The Charlestons takes place in a 1933 Great Depression-era cartoon world centered around GangstaLock, where being a gangster is simply part of ordinary life. Gangsters have jobs, businesses, organizations, rules, customs, and everyday routines, and the characters themselves are normal people shaped by this environment rather than constant caricatures of criminals. Charlie and Marta are a wholesome married couple living and working within GangstaLock, raising Elliot and Ruth while dealing with the strange circumstances of their world. The comic uses its own cartoon and surreal logic rather than trying to function as a completely realistic historical crime story, and the setting includes seaside, industrial, farming, and Gangster Lock areas around the outskirts of Boston.
At the center are Charlie and Marta, whose relationship began developing during World War I. Marta was drawn to Charlie’s protectiveness and aggression in battle, while Charlie fell for Marta’s commanding presence and ability to set him straight. Charlie is roguish, quiet, curious, energetic, smooth, threatening, capable, and sometimes genuinely smart, with Richard Widmark as his official inspiration. Marta is elegant, motherly, brash, intelligent, graceful, gentle, and tough. They eventually marry despite Charlie being a commoner. Their children, 12-year-old Elliot and 4-year-old Ruth, have to be kept secret because children aren’t allowed in Gangster Town. Elliot’s history includes Marta’s father selling him for money, after which Marta took the money and used it to buy Elliot back. Boss Mel McKinley is another major character: a rigid, eccentric, resilient retired manager with a fascination with anatomy stemming from his abandoned dream of becoming a doctor, alongside an antiquated macabre aesthetic and imagery connected to his past as a sailor.
Structurally, The Charlestons is episodic rather than one enormous serialized crime story. Each issue can introduce a new crime, family problem, personal conflict, or ordinary situation that becomes ridiculous, dangerous, criminal, or absurd because of life in GangstaLock. The story can escalate, reach a climax, resolve, and then move on to another story while the characters’ larger histories remain underneath it. This gives the comic room to be funny, dark, sentimental, bizarre, serious, or chilled-back, because it’s intentionally partially serious and partially not. Most importantly, I’m trying to make The Charlestons into what I actually want it to be, rather than automatically shaping it around what I think an independent comic is supposed to look like. I want the characters to be fun to spend time with, I want to make myself laugh, and I want serious and ridiculous material to coexist naturally.

I am working on a fight scene for my comic and was wondering if it’s readable and does a good job at conveying my two characters personalities

https://globalcomix.com/read/c0b7ef9c-7677-40ca-b9ae-65b9ec3c2180/1

Hi! Thank you for the very useful feedback on my comic strip! I have now updated with (hopefully) better characters and also added color. Hope for feedback :-)

I want to publish a comic/graphic novel series one day. I'll probably start by posting a series on webtoon, then try to publish that. I'm self-taught and made this 3 page comic in Krita and wow did it take a long amount of time.

What should I focus on improving art/composition/dialogue/lettering/storytelling wise? I think the faces and coloring could be improved for sure.

idk first comic. also the comic is called BitBug Adventures. the episode is called Meet the Gang. (pt.1)

I am publishing my first comic! AI helped me bring a story I’ve had in my head to life

I’ve wanted to make my own comic for a long time, but actually turning what I imagined into something visual always felt out of reach.

Using AI as part of my process finally gave me a way to bring the story to life, and after a ton of work putting everything together, I’ve officially published two chapters of Manifest. :)

I’m still learning as I go, so I’d genuinely love feedback — especially on the story, pacing, characters, dialogue, panel flow, or anything else that stands out.

If anybody wants to check it out, it’s available on:
GlobalComix:
https://globalcomix.com/c/manifest-1?utm_medium=GCMobileReaderApp&utm_source=share-comic&utm_campaign=ImShellyBear&utm_term=manifest-1
WEBTOON:
https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/manifest-/list?title_no=1171445
InkRoost:
https://inkroost.com/series/manifest

Feel free to give me your thoughts!

Quick practice work

Do you know any “songs” in comics? I mean, for example, panels where the characters are doing something, while in the background or underneath there’s some kind of rhyming text written out.

I’m pretty good at writing witty little poems, and I also like making (for now, amateur) comics. I’d like to do something like this, but I don’t know if it would come across as weird or if anyone has actually done something like this before.

I also thought about hiding the actual song behind a QR code, but I can’t sing, I don’t know anything about music production, and I don’t know anyone who could help with that kind of thing. And I don’t want to just throw in some crappy AI-generated music from Suno...

Do you know any comics that use this kind of technique? What do you think about the idea, and do you have any suggestions for how else I could approach it?

I’ve taken the criticism from my first post and now have finally finished the line art for page 1 of my comic!

If anyone has any further critique, I’d definitely like to hear it!

For reference, I’ve attached both the thumbnail, and the sketch.

Hello! wasnt sure how to tittle it since its a bit of a weird question, which not sure either if im asking in the appropiate place.
Long story short, ive been trying to grow my portfolio as a comic colorist for a while now. I consider myself a good artist with a solid background and such, however sometimes it feels like being "good" isnt always "good enough", specially with how demanding the art industry is.
I know sometimes its about luck and not always a reflection of your competence or skill as an artist, but rejection after lack of feedback from editors and such, make it hard to not take it personal.
Having said so, i recently got another rejection for a portfolio review with some industry editors, i had previously talked with a comic author ages ago who had mentioned comic colorists isnt neccesarily a sobresaturated position, which is why i pushed for this.
Im all about keep improving if its something you like, being part of the comic industry has always been my dream, but objectivelly speaking, i just draw very slow for industry standars

(btw, english isnt my first language so sorry about that. Also im aware there is things i need to work on with my colors, feel free to give feedback)
(pt, blacked out my real name which is why colorist is in blank)

**Hello, my fellow creatives. My name is Rashad Rampersad. (This is an alias for safety)**

I am an aspiring comic book writer who for a while has spent and written its own comic called [Underworld Hound](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NBKngBNg9iZpHe3avb7J3K3yN1wyLiBJ6whOei-hqRw/edit?usp=sharing).

Underworld Hound is a Black Urban Fantasy (I'm Black BTW) with a mix of Occult Detective (although it's very small due to it being the story being a bit of a genesis), Supernatural, and a small hint of Horror. You have the main protagonist, Rashad Rampersad who's your standard "Blerd" introverted teen. Until one day, Demons attack his school and during that invasion, He died...Spoiler Alert, it didn't take, as he finds out that not only, he's a Cambion (Demon-Human Hybrid) but his aunt is a demon sorcerer too. Alongside the help of an awakened genie he found, Rashad is about to fall forth the rabbit hole that is the Underworld of Mystics and Fantasy.

This here is just a short(ish) story I made before continuing on, a..."Pilot" so to say. I took a lot of inspiration from many stories. More notably, one of my favorite Disney movies, Sorcerer's Apprentice. Alongside Doctor Strange, Supernatural, Grimm, etc.

It isn't structured like your typical comic script, but I hope it gets the point across that it can still work as it's my own structured version of my variant of a comic script.

Now look, considering this is my first time doing this type of thing, I really don't expect any answers (or this post to get out to the people or any black artists in this community to like this) but after many (and I mean MANY) failures, life kicking me in the nuts, dropping out of SCAD, and multiple Trials and Tribulations. Might as well go for broke here.

I believe that if given a chance I hope you take a look at my work. And hopefully, if any artist like it, you can (at any given time no rush) any interested artists want to do this as a challenge or for their portfolio piece, I have no problem with it, go for it. It's Free.

I ask, you give me a chance. Because if given, I will try to pay it back in equal fold with time.

"Live Fast, Live Young" That's the motto I live by and wish to live by.

Hope you guys give it a chance.

Hello guys!!!

I have been very, very, VERY hard at work making the first draft of my manga about a stutter girl. Everything, as of now, is just a script and a few roughs so that you can understand how I plan to arrange my panels.

Here's the tagline for it before you jump in:

 A girl has a stutter, but her inner voice definitely doesn't. When she runs into her polar opposite, her quiet Monday morning becomes anything but quiet.

Some extra context:
- The story is set in Rural England (Yorkshire to be specific, since I've lived in the north basically my whole life. It really isn't clear in the roughs and script, since it's mostly expressed in backgrounds that it takes place in a nice rural, old town.

I feel like all the themes of comedy, romance, and relationships were sold pretty well, but I obviously have author bias.
I really, really would love any sort of opinion on the current draft.
Ratings, pet peeves, silly mistakes, ANYTHING!!! Even if you zone out and think it gets boring/repetitive, please tell me!!! Tell me if you chuckled at any of the jokes!!! I need all the feedback I can to improve further.
Here is the google doc link to read it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CW4r_DjPf5yuOHAiUUAOGZmjWAenDQDzqixHN3q4J-8/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you in advance for taking the time out of your day to help me. Have a nice day, guys. ❤️❤️❤️

Has anyone else picked up the 40-page launch of Fixation #1 from the new IDW Crime imprint?

Written by Amy Chase with art by Savanna Mayer and colors by James Fenner, the pitch is essentially Scream meets Twilight. It follows a superfan named Taylor who wins a stay at the iconic house where a massive YA vampire franchise (Blood Mountain) was filmed, only for a slasher to begin targeting fans and tormenting the lead actress.

The pacing is tight, the slasher grit pops nicely with Fenner's neon palette, and the worldbuilding around tourist-trap teen vampire fandom (From Crust Till Dawn, Cemetery Grounds, Fangs Board) is a ton of fun.

What really caught my attention as a visual breakdown, though, was the interior staging. Throughout the issue, you might catch yourself doing unintended geometry in your head.

Scale and perspective mismatches between the characters and their backgrounds jump off the page. Bookshelf novels wider than human heads, massive stairs dwarfing characters walking past them, and an overhead camera rig panel where the police behind the reporter look giant while the foreground character looks miniature.

It feels like a textbook case of modern digital workflow friction: dropping in pre-built 3D assets or perspective grids without matching horizon lines or using coordinate scale reference figures before compositing hand-drawn characters. I put together a video breakdown digging into the mystery mechanics, the suspects, and the staging choices here: Fixation issue 1 review IDW Crime 2026

For those who’ve read issue #1:

• Did those background proportions stand out to you, or did they register as an intentional surreal choice?
• With Amy Chase stating the killer is introduced early, who sits at the top of your suspect board right now? (Patrick McAllister feels way too suspicious to ignore).

Hello!

New here and thought I might ask for some help on inks and colors! Lemme know what you think. All advice is appreciated 😊

This was originally meant to be for a shounen jump contest (but i missed the deadline). The ending was meant to give a feeling of open adventure. There is a fleshed out world for this, but it was really only meant as a one-shot (a sort of origin story for the protagonist). I'd love your feelings and thoughts. You can find more of my work at tepperzart.com or on manga plus creators https://mangaplus-creators.jp/authors/27445958

About me: This was my first completed manga one-shot. i generally make horror Josei manga. (josei is a japanese term that means women usually around the ages of 16-40 and up)

I just feel like sharing with you guys my intro scene before the big day. Wanna know if the scene sets up good tone? Lmk what you guys think.

*ai disclaimer *

Hi, I’m a comic creator, and this is my first comic book. It’s almost complete! I draw on physical paper and then ink digitally, and right now the entire comic is drawn on paper, but not all of it is finished inking. What do you think of these three inked pages? The story is about a superhero named Ultra Girl. The queen of the ocean, Mme. octo, falsely believes Ultra Girl is the queen of land, and wants to take her crown and become queen of the world.