How to Make a Comic Strip

Here's a visual tour of my comic-making process. If you are not already a syndicated cartoonist, just copy these steps.

Please excuse the random formatting of this post. I don't have time to tweak the HTML.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

This is me at 4:59 AM, just before my BlackBerry alarm goes off.

5:02 AM, I put on some clothes and head downstairs to eat a banana.

Mmmm...good banana.

Put the flip-flops on and begin my commute.

Usually it's dark when I go to work. And I'm not smiling so much. Clearly these photos are staged.

47 seconds later (I timed it), I reach my office. I wave to the guy delivering newspapers. At that time of day, it's just him and me.

Upstairs to the office.

I head to the office fridge for the first of many Diet Cokes. My office cat, Sarah, hears the refrigerator open from the next room and will be waiting for me in her designated spot.

Sarah demands quality time on the rug or she literally won't let me work. She'll scream and start ripping my stuff to shreds unless she gets her quota of petting. This part of my routine has not varied in 17 years.

I take Sarah with me to get additional petting while I check blog comments and e-mails. She looks uncomfortable but she's actually totally relaxed. It's her favorite petting position.

After I write my blog post, I start the comic-making phase. In step one, I look at a Word document where I saved a bunch of suggestions from readers. I peruse the suggestions to see what inspires me.

Once I have a general idea, I use Photoshop to call up a blank comic format, 600 dpi. I draw directly on the computer screen using a stylus. The monitor is a Wacom 21UX. This is the equpment I've used for the past two years or so. Before that, it was all on paper.

I draw the first panel (in rough form) and type in the words using a font I created of my own handwriting.

When you draw on the computer at a "natural" size, the limit of the technology is that your lines will be jagged. That's fine for the rough draft. (If this were paper, the rough version would be in pencil.)

To finish the art in clean form, I change the rough lines to a light gray, then adjust the viewing size to 200% and "ink" over the rough art. I get a smooth line when I work at that size.

In Photoshop lingo, the rough draft is a "layer." To turn that layer into a light gray, I adjust its opacity. The layers are the digital equivalent of tracing paper. You can see the layer below, but your drawing only touches your current layer.

This is the size I use for the final clean lines. Any imperfections disappear when the image is shrunk to publishing size.

Sunday strips are a somewhat different process because of the color. It starts the same, with a black line art version. Then I copy the file and create a second version with color. The color version is then stripped of its black. That leaves me with two files. One is only black lines, the other is all the colors except black. Both files go to the printer, who combines them during the printing process. I assume this kludgy process has something to do with the legacy equipment used by the newspapers. I just prep the file the way I'm instructed by United Media.

This is where I sit for most of my work day. There's a huge amount of paperwork with this job. My desk is normally covered with contracts, tax stuff, accounting things, and  various projects.

Here's the view from my chair. I have the TV on when I do the mindless step of adding the final art. While working, I usually watch recordings of The Daily Show, tennis, Real Time, or Battlestar Galactica.

I keep my original art table in a corner for historical and sentimental reasons. I refinished that little table in 1988. I'm not what you would call a "craftsman," so it's poorly done. My original chair, also shown, was created when I was a teenager, using parts from two separate chairs. Originally it had legs. I attached it to the base of an old office chair and my mother gave it some upholstery. It is also poorly constructed. I love it.

Here are the art supplies I used before moving completely to the computer. That's a daily strip, so you can see its size as an original. About half of all Dilbert strips were drawn with the mechanical pencil shown. The green thing on the art is what I used to keep the lettering on a straight line. The pen was for the final art.

If you plan to become a syndicated cartoonist, here is a summary of the equipment you will need:

1. Banana

2. Diet Coke

3. Cat

4. Computer with Wacom 21UX monitor

Good luck.

Comments

[Deb]

Thank you for your brilliant blog! You've helped me more than you know, and when my strip becomes big, we'll do lunch!? On me of course.

[Donna & Jeroen]

I LOVE this blog! My husband and I have been putting together our own cartoon and so far we have the diet coke, banana and cat down pat! We are working on the finals and only have 15 so far but hope to finish the rest in the next month and submit them. I can't wait for the rejection slips!

[Jay]

Nice! I never knew there was a Dilbert (My favourite catroon/TV show ever!) blog :o

That sounds like a fun day, though it must be tough trying to think up something hilariously funny every single day.

So seriously, you use Photoshop?

[zack campanelli]

what version of photoshop do you use?

[Jenn]

that was long i could not read it all

[Steve]

Scott:

The wife who is an instructor at a certain college has been worrying all morning.

Apparently, as she has been informed by a "no-answer" e-mail from the system administrator, that all the material for her literary e-zine has been dumped "automatically," presumable by the "preventer of information" and all the material apparently lost.

Today nobody can access the e-zine, and there is nobody to talk to until early next month. Meanwhile no new contributions in the usually voluminous submission flow can be found.

It would be very much appreciated if you could be so kind as to address this problem in your Dilbert strip.

Steve

[rich trembly]

Loved your little expose' on Dilbert. I'm just now thinking of a strip with a bit of a Spiritual theme. I'm not too square on what the next stepis past creating it and doing a number of episodes/strips, but i'll go for it and see.

Your tidbit was encouraging. Thanks!

GB, rich

[Joshua Nobles]

Hmmm... I have a kitten. Frequently it hurls itself from objects; it looks like it is doing a cartwheel in the air half of the time.

This site is a very good idea... allowing readers to communicate with the creator; I do not read Dilbert... it is not really geared towards my type of audience, but I do admire cartoonists in general; I hope to one day have the ability to produce one.

While I may not read the Dilbert comic; saying hey to the creator is truly an honor.

Thank you

Josh

[RR]

Thanks for sharing your day with us! It's so cool to see! As for your lines being jagged on the Wacom, have you ever looked into the SmudgeGuard glove at www.SmudgeGuard.com? Alot of my colleagues (who own cintiqs) actually use this glove and rave about it. Anyways, thanks for a very entertaining post!

[denny azriman]

Wow cool!
Hi scot, i am working for borneo bulletin in brunei and every saturdays i'll be the one who crop your cartoons (and others fm unitedmedia) for our sunday paper. so this is how you do the cartoon.
Im also a cartoonist but can only afford a wacom graphire, but hey, just incase you'll want to buy a new cintiq, just sell me the one you're using now ok? hehe...

[Sarah :)]

COULD YOU GIVE ME IDEAS ON HOW TO GET MY COMIC IN THE NEWSPAPER? I HAVE ALREADY SENT IN FOR A COPYRIGHT. SHOULD I WAIT FOR A TRADEMARK? DO I NEED ANY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS (I.E. CLASSES, DEGREES OR AGE?) ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD HELP. THANK- YOU

[R.J.]

Thanks This really helped me with my project!!

[james]

hey nice...
this thing helps me to
do my project..

tnx

[abdulkarim]

the information is really very useful dear. thanks for sharing.

[adriana tenca]

Hi,
I have a cat just like yours! Seems like the same cat. I found him in the roof 11 years ago, here in Brazil and gave to my sister. He is very fat and exactly like Sarah.
: )

[pantsofdeath]

Wacom 21UX .... droool..

[Leonidas]

A really good post! Thanks

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[Sarah Sharpe]

You don't need a cat to be a syndicated cartoonist! You can bat your own pencils around.

BTW, I highly approve of Sarah's name, and it simply proves what I've been trying to tell people all along - smart people tend towards being vegetarian and owning cats.

No, I'm not vegetarian. I just thought I'd toss that out there for those who are.

[Beebee]

Cool... who would of thought fluro bleached office workers would be such a hit ... Oh, wait of course - that's what most of the working world IS!

Hat's off to you.

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[DAVE O'CONNELL]

VERY COOL... WHO DO YOU GIVE CREDIT TO FOR ALL YOUR SUCCESS?

[Shri]

Everything alright! But who has been following you all day?! I am talking about photographs :)

[Paul]

Hi Scott,
For goodness sake, dump the diet soda. Most, if not all, prepared beverages contain a preservative called sodium
benzoate, which converts to benzene after it is digested.
Benzene is a known carcinogen. Most of the artificial sweeteners in soft drinks are also known to have side effects and may be cancer causing as well. Must be something else you can drink that tastes good with a banana! Paul