10 Best Comic Book Creation Courses and Certifications Online

Comic books have been a popular form of entertainment for decades, captivating readers with their mix of visual art and storytelling. With the rise of online education, many courses are now available to help aspiring comic book creators hone their skills. This article explores some of the top online courses that offer comprehensive training in various aspects of comic book creation, including character design, storyboarding, and digital illustration. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist, these courses can provide valuable insights and techniques to help you bring your comic book ideas to life.

Here’s a look at the Best Comic Book Creation Courses and Certifications Online and what they have to offer for you!

10 Best Comic Book Creation Courses and Certifications Online

1. Character Art School: Complete Coloring and Painting Course by Scott Harris (Udemy) (Our Best Pick)

The Character Art School: Complete Coloring and Painting course is a six-week guided video course designed to teach individuals how to become skilled at coloring and painting professional characters. The course is divided into five modules, covering all core theory and practical application for professional-level character coloring and painting. The course is suitable for beginners and intermediate learners and aims to advance their current abilities to a professional level in character coloring and painting.

The course is aimed at individuals who wish to color and paint character concept art for films, games, illustrations, comics, manga, Disney style and other styles. The instructor, Scott Harris, promises to provide clear and concise lessons that will enable learners to color and paint with confidence, without fear. The course encourages learners to engage in the assignments, which are designed to reinforce theory and promote rapid progress.

The course consists of six sections: an introduction, followed by five modules covering Light and Color Art Fundamentals, Using Digital Tools, The Character Coloring and Painting Workflow, Coloring and Painting Styles, and Comprehensive Character Coloring and Painting Demos. Each section has been designed to be modular, easy to grasp and learn at a well-paced, structured rate.

The course content is built on the theory of giants and inspired by masters, providing a comprehensive approach to character coloring and painting. The assignments are purpose-built to help individuals rapidly progress and feel rewarding. Individuals who complete the course are expected to be fundamentally good character colorists and painters.

Regardless of one’s preferred medium – games, comics, cartoons, manga, animation, and more – this course is comprehensive enough to cover all bases. The instructor is confident that learners will find the course rewarding enough to offer a no-questions-asked refund if they are not satisfied.

2. Comic Creation for Entrepreneurs (2022 Edition) by Srinidhi Ranganathan, Saranya Srinidhi (Udemy)

The “Comic Creation for Entrepreneurs (2022 Edition)” is an online course that aims to teach businesses the potential of digital comics in marketing. The course is led by Srinidhi Ranganathan, a Digital Marketing Legend, and Saranya Srinidhi, a MasterMind. Comics, with their engaging visuals and focus on plot and characters, have become a high ROI market. Furthermore, they offer cues about relevant information and have been shown to increase intelligence.

This course is designed to teach entrepreneurs how to create business comics quickly and easily using cloud-based design tools. Participants will learn how to create characters, choose backgrounds, add props, type text on speech bubbles, and use visual effects. The course is educative, informative, and practical, with the potential to change the design world.

Enrolling in this course will allow businesses to create stunning comic strips to promote their brand worldwide and post them on social media with ease. The course is aimed at startup companies, SMEs, educational institutions, and universities.

The course is structured in a way that outlines practical steps through a drag-and-drop interface on a cloud platform. The course covers everything from creating characters to selecting poses and backgrounds. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for participants to create comics with no design skills required.

In conclusion, the “Comic Creation for Entrepreneurs (2022 Edition)” course is a world-changing online course for businesses interested in the potential of digital comics in marketing. The course is practical, informative, and educative, with the potential to change the design world. Participants will learn to create business comics quickly and easily using cloud-based design tools, even with no prior design skills.

3. Learn to Draw Pretty Faces for Comic Books by Neil Fontaine (Udemy)

The course titled “Learn to Draw Pretty Faces for Comic Books” is instructed by Neil Fontaine. The course aims to teach artists how to transition from drawing good faces to drawing drop-dead gorgeous faces for comic books. It is suitable for beginners and advanced comic artists alike, and is taught in an easy-to-grasp manner. The course emphasizes the importance of understanding the hows and whys of drawing, which is often lacking in other “how to draw” courses.

Each lesson in the course focuses on a specific concept and includes an exercise to help students improve their skills. The course covers three main sections: “Front view for how to draw pretty faces for comic books,” “How to draw pretty faces in profile,” and “How to draw pretty faces at an angle.”

To gain an understanding of the course content and teaching style, interested individuals can view some of the free lessons offered.

4. How to Draw Dynamic Comic Book Superheroes – Start to Finish by Robert Marzullo (Udemy)

This course, titled “How to Draw Dynamic Comic Book Superheroes – Start to Finish,” is instructed by Robert Marzullo. The course focuses on teaching students how to draw dynamic comic book superheroes step by step, with a complete breakdown of all the major components that comprise superhero comic characters. The course covers topics such as proportions, anatomy, suit design, foreshortening, rendering, perspective, and how to draw dynamic poses from imagination.

The techniques taught in this course can apply to all sorts of art styles, including game art, comics, concept art, and figure drawing. Additionally, students will learn to pencil, ink, and color a fully detailed comic book scene from start to finish.

Newly added content includes six lessons on drawing various hand poses and seven lessons on drawing various proportions and body types. The course also includes a section on drawing fight poses, with 11 videos added.

Students will have access to all the art files to work along with throughout the course and can share their artwork in the Q&A section for feedback. The instructor encourages feedback for improvements and is willing to add new lessons when needed.

The course is broken down into 12 sections, including an introduction, basic proportions of the superhero male, the superhero female, drawing the muscle-bound brutes, drawing various body types, drawing characters with perspective and foreshortening, drawing various hand poses, drawing, inking, and coloring a comic-style portrait using reference, creating a comic book scene – superhero flying towards camera, how to draw fight poses, various studies and breakdowns, and a Q&A section.

5. Learn Digital Color with Photoshop by Kurt Michael Russell (Udemy)

The Learn Digital Color with Photoshop course is taught by professional colorist Kurt Michael Russell and is designed to teach students the basics of comic book coloring with Photoshop. The course covers topics such as setting up tools, flatting, rendering, and special effects. Colorists are responsible for the lighting, final look of the page, and helping to move the story along with color. The course includes downloadable materials such as black and white line art, Photoshop presets, color profiles, Photoshop actions, and color swatches. Additionally, there are 3.5 hours of instructional videos featuring real-time coloring by K. Michael Russell. By the end of the course, students will have learned the skills required to use Photoshop to create stunning colored comic book pages, manga, web-comics, or comic strips. The instructor, K. Michael Russell, is a colorist currently working for Image Comics & Top Cow. It is important to note that this course was recorded in 2014 and is version 1.0 of the instructor’s coloring courses.

6. A Pro’s Guide to Digital Comic Book Coloring by Kurt Michael Russell (Udemy)

The Pro’s Guide to Digital Comic Book Coloring is a course taught by K. Michael Russell, a published colorist for numerous comic book companies. This course covers the entire process of digital comic book coloring in Photoshop, from basic layer setup to special effects and post-coloring printing preparation. The focus is on teaching skills to make pages read properly, leading the reader’s eye to the important aspects, and being a storyteller throughout.

The course is designed for individuals who are interested in coloring as a fun hobby, part-time side hustle or a career. The course includes a comprehensive coloring curriculum with real-time, easy-to-follow video lessons on various topics in the order recommended by the instructor. It covers the basics of color theory and instructions for overcoming challenges unique to color in comics.

The course also covers storytelling concepts such as separating planes, strategic rendering, value and contrast, and several rendering styles that work on a variety of art styles. In addition, the course includes downloadable Photoshop Tool Presets, Photoshop Actions, and professionally-drawn line art from some penciller friends of the instructor and projects he has worked on.

The course starts with the basics of setting up the workspace, installing presets for brushes, and tool settings. It covers how to set up line art and layers and goes in-depth into all the major tools such as lasso, magic wand, brushes, and more. The course concludes with finalizing pages and the “business” of being a colorist.

Enrollment provides lifetime access to course materials and an understanding of how professional colorists think. The course is an updated version of the instructor’s previous coloring course on Udemy, with more detailed lessons and expanded techniques.

7. How to Draw Comic Style Faces in Sketchbook Pro by Robert Marzullo (Udemy)

This course, titled “How to Draw Comic Style Faces in Sketchbook Pro,” is taught by Robert Marzullo. The course is designed to teach students how to draw male and female faces in a comic book style, from start to finish. The course will provide step-by-step instructions on how to measure and map out the face, create line art, refine the sketch, and add color and effects to the artwork.

The course will also cover the use of various tools within Sketchbook Pro 8, such as layers, brushes, and selection tools. Through this course, students will gain a strong fundamental knowledge of how to construct facial drawings and improve their ability to draw interesting characters.

The course is divided into three sections, including an introduction to creating comic book faces in Sketchbook Pro 8, creating face shapes, and a Q&A section. Students who are not completely satisfied with the course will have a 30-day money back guarantee.

8. How To MAKE Comics – From concept, to pages, to publishing by Ed Foychuk, Clayton Barton, Mike Van Orden, Jean Claude De La Ronde, Todd Cowden (Udemy)

This course, titled “How to MAKE Comics – From concept, to pages, to publishing,” is an A-Z guide for comic book creation. The course instructors are Ed Foychuk, Clayton Barton, Mike Van Orden, Jean Claude De La Ronde, and Todd Cowden. The short description of the course is that it is designed to help individuals bring their comic book ideas to life. The goal of the course is to help individuals create, print, and sell their comic books.

The course covers almost 14 hours of content and includes various topics such as what are comics, coming up with concepts and ideas, character concepts, character sheets, world building, script types, shot types, shot composition, panel flow, tangents, dynamic vs. static, storyline and tempo, thumbnailing basics, storyboarding thumbs, color, lettering, typography, cover choices, printing, comic cons, marketing, team building, and feedback on submitted sequential work.

There is a wide range of experience among the instructor pool, and the course is designed to provide insight into all parts of the comic book creation process. This course is not designed to teach individuals how to draw; rather, it is focused on helping individuals bring their comic book ideas to life.

The instructors of the course are Clayton Barton, Mike Van Orden, Chris Graves, Jean-Claude De La Ronde, Barry Gregory, and Rob Arnold. The course includes an introduction and has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

9. Comic Book and Graphic Novel Scriptwriting by Dr. Sheena Howard (Udemy)

The Comic Book and Graphic Novel Scriptwriting Course is a comprehensive learning opportunity for those who are interested in writing comics. The course is taught by Dr. Sheena Howard, a San Diego comic-con Eisner award-winning writer.

The course focuses on teaching the students how to write comic book and graphic novel scripts in a professional manner. The significance of comic books, graphic novels, and other forms of the genre is highlighted, as they hold a significant place in modern society, history, and culture.

The course is designed to help students create and develop their story ideas. The curriculum is structured to cover various topics such as scripting, story generation, comic panel theory, working within page-length restrictions, pacing the story, and the full script method of writing comics. Students will learn about narrative story arcs, plot points, writing sound effects, captions, off-panel dialogue, and more.

The course includes exercises and PDFs of actual comic book scripts as resources. The best part is that no artistic experience is needed to take the course.

The course content is divided into six sections, namely, Introduction, Storytelling, Outlining, Scriptwriting for Comics, Making A Comic Book, and Farewell. The Introduction section provides an overview of the course and what students can expect to learn. The Storytelling section focuses on the importance of storytelling and how to develop a story idea. The Outlining section teaches students how to create an outline for their story.

The Scriptwriting for Comics section is the core of the course, where students will learn about comic panel theory, pacing, and the full script method of writing comics. The Making A Comic Book section teaches students how to create a comic book from start to finish. Finally, the Farewell section provides a conclusion to the course.

10. Learn to Grade Comic Books by Kevin Volo (Udemy)

The “Learn to Grade Comic Books” course is a comprehensive program designed to teach individuals how to grade comics with confidence. Instructor Kevin Volo walks students through 27 comics at every grade level from 0.1 to 10.0, explaining the reasons for each grade in detail. For the 25 grade levels from 0.5 to 10.0, Volo purchased and cracked professionally graded books from CGC and PGX to establish a solid foundation for understanding the criteria at each grade level.

Each video in the course examines a CGC graded comic and two different comics with the same grade to compare and contrast their differences. The course includes over 30 1080p HD videos, high resolution images, and more than 8 hours of course content. Volo provides additional details on handling, grading, and properly caring for comics.

The course covers 27 different comic grade levels from 0.1 to 10.0 and includes bonus PDFs and additional resources. The material is divided into 28 sections, including an introduction, 26 sections for each grade level, and a section on taking care of comics. Volo, an avid reader and collector of comics, hopes that students will enjoy the course and gain the confidence to grade their comic books.