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In my last comic, which was my first comic–ever, I described how to create a comic in Flash.

I’m using a cheap Wacom tablet and an older version of Flash.

Flash instantly converts everything that is drawn into vectors and straightens the lines up. It has a pressure sensitive setting, and allows a large opening to be filled by setting it to consider larger openings as closed.

In my first comic, I spent a couple of hours scribbling and creating a couple of characters from scratch, while I was learning the settings and how to draw with Flash.

My characters, Captain & Corky didn’t start as a plan. They evolved as I was learning to use Flash over those couple of hours.

I thought I would create another installment to this new born comic strip.

It didn’t take two hours this time. It only took ten minutes!

That’s right, just ten minutes from start to finish. Nothing pre-drawn, inserted, or loaded.

I’m positive, that one could develop a library of expressions and poses that would allow you to create a completed comic in two or three minutes. It would take that long because you would have to insert the text.

Anyway, here is my second installment to Captain & Corky, all ten minutes of it.

Here’s my quick description of how to create comics using flash: Click Here

In a nutshell:

Create a new blank document.
Select the paint brush.
Select the second smallest size.
Click the pressure sensitivity.
Loosely draw the character.
Select the fill tool and the color.
Set it for large openings.
Fill the areas.
Select the Oval tool.
Create the balloons for the text.
Drag and size everything to fit the strip

It’s that easy.

Regards.

So, I’m driving home from work listening to NPR on the radio, and there is a committee fighting it out over the difference in the punishment in the courts for distributing crack cocaine as opposed to powder cocaine.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

They were arguing that it was actually a racial thing!

Opponents wanted to reduce the punishment for crack cocaine because it carries a 100 to 1 longer sentence than powder cocaine. They claimed it was a racial imbalance against blacks and latinos.

First of all, what does that say about blacks and latinos? What a horrible way to argue a case, by pointing out any groups persistent abuses as a reason for it to be racial.

I say they raise the punishment for powder cocaine to be equal to that of crack.

You wouldn’t reduce the laws for speeding because all 18 year-olds speed more, would you?

Certainly not.

I can’t believe our congress could be so stupid . . . er, well . . . I guess I should have expected this kind of argument.

Regards.

President Bush contemplates his next move with the democrats.

I’m a republican. But I have to admit, the sudden swing of working together sure smacks of politics.

Can’t we stand for what we stand for, regardless of the current winds?

By the way, the above comic was created in Flash. See my previous article on how this is done.

Regards.

The other day I was reading an online comic and I clicked through to the creator’s site. There he had a really nice tutorial on how he makes his comics.

Basically, he does it all by hand and scans it into his computer.

Now, if you have ever tried to draw on your computer with a mouse, you know it can be a bit of a challenge– Even if you can draw well. Getting straight lines that aren’t squiggly can be tough.

I’m privileged enough to have several really nice graphic programs and a Wacom™ drawing pad. It makes it a great deal easier, but jagged lines are still a problem. You end up with as much cleaning to do as you do drawing.

After reading the comic drawing tutorial, I tried several different graphics programs without the kind of easy solution I was hoping to find.

I’ve had an older version of flash on my computer for several years, and never really used it. I just never had the time or inclination to learn it. But I knew it was based on vector drawing.

After playing around with the pressure settings in Photoshop™ for a while, I opened Flash™ and drew a few scribbles. Voilà! It automatically smoothed the jagged lines I was drawing, and created the kind of lines we are used to seeing in comic strips.

I can draw a little, but I’m no artist. Flash™ made everything I was drawing look better.

So, I scribbled down a little character. He just kind of evolved as I was drawing him. I drew him 3 or 4 times, as I was getting used to how drawing works in Flash™.

Here’s the result of just a couple of hours from scratch with no preexisting character, per se:

So, here is the first comic I have ever made:

Here’s how it’s done:

When you select the paint brush–remember everything is vectored–go to the bottom and select the round brush shape. Then, just above that, select the second or third size. You can play with the size you want. Then, the magic for creating a comic happens by selecting the pressure setting icon at the very bottom.

For this to work, you need a drawing tablet. I am using one of the $100.00 cheap Wacom™ tablets. So it’s nothing special. But it is pressure sensitive.

Now, everything you draw has the “serifed” look that we are used to seeing in comics.

Also, it worked wonderfully with the slanted brush for calligraphy.

Anyway, I just drew my character rather loosely. I didn’t really try to connect every line with precision–but the closer they are to closed, the better when you color the image.

Then, to color it, select the fill icon and select the color you want.

Now, to magically fill all the loosely drawn shapes and keep the color where you want it, at the bottom select the icon to ‘close wide gaps’. That keeps the color in the place you want it, even if the shape isn’t quite closed.

There you have it. It is that simple.

Have fun.

Oh, by the way, I’m thinking of starting a comic site now. It isn’t up as of this writing, but it will be called comic.currenttoday.com

Bluehost.com let’s me have 20 subdomains for the same $6.95. If you’re interested in the best host I’ve ever used click one of my Bluehost.com links on the side of the page or above this article.

Regards.