Comics for Beginners: How to Start Making Comics with Zero Experience
New to comics? This beginner's guide covers everything you need to start creating—no art degree required. From basic concepts to first pages.
You don’t need to be a professional artist to make comics. You don’t need expensive software, art school training, or years of practice. What you need is a story to tell and the willingness to start—everything else develops through creating.
This guide is specifically for people who have never made a comic before. We’ll cover the absolute fundamentals, give you practical exercises, and get you creating your first comic pages today.
The Truth About “Good Enough” Art
Here’s the most important thing to understand: many successful comics don’t have technically impressive art. What they have is clear visual storytelling.
Look at XKCD—stick figures. Diary of a Wimpy Kid—simple cartoons. The Order of the Stick—basic shapes. These creators understood something crucial: readers care about story, characters, and visual clarity more than rendering skill.
Your art doesn’t need to be good. It needs to be readable and in service of your story.
Start where you are. Your skills will improve as you create. Waiting until you’re “good enough” means never starting.
What You Actually Need to Begin
Minimum Requirements
To make comics, you need:
- Something to draw with (pencil and paper works fine)
- A story idea (even a simple one)
- The willingness to be bad at first
That’s it. Everything else is optional enhancement.
Nice to Have (But Not Required)
Digital tools: A basic drawing app on a phone or tablet lets you create and share easily. Free options like Ibis Paint, Medibang, and Sketchbook work well.
Drawing tablet: If working on a computer, a basic Wacom Intuos (~$60-100) helps, but you can absolutely start with mouse or trackpad.
Reference materials: Pinterest boards, pose references, and other comics for inspiration—all free.
Don’t Fall Into the Gear Trap
Buying expensive tools won’t make you better at comics. Many beginners spend more time researching equipment than actually creating.
Start with what you have. Upgrade only when you’ve actually hit limitations—not theoretical ones you imagine might exist.
Understanding What Comics Actually Are
Comics are sequential images that tell a story. At their simplest:
Panel 1: Shows a situation Panel 2: Something changes Reader: Understands what happened between panels
That’s the magic of comics—the reader’s mind fills in the gaps between panels. You don’t need to draw every single moment; you just need to show enough for readers to follow.
The Building Blocks
Panels: Boxes containing images. These are your fundamental unit.
Gutters: The space between panels. This is where reader imagination lives.
Speech bubbles: Containers for dialogue. Point the tail at who’s speaking.
Captions: Narration boxes, usually for thoughts or scene-setting.
Sound effects: Visual representations of sounds (CRASH, whisper, click).
How Readers Navigate Pages
In Western comics, readers move left-to-right, top-to-bottom:
[1] → [2] → [3]
↓
[4] ← [5] ← [6]Everything in your layout should reinforce this natural flow. When readers get lost, they stop reading.
Your First Comic Exercise
Let’s make something right now. This exercise takes 15 minutes and produces an actual comic.
The 4-Panel Strip
Create a simple gag or moment in exactly 4 panels:
Panel 1: Establish character and situation Panel 2: Something happens or is said Panel 3: Complication or reaction Panel 4: Punchline, resolution, or emotional beat
Example Structure
Here’s a simple template:
- Character wants something
- They try to get it
- Unexpected obstacle appears
- Result (funny, sad, ironic, satisfying)
Actually Do It
Stop reading and draw four panels. They can be stick figures. The important thing is completing the exercise.
Set a 15-minute timer. Done beats perfect.
Drawing Characters (The Simple Way)
You don’t need to draw realistic humans. You need recognizable, consistent characters.
The Basics of Basic Characters
Start with shapes: A circle for a head. A rectangle or oval for a body. Stick limbs or simple shapes.
Add distinguishing features: Unique hair, distinctive clothing, props they carry, or physical characteristics that make each character identifiable.
Maintain consistency: Your character should look the same panel-to-panel. Reference your own drawings to stay consistent.
The Silhouette Test
Draw your characters as solid black shapes. Can you tell them apart? If not, their designs aren’t distinct enough.
Vary:
- Height and body shape
- Hair style and color
- Clothing silhouettes
- Accessories and props
Expressions Are Everything
Comics are about emotions. Practice drawing your characters showing:
- Happy (smile, lifted eyebrows)
- Sad (downturned mouth, drooping eyes)
- Angry (furrowed brows, clenched jaw)
- Surprised (wide eyes, raised eyebrows, open mouth)
- Confused (tilted head, one raised eyebrow)
Exaggerate. Comics aren’t subtle—readers need to immediately read emotions.
Panel Layout Fundamentals
How you arrange panels affects how readers experience your story.
The Basic Grid
Start with simple, regular grids:
4-panel strip: Classic newspaper format. Good for gags.
6-panel page: Two rows of three panels. Versatile and readable.
9-panel grid: Three rows of three. Allows for pacing variety.
Regular grids are boring—but they’re readable. Start boring, get creative once you understand why it works.
Panel Size = Importance
Big panels slow readers down and signal importance. Use for:
- Key dramatic moments
- Establishing shots showing setting
- Emotional climaxes
Small panels speed up reading. Use for:
- Quick actions
- Rapid dialogue exchanges
- Transitions
Breaking Panels
Once you understand the grid, you can break it:
- Panels can be different sizes
- Panels can overlap
- Characters can break panel borders
- Full-page images (splash pages) maximize impact
But learn the rules before breaking them.
Writing for Comics (Not Novels)
Comic writing is different from prose. You’re scripting for a visual medium.
Show, Don’t Tell
Prose: “Sarah felt devastated when she saw her garden destroyed.”
Comic: Panel showing Sarah’s face crumpling, tears forming, trampled flowers in background.
Let images carry emotional weight. Use words to supplement, not replace, visuals.
Dialogue Tips
Keep it short. Speech bubbles have limited space.
Read dialogue aloud: If it sounds unnatural spoken, it’ll read unnaturally too.
Each character needs a voice: Different vocabulary, sentence length, speech patterns.
Subtext matters: What characters don’t say often matters more than what they do.
Script Format
Simple comic scripts look like this:
PAGE 1
Panel 1
Wide shot: Coffee shop interior, morning. ALEX (20s, tired) enters.
Panel 2
Close on Alex's face, surprised.
ALEX: "Is that...?"
Panel 3
Reveal: JORDAN (20s, Alex's ex) sitting at a table, looking up from laptop.
JORDAN: "Oh. Hey."But many creators work more loosely, especially for personal projects. Find what works for you.
Common Beginner Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
“Wall of Text” Panels
If your panel has more than 2-3 speech bubbles, you probably need to split it into multiple panels. Comics are visual—let images tell the story.
Identical Panel Sizes
Varying panel sizes creates visual rhythm. A page of identically-sized panels feels monotonous.
Unclear Reading Order
If readers can’t instantly tell which panel comes next, they’ll stop reading. Maintain clear flow.
Characters Talking to No One
Show who’s listening. Conversations need both participants visible (or deliberately hidden for effect).
Skipping Backgrounds Entirely
You don’t need detailed backgrounds in every panel, but occasional establishing shots ground readers in space. Even simple backgrounds help.
Trying to Be Perfect
Your first comic won’t be great. Neither will your tenth. Accept this and create anyway. Improvement comes from practice, not from waiting until you’re ready.
Building Your First Full Comic
Once you’ve practiced 4-panel strips, try something longer.
The One-Page Comic
Constraints breed creativity. Tell a complete story in 6-9 panels on one page:
- Introduce a character
- Present a problem
- Show their attempt to solve it
- Conclude (success, failure, or twist)
The 5-Page Comic
Slightly more room to breathe:
Page 1: Hook—something interesting happens Page 2-3: Rising action and complications Page 4: Climax Page 5: Resolution and ending
This structure works for many short stories. Master it before attempting longer works.
Don’t Plan a 100-Page Epic
Seriously. Your first longer project should be 8-20 pages maximum. Finish short works to learn the complete process before committing to something massive.
Tools for Beginners
Free Digital Options
Medibang Paint: Specifically designed for comics. Panel tools, speech bubbles, free cloud storage.
Ibis Paint: Mobile app that’s surprisingly powerful. Popular with webtoon creators.
Krita: Desktop application with strong brush engine and comic tools.
Canva: Not drawing software, but useful for simple comic layouts using photos and shapes.
If You Prefer Traditional
Pencil and paper: Start here. Scan or photograph to share digitally.
Fineliner pens: Micron, Staedtler, or generic fineliners for inking.
Sketchbook with good paper: Anything that doesn’t bleed with ink.
For Collaborative Creating
Platforms like Multic let you create visual stories collaboratively with AI assistance. Useful for creators who want to focus on story while getting help with visual assets.
What to Do After Your First Comic
Share It
Put your work online. DeviantArt, Instagram, Twitter, Tapas, Webtoon Canvas—anywhere works. Getting your work out there matters more than where.
Expect small audiences initially. Everyone starts at zero.
Get Feedback
Join comic creation communities. Share work-in-progress. Ask specific questions (“Is the panel flow clear?” rather than “Is this good?”).
Take feedback seriously but not personally. You’re improving a skill, not defending your identity.
Make Another One
The most important thing: make more comics. Then more. Then more.
Creators improve through creating. Every completed comic teaches you something the previous one couldn’t.
Study What Works
Read comics actively. When something affects you—a dramatic moment, a funny beat, a satisfying ending—analyze how the creator achieved it. What panel sizes did they use? How was the dialogue structured? Where was the “camera”?
Reverse-engineering effective comics teaches you craft.
You’re Ready to Start
You now know more than you think. The gap isn’t knowledge—it’s action.
Your first comic will be rough. That’s not failure; it’s the process. Every comic creator started with rough work. The ones you admire simply kept making more.
So make something. Today. Four panels about anything.
Then make something else.
Want to create visual stories with collaborative tools and AI assistance? Try Multic and start bringing your ideas to life—no art degree required.
Related: How to Make a Comic and Panel Layout Basics