georgen@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (G. Ng) (05/07/90)
A while back, on behalf of a friend, I asked for info. regarding comic
publishing programs for PCs and other computers. Sorry it's been so long,
because I had to go through two weeks of exams before I could have time to
summarize everything - a lot of responses I got too! Here the summary:
--START OF SUMMARY--
Comic publishing programs for IBM PCs, Macs, Amigas, Atari STs, etc:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM and Atari ST - I didn't receive any replies for those two systems.
There are painting/dp programs on both systems that should suffice for some
comic-type work. (Some that come to mind: IBM - Corel Draw, Deluxe Paint
II Enhanced, Adobe Illustrator, Pagemaker. Atari ST - Degas Elite,
Calamus, Pagestream, Touch-Up, Easy Draw.)
Amiga - ComicSetter (Gold Disk, P.O. Box 789, Mississauga, Ontario, L5M 2C2,
Canada, 1-800-387-8192 or 416-828-0913)
Mainly for full page comics but could possibly by adapted for comic
strips. Has lots of standard comic clip art. Balloons, BIF, BAM,
BONG "sound effects". Great fonts. Fairly easy to use. Has received
reasonably favourable to 'rave' reviews :-). (Some folks are/were using
this program for the power of the drawing tools alone.)
Other suitable programs include:
Deluxe Paint III, DigiPaint III, Photon Paint, ASDG's "The Art
Department" (supposedly one heck of a fantastic program!)
Mac - ComicWorks/GraphicWorks (Mindscape Inc; 3444 Dundee Road, Northbrook,
IL 60062 USA)
B/W page layout/paint program focusing more on the graphic element
rather than on the text. Comes with a variety of features,
Eg., standard MacPaint tools, transparent/opaque layers, excellent
airbrush, word balloons, etc. As mentioned before, it doesn't have
great text abilities, but it's probably not a full requirement with
graphic-oriented stuff like comics. For anyone that's able to draw,
this program is recommended. ComicWorks has recently been renamed to
GraphicWorks.
The Comic Strip Factory (Fondatio Publishing Inc; 6436 City West
Parkway, Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344 USA)
An 'assembly line' type of program rather than a 'factory'. Comes in
parts for 6 predrawn figures - heads, arms, legs, feet, faces, hands,
bodies, etc...in various poses too! You use the program to assemble
the body parts and put in the text that you want. You can also buy
other modules for this program that have new figures, eg.,
Office Days (adults) and Kids Stuff (children). Also possible to use
MacPaint to create own parts and use this progrma to layout the strip.
For someone that can't draw, this program is recommended.
Other suitable programs include:
Canvas 2.x (Deneba?) - a mixed draw/paint program with enough features
for this sort of work.
Comic books/strips being/that were published using computers:
------------------------------------------------------------
1) A comic book called SHATTER was produced using ComicWorks on the Mac by
Mike Saenz and Peter Gillis. Saenz also helped create the program. Shatter
was produced in B/W and coloured afterwards by the artist (by hand).
Published by First Comics as part of their Deluxe Series.
(SHATTER - c/o First Comics; 435 North Lasalle, Chicago, IL 60610)
The comic book is also available in electronic form from EDUCORP, a
distributor of Mac freeware/shareware. The collected Shatter stories are
available as the trade paperback 'Shatter' published by Ballantine Books
(ISBN 0-449-90288-9). The stories actually appeared as a series of
"Downloads" in the following publications:
Download 0001 originally appeared as Shatter Special #1,
(omitting 'Download' and 'originally appeared')
0002 as Jon Sable - freelance #25, 0003 as Jon Sable - freelance #26
0004 as Jon Sable - freelance #27, 0005 as Jon Sable - freelance #28
0006 as Jon Sable - freelance #29, 0007 as Jon Sable - freelance #30
0008 as Shatter #1, 0009 as Shatter #2, 0010 as Shatter #3, 0011 as Shatter #4
2) Iron Man: CRASH. Art and Story by Mike Saenz, published by Epic. This
graphic novel was produced entirely on Saenz' Mac II. The book contains an
Afterword describing the software he used (and had developed specifically for
the project) and the production methods used. Sorry no ISBN handy...
3) Digital Justice. To be published by DC Comics in April 1990. Artwork
will be created entirely on computers. (Should be out by now...I haven't
seen it myself though.)
Also, INFO magazine, an Amiga-oriented publication, is produced entirely using
Amiga computers.
Other comments, recommendations, suggestions, etc:
-------------------------------------------------
If anyone plans to hand draw the original art and then digitize it in with a
scanner/digitizer and software, then touching it up with a drawing/paint
program would be recommended.
Some comic software that is available might be expensive, perhaps even
buggy and with not much support. It might be better for some to go the
art-scanner-paint-view programs produced by established companies while being
able to optimize each step of the process and it's software/hardware.
Again, most desktop publishing/painting packages could possibly be integrated
well enough that through this combination, a reasonable comic strip/book can
be produced without even purchasing a specialized comic book/strip program.
Stuff like Aldus Pagemaker (Mac/IBM), and Quark Express (Mac) that was
mentioned might also work for helping to produce comics.
--END OF SUMMARY--
On behalf of my friend and I, I'd like to thank all of those that took the
time to respond.
(Please forgive me if I forgot to mention your name - I received quite a number
of responses, and losing msgs. and news postings CAN occur on my uucp system
at home! (yuck, I know...))
jnh@eceugs.ncsu.edu, antunes@astro.psu.edu, dbuchtal@math.lsu.umich.edu,
atari!mn, jonc@uts.amdahl.com, hue@netcom.uucp, uncmed!rhunt, pnet01!oleg,
rick@qucdnee.ee.queensu.ca, m_herodotus@coors.dec.com,
susman@eniac.seas.upenn.edu, americ!erk, ichiro@enzyme.berkeley.edu, aoa!rich,
jsh@dlogics.com, rmb@cblph.att.com, kennedy%wwpacs@dupont.com, etc.......
There are some people who requested that I mail the full responses to them
also. Are you guys still interested in me sending the whole slew of them over
to you or is this summary good enough?
Hope this has been as helpful for those out there as it has been for my friend
and I. Thanks again to all those that responded.
--
George Ng (Univ. of Toronto, Comp Sci) |"Sure, I would like Canadian
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