Perennial Resources

[whitecomics]

What are some resources that are helpful to you in making comics or zines? Maybe things a little under the radar or that you find yourself having to dig for once every few years. I'll start with something that I was thinking about the other day, as I was working in CMYK for a book -- the Reproguide by Ron Rege, Brian Ralph, Jordan Crane...and David Choe? Who interviews Cometbus about xerox art??



ia801203.us.archive.org/18/items/reproguide/reproguide.pdf


Anyway, a significant portion of what I know about print is from the Jordan Crane section, and it's shocking how much of that hasn't aged (work in 600dpi tiffs, higher if possible for b&w art, etc). The whole thing is great, filled with specific, useful tips.

[timbecile]

Books I use when I'm coloring:
The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations and The Designer's Guide to Global Color Combinations by Leslie Cabarga
An Eye for Color by Olga Gutierrez De La Roza
A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 1 and 2, not sure of author, published by Seigensha
Pattern and Palette Sourcebook, compiled by Anvil Graphic Design, Inc.
All these books have tiny swatches of colors and list their CMYK formulas, so you can sort of see what a color looks like before it prints.

[k0rnbr34d]

I once reached out to Jim Woodring on Twitter about nib pen resources and he was kind enough to recommend some Guptill books, specifically Rendering in Pen and Ink, which has a ton of useful stuff in it including exercises.

Similarly, I once complained on Twitter about wanting a clear explanation about scanning and prepping art for print, and Adam Buttrick sent me this blog post from Dustin Harbin, which he says is still the method he uses today. There are other posts on his blog related to comic making that I'll link here too if I can find them.

Tools
Scanning

(I was only able to find two.)

I also picked up this book last year made a local Riso shop in Taipei. I think it's probably impossible to find outside of the small bookstores here that carry it, but I'm sure other similar resources exist. It's just a huge reference for Riso color percentages and how they all look overlaid on one another so you can be precise when planning.

Another that has been hugely valuable for me is the archive of Inkstuds interviews. I can't believe how good these interviews are or how diverse the guests are. I love going back to these and picking up tips from my favorite creators.

This is a pdf I made of the scanning blog post to improve readability and save the info in case it got taken down in the future.
Scanning Method.pdf (72.38 KB)

[lew]

These are great, thanks! The scanning method stuff is good to know. had no idea bout bitmap's binary white/black deal, or if you put it into an indesign file, the white would be transparent. So handy.

[manoopuesta]

There is this new website halftonehospital.com/ that aims to be a repository of digital resources for making comics.

[jamescollier]

coldheatcomics.blogspot.com/2011/12/format-fever.html

Frank santoro list of commonly used formats

[whitecomics]

I've had a pretty good experience over the past several months teaching myself Scribus, which is a free alternative to InDesign. Pretty bare bones, but personally I don't need much in terms of layout so it does the job. Recommended.

[Ian M]

Nov 2, 2022 20:14:48 GMT whitecomics said:

I've had a pretty good experience over the past several months teaching myself Scribus, which is a free alternative to InDesign. Pretty bare bones, but personally I don't need much in terms of layout so it does the job. Recommended.

Have you looked at Infinity apps? Their InDesign app, Publisher, is a one time only payment of $30 or so, or is when on sale, which it will be for Black Friday.

They have Illustrator and Photoshop apps too, similar price. They're quite robust, but an incredibly reasonable price.

[manoopuesta]

Maybe not super useful in general, but I found this so cool: The Bootleg Nancypack halftonehospital.com/l/nancypack?layout=profile
One step closer to Joe Brainard! (One'd wish, haha)