Introduction to Digital Comic

For cartoonist Albert Monteys, comics are his natural means of expression. After more than 25 years writing and drawing comics with ink, paper, screens, and a touch of humor, he's an expert in how to approach a comic from scratch and tell a story to be enhanced with digital media.

Known mainly for his comics in the Spanish humor weekly El Jueves, a publication in which he collaborated for 18 years and directed for four, he continued his career following his passion for narrative and the search for new digital formats, making comics for the humor magazine Pride and Satisfaction and the science fiction comic UNIVERSE!. This led him to receive a nomination for the 2016 Eisner award—the "Oscar for illustrators"—and to win the 2019 award for Best National Comic at the Salón del Cómic de Barcelona, Spain.

In this online course, cartoonist Albert Monteys teaches you how to create comics with a focus on digital formats, from the computer screen to the mobile screen. He also gives you the tools to promote your work, based on his experience, so you can share it with the world.

Meet Albert Monteys, who talks about his career from self-publishing comics to his time at El Jueves magazine and how he ventured into digital comics. He also shares the main authors and works that have influenced him to try out digital formats for his comics.

What is a digital comic? How does it differ from traditional paper comics? Albert gives you the answers to these questions through examples, and then explains what you need to know about color and the narrative possibilities of digital media.

Making a digital comic doesn't mean putting ink and paper aside. Albert shows you the analog materials you need to draw, including paper, pencils, markers, brushes, inks, and watercolors. He also explains all about the materials for working in digital, along with Adobe Photoshop tools for comic artists.

Now choose the format in which you are going to publish your comic. Instagram, downloadable PDF, multiple platforms? You decide. Albert will advise you to make the right decision based on your story.

Next, see different ways to approach writing, before designing the characters of the comic and presenting the comic narrative in depth so that you can enhance it.

Explore how to design the performance and expressiveness of your characters, why an expression is worth more than a speech bubble, and come to understand drawing as another type of writing. Then, your teacher explains how to digitize your comic to work on in Photoshop.

To wrap things up, get your comic ready for the screen and take an in-depth look into how you can promote it on social media and get the most out of your comic, according to Albert's personal experience.

Based on your story, create, publish, and promote a short comic online—between one strip and four pages—and get your work out into the world.

Illustrators, comic enthusiasts, with or without experience, and anyone who wants to explore graphic narrative and discover all the possibilities offered by different digital media.

It is essential to have a story to tell, and it's recommended that you have basic knowledge of drawing and use of Adobe Photoshop.

Regarding materials, you need a computer with the software installed, a pencil, markers, India ink, a paintbrush, a ruler, notebooks, drawing paper, and a scanner.