Planet Wide Comics Comic Book Creator Reviews

• I wanted to like this, but it was too limiting

  
  By A3MU0PLWG9VQVV on 2006-06-14
  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.
  
  

• A good value introduction.

  
  By APPG3AAIJLF1 on 2006-07-14
  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!
  
  

• Simple & Cheap expression

  
  By ATS1HA5M3EPZ4 on 2006-11-29
  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.
  
  

• Watch out for that license!

  
  By A20SOQSV33LHB4 on 2007-01-23
  If you read the license, you find that you probably give away rights to anything you use in a comic book. It also looks like you can't give away copies of comics you print, certainly can't sell them, and can't let others copy them.
  
  Unless you want your child's face on a cereal box without your permission, you probably don't want this software.
  
  

• What a wonderful new toy! What a great tool!

  
  By A1215EZ09VI38D on 2005-11-29
  While comic book creator is a great amusement, it looks like it could actually be quite useful in creating readable, printable comics. Beyond comics it is quite a useful educational tool for learning visual storytelling. To me this means things like advertising, instructional aids and movie story boards.
  This is pretty easy to use: if I can figure it it out and start using it write away, certainly a child can!
  
  
• Awesome Program!
  By A1MFLQ8PI0JJZ on 2005-12-08
  Have you ever wanted to make your own comic books? I sure have and Comic Book Creator makes it happen!
  
  All of the best page layouts are right in the program so you can visualize what you want on the page right there. Talk about a great aid to storytelling.
  
  Can't draw? Neither can I. Comic Book Creator comes with great art (and don't forget the booster packs)! You can also import art so your magnum opus will look just right.
  
  And this program isn't just for making comic books from your favorite MMORPGs. I am putting together a brochure for my nonprofit animal rescue.
  
  If you want to make comic books get this program.
  
  
• Very Good for The Price
  By A3U8GDO6BCGXZM on 2007-04-05
  I bought this to use with family photos and threw together my first 5 page comic last night. It was fairly easy to use, but not perfect. Instructions are thin (read 'mostly nonexistant'); so it is best that you either have time on your hand OR a lot of experience using complex photo software.
  
  GOOD: Simple once you get the hang of it. Plenty of fixed comic book panel formats to chose from and the drag-and-drop photo application makes life very easy. As long as you are OK with the formats provided, then putting family photos into a fun comic book format is incredibly easy. I received rave reviews from my first 'comic' and the finished product was of exceptional quality. The sofware has a nice assortment of boxes, call-outs and even some fun clip art. This was a great buy for the price.
  
  NOT AS GOOD: The learning curve can be steep due to the quirky layout of controls. I guess this is not too bad of an issue since there are few controls provided with the software. The "dude" who wrote instructions was flippant at best (really annoying if you want to find a basic answer) and definitely not paid to produce a quality product. Downloading photos was tough until I found out the trick - after that, it is quite easy.
  
  BAD: No photo editing software included. Simple things like rotating photos 90 degrees had to be done prior to loading into Comic Book Creator. The instructions and "Comic Book Wizard" are close to useless. Did I mention the controls? They are basic (good and bad) and poorly laid out (bad). There is no ability to truly customize panel layouts; so this software will not help out if you want something really creative. (Diagonals, overlays and more.)
  
  All-in-all, this was an excellent buy for a software package under $20. I created a great storyboard format of some fun memories - bringing a great laugh (and a few "wows") to my family, grandparents and friends. Just be aware that there is a learning curve to get over before you hit the fun stuff. If the software was more expensive, then I would have given it 3 stars.
  
  
• Right on the money....
  By ARX8D2NT0QBS9 on 2005-12-16
  This program is phenomenal. It is a fantastic tool for anyone interested in comics, art, storyboarding, advertising, education. This thing runs the gauntlet and survives. It is everything I have been looking for and more. If you can use email you can use this product. Thank you Santa......!!!
  
  
• Caution!
  By A2061AC3J8K8JW on 2006-02-22
  Go to the company's website and check out their forums. There's nothing but problems with this program. I have it and I'me very dissatisfied. The layout and tools work very well, but when it comes to actually turning out a finished product in any format (jpg, pdf or bmp) I've have NO success. I've waited paitently through 3 versions of the program with no improvements in this area.
  
  
• Try the demo before you buy
  By A23AGMSWEUGUQ3 on 2006-02-27
  Pros: very easy to use
  
  Cons: Very simplistic, few menu options, limited number of included images.
  
  As an amateur Photoshop user, I found this software too limited to do anything useful. I downloaded the demo version from the manufacturer's web site, and tried to make a sample Sci-Fi comic page.
  
  None of the included background images were even remotely useful. So I decided to skip the background and look for some clip-art characters to use. Again, there wasn't much of a selection.
  
  If you've used Photoshop at all, CBC has very limited usefulness. If you're into designing your own online art, I would recommend Photoshop Elements 2.0 (~$100).
  
  
• What took so long?
  By A1BR6CJY339PG6 on 2005-11-25
  I've been looking for someing like Comic Book Creator for the past decade. I've been forced to use "Quark" to creat my comics, and that cost over $800. CBC costs less than twenty, and it took me under ten minutes to put together an entire comic book.
  
  
• Great!
  By on 2005-12-03
  this comic book creator is awsome i can finnaly create my stick figure comics without hand writing and drawing them with a pencil! its worth buying!
  
  
• More info about the end-user license
  By ASUVM8CKKT138 on 2007-02-16
  Actually, Comic Book Creator lets you use your content in a million different ways, including reselling of your work. The only limitation is that you can't sell comics created around branded content--like images from Marvel, Paramount, TOKYOPOP, etc.--because they don't allow that. It's all in the user agreement. Check it out!
  
  
• Does NOT natively work with World of Warcraft
  By A1BUEVQGKNCVTY on 2006-12-27
  If you want to use it with World of Warcraft (which I imagine LOTS of people might like to do), you'll need to convert every screenshot you take into one of this programs native formats (.jpg, .bmp, or .gif). These are very standard formats and I guess Blizzard deserves some of the blame for saving all screenshots (in the Windows version) as .TGA files (a not-quite-so-standard format). But I have NO IDEA what they were thinking, releasing an app for making your own comics out of screenshots and not including native functionality for the most massively hugely popular Role Playing game EVER! Support .TGA files and the app would be really fun and useful. I didn't use it enough to objectively rate the functionality if you want this software for other games besides WoW. Seems decent, I think.
  
  
• Great service and good product
  By A2HLHIFL171GFE on 2007-02-05
  I bought this for my grandson for Christmas. He was so excited about it that he left his other gifts in order to try it.
  
  
• Comic Book Creator Creativity
  By A2V8RISSYGQ7UR on 2006-08-26
  This is a great program. Once installed get the update from their website. If you ever had the dream of making your own comic book to express yourself, try this to get started. What's cool, if you can't draw you can use clipart and your own photos. I highly recommend having a good graphics program like Paintshop Pro or Gimp or Photoshop to edit your photos,art,etc.
  
  
• In Stock? Not True!
  By ALT2YHMY74GTJ on 2006-12-21
  Don't expect to receive this by Christmas even though it says "in stock". I ordered this on Dec. 14th and just received word today, the 20th, that it is not expected to ship until the end of January, early February. So if you need it for a specific occasion, don't count on it getting there in time!
  
  
• directions would be nice
  By A12I0WK0P376HJ on 2007-02-01
  I am not computer savvy, so when I bought this for my son, it was because reviews showed it to be simple to use. However, no directions come in the box and the on line help doesn't answer my questions. luckily, through trial and error we have been able to figure most of the features outand are finally having fun!
  
  
• Just stop right now
  By A1PCV0JXRYHYCJ on 2007-05-13
  PLEASE don't waste your time and money on this WORTHLESS program. I mean, it's "okay" if you're looking to mess around and make something cute. But if you are little serious and looking for a quality product, this is the wrong place. It was hard to use and there aren't a lot of features that make it worth while.
  
  
• Fun program- very useful for the price
  By A6LECYTRKHE0A on 2007-06-03
  This is a really fun program. It only costs around $20, so it was definately worth a try. I found it extremely easy to use, but there are a few features you have to play with to find. After fiddling with it, you will find there is more to this little program than you first thought. If you are looking to make classic comics, there are a lot of templates. I found that I wanted to make some more unusual panels, so I would actually make them in my Illustrator program, add the art and then place the whole thing as a JPEG file into a single page panel in the CCBC program. This is not a program where you create art- it simply provides the pages and panels. You put your own images in the boxes. You should check out Manga Studio or Comic Works if you are looking for a manga drawing program. There are also very limited speech and thought bubbles. This is why I didn't give the program all 5 stars. I have to work a bit to make manga style spreads. The same company is working with TokyoPop to put out a Manga Creator program. I am waiting anxiously for the release! That one probably has the speech and thought rings and bubbles I like.
  You can make some cute digital scrapbook pages with the CCBC as well.
  
  

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