Indie Comic Code

Hey there True Believers,

tl;dr - Here's a few ExtendScripts and Actions to expedite the comic creation process.

Making an independent comic book is a ton of work. Writing it, drawing it, inking it, lettering it, getting it print ready, making it ready for Comixology, converting it to PDF - it's like you're an adult with a lot of work to do.

I don't have that kind of time. I make my comic in my mornings, nights and weekends, so I wanted to find ways to speed it up anywhere I can.

Thusly, here are some scripts to help speed that process up. Some may be .atn, some .jsx, and all through sheer tomhackery.

I am/was/will be making these to help myself. Hopefully, any independent comic creator could speed up their workflow.

Photoshop Scripts

Script 01 - Place Illustrator Lettering file into Photoshop as a Smart Object

It's easier to draw vectors in Illustrator. Plus when I want to edit the Illustrator file, I can just double click it and it opens in Illustrator.

Illustrator Scripts

Script 01 - Pull dialogue for PageX

Prompts you for the page number, you get all the dialogue as individual text boxes and removes name and description, etc. Defaults to 'Comic Geek' font by Blambot.

Script 02 - Create a word balloon from a single line & a textframe

This is strictly for normal word balloons. The balloon takes the size of the text frame and generates a circle, based on the perimeter. Then it takes the line and creates an arched balloon tail. Then it creates a compound shape from those two objects, thereby making it easy to adjust later.

Script 03 - Create rough bubble

TBD

File Structure

All the scripts I've made thus far are dependent on the file sturure. I sort my directory as such:

_assets

• Issue X Script.pdf
• Issue X Script.txt
• ...

00-Scan

• 000-front-cover.tif
• 01.tif
• ...

01-PSD

• 000-front-cover.psd
• 000-front-inside.psd
• 01.psd
• ...

02-Lettering

• 01.ai
• ...

03-Coloring Flat Builds

• ...

04-TIF-output

• ...

05-Comixology-output

• 000-font-cover.jpg
• ...

06-PDF

• Comixology-version.pdf
• Print-version.pdf ...

AI Action Todos

• Update Script 01: Currently, it adds the text from the requested page. Let's create new page, place image from psd, THEN add text from matching page.

PS Action Todos

• Format for LithoNinja
• Format for PrintNinja

Script Todos

• Pull dialogue for Page X
• Convert TIFs to PDF
• Convert Comixology to PDF
• Comixology Submit Template Collection

General Todo

• Move Todos to Github Issues
• Add Actions
• Link to other Actions online
• Convert Scripts into Plugins
• Template: Starter Bubbles for Illustrator
• ???
• Profit