Comic Book Creator

by Planet Wide Comics

Product Features

• Self-publishing software for creating custom scrapbooks or comic books
• Take screenshots of video games; drag-and-drop into comic book templates
• Choose fonts, colors, and effects with intuitive editors; add text and balloons
• Save comic book as PDF file and share online with friends
• Full licensed copy of PDF Writer included

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000BNGI5C
• Item model number: 160200101
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 3, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,091 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #20 in Software > Education & Reference > Writing & Literature

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Comic Book Creator 1.05 has arrived! This latest version of our highly rated self-publishing software will enable you to create your own scrap books or comic books using pictures from your digital camera, scanner, screen grabber, video games, or one of our free clipart packages.

Included with Comic Book Creator is a full licensed copy of PDF Writer, allowing you to create PDF's from any program as easily as printing, and an evaluation copy of FRAPS for making screen grabs from your favorite videos or computer games.

Features:

• Take screenshot from inside your favorite PC games
• Drag-and-drop into easy-to-use comic book templates
• Choose fonts, colors, and effects with intuitive editors
• Easily add text, effects, and balloons to your story
• Create the story the way you want it to read
• Save you comicbook as a PDF and share it online with friends
• Print it out on your home printer to take with you

Product Description

With Comic Book Creator you can make the high-quality comics you always wanted. With this super simple, easy to use, self-publishing software you can turn your PC game action into a Comic Book. With classical comic book features, such as word graphics, story boxes, and text, you can create a truly original comic. Just print your comics on your home printer and share your comic book with your friends! Save files digitally for posting on a Website or blog -- or print them at home to share with friends

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like this, but it was too limiting, June 14, 2006

By 

The Mighty Hudson "NYC-Hound" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comic Book Creator (CD-ROM)

There's some good things here (some nice fonts, for example), but ultimately I found using Comic Book Creator too frustrating. For example, the speech balloons reproduced with jagged edges. Also, the clip art bundled with the program is pretty lousy, though you can import your own.

Worst of all, one has to choose the page layout as a first step. So later, if you decide you want to insert a frame between two others, it can't be done.

Perhaps there are workarounds for these problems, but they weren't immediately apparent.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple & Cheap expression, November 29, 2006

By 

J. Elmquist "Moviephile" (Somewhere else...) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Comic Book Creator (CD-ROM)

I own this program and for 20 bucks, it's outstanding. Depending on what you want to do, you need to know that there are limits though. If you want to just drop screenshots from your PC Game and make your own story, it's awesome. If you want to drop your own photos or mess with the provided clipart, you can do that with ease as well. If you want to make your own comic with your own pictures, that can get a bit tricky. You need an art program like Photoshop, or scan your own drawings into the computer and put them in the clipart folder. Then you can use them as inserts into the panels or as clipart, which allows you to overlap the panels a bit for a semi professional layout. I have been working on a 24 page comic for a couple months (I have a wife and kid so there are limits to my time) and it's coming out quite nicely. Now granted, this is not going to get you any contracts or deals with publishers but it's fun. And anyone who loves comics and has wanted to make one of their own come to life, this is the key.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good value introduction., July 14, 2006

By 

Stokie Dave - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comic Book Creator (CD-ROM)

I own this in version 1.08, and think it is well worth the price. I would have sold my grandma to get this when I was age 11. It does what it says, but nothing more. Maybe the balloons could use a little work - scale them up too much and some of them develop subtle jaggies on some edges. But it has the huge advantage of being incredibly easy to use, which is great for kids. I mean, which 12-year-old wants to learn the complexities of Photoshop ("feather 2px" every time, just to create a panel border?) just see if they like the idea of telling a story through the medium of a comic? So try it. If your kid likes it, and wants to go further, then I would suggest the following extras: Adobe Elements and a third-party comic book filter for Elements (search the web, there are a few worth having) so you can take digital photos and make them look like comic drawings. The advantage is, if you keep the lighting consistent, you get consistent looking panels for placing into Comic Book Creator that look like they were all drawn the same. There are also quality comic fonts available on the web, which you should seek out and add to Comic Book Creator (Gnatfont and Brit Comics spring to mind as good freebies) but there are also the high-quality commercial Comic Craft font packs. I would also suggest the excellent book by Matt Madden: "99 ways to tell a story" which shows you 99 one-page comics, all telling the same story in a myriad of different comic-y ways. All these, with Comic Book Creator as the core software, will prove an excellent toolset for budding comic storytellers. It'd be nice to recommend 'Adobe Comic Creator 1.0' - but such software doesn't yet exist. In the meantime, we have to bootstrap. If your kids are still churning out the Comic Book Creator comics in a year or two, then by all means buy them the Wacom pad and the full copy of Photoshop, and send them off to art school!