Hello, guys. great news, i finally started doing my comic and it's turning out good. let me show you a piece of it. I'm doing it with Comic Life for the mac. THIS is just a pre comic to the real comic. The real comi will have Vue Backgrounds. so this one is just for practice. any suggestions or ideas on how to make comics entertaining?

Congratulations and good luck :)  At the rate I keep fiddling with basic concepts, I am still many months away myself :/

One suggestion, avoid using default-looking characters (e.g. I recognize James there).  Also think about doing the layout in a more flexible application, like Photoshop itself or better, something like Adobe InDesign.

Phantast has a very well-written comics tutorial also:
http://phanta.st/

Thanks alot

I'll second that, congrats and good luck with that!!
Well done!

try olivier's shaders (rdna), poser 7 toon render, or jwebster's tutorials (here) for comic-book-style artwork using poser.

Comic Life is a sweet little app. ^^ bB

I agree with pjz99. Unless you are specifically making a comic ABOUT Poser, I would avoid using default characters (James is the real culprit here). I would also avoid using default library poses, which for anyone that has used Poser 6 or above are instantly recognisable.

If you're aiming for a short and sweet serial strip, four uniform panels is fine. If you looking at making something grander, your panels should be as dynamic as their content. Pick up any Marvel or DC comic to see what I mean. They're very rarley uniform in their composition.

As for the look, there are a number of packages available as MissNancy stated, or you could try something yourself. I've attached an image of a WIP promo shot for a strip I am currently working on. It's a private project that will see a limited run - just enough for friends and family (hence not trying to hijack your thread).

Making it enterating is a complicated task. My only suggestion would be to write what you know, and not to try and write what you think your potential audience will want. If only a select few people like it, you can call it a niche comic with an exclusive fanbase! :)

Hey. Way to go. I'm still in the writing stages of my graphic novel and have no art work done. David

Good luck with your project!  It takes courage to post your work on a board like this.  I hope that you will post a link if you post a completed version on the web.

If you have Poser 6, there are some free toon materials in the Sixius folder under the material tab that are easy to overlook (I went months without realizing they were there!).  The colours are limited but are easy to change.  This will save you some searching and money if that is a concern.  However, using computer graphics for the art is becoming more acceptable, as the toons here on Renderosity suggest.  So don't hesitate to stick with them if you like them.

As with any type of writing, there are any number of approaches.  Comic strips and some comics (Watchmen by Alan Moore, for example) use set panel sizes and layouts, but others (manga especially) take a lot of liberties with the panel sizes and positions.  So read whatever you like with an eye to layout, pace, amount of dialogue, etc., and learn from that.  There are also some excellent books by Will Eisner and Scott McCloud that cover the basics.  I couldn't read the sample you posted (too small), but the variety of close-ups, the variation in word balloons, and the dynamic poses suggest that you're off to a good start.

Good luck!