Create Your Own Comic Book

Comic books are accessible for everyone of all backgrounds and your comic book can be whatever you make of it.

Comic books tell a variety of stories in multiple genres, from the daily life of a lasagna loving cat to superheroes battling villains to save the world, from space pirates exploring the cosmos for intergalactic treasure to spiritual samurai protecting humanity from an unseen entity, there’s a variety to suit almost everyone’s taste.

We have created a range of Comic Book Panel Pages for you to get started. All you need to do is print them off at home or school. Your story, characters, location and design are completely up to you. It can be as long or as short as you prefer, from a single page to a 20-page comic. If however, you’re feeling a little lost, we have a few helpful steps to get you on your way to creating a comic.

1. Write Out A Short Story.

If you have an idea for a story, why not write it down so you can get all your thoughts out. It will also give you a pause to think about how you want the character to look, the location of where the story is set, the mood or atmosphere you’re trying to communicate, the importance of a character or object within the story, etc. By writing it down you’re giving it a lot of thought, which will make creating your comic easier and better.

2. When/Where Is Your Story Set?

This links in with the 1^st point quite heavily but is a key question to point out. Is it set in the present – will the buildings, cars and fashion be relatable? Is it set in the future with advanced technology and flying cars? Or is it set in the past with castles and huts. The when and where of your story can help fuel ideas for your comics like the genre, the narrative, the character designs or the atmosphere.

3. Sketch Out Your Designs.

Now that you’ve given some thought to the setting, characters, locations, etc., it’s time to think about how they look. Is a castle the home of a wealthy king or has it been abandoned for countless years? If it’s home to a wealthy king, should the castle look glorious and ‘shiny’? If it’s been abandoned for many years, are parts of it falling down with bats taking roost in the rooftops? Sketch out the designs on spare sheets of paper and keep them handy for when you start creating your comic.

4. Think About Your Panels.

With your characters and locations sketched, think about how you can use the panels to convey the story. The pages can be used in any order to tell the story you’ve created. There are a lot of videos and tutorials available online which can help you on how to display a scene within a panel. For example, if there is a huge difference in size between characters, how can you show that most effectively? This type of thinking may require you to do a few sketches to get it right, but the final outcome will be worth it. On a spare sheet of paper, sketch out a copy of the panel you want to draw the image in and see how it fits.

After following the above tips, you’re ready to start creating your own comic book!

Remember, a comic book can follow whatever style you choose. It also doesn’t have to be in colour if you prefer working in black and white. Japanese comics called ‘Manga’ are almost entirely in black and white with a colourful front cover.

Character Creation

You may have a character in mind already for the story you want to create, but if not don’t worry, we have the perfect idea-generating solution.

The Character Creator sheet gives a variety of options and starting points for you to work from. For really creative and interesting results we recommend cutting out all the character types on the sheet, placing them upside down and giving them all a shuffle. Now that they’re shuffled, pick up at least two (maximum of three) of the cut out character types and combine them into a single character. For example, you may have picked up ‘Robot’ and ‘Wizard’, so create a robot wizard as your character. How they look is completely up to you, you can have them look more like one than the other or a combination of both.

It’s not just the design of the characters you can create. As you now have a unique character, why not give them a back story. Now, this doesn’t have to be made into a comic, you could write a short story. The benefit of writing a short story means you have more material you can use within your comic and can expand on. The options are limitless!