Almost all techies can relate to Dilbert, the lovable corporate tech drone, created by Scott Adams. There are even a lot of people I know who need a daily dose of Dilbert in order to start their day (me included.)
Well just in case anybody wants to drop that corporate hat and make a living out of being a cartoonist, Scott Adams posted on his blog recently a “How-To” Guide in making A Comic Strip.
According to his blog, the idea for Dilbert occurred while “sketching” on his pad during meetings:
Adams entertained himself during boring meetings by drawing insulting cartoons of his coworkers and bosses. Eventually a bespectacled character named Dilbert emerged from the doodles. In 1988 Adams mailed some sample comic strips featuring Dilbert to the major cartoon syndicates. United Feature Syndicate plucked Dilbert out of thousands of submissions received that year and offered Adams a contract. Dilbert launched in about 35 newspapers in 1989. [source]
The last tip he gave was on the tools that you would need in order to make it as a syndicated cartoonist. Which were:
- A Banana
- Diet Coke
- A Cat
- A Computer with a Wacom 21SX monitor.
In typical Scott Adams Humor of course. Let me add to that what he failed to add to the list but was mentioned in his post: the notebook where one can store one’s “ideas”, be it original or solicited. The other is the wickedly flat screen TV where one can get ideas from episodes of the Daily Show and other Comedy shows. That is of course, if your comic is going to be humorous.
Aside from giving an insight into his daily life, the post also showed the tech tools that he typically uses in creating a comic strip. One of which was the Wacom 21SX, that allows him to sketch directly on the monitor. While the other notable tool is Adobe Photoshop. He also explained in brief the Photoshop features that he was using when creating his comic strip. Which was quite helpful, if in case you want to adapt his style of drawing comics.