Comment on FontForge for Comic Fonts: Variant Double Letters by eishiya
Thank you for this! Really appreciate the time and effort you put into this tutorial, it's great for newcomers to comics like myself! 
If you're a newcomer, you probably shouldn't bother with crazy things like making a fancy font for yourself, there are much more important things to focus on. If you're going to make a font, stick to a simple one at first, since adding variants is quite time-consuming, and you can always add them later.
However, I think making a font for one's comic is a great way to ensure the lettering matches the art and tone of the story, so I hope this'll come in handy in the future!
However, I think making a font for one's comic is a great way to ensure the lettering matches the art and tone of the story, so I hope this'll come in handy in the future!
I will be sure to reference this in the future than. I'm sure it'll come in handy! I noticed your webcomic Black Dram - it's lovely by the way, I love the dark and gloomy feel of it! If it isn't too much trouble, I was wondering if you can tell me how you sketch your web-comics; do you storyboard first for each scene or do you just draw based on the script? I'm still trying to draw the first act out of my web-comic and keep getting caught on the making the scenes just right.
I noticed your webcomic Black Dram - it's lovely by the way, I love the dark and gloomy feel of it! If it isn't too much trouble, I was wondering if you can tell me how you sketch your web-comics; do you storyboard first for each scene or do you just draw based on the script? I'm still trying to draw the first act out of my web-comic and keep getting caught on the making the scenes just right. I thumbnail each chapter before I draw it. Sometimes I have multiple chapters thumbnailed ahead. Thumbnails are tiny sketch versions, sort of like storyboards except they're laid out like comic pages, the main purpose is to determine the flow of each page and the pacing of the shots/scenes. If I am writing the comic by myself, I don't write the script until I'm thumbnailing, and do the two together. That way I know the script makes for good visuals. Scripting ahead of time is necessary when working with someone else (which was the case for Black Dram), but I never do it for my own projects.
That is not to say I jump into the thumbnails with no planning, though! I write outlines before I script/thumbnail, and use those as my guide. I like having the entire story outlined before I do anything more. I think this is a good practice to get into, it keeps your story from meandering as you wonder where to go next, and it helps you cut out anything unnecessary. A lot of really long comics would be so much better if they were shorter, not because length is inherently bad (it's not), but because their length is the result of a whole lot of useless stuff in the story.
Getting each scene just right is always the hard part xP You have to know when it's good enough, webcomics don't give you a lot of time to try things since you've got a schedule. It's probably not a problem for the first chapter before you've launched, but it will be once you've started posting (unless you thumbnail the entire comic ahead of time ;D but that might be unreasonable for long stories). Having a good outline can help a lot though, if you lay out the most important scenes and what has to happen.
I wrote a wall of text a while back about how I pace my comics, perhaps it can help you organize your thoughts. It's concerned with story pacing, but it ties into thumbnailing, since your thumbnails are the first step into conveying the pacing visually. It has a couple of tips in there for making effective pages too. I hope it helps <3
One last tip, more on the visuals themselves: Variety is the spice of life, and of comic pages. If you have panels on a page that look similar, or have identical sizes, the page will feel static and boring. Sometimes that's desirable, but when it's not, add variation! Vary your angles (remember, you can move the "camera" up and down too, not just side to side), vary your zoom levels (this one is commonly stated as "vary your head sizes" xP), have panels dealing with actions and reactions, but not always both for each action.
That is not to say I jump into the thumbnails with no planning, though! I write outlines before I script/thumbnail, and use those as my guide. I like having the entire story outlined before I do anything more. I think this is a good practice to get into, it keeps your story from meandering as you wonder where to go next, and it helps you cut out anything unnecessary. A lot of really long comics would be so much better if they were shorter, not because length is inherently bad (it's not), but because their length is the result of a whole lot of useless stuff in the story.
Getting each scene just right is always the hard part xP You have to know when it's good enough, webcomics don't give you a lot of time to try things since you've got a schedule. It's probably not a problem for the first chapter before you've launched, but it will be once you've started posting (unless you thumbnail the entire comic ahead of time ;D but that might be unreasonable for long stories). Having a good outline can help a lot though, if you lay out the most important scenes and what has to happen.
I wrote a wall of text a while back about how I pace my comics, perhaps it can help you organize your thoughts. It's concerned with story pacing, but it ties into thumbnailing, since your thumbnails are the first step into conveying the pacing visually. It has a couple of tips in there for making effective pages too. I hope it helps <3
One last tip, more on the visuals themselves: Variety is the spice of life, and of comic pages. If you have panels on a page that look similar, or have identical sizes, the page will feel static and boring. Sometimes that's desirable, but when it's not, add variation! Vary your angles (remember, you can move the "camera" up and down too, not just side to side), vary your zoom levels (this one is commonly stated as "vary your head sizes" xP), have panels dealing with actions and reactions, but not always both for each action.
Thank you so much your insight and tips eishiya. I really appreciate it, I'll keep these in mind as I go forth and create!!