Manga developed more than a half century ago in Japan.
According to manga artist, Hayden Scott-Baron, the foundation for the manga comics the world knows today dates to the 19th century. After a half century of being influenced by comics from around the world, manga with its Japanese kabuki theater influences has become an artistic mainstay. Because the art form is now so widespread, manga artists working cite manga as a root source of inspiration. If you count yourself among them and want to create a manga comic book, plenty of visual references in the form of comic books, video games and cartoons exist to help get you started.
Instructions
1. Read manga comics to get a better idea of the kinds of stories and characters to create. You'll get an idea of how these comic books are designed as well. Japanese comics read from front to back. Familiarizing yourself with the comics helps you make decisions concerning these manga elements.
2. Create a script and characters for your manga comic book on your word-processing program. According to Manga Tutorials, the characters are the most important elements of the manga comic book. As you write your script, give concentrated thought to your characters. Print out your scripts when you're done.
3. Make rough drawings of your characters based on the descriptions you came up with in your script-writing endeavors. Experiment with different clothing styles, facial features and physical characteristics.
4. Put together character sheets once you've worked out what they look like. These pictures are the final version of the "rough drafts" you created in your character drawings. You'll keep them as visual references for when you begin drawing your comic. Make sure that you draw the character from several different angles.
5. Make page thumbnails. Thumbnails pages are like a visual rough draft of your comic book. You're going to try lots of different ways to draw panels. You'll also work out any difficulty you're having with the pictorial composition.
6. Create the final comic pages based on your thumbnail drawings.
7. Add in the script to the voice and thought balloons.
8. Ink the pages. Inking is where you cover over your pencil drawings with ink. If you're doing a color comic, then you'll add color to the pages instead of black ink. You can use traditional materials to do this like India ink or acrylic paint, but you also have the option of digitally coloring in the lines with a program like Corel Paint or Adobe Photoshop as well.
9. Make the front cover. It's often easiest to create the front cover last. By this time, you know what the book is about, which will make it easier to come up with an image. For this, you'll also draw rough sketches and finalize the drawings until you land upon the right image.
10. Print out the book.
