Comics 101

As all Cloudscape members know, creating comics can be incredibly complicated and it is frequently difficult to know what steps need to be taken. This page features a wide variety of resources to help aspiring artists in all stages of the comic making process. The resources include various tutorials developed by Cloudscape members, information on various books and websites that can be consulted for further assistance, and various companies that are eager to look at material from new writers and artists.

Don’t forget to check out Comic Chunk, a comic about how to draw comics!

TutorialsLocal EventsSubmissionsLocal GroupsOnline ResourcesComic News

This is where tutorials written by Cloudscape members can be found! They cover many aspects of writing/drawing comics.

Cloudshops: Now on Youtube!

Since 2017 Cloudscape has been running free workshops for creators looking to learn more about comics and the comics-making process. In an effort to make our Cloudshops more widely accessible, we've begun recording them. The first recorded Cloudshop is now up on our youtube page! Join Jonathon Dalton as he walks us through strategies and tips for completing a long comic without getting burnt out. You can find the video here. ...
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Crafting Characters

By Evan Waterman To see more tutorials about making comics, check out Cloudscape’s Comics 101 page. Han Solo, Sansa Stark, Forrest Gump… Everyone has their favourite characters. Characters are the lifeblood of your story. Without strong, likable characters there is very little chance your readers will be interested in your comic. That is not an exaggeration. I truly believe that this is the single most important step when writing your story. If I had to choose just one thing to ...
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How To Format A Comic Script

By Evan Waterman To see more tutorials about making comics, check out Cloudscape’s Comics 101 page. There are many different ways to format a comic script. They can be very tightly worded, describing the details of every panel, or they can be loose, only giving a vague overview of each page (aka the Marvel Method). The approach you take largely depends on whether or not your writing a script for a publisher, as well as if you're scripting for another ...
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Things I Learned from Wyrmwood High

With the Kickstarter well under way for Kathleen Gros' new book, she posted a comic today about some of the work Last Night at Wyrmwood High has gone through in going from web to print. The topic is lettering, so if you letter, take a look at Kathleen's advice on lettering ...
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A Comic Page from Start to Finish

by Jeff Ellis Here is a breakdown of my process for creating a page for my webcomic. I am also using Adobe Contribute to make this post, so I can hopefully learn something at the same time you do. Teach English In Japan is a collaborative effort between myself and my friend Jonathon Dalton. We’d both been abroad to teach English for a time; Jonathon was stationed in Taiwan and I was in Japan. For this comic, we are trying to combine ...
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How to Create Comics in Four Easy Lessons

For the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Family Fuse, Mara Coman and Chris Eberle developed a series of booklets that guide the fledgling cartoonist the four steps of comic creation using numerous examples from the works of various Cloudscape creators. The booklets proved incredibly popular and so we have placed them here on our website for all to use. Step 1: Creating the Story What it means to write a great comic story. Step 2: Designing the Characters The ins and outs ...
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A Short Guide to the Care and Production of Mini-Comics

by Colin Upton ...
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Quick Tips on Background Staging

Over at cartoonSNAP, Sherm Cohen has a bunch of stuff about story boarding and cartooning. I personally have his Character Design book to use while teaching my 6-12 year old students to break out of some of their drawing habits. His tutorials are, by no means, a replacement for some good, hard education in animation and drawing, but some of the tips work nicely for the comic artist just starting out. We all have to be reminded from time ...
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An Introduction to Graphic Novels: Character Design

by Anise Shaw July 20th, 2011 Part One | Part Two | Part Three These lessons are intended for beginners, those just trying their hand at comics for the first time and feeling overwhelmed. Feel free to discuss more advanced concepts in the comments! Lesson 3: Character Design Old Woman, character design. Storytelling is comprised of three main elements: a setting, a plot and some characters. In this lesson we will go over a working methodology for creating compelling ...
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An Introduction to Graphic Novels: Basic Cinematography and Perspective

by Anise Shaw July 13th, 2011 Part One | Part Two | Part Three These lessons are intended for beginners, those just trying their hand at comics for the first time and feeling overwhelmed. Feel free to discuss more advanced concepts in the comments! Lesson 2: Basic Cinematography and Perspective Now that we have practiced going from panel to panel, now it’s time to focus on what will go in those panels. Let’s think of our panel as the frame ...
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An Introduction to Graphic Novels: Sequences

by Anise Shaw July 6th, 2011 Part One | Part Two | Part Three These lessons are intended for beginners, those just trying their hand at comics for the first time and feeling overwhelmed. Feel free to discuss more advanced concepts in the comments! Recently I was asked to teach an adult graphic novels class at Bonsor Community Centre in Burnaby. I jumped on the opportunity to work with an adult group, something that I don’t always get to do ...
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Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

by Bevan Thomas June 25th, 2011 “Where do you get your ideas?” is a question so common that it has become a cliche, the thing the creators supposedly least like to be asked. All works of art, indeed all human creations, develop from ideas, but each person finds ideas in their own separate ways. What may be a font of inspiration for one person may be a dry ditch for another. That said, there are a few generally reliable sources: ...
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FESTIVALS

CONVENTIONS

ART EVENTS

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Jason Thibault has created a fantastic list of the guidelines and submission processes for major and minor comic publishing houses.

OTHER LOCAL PUBLISHERS

EDUCATION

VANARTS offers a 12-week program taught by local comic legend Steve Rolston, which takes you through creating a comic from start to finish.

LANGARA now has a Continuing Studies Program focusing on comics, and taught by several of our very own Cloudscape Members.

CAMOSUN COLLEGE offers a one-year certificate course in creating comics, the only one of its kind in Canada, located in beautiful Victoria, BC.

ARTIST GROUPS

The OKANAGAN COMIC ARTS ASSOCIATION is dedicated to promoting comics creativity, community and education across the Okanagan Valley.

This VANCOUVER MEET-UP group makes B Movies for fun, and for television. They welcome anyone with an interest in any area of film and television production.

THE GRIND WRITERS is a writing group that usually meets at The Grind & Gallery on Main Street. Check out their blog for meeting schedules.

COMIC SHOPS

THE COMICSHOP
Vancouver

RX COMICS
Vancouver

METROPOLIS
COMICS & TOYS
Burnaby

LUCKY’S
Vancouver

GOLDEN AGE
COLLECTIBLES
Vancouver

GOTHAM
COLLECTIBLES
Vancouver

TAZMANIAN
COMICS
Vancouver

BIG PETE’S
COLLECTIBLES
North Vancouver

ART STORES

OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST

SUPPORTIVE ORGANIZATIONS

REFERENCE

ANATOMY REFERENCES FOR ARTISTS – a Pinterest page collecting large amounts of reference images of HUMAN ANATOMY
ANATOMICAL REFERENCE FOR THE ARTIST – a Tumblr page containing many images of examples of HUMAN ANATOMY
360 HUMAN SCANS – a reference dump of 360 degree 3D scans of various body types

INSPIRATION

INSPIRATION GRID – an online collection of design, art, illustration, typography, photography, architecture, fashion and more.
ARTISTS INSPIRE ARTISTS – another collection of top-notch art to inspire.
ART PROMPTS – a prompt generator made just for artists.
50 WATTS – an extensive gallery of bizarre book covers and designs from all corners of the globe. A bizarre selection of intense imagery.
SHOW ME YOUR BOOTHS – a flickr account of booths made for craft fairs, conventions, festivals, etc, and can be a great source of inspiration for designing your own booth.
EPHEMERAL STUDIES – a wide variety of strange and striking images.

HELP AND ADVICE