun to do so. It's a real combination of wit, humour, and good old cartooning. And nothing is more rewarding in neopia than finding in your mailbox a nm from a newb who is barely literate but just literate enough to tell you they laughed their brains out.
Comics brighten peoples' days and spread the love. So go out and make a comic already!
Secretrulebook has a very good insight into what is allowed and what isn't. Most of these rules, like no violence, are basic common sense. However, some of these rules are less commonly known, like the one that forbids non-Neopian technology.
There are a few additional rules for comics - the file must be a .jpg or .gif, it can not exceed 200kb in size, and its width can't be more than 470 pixels. Theres no limit to the number of frames though, just as long as it fits all the other criteria.
As for choosing whether to save as a .jpeg or a .gif - remember that gifs make smaller file sizes, but they can make colours go all speckly, and jpegs make sharp, contrasting colours that have been placed next to each other go all blotchy. Take for example this graphic of the same thing done in two completely different programs - ms paint and PSP7. This one below has been saved as a .PNG, so it has lost no quality whatsoever (on the other hand, .png images have larger file sizes and don't get allowed into the NT. I recommend you save your final picture as a PNG first just in case you ever want to go back and fix something on it, then save a copy of it as the .jpeg or .gif)
Now here it is saved as a .jpeg:
...and as a .gif:
As you can see, pixels are fine, delicate, gorgeous things but the effect of their clean sharpness gets slaughtered by .jpeg compression. However, when an airbrushed, soft image is saved as a .gif, the colours go all off and collect up in patches of uniform shade (or get speckly).
A good rule of thumb is that if you've done some really smooth shading, or if you've used a lot of different colours in your piece, you ought to save it as a .jpeg, and if you haven't, then .gif is the way to go. These examples were quite exaggerated, though... as 200kb is reasonably large (at least compared to the 17kb size limit in the Beauty Contest!), you probably wouldn't notice the marks left by compression unless you knew they were there.
Not sure whether it's within the limits? Only got MS Paint to help you? Don't sweat, just open the comic up in MS Paint and click on "Image" then "Attributes"...
...And it gives you the file size and the width.
^ Turn it upside-down and it's the closest thing Neopia has to a light bulb...
It has been said that the idea is single most important component of a comic. Eye-burning backgrounds, scruffy artwork, poorly-done speech bubbles and so on can ALL be tolerated, but nothing ruins a comic faster than a bad idea. You cannot afford to skimp on this step. But just to smite me, the idea is also one of the hardest things to explain D:
People ask my owner quite often where she gets her ideas from. As said before, this is not easy to answer. My advice is to try out new things in Neopia; keep your eyes open wherever you are and be sure to note things down (mentally or on paper). Note then all down, no matter how good or bad they are - you can fine-tune them later, and you could always bin the ones you don't like. Try asking a few questions to yourself to get things flowing:
On an unrelated note, here is a list of somewhat overused ideas, which you should try to avoid:
This doesn't mean you can't use these ideas - you can if you take an original angle on them (after all, a lot of real life comic writers do use old jokes or jokes originally inspired by other comic writers, but they must express it in their own words and art, so they aren't outright stealing an idea). It's just that these ideas have been seen so many times that it's hard not to make your comic seem utterly predictable.
Another way you can form your ideas, slightly better than wandering about aimlessly until you hit gold, is to start with your opinion and try to find a way to express it in a comic. The result is sort of more like political satire, actually, which is good. This makes them more three-dimensional than merely a bunch of stuff that happens - it has a message in there, somewhere.
For example, you might want to find a way of criticising the Art Gallery. Why would one do that? Because the judge assumes that by making the selection choice more random it makes it more fair for everyone. I find it really hilarious that people's defence of this method of selection is, "well, if it wasn't random, then only the good artists would get in". Gosh. It's an art competition, people, the best art is meant to win.
Now you don't have to agree with me, but I think it's a valid point, and that's all we need to spark a satirical comic.
Now there are a number of ways you can fit this into comic form, and you get better with practise.
The first and most obvious way to criticise the Art Gallery is to do a literal story of one of your past experiences with the Art Gallery - say I have a modern cubist drawing of a Kougra, and I also have a cartoon style picture of an ixi with a crown. The Kougra is of better artistic quality than the infantile and generally shoddy drawing of an ixi, but the one that gets in is not the modernist drawing but the pseudo-anime style cartoon drawing (true story, actually. You can see my bad ixi here). I do not recommend you do this, however. It's kind of... lazy. And lacks creativity.
The next way you might form the basis for your comic is to parody it, or else compare this situation to another similar one. For example, a pet could be told that the art judge lets in works of all quality to be fair to everyone. The pet goes off and plays a game of meerca chase, then complains to the judge there that they deserve a trophy. Whatever for, the game judge asks? Because he ought to award trophies to game scores of all different quality, so as to be fair to everyone, duh! ;)
Pacmanite: Oooh... good one, H33lix. I might use that some time.
H33lix: Just a reminder, kiddos, all ideas by me and Pacmanite are ours alone! This guide is supposed to help you make your own ideas, not steal ours!
Parody is a pretty light-hearted way to deride something, but there are other ways to do this. Sarcasm and exaggeration can work all right, but it can bite a little too much for TNT to want to publish it. Sarcasm + exaggeration in this example could mean you have a bunch of characters taking their views to the ludicrous extreme, debating oh-so earnestly between themselves that artworks can't be measured or compared against each other, so all the entries in the Art Gallery are equal.
Or, for something different, there could be a step by step "art-gallery-judge training course" (which goes through all the things they do wrong). I dunno, there are definitely other things you could do to express your opinion with humour, but these few are the only ones I could come up with for my chosen topic, so go out and take risks...
Remember, if it makes you laugh after leaving it aside for several days and forgetting about it, then coming back to it, it should be good. You should also ask for the honest opinions of friends or family, to see if they found your idea funny.
Lastly, I highly recommend that you read through those weekly comics. You don't have to go very far back, just pore over the last couple issues (or even just the current one) to get a sense of what's been done recently. Authors often think alike, so even if your idea was completely your doing, it's useful to check to see if someone else thought of it first.
IMO, the script is quite distinct from the idea. The script is the written expresssion of the idea, and while the script can be changed quite a lot in the development process, the idea will generally stay the same. The script tells you of the order of events, the exact wording of the dialogue and so on, and various fine points that can exaggerate or tweak up the idea. Scripts may (or may not) also contain notes for the artwork later.
One thing to avoid while making the script is ambiguity! For younger readers, ambiguity means uncertainty of meaning. If your comic is ambiguous, the readers might be confused by it. Tips:
Also while you're writing your comic, please, please, PLEASE do everything thing you can to make sure it's spelled right. It's utterly painful to read a comic and notice a spelling or grammar mistake.
I admit I've misspelled something in a comic (spelled 'attaaaaaack' with only one 't'), and most people should know some basics of spelling or have a nice spellcheck, but I just wanted to point it out. More common mistakes are the ones that involve punctuation.
Another thing you need to think about while writing a script is the order of events. Flashbacks, or simple references to past events in the pet's speech, can move parts of the story off-screen. This is most useful if your comic involves a small amount of... people getting hurt. You don't want to draw people actually hurting each other, but you want to let your readers know that it had happened.
Writing dialogue is often very hard because the words must be simple, to-the-point, and have a somewhat natural flow. It's a good thing to read aloud what your characters are saying to try and detect where the phrasing is awkward or uncomfortable. And don't be afraid of rewriting the entire script in order to make the speech more natural-sounding for the characters ;)
Try to cut down on unnecessary speech, which slows the reading speed. Viewers hate it when that speed goes too slow, like in those terribly dull sequences when Neopet#1 says something along the lines of, "let's go to the shops" and Neopet#2 replies, "OK", and we have to wait for the comic to actually start. There's no reason why you couldn't just start AT the shops, maybe with a text box above saying "at the shops" if you think readers need it, and then we wouldn't need to put up with the line of utterly uninteresting small-talk. Not that small-talk is necessarily bad, of course.
Lastly, there are the footnotes. There seems to be some sort of obsession amongst new writers. I keep seeing obnoxious notes at the bottom of comics that say, "PS: If you are reading this I made it into the times", as if I hadn't worked that out by then. The next worst are the ones that read "Disclaimer: no pets were harmed in the making of this comic.". Seriously, that line may have been funny at the times of WAR OF MERIDELL - 300 BN, but... ah, maybe it's best I don't finish that sentence. Anyway, 99% of the time footnotes are completely unnecessary, and they detract attention away from the comic itself. You should only have a footnote if you absolutely feel the need to.
And if you want to make it clear to your readers that you're happy you got in, why not just put it on your userlookup? At least there you can edit it. Put a note on a comic, and it stays there for eternity!
TNT have their own explanation of how to put an idea into words, which is hopefully better than mine. If Droplet didn't get your joke, she'll "drop" you a neomail (ahahaha... my bad puns) through theneopetsteam, which will say:
Your Neopian Times submission ([Comic name here]) was rejected because the editor did not understand your joke. Try to understand the basics of setting up a joke. That is to say, begin with a premise, provide statements that build upon the premise, and then finish off with a punchline that is consistent with the premise of your joke. Please try not to use any coarse, rude, or insulting language which others might find offensive.
This particular formula has been around almost since the start of the real world's "newspaper gag strip". Premise is another word for idea, by the way. So, the first panel will set the scene and give a hint to what the character is doing/will do. Then there might be a couple frames in between the first and the last, to smooth the transition. The last frame is a result, usually unexpected, of the character's actions. It also contains the punchline, which you should try to keep short and to the point (too many words slow down the reading pace, and might even bore the reader).
So, you've got your idea, you've written your script, what now?
The artwork is the very first thing that your audience will notice about your comic. And, as they say, first impressions can be vital, so although I don't reckon the artwork is /quite/ as important as the idea or script (the real meat and bones of a comic), it's important that you can make full use of the visuals to deliver just that extra punch to the punchline.
There are many ways to go about drawing your comic... coloured pencil, ms paint, photoshop, watercolour, just to name a few. The top priority is that your characters express their emotions accurately - so, it's more of a matter of personal choice. Me, I like clean crisp lines to keep things simple. I don't like coloured pencils as I feel the fine textures and beautiful subtle tones slow down the reading speed, but hey, each to his or her own.
The only thing I would strongly advise against, however, is using photos of plushies to illustrate your comic. Plushies aren't terribly good at showing emotion, so it's a lot harder for the reader to work out what exactly is going on (!!).
You should also be mindful of the fads and crazes - I remember at one point, every third comic published had this particular annoying text effect in it:
The audience got pretty sick of it in the end. Interestingly, though, that text effect was actually pretty effective when used properly... it was just bad when used in increasingly humdrum situations. And that's another skill too, to know when enough expressiveness is enough, and not to overdo it.
But for now, here are some general drawing tips for all you artists out there.
Contents:
Some sample facial expresssions
I'm providing you all with some simple reference material in case you ever get stuck trying to express certain emotions in your characters. Feel free to use these as heavy reference; they are only meant to help you learn.
Of course these studies do not represent the full length and breadth of emotions that humans are capable of feeling, as you'd need thousands upon thousands of drawings to come close, but they're a start, yes. :3
Tips to drawing Hands + arms
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Ah hands. They can be such a hassle to draw some times, but they can be very expressive when drawn well. You only need to watch about ten minutes of "the looney tunes" for proof of that. But the pose that I see people tend to struggle most on is pointing;  The best approach if you're having trouble is to draw the "skeleton" of joints before you flesh it out. In other words, attack the paper with circles! Each circle represents a joint, and in a human hand, there are three joints in between the fingertip and the wrist - one of them being the knuckle. It's also important to realise that the hand is 3-D, rather than a flyswatter with fingers. Very important to note the angle of the last digit of the thumb, too - it's pointing away from the veiwer, so it looks shorter than normal. And also notice that fingers are almost as thick as they are wide, so the ring and pinkie fingers are being partially hidden by the middle finger. Now we know the structure of a human hand, lets apply it to my Hissi "wing";  True, it's quite hard to see the joints on this bulky, wing-like hand, but they are there in some shape or form, underneath all the... fleshy... whatever a featherless wing thing is made of :P Another common mistake to do with hands + arms I see people making, happens when they're drawing a character holding a present or a package. They tend to draw the top half of the arm poker-straight, vertical, and the elbow a sharp 90 degree angle, with the forearm jutting out horizontally from the body and a present clamped in the paw on the end.  There are a number of reasons why this looks so unnatural. For one thing, the character is holding the present too high up. People tend to support items from the bottom. And also, we tend to hold large objects much closer to the body, so our grip is more secure. Lastly we tend not to grip the edge that's closest to us, especially if it's bulky - it's more preferable to grip the sides, or the furthest corners.  And when we pass the load to others, we usually extend the arms fully from the shoulder, rather than just bending at the elbow;  |
The simplest thing to do would be to draw your speech bubbles free hand, and hand-letter your dialogue. The downside is that many of us mortals have terrible handwriting and/or are inept at drawing a smooth, non-wobbly oval D: So it's useful to know the alternatives, especially if your comic involves a lot of words.
 It's pretty easy to add dialogue to your images in good ol' MS paint. Start off by opening up the image. (For the sake of making this tutorial quickly, I just used one of TNT's images, but if you want to get into the NT you ought to draw your own :P) |
 Now, select the "text" tool whose symbol is an "A", make a box and type your dialogue. I usually use size 8-12 comic sans, bold, italic, and in capital letters. I'm not a great fan of lower case comic sans. |
 You'll notice there's usually too much white around the words, or below. So to get rid of this, switch to the selection tool (in the top-right), select the newly-added text, and press Ctrl + C (copy). Then Ctrl + Z (undo) and it'll undo the addition of text, and finally Ctrl + V (paste) will paste the little rectangle of words which you had just copied. Drag it and position wherever it feels right. |
 Now we need to make the black outline of the bubble, but before selecting the oval tool, click on the line tool and set the width to the second option. This'll make the oval outline two pixels wide instead of one. |
 Then you can use the oval tool to draw an oval or circle around your text - it fits best if your black outline touches the four corners of your white rectangle. Finish the outline by using two straight lines to make the tail of your bubble. |
 And finally, we fill in the inside of the speech bubble with white, using a combination of the fill and pencil. Ta-dah! Humble paint has made a speech bubble. |
Tired of having speech bubbles that are all pixelly around the edges? Well if you've got passing knowledge in any semi-decent drawing program like Photoshop or Jasc Paint Shop Pro (any that allows layers) you'll be able to make smooth, seamless speech bubbles pretty easily. Because this tutorial is so basic, I will not be making separate ones for PSP, Photoshop, and so on.
Start by writing your text on a new layer (above your drawings). Most programs have a tool in the shape of an "A" that lets you write text. |
 Next make another new layer, call it "oval", drag it under the text layer, and draw an oval on it. Play around with whatever settings your oval-drawing tool comes with, until you're satisfied with the line thickness etc. As for me, I use the same oval every time. Black 2 pixel outline, white fill. Don't want to distract from the text or the pictures. |
 Next we must make a tail. Create a new layer on top of the "oval" layer and call it "tail". Grab a line-drawing tool (pencil tool, or whatever it gets called in your program), set it to the same width and colour as your oval outline, and draw. Some people like curved lines. Not me. I can't get them to look right, or even parallel-ish, so straight lines it is. |
 Finally, switch to the "oval" layer. Select a brush tool, set it to maximum opacity, and fill in between the two lines you've just drawn. Clean up with an eraser tool if necessary. The magic of layers is that since the lines of the tail are on a separate layer above the one you're working on, you can not paint over them, just under. Also make sure you paint over the outline left between the tail and the body of the speech bubble. |
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And you're done! Now isn't that a LOT better than using the pre-set speech bubbles? Those things can be really inflexible and preset-looking. Now with this knowledge you can create speech bubbles to whatever shapes you need, with tails pointing in any desired direction. But hey, why stop at ovals? Rounded rectangles are good too. And clouds. Note, this is not a tutorial on layers. I've assumed you knew what layers are before you read this. Don't kill me for not explaining the subtle concepts of layers. This message will self-destruct in three, two, one... |
Do you find it tricky to reach that exact 150x150 thumbnail size required by the Neopian times? Frustrated about getting a preselected image for your thumbnail instead? Well stress no more.
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First of all, open two windows of MS Paint. 
In the first window, go to Image - Attributes and set both numbers to 150. This makes your white canvas thing exactly 150x150. |
 Next, move your mouse over to that colour pallet at the bottom of the program and right click on the colour black. This sets your background colour to black, instead of the default white. |
 Now grab the corner of your canvas and expand it outwards. Instead of this new space being filled with default white, it's now getting filled by your new background colour, which is black. |
 You need to get a pretty thick black border all around your 150x150 square. Press Ctrl+A to select everything, and drag your white box diagonally so that it's all surrounded by lots of black. You can repeat the step before if you want. |
 Now that you've ended up with a 150x150 window of white surrounded by black, switch to the second window and paste in whatever artwork you want to take your thumbnail from. You can resize it first, or just leave it as is. |
 Now grab that white box image from the first window (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C) and paste it into the second window (Ctrl+V). |
 Importantly, before you unselect that pasted object, you need to set the selection option to the second one on the toolbar. If you can't find it for some reason, you could also go Image - Draw Opaque and make sure the option Draw Opaque is unticked. |
 Now essentially you've got a transparent window that's exactly 150x150, surrounded by a black border. You can move it all over and around your artwork, testing out what part of the image looks best as a thumbnail. Once you've decided, deselect it by clicking anywhere off to the side of the image. |
 All that's left is to get rid of everything in the image except for that little 150x150 square. Grab the dots at the corners of the canvas and drag them inwards to crop the image, and you should also use Ctrl+A and drag that square to the top corner to crop out the black edging. If you keep any black edging, your image will be larger than 150x150. |
 And this is what you should end up with - an image neither greater nor smaller than 150x150, if you crop it right. |
 You could, if you want, edit this image further and add text and blinky lights and moustaches. And voila! Save it just like any normal image, though it has to be either in GIF or JPEG format. |
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Quite a few people have asked me what program I use to do the art for my comics. It's Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7, and as a nice treat for y'all, I've put together a little tutorial. But I developed my method for speed (and filesizes xD), mainly, so I don't recommend you use it for art contests and the like - it just doesn't make things look as good as if you had used layers and airbrushes. Of course, comics are meant to be kept simple, so this method doesn't cause much of a problem for me.
For this, you will need a pencil, paper, pen, eraser, scanner and Jasc Paint shop pro 7. Most people should have the first four items, though the last two are somewhat harder to come by.
Especially PSP7, since I heard that it's no longer being sold, and in any case it's a pretty old program (though I think there are still some people out there that have it).
The first and probably most important step is pencilling. Try to sketch in the basic shapes first before moving on to finer details, otherwise you'll get very preoccupied with rubbing it all out because the proportions weren't right the first time you put pencil to paper. And, don't draw too heavily as you'll eventually need to remove these lines afterwards. |
Next is the inking. This one was done by a 0.3 fineliner - but any pen that can leave a consistent darkish line would be suitable. I hate inking, to be honest. But you have to convince yourself, the greatest danger here is not making (whoops...) indelible mistakes with the pen, but making the drawing appear lifeless. You can correct "accidents" on the computer once it's scanned, anyway. So when inking, try to vary the tilt and/or the amount of pressure on your pen so that the line thickness is interesting. Another tip is to approach it as if you're drawing your artwork all over again, rather than just mechanically laying ink over the pencil. Then lightly rub out the pencil lines when the ink is dry. Don't worry too much if you can't rub out all of them. |
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Now you'll need to scan it. My usual settings are 300 dpi (dots per inch) black-and-white, but 200 dpi should be fine as well. I just want the comic to be at least twice as big as what it will be once it is resized, so the lines will get smoothed out. Open the scanned image up in your PSP7. |
 Ah, we have a problem, don't we? If you try to colour using the flood fill bucket, annoying white halos are left around the edges of the black! (Of course there are other ways to get rid of this, my way is just one of them). |
Simply select "Colours" from the top bar, then "Adjust", then "Brightness/contrast" (or press shift+B), then set the contrast to 100. Now everything will be either pure black or pure white, and the light pencil marks you might have forgotten to erase will have disappeared. And don't worry about the pixellatedness... it gets smoothed over in the last step. 
(Note: the image must be in greyscale before you adjust the brightness/contrast; if your scan setting was black & white this should be no problem. But if it was scanned in colour, speckles of extremely vivid colour will be left by the brigtness/contrast adjustment. No biggie. Just greyscale the image by clicking "colours" --} "greyscale", then proceed to do the whole brigthness/contrast thing. Importantly, though, before the next step, you'll need to erm, "un-greyscale" the image so you can put colours on it. Just go "colours" --} "increase colour depth" --} "16 million colours (24 bit)" and you're in business.) |
Now you get to use your fill bucket. Select it from the tool palette or just press F, and make sure it's set to a low (if not zero) tolerance and 100% opacity (press O for tool options). Then pick a colour and... click. Wow, that was complicated, wasn't it? [/sarcasm] If there's a leak, use the paint brush tool to plug it up so the fill stuff doesn't leak into other parts of the image. Here, I haven't done a background, but if I did, I would have coloured it as well right now. |
Now I add the shading. It's not essential for a comic to have shading, but I shade out of habit and because shadows can really give some mood to a piece. I do this quickly by selecting the colour replace tool, whose icon looks like this: In this screenshot of the colour palette, I have chosen a red-ish colour for my background colour and a darker red for the foreground. And, quite simply, just left click and you'll be able to manually shade every area with that colour in it, but not anywhere else (so the other colours and the black outlines are left untouched!). Repeat for all the other colours and the background until it's all done. |
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I would normally save this large image now, in gif form, which is, frankly, an AWESOME space saver for your hard drive. But you have to do it right or it'll muck up your hard-earned colours. So go to "colours" --} "count colours used" and it will tell you how many unique colours there are. Remember this number. Now go to "colours" --} "decrease colour depth" and it will give you a number of options, though the only ones useful to you will be "16...", "256..." and "X...". If you have 16 or less unique colours, choose "16...". If you have between 17 and 256, choose "256...". If you are absolutely desperate to save space, choose the "X" option and type in the exact number of colours. 
You'll then need to contend with a new popup. Just make sure "Optimized Octree" is selected (shown here). See what just happened? The colour pallet has changed. Now you can save it in .gif format safely. Before moving on to the next step, though, press Ctrl+Z to bring you back to having all 16 million colours 'n' shades at your disposal. You need it for smoothing. |
And now there's nothing more to do other than to resize it to the NT's specifications (thus making those horrible pixelly lines smooth again), and to add speech bubbles and frame borders. Resizing is pretty simple, just go Image ---} resize or press Shift+S, and type in your preferred width, which should be 470 pixels or less. Whew! That was a long tutorial.
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The Poor Man's Scanner
Alas, not everyone has a scanner, and many may only have a digital camera as a substitute. Sometimes even people who DO have scanners will need to resort to a camera now and then, as most scanners are only large enough for A4 pages, and paintings and so on will need to be photographed.
Of course cameras are prone to making blurry, grainy, dimly lit and badly aligned pictures, but there are a number of things we can do to prevent that.
Well, in some ways it's still not as good as a scanner, but *shrugs* you'll have to agree that there isn't much choice not to :P
In this section, I've taken apart one of my comics and annotated it. Hopefully it will have covered any major points I've missed so far - though I recommend you read through the comic first, without paying attention to the notes on the side (the first paragraph gives away the ending anyway), then scroll back up to read the text in red. Enjoy! (& apologies for causing eye strain)
Later, after I had submitted this, it was rejected for talking about frozen and/or scammed accounts. Think it was to do with H33lix's comment about people leaving after the big update. Ah well, no drama.
Under construction due to popular demand.
There are a number of reasons why you would want to try an establish a series, as opposed to having just random comics with all different names and characters in them. For one thing, comics are more easily recognised as "yours" once they've got a recurring title and characters, and few things in Neopia quite as rewarding (or ego-inflating, depending on how you view it) as getting what basically amounts to a fan base.
Or you may have tried your hand at a couple of comics, you're confident that you could make more, but you're just plain tired of making new titles and/or characters each time. Or you may just be insane and want to participate in the insanity of the NT in a more efficiently insane way.
*rubs wings together* So! Where to start?
My first lot of advice to you is this: Most comic series end prematurely because the author overcommitted too early. (This is especially true for the serious "plot comics".)
Comics should never be forced. It would be better for you not to write a comic at all IF the only ideas you have aren't really working well. Making poor-quality comics just for the sake of your duty to keep your series alive hardly ever turns out well in the end.
So, don't promise yourself that you'll have a comic in the NT every single week for 20 weeks, for example. If I had a dollar for every time I saw someone with an ambitious idea biting off more than they can chew, and then giving up way too early just because of it, well, I'd have about ten dollars. But it's a lot, anyway.
To get people to start to recognise your comics, the first step tends to be character design. Let me stress first off that character design in comics ought to be kept relatively simple. While the BC tends to reward you the more lavish you are with character design, whacky wing shapes, body markings, beautiful clothing design, interesting base colours etc., in comic making it's really your ideas and dedication that set you apart, not so much the fine details of artwork.
It's actually quite suprising how much an overly complex character design can slow you down when you're drawing. And you don't want to have to spend an excessively long time just drawing the unnecessary markings and thingamabobs, or you'll find it hard to motivate yourself to draw *groan* another comic. You're probably best off just drawing your characters with few adornments but in your own style (or any sort of style you'd be comfortable with).
See, a common problem that happens when you try to draw the pet in a style you aren't quite familiar with yet, is that every time you redraw it, it tends to look very different. You'll need to draw the character a number of times, over and over, experimenting with different proportions and face shapes as much as you can until it fits well enough, and matches the character.
It's a bit hard to make out, but here are a few old (old, as in... from 2006) sketches of Cuniculepus before I'd finalised his design, and a picture of his current look for comparison. He went through several interesting stages of walking on four legs and wearing a top hat.
(There were quite a lot more, but I can't find them, and they've probably been thrown out by now 
)
However, even after you've settled on a design, you shouldn't expect your character to look exactly the same forever - embrace a little change over time, which usually improves the design bit by bit.
The name of a comic series is best when it reflects something about the series itself. Some people like names that are puns or neopets-ified versions of real life sayings (eg. And The Meepits Outgrabe), some like having a playfully random title (like Flapdoodle), and others name it after their passions (Hakuryu_86 is the hugest fan of gallions, and that's how our series came to be known as The Gallion Ranch).
Still others have nice, simple titles that basically tell the reader exactly what the series is about (Evil Feepit, for instance), without needing any extra little frills or accesories. It is only a name, after all, and if it's catchy, it'll have served its purpose. You could even name your series just after the setting (like Spooky) or after one of the pets in it (Razzle Dazzle) or after your username (One Fish, Two Fish, and my own series Land of Pacman, though I don't personally like that name much lol).
There are some things to avoid while naming your series, though. For example, you don't want to overuse the word "insane" in it in an attempt to be funny, and having a name that's just way too random and unrelated can be distracting.
Most comic series don't have an ongoing plotline; it's much less complicated if your series is just a collection of Neopia-related jokes. Every so often you could have a short story arc spanning 3-4 chapters, but the beauty of a comic series in this style is that each comic can stand by itself and be understood by a new reader without them needing to read all the comics leading up to it.
It's very difficult to write totally serious plot comics and have them accepted (not that there hasn't been any; the Shoyru Squadron is the best example). Without the device of humour, it can be very hard to capture the reader's attention. The plotline becomes king. That's why, just like if you were to write a serious novel, it's essential to plan the plot (all the way to the end) before you even start drawing the first "episode".
It's also recommended that you finish all or most of the comics in your plot series before you start submitting the first episodes to the NT, since when you think about it, these comics are really meant to be part of a group, and you'll want the story to be consistent all the way through. If you later finished the ending chapters and suddenly realised that you wanted to go back and edit the opening... well, it wouldn't be possible if the opening sequence was already published in the NT ;)
Finishing the entire series before submitting the comics is also like a sort of insurance policy; if for whatever reason you don't get to finish it (time is so precious), then at least you haven't disappointed any fans with a cliffhanger.
Plot comics take a lot of time, skill, and patience. But if you can manage to pull it off, the results will be a powerful story indeed.
Pacmanite: *shoves H33lix off computer*
H33lix: Fine, if you're so sick of writing your username instead of "I".
Q: Who is Droplet?
A: She's the current editor of The Neopian Times. She's awesome :3 I don't ever refer to her as "TNT", since that makes her sound distanced and... somewhat malicious.
Q: How long does it take for a comic to get published?
A: About two weeks after submitting, most of the time :)
Q: How and when does TNT notify you if you are chosen?
A: If I send my comic in on a Sunday (and I usually do, since it takes most of the weekend to get them done), I get a "held over" response by Wednesday or Thursday that week. Then, usually about a week later, I get an acceptance nm, and a trophy will be added to my userlookup. The comic will then come out in the next issue of the NT, on Friday or Saturday. Of course, it isn't strictly like this all the time. I once got an acceptance letter without being held over. And sometimes it would take longer to get any reply at all.
Q: What happens if TNT rejects a comic?
A: Droplet will send you a neomail saying:
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| Your Neopian Times submission ([comic name here]) was rejected because we had too many good entries in this category this week and there was not enough room for them all. Please try again next week. |
Don't worry too much if you get this in a neomail; it usually means what it says. You should probably resubmit the following week. Alternatively, you might be neomailed this, in which case you might want to start over with a new one:
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| Your Neopian Times submission ([Comic name here]) was rejected because the editor did not understand your joke. Try to understand the basics of setting up a joke. That is to say, begin with a premise, provide statements that build upon the premise, and then finish off with a punchline that is consistent with the premise of your joke. Please try not to use any coarse, rude, or insulting language which others might find offensive. |
Q: Why does [username here] have so many NT trophies?? I searched the NT, and s/he has only been in the NT "x" times!
A: It might be because that person has just had an acceptance letter but the next issue hasn't come out yet. Or, that person may have sucessfully entered a series, whose awards are given out all at once :)
Q: What is a collaboration?
A: A collaboration is when more than one person works on a single piece. For NT comics, it usually means that someone provides the script or idea, and another person illustrates. Provided you put it on the comic image and in your notes, both people will get the trophy. They're pretty spiffeh, great for the writers who can't draw and the artists who can't write. BUT sorry, I'm flooded with collab requests, so I won't accept any that I get through neomail.
Q: I got an acceptance letter (and trophy), but my collab partner didn't! Did Droplet make a mistake?
A: Don't worry, this is completely normal. The person who submits will get all the usual responses from theneopetsteam, but the collab partner will have to wait until it gets published for a trophy to be added to their lookup.
Q: Can I be your neofriend?
A: Actually, I just noticed something - people never seem to say "can I be your neofriend", they always say, "can YOU be my neofriend". Wierd. o_o Now onto the next question.
Q: Can you be my neofriend?
A: Do I have to answer this question? It's in every FAQ in Neopia... I'd just be repeating what everyone else has said.
Q: Can you be my neofriend?
NO. You cannot be my neofriend unless I know you very, very well. If I accepted every neofriend request I got, my neofriend list would be so huge I wouldn't know who everyone is. And what's the point of asking to be my nf when all it is is a list of usernames? It's a waste of both your time and mine.
Q: I submitted a comic, but I never got a reply! What should I do?
A: That's happened to me once. If you don't get a reply in two or three weeks, then you should send it in another time and hope for a response.
Q: What is the NTWF?
A: Neopian Times Writers Forum :D It's a forum dedicated to the Neopian Timers and their writers, if you haven't already guessed. I luff that place to bits. It is NOT a guild, by the way, and it doesn't behave like the neoboards - meaning you don't have to bump boards, or type responses in thirty seconds flat.
Banner by oddhatter
Pat Jade is the loveable head honcho there, and the link to the NTWF is on her lookup :)
Q: Can you do the drawings for my comic, and I'll do the plot?
A: I've already sort of answered this question, but I'll answer it again. No, because I am flooded with these kinds of requests. I already have plenty of other comic ideas to do.
Q: Do you have an idea or plot I can draw?
A: I get this less often than the one above, but the answer is still no.
Q: I don't have Jasc PSP7 can I still make comics?
A: I'm suprised how often I get this question o_o Um, YES. You can make comics with ANYTHING. The PSP7 tutorial is just my way of making a comic, and you can completely ignore it if you want, and use whatever programs or materials or methods suits you.
So go nuts.
Q: I don't have anything to draw with because my parents don't like spending money. And I don't have a scanner or digital camera.
Either bug them to start spending real money on art supplies for you - try blackmail, or ransom, or ask them with puppy dog eyes - or else you'll have to make do with the free stuff.
Q: If H33lix is a boy, why is his petpage in pink? ._.
A: 0_____________0
...
...
...because it's a useful colour between red and white...?
Q: I have a question that's not above.
A: Then don't hesitate to neomail me @Pacmanite!
You could even just neomail me if you want advice on anything comic-related. I won't bite. But you may have to wait a little; I'm not online much any more :)
This may sound like a contradiction of the whole point of this petpage, but you know what? I reckon if you just blunder through with the first comic idea that pops into your head, thinking that as long as an idea makes logical sense it will be funny, just going ahead anyway and not really living up to your full potential, you could make it into the NT anyway.
*COLLECTIVE GASPETH*
Actually, it does happen quite a lot. I think many people currently writing comics for the NT could be a lot better if they worked to improve themselves (most of my first comics were pretty terrible until I actually started trying), but are too scared, or new, or overly focused on just collecting trophies/avatars.
I started these awards to encourage any new talents I find emerging from the NT. I get the lols, you comickers get the recognition; it's win-win, right?
The other reason I'm handing out these awards is so that I can have a number of short reviews of nice comics all in one spot, and that you readers can learn from these things.
I read through the comic section every week (or try to), and I'll notify you if you've won an award. Since I'm a bit lazy, I've semi-quit and I might miss something good, you can neomail me a suggestion (@Pacmanite) if you find a comic that really liked. Just don't send me one of your OWN comics, because if I reject that, you're going to be saaaad. D:
BTW, if you don't get an award, don't sweat, it's just because I'm an unfair judge. And the trophies are only graphics anyway :P
The golden gallion:
I need to get off my hindquarters and actually hand some of these out...
The silver ukali:
The bronze barbat:
(Blah bluhblah, legal disclaimer, please contact me @Pacmanite if you see someone not on the list carrying around a trophy, to stop thievery.)
Also, I'm giving out two free awards - if you visited this page and have any interest in comics, then you're awesome and you deserve an award! You can put either of these in your shop description, on your petpage, your userlookup, petlookup, gallery, anywhere!
The little 88x31 button for rosie:
Did you find this petpage useful? Willing to do me a favour? Or do you just like staring at things that blink? Here are buttons you can use to link me back.
If you have a comic tutorial, guide, handy tips page, comic artwork tutorial, or anything of the sort even remotely related to the NT or humour, neomail me @Pacmanite and I'll link to it here! I'd like you to put a link to my comic guide on yours as well.
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Did some editing of the Ideas section too, and added a snazzy new parchment-y background to the Affiliates.
, or by pressing the "less than" sign on my keyboard (which the deranged code mynci doesn't permit me to use by itself on a petpage). Hold Ctrl and right-click on the colour you want to replace with shadow (this will make it the "background colour"), then choose a slightly darker colour for the "foreground colour".
