How to make a comic book for dummies.

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Vince524

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Hey all. Consider me the dummy in question.

I'm working on a novel right now. In it, 2 kids want to start doing a comic book between them. One is the writer the other one is the author. They're about 9.

My question would be, what would they use to do this?

The adult characters would really want to support them. What would they buy?

Anything you could tell me would be helpful. Thanks.
 

MurderOfCrows

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At that age? Colored pencils, pens, a cheap word processing program or a type writer, depending on timeframe/tech level.
 

Vince524

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At that age? Colored pencils, pens, a cheap word processing program or a type writer, depending on timeframe/tech level.

They're decently smart for their age and I'm using it as a bit of a plot device. The kid has been through a lot of abuse, so his Aunt & Uncle would probably get him a lot to do it. Plus, the comic story will reveal a clue about his past which they don't know about yet.

I figured the colored pencils. I figured an old laptop that nobody uses, sans internet. What kind of paper would they use?
 

MurderOfCrows

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Well, the stuff pros use can be kind of pricy, but there a lot of kits for amateurs available. Things like Deleter or other pages would be available but here's the kicker:

Does the parent know about comics? Are they involved in fandom or has someone deeply involved in comics fandom? If not, they're probably not going to grok the special paper/gutters/art supplies, but if they're decently good at google they're going to find Amazon's various kits or other items (like so.) So it'll probably be decent but not like, pro level quality. Good enough for the kidlets.
 

Max Vaehling

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Colored pencils are fine and most kids have them, so there's certainly a place for those in your story. There are art pencils that have a somewhat oilier stroke than your standard pencils and you can wipe the color over the paper for a more even look. That could be something the parents buy the kid. Or copic markers. They're what manga fans are using for off-screen color work.

There's matching paper, too, being sold in the same art supply stores as the markers, but that's really expensive. (I never tried it because it says 'manga paer' on the cover which makes it sound like a scam and because it's expensive. The go-to paper in Western comics making circles is Bristol board. But I don't know if and when kids start using that. It isn't so cheap either. So they might be using whatever paper is easy to get.
 

snafu1056

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Are these kids computer savvy? If so they might not use pens or paper at all but a Wacom tablet or some other kind of digital drawing hardware. They're pretty common these days.
 

Vince524

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The kids aren't particularly computer savvy. The home set up is the main kid in the story is into stories, he makes his first friend who is the artist. The main kid is being raised by 3 people. His moms brother and sister, and a friend who has been friends with the three siblings going back to their childhood. The father is not in the picture and the mother was murdered.

Thanks for everyone who responded.

The aunt has a guy in her life, the love interest, who is a geek and loves all geek stuff. Has a klingon bat'leth on the wall, tons of movies and comic books. So when the kids get into it, he'd know. He clues in the aunt so she can get the stuff, making her the hero in the kids eyes.

I'd like them to be able to produce a comic, not a pro one, but one that would be able to showcase an actual story.

The artist, his name is Jay, was always able to draw and came up with cool looking superheroes, but no backstories.

The writer, Cole, can come up with those and the story and dialogue.
 

Maggie Maxwell

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With all that in mind, most likely a good drawing pad (spiral notebook = Already bound comic), a notebook for script/character-writing, and a pack of good colored pencils would probably be best. She can get a anything more than Crayola from Amazon or an art store. Could be a fun scene for her to take the kids to an art store to pick out their own.
 

dragonfliet

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While colored pencils...work, I guess, I imagine that kids would go straight to the computer. Perhaps this is my own bias, or background, but most of the kids I know (admittedly slightly older) default to phones and laptops as a general rule. Programs like Photoshop or Manga studio are pretty standard go-tos for drawing, and either a wacom tablet hooked up to a PC, or, more likely, a computer like the MS Surface would be the physical tools.
 
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