7 Best Comic Book Creation Courses For Beginners in 2024
Who created the first comic ever?
Rodolphe Töpffer, a Swiss artist, is credited with creating the first multi-panel comic in 1827, followed a decade later by "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck," the first illustrated book. There were 40 pages in this book, each with several color panels and accompanying text beneath.
Why were comics invented?
At first, comic strips appeared exclusively in the Sunday supplements of American newspapers as a tool to draw readers to the Sunday editions of the local papers (Halegua, Online). The comic strips initially originated from the traditional cartoon.
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Top Comic Book Creation Tutorials, Courses Certifications List
- Learn Digital Color with Photoshop
- How to Make a Comic Book (Project-Centered Course)
- Character Art School: Complete Coloring and Painting Course
- Penciling a Comic Book Page Online Class
- A Pro's Guide to Digital Comic Book Coloring
- Drawing Good and Evil Comic Book Characters Online Class
- Creating Comics and Graphic Novels
Best Comic Book Creation Courses List - Create Comic Strips Online
1. Learn Digital Color with Photoshop
Learn coloring from a professional colorist.
Interested in learning how to color comic books and discovering the secrets, tips, and tricks that can help you turn coloring comics into a hobby, a part-time job, or even a career? Then this course is for you.
In this comic creation course, you will:
- Set up line art for coloring.
- Pick colors that work well.
- Flat pages quickly and easily.
- Render light and shadow with several different techniques.
- Change the color of line art.
- Add special effects and textures.
- Build a solid portfolio.
Colorists are the cinematographers of the comic book world. This course will teach you how to set up your tools, flatten, render, and apply special effects to comic books using Photoshop. You will leave this course knowing how to use Photoshop to create stunning colored comic book pages, manga, webcomics, and comic strips.
- Course rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 (789 Ratings total)
- Duration: 3 Hours 34 Minutes
- Certificate: Certificate on completion
- View Course
2. How to Make a Comic Book (Project-Centered Course)
Offered by High Tech High Graduate School of Education.
This project-centered course will let students create an original four-page minicomic designed with a short story of their own choice. Things you will require for this course are at least 13 years of age and a passion for comic book creation. The course is designed for all-age learners, including high school and above.
Topics in this comic book creation course include:
- Course Overview & Finding Your Great Idea
- Writing Your Comic Script
- Thumbnails
- Penciling & Lettering
- Inking
- Putting Your Comic Together & Course Wrap-up
Since you can create comic books with any kind of materials, this course recommends that learners have the essential materials available to complete this project: at least one ream of 8.5x11 copy paper, #2 pencils and eraser, Sharpie-type fine point pens, a ruler with inch measurements, and an adjustable binding stapler.
- Course rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 (51,872 total enrollments)
- Duration: 16 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate on completion
- View Course
3. Character Art School: Complete Coloring and Painting Course
The Best Way to Learn to Color and Paint Professional Characters for Animation, Games, Comics, Manga, and More.
This course will help students become proficient at coloring and illustrating professional characters. It will help you learn all the core fundamentals and cutting-edge techniques in coloring and painting characters nicely. The course will take your existing ability to a professional level, whether you're a complete novice or already have some experience.
In this comic book creation, you will learn:
- How to paint characters from Beginner to Advanced.
- How to color characters using multiple techniques.
- How to color Comic Book Characters.
- How to color Manga.
- How to color Anime.
- How to paint digitally and use that theory with traditional tools.
The course is a five-module guided video course in which your only limit to progress is your willingness to work hard and engage in the rewarding assignments. This course will teach you how to color and paint character concept art for films and games, pictures, comics, manga, Disney style, and other genres.
- Course rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 (5,251 Ratings total)
- Duration: 19 Hours 33 Minutes
- Certificate: Certificate on completion
- View Course
4. Penciling a Comic Book Page Online Class
Get a look inside the penciling process of a comic creator, as he goes from script to fully illustrated page.
The most important element of creating comics, graphic novels, and manga is penciling. The course will provide insight into the penciling process as the comic creator goes from script to fully illustrated page. Additionally, you will learn how to pull key actions into panels and edit out what you don't need to tell the story.
Topics in this comic book creation course include:
- Starting with the Script
- Panel Development
- Laying Out Pages
- Penciling a Comic Page: Start to Finish
Following the selection of your panels, this course provides instruction on how to show them, exploring camera angles, poses, and why certain things work. Finally, the panels are placed on the page and examined collectively.
- Course rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (6,650 total enrollments)
- Duration: 1 Hour
- Certificate: Certificate on completion
- View Course
5. A Pro's Guide to Digital Comic Book Coloring
Learn the entire process from start to finish in Photoshop. Coloring is so much more than just staying inside the lines.
Coloring can be a relaxing hobby, a part-time side gig, or even a full-time job. It all depends on how hard you work. This course will walk you through the whole coloring process in Photoshop, from layer setup to special effects and post-coloring printing preparation.
In this comic book creation, you will:
- Learn everything from the very basics of layering to finishing pages with special effects.
- Learn how to apply color theory to comic art.
- Learn about plane separation, strategic rendering, and the importance of value and contrast in your pages as you master the art of storytelling.
- Learn how to apply color to line art in a variety of approaches, including the standard lasso "cut and grad" style and more.
- Find out which layer modes are appropriate for certain effects.
- Learn how to develop a portfolio, acquire employment as a colorist, and collaborate with other artists.
- Save time using a variety of time-saving tips, methods, and shortcuts for working in the comic art industry.
- Become confident in your coloring abilities and have a solid understanding of what color in comics really is.
- Understand how pro colorists think about color in comics and sequential art.
The course begins with the fundamentals. Like setting up your workspace and installing brush and tool defaults, so you don't have to meddle with them. Photoshop CS6 or above is required to use the presets. Following that, you'll discover how to set up your line art and layers.
- Course rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (619 Ratings total)
- Duration: 6 Hours 11 Minutes
- Certificate: Certificate on completion
- View Course
6. Drawing Good and Evil Comic Book Characters Online Class
Learn how to draw comic book characters—villains and superheroes alike—in these simple drawing tutorials.
This course will help you learn how to create comic book characters with distinct personalities using simple drawing tutorials from a comic creator. First, we will start with a basic sketch of your character and create a profile that describes the person behind the drawing, including who they are, where they came from, and how they acquired their abilities.
Topics in this comic book creation course include:
- Getting Started
- Thinking Out Loud
- Creating the Face
- Developing Body Types
- Dressing for Success
- Finishing Touches
- Finalizing the Characters
The course then demonstrates how to incorporate those elements into the character's facial features, including the eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as identifying marks like wrinkles, scars, and tattoos.
- Course rating: 40,172 total enrollments
- Duration: 2 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate on completion
- View Course
7. Creating Comics and Graphic Novels
Bring your stories to life in your very own graphic novel.
This course will teach you the fundamentals of creating a graphic novel or comic, including planning, camera, color, panel composition, and more. Software required: Photoshop CC. This course is designed for artists who want to learn how to make comics and convey stories with sequential art in a quick and efficient manner.
Topics in this comic book creation course include:
- An Introduction to Comics
- Developing a Style
- Thumbnails
- Composition and Pacing
- The Panel as a Camera
- Drawing Techniques
- Inking
- Monochrome
- Color
- Lettering and Font
- Technicalities
You'll begin by learning how to build a style and how it should relate to the story you're telling, as well as the dynamics of panel arrangement and making good use of your space. By the end of this course, you will have mastered all of the skills required to create a high-quality, one-of-a-kind work of art—your very own comic or graphic novel.
- Course rating: 4.8 out of 5.0
- Duration: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
- Certificate: Certificate on completion
- View Course
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