How to Make a "Comic" Blog

Many people have asked me how I made the trip to Québec blog entry, so here’s an explanation. I used three products:

1. iPhoto

2. Comic Life

3. Skitch

I don’t think one can use this style of blogging too often, but it is effective and fun for “special occasions.” All three products, by the way, are Macintosh-only right now.

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Comments

[mike]

I sell comic books and other items. this will help me alot.

[Bespoke Tailor]

This is really interesting stuff. I'm a young
Savile Row Bespoke Tailor always interested in how traditional crafts can be incorporated into modern technology and computers and bogs are an amazing resource for sharing information. This style of Blogging could be really cool.

[Kenny]

Have you ever realized that when you buy readymade suits you get a choice of only a few colors & styles, also finding the perfect fit are quite difficult? Wouldn’t it be better to choose from over 2000 different British & Italian fabrics and get a tailor made suit at a similar price that you pay for readymade suits?

We are a company based in Hong Kong and have been providing custom made suits since 1997. With representatives in major cities around the globe we can arrange to show you the fabric samples and take your measurements, or you can also place your orders online. There are easy instructions regarding measurements and over 2000 fabrics to choose from along with all the latest styles.

All our suits and shirts are produced by highly skilled Shanghainese tailors in Hong Kong and delivered in about 4 weeks, express delivery can be made in 2 weeks at a minor extra cost. In case you are not able to find what you are looking for then please let us know your requirement may it be in words or by a photograph and we could arrange it for you.

We also have an outlet at the Hotel Intercontinental Budapest where you are most welcome to visit us. Though we are not located in streets like Savile Row (London), we have still been able to offer made to measure suits to many VIP’s from around the world.

Experience an easier way of shopping for bespoke suits & shirts at Euro Tailors

www.eurotailors.com

[Jenny]

I love this idea! Fabulous!

[Marek Wawrzyniak]

Great post. I just bought a new MacBook and will play with this comic stuff. See my accolates to Guys ingenuity on my new post: http://megabluewave.com/blog/archives/140

Best

[Chris]

I like the photo blog. Like you said, for the rare occasions, it's great. For those sans-Mac, there's an app that does all of this in one go, SnagIT from TechSmith. I live by it as a Tech Writer. I think I'll try this and put it on my own blog. Thanks for the idea!

[mary wynne-wynter]

Thanks for the great 'how to'; this is why I switched to Mac. The 3rd party apps are the best.

I just added my first comic to my blog typelist and I'm also thinking of using Comic Life to make "sticky" marketing materials.

[David]

There is a similiar product to Comic Life for the PC that we make called Comic Book Creator. It also includes free web hosting and linking for embedding in blogs.

The product site is at www.mycomicbookcreator.com, and the hosting site (just setup in beta) is at www.hypercomics.com

- Dave

[Chrystian Guy]

For the non-Mac users in the crowd (I run Linux plus Windows), there is some kind of an equivalent to Comic Life here:
Comic Book Creator
http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com/

Which I just tried and bought (30$) to make this test:
http://cguy.org/blog/2007/02/08/comic-book-creator-faire-des-montages-photos-facilement/

Enjoy!

[Ms. Black]

Here's some poor Mac developer "working like a dog":

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-black/379129369/

[Mr. Black]

Or, you could use DotMatrix and your iSight to shoot instant photos that look more like comics or manga:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sir-black/381519703/

[Wendy Piersall]

For a really labor-intensive way to getter-done for ya, Photoshop has a shape tool that has a quote balloon option. I did one in Adobe Illustrator and drew it up myself because I know that program better (still took a long time, but these posts are worth it, done right, I believe).

Thanks for the inspiration Guy!

[Giorgio Buccilli]

Hi Guy, for the non-apple users:
1)put your pictures on a Power Point white page
2) add Callout from drawings tools
3) add your text
4) export as Jpeg picture
the result is here:
www.giorgiobuccilli.it

Giorgio Buccilli

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Giorgio,

The issue is the panels with the way you did it. How would you create all the odd-shaped panels that the photos plug into? It would be royal pain, I think.

Thanks,

Guy

[mcfriendly]

This is an outstanding OSX software app. They offer a school/school district a discount site license for about $500. A real bargain!

[Richard.H]

Seems all can be done by photoshop, but of course more complicated with all the cutting and pasting.

[Gloria]

Hi,
would you please tell me where did you get the cool Skitch? Did you buy it? I didn't see a link on the Plaque website.
Thank you for helping me out.

******************

Gloria,

I was privileged to get a pre-release copy of Skitch from the company. It's not out yet.

Thanks,

Guy

[James from rainy Wales (UK)!]

Anyone like to send me a free mac?

[Bob Cotter]

Guy... great tip and timely too. I am doing two sessions for teachers at our district day next week... one on using blogs the other on using Comiclife. I'll add this page as a reference for the folks to visit.

[John Koetsier]

Hey Tees ... get a Mac. Then you too will at long last be cool also.

;-)

[Chris]

Guy,
Stop cheapening your content with this fluff. If I wanted design advice I'd read a design blog.

********************

I have posted 281 blog entries. Of that, one is about the design of a blog. I can see how my obsession with this topic is diluting my blog. :-)

Guy

[Joey Roth]

This could be a great way to visualize a new product or website. I'll have to wait until I start selling teapots to get a mac though :)

[Tim]

How can this be added to a iWeb blog?

[Susan Ireland]

I just started a weekly "Name This Doodle" series on my blog, The Job Lounge (www.joblounge.blogspot.com). It's not a high tech comic strip. I simply upload a drawing and ask folks to give it a caption.

[TeesMyBody.com T-Shirts]

Man, I got really excited until I saw the "mac-only"" sentence. Looks cool!