The art of comic-making

How exactly do you go about making a comic? It's all too easy to daydream about creating the next twenty-five-year running supercomic that gets quoted, mis-quoted, aww-ed about and included as the last slide of an otherwise serious Powerpoint presentation. Incidentally, there are limits to that last one; a ragecomic about India's football team at the end of an analysis of the Brazilian economy doesn't quite cut it.

Anyway, comics. The trouble with creating one is that you require two rather distinct skills - you need to be able to draw as well as write. On the sunny side, you don't have to be exceptional at either. If you're the next Michelangelo or Picasso - actually, scratch that. Picasso would've made a pretty sad comic artist. I can picture it now: "That's either a speech bubble or a human lung" "Why does everyone look so miserable?" - um, where was I? Let's just start that sentence again, shall we? 

If you're the next Michelangelo, you don't need to be an amazing writer, because people will read your comic for the stunning art. If you can churn out punchlines like there's no tomorrow, your artwork can be mostly stick-figures. But most successful comic-makers fall somewhere in between, where they have to be at least decent at both. 

For my part, while I can write quasi-sensical rants like this one, I can't draw a straight line that looks like one. Getting past this impediment was my first concern. So I taught myself to use vector graphics software which makes drawing shapes easier. You can find a few good vector editors here: Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, and the freeware program, Inkscape. While comic purists may scoff at the idea of art that is completely computer-generated, using software to draw is simply the most painless way to start if you didn't dedicate your childhood to crayons and paper.

But the real quality, the factor that decides whether you'll make it or not, is perseverance. There's a lot of work that goes into crafting a story in four panels and the amount of work you've put into it shows - in how the dialogue fits together to tell a coherent tale, in how detailed your background art is, even in how your characters emerge as distinct individuals over time. The first ever comic you make is likely not to have the impact you expected. The important bit is to continue telling the story because it's a story you want to tell, not because you want to entertain people.

Whew! With that out of the way, here's my next main character:

The story so far

You know that dream you've always had? No, not the one with the schizophrenic monkey and the spaceship made of chocolate fudge. If you're having that one on a regular basis, you may want to cut down on the late night ice-cream and Battlestar Galactica. You're on your own with the monkey.

But that's not the point. I'm talking about those little moments of inspiration that give you the desire to accomplish something. Like that time you saw a flag being planted on a mountain and decided you wanted to scale one too. Or being moved by the story of a man's sacrifice to the extent of wanting to follow in his footsteps¹. 

Yet life has a way of stopping you from living. Those once-cherished dreams become memories, and memories fade into regrets. That's how it's always been - for everyone, but in particular, the Indian b-school student who takes his career too seriously to pursue his moment of temporary insanity.

So when Godrej Industries Limited turned up on our campus to announce the launch of LOUD, a competition that actively encouraged us to follow our lost dreams, I was suitably sceptical. But after the proverbial roller-coaster ride that involved a month of threats and pleading to get people to express their adoration of my entry on Facebook (which ultimately fell short of Wildcard status by a 'Like' or seven hundred) and an unforgettable trip to the Godrej HQ in Mumbai (a great place to work by the way - not kidding), here I am, minus the scepticism, my dream of creating a comic strip more alive than ever.

So that's what this is about? Took your time, didn’t you?

Yep. I'm making a comic. For the millions of you (give or take a few million) waiting with bated breath, this is where I'll post updates, character sketches, background stories and trivia. 

To start with, ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack:

Stay tuned for more!

1: I didn’t make this one up. My friend Nikhil Mundra’s dream (or a part of it) is to follow the path Gandhi did in the Dandi March.