Full sized comic

[WilliamHuntJr]

In your opinion what is the best size to post a full page comic. I'm looking to publish a new webcomic I already have a strip comic but I also want to do a full size one of another project I have. So help me Webcomics community thanks to a pay wall your my only hope.

[amanda]

Hm, the answer might partially depend on whether you plan to print or not.  If you're sticking with the online medium, I wouldn't go much wider than 700 pixels to ensure that the comic fits the width of most people's screen resolutions.  I personally keep mine at 648.  I don't pay any attention to the length/height of my image as I don't intend to ever print, but the average is probably 1000 pixels.

If you ultimately plan to print your comics, consider the size you're planning.  There's standard (a final product measuring 8x10.5 inches) or manga (a final product measuring 5x7.5 inches).  You might check out various printing sites (like kablam.com) to see what their technical specs are for printing so you can easily switch from online to print.

Hope it's helpful?

[Rob]

If you haven't bought How To Make Webcomics you can get it at Amazon for a little over Seven dollars plus shipping. It's worth it. If you are planning to print this hypothetical full size comic I encourage you to buy it and research carefully the assets presented within to make sure you are keeping the size where you need to to keep the printer happy. Because if you don't keep the printer happy; you will not be happen and there is all sorts of wacky crap you have to figure out for proper printing.

Now, all of that said. If you can't afford to spend anything right now and you want to just wing it the two best full size comics I can think of that I know for sure are printed regularly in graphic novel size book are "Looking for Group" and "FreakAngels" (they are also both excellent comics should you care to partake).

http://www.lfgcomic.com/

http://www.freakangels.com/

If you wanted to you could simply right click and save the "image" of one of those comics and use it as a template for your comic size. Keep in mind you can; and from what I hear from the brush tip discussion going on should draw at a much larger size and shrink it down to the size you find those pages to be.

Freakangels appears to be 750X1139 and Looking for Group appears to be 700X1000. Bear in mind that whatever size you choose must also blend well with the website design so it's fairly important that whatever size you choose fits on your home page.

Good luck. 

[WilliamHuntJr]

My question now is what size do I begin the actual page at do I set my new file at the 11x17 like I do when I ink my traditional comic books or at a smaller size. I'm working in a vector program so not woried about pixelization.

[KidGalactus]

"My question now is what size do I begin the actual page at do I set my new file at the 11x17 like I do when I ink my traditional comic books or at a smaller size. I'm working in a vector program so not woried about pixelization."

Typically the bigger you work, the better result you're going to get once you reduce the thing down. Reduction's going to hide a lot if inaccuracies in your art. Just make sure you're scaling the whole thing in proportion when you're sizing it down.

A finished standard comic is about 6.75x10.25

[WilliamHuntJr]

Ok I know all about making traditional comics Ive been doing it a long time, I want to know about the set up size for a full page web comic as in when i choose new what size would be best to choose to do my page set up

[NoahRodenbeek]

The best example of a fullpage webcomic is at http://jonnycrossbones.com .  Les McClaine makes fullpage, 3 row comics, then posts them one row at a time.  He later compiles them as they fall into the archive.  So when you're reading a new post it will be a regular, 3 panel webcomic, but when you start reading the archive you're seeing the full page effect.  It's a very good system.  And an extremely good comic.

[zieglarf]

William, I hand draw my strip at 13"x4" - if I were to switch to digital I would use the same exact dimensions (set at 300 DPI for color - 600 DPI for B/W linework).

You should be able to do the same. Whatever you would draw it at physically - draw it at digitally. Of course no DPI problems for you though. Then reduce the final to your websize.

[WilliamHuntJr]

William, I hand draw my strip at 13"x4" - if I were to switch to digital I would use the same exact dimensions (set at 300 DPI for color - 600 DPI for B/W linework).

You should be able to do the same. Whatever you would draw it at physically - draw it at digitally. Of course no DPI problems for you though. Then reduce the final to your websize.

Thank you sir I traditionally draw at 11x17 then break down from there, this web stuff is different but a blast.

[Yamino]

I know I'm a bit late to the conversation, but as a "graphic novel" style comic artist (as opposed to strip format) my final pages are exactly 600x900 pixels.  The originals are at 300 dpi... I'm not sure off the top of my head the exact size they start off at. I think 10x12 inches.

[zieglarf]

I made a document at 600x900/300dpi in Photoshop. Then I checked the image size - 2"x3". I wouldn't expect that to print very well at 10"x12".

It just seems off to me.

[Yamino]

Sorry, I explained badly. I meant to say that I start with a 10x15 inch canvas at 300 dpi, then I scale it down to 600x900 pixels when the art is completely finished.

[Miluette]

Regarding the web size of webcomics, I tend to like reading comics that aren't much wider than 900px -- and that's strip-style comics. Sometimes reading graphic novel-style webcomics that are incredibly long and tall is awkward and takes longer than it should, and I shy away from those. 600px is a good width for a GN comic. I keep both my comics full-web-sized no wider than 500px. Both my comics are originally done at ridiculously large filesizes that kill my old, old PC while working on them.