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Description
Hey, kids! Do YOU want to make sprite comics the way Jutah does? I can't imagine why you'd want to, but if you do, then listen up, 'cause I'm gonna show you how it's done!
You will need:
One (1) computer
MS Paint
Patience
Imagination

Step 1: Recolouring Sprites

If you wanna recolour sprites, this is the way to do it. Just follow these simple steps to success.
Step 1: Open the sprite sheet in MS Paint.
Step 2: Find the colour on the sprite(s) that you want to change.
Step 3: Use the Pick Color tool (the names of the tools on the left pop up as you mouse over them) to pick up the colour.
Step 4: Find the colour you want to change it to at the bottom, and right-click on it, making it the background colour.
Step 5: Click on the Eraser/Color Eraser tool. Notice how it's the same colour as the background colour? Right-click and drag around the sheet, and only the colour you picked will change!
Step 6: Repeat this for all other colours until your sprite sheet is complete.

Step 2: Creating Panels

Open a new window in MS Paint and draw a single rectangle. Make it longer than it is wide. It doesn't have to be too big, but don't make it too small or you won't be able to fit any text in there! Keep this window open so you can copy and paste the panel - you don't want your panels to be changing size throughout the comic. That'd be silly.

Step 3: Making Your Comic

Now you're ready to start! Got everything you need? Then here we go!
Open up a new window in MS Paint. That's three windows you should have open now: your sprite sheet, your panel, and your comic-to-be. You can use File > Open to select a new sprite sheet if you need to change to one. After that, they'll be listed in the File menu, and you can just click on them to switch.

In your blank window, press CTRL + E, or click on Image > Attributes... This will bring up a dialog box. In the box, change Width and Height to 2500, set the units as Pixels, and set the colors to Colors. 2500x2500 might seem huge, but this gives you a lot of space to work with. You can resize it later by going to the bottom right corner and dragging it to the size you want.

Now, copy and paste your panel into the comic. Put it towards the top left, but not RIGHT at the corner - leave some white space around it. It looks better. Also, when copying and pasting, after you paste something, you might notice a white block around it that won't go away. Well, to get rid of it, you see those two things underneath the toolbar on the left? Click on the bottom one. Presto! The whiteness is gone! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then click on Image and uncheck Draw Opaque.

Open a new window and open the background you want to use in your comic in it. You can switch between backgrounds if need be. Copy and paste your background into the panel, and resize it so that it fits.

Now, to the sprite sheet! Copy and paste the sprite into the comic. Now don't deselect it! Click on Image > Stretch/Skew... (or press CTRL + W) and change Horizontal and Vertical to 200. You must do this with EVERY sprite you put in your comic. If you don't, they'll be tiny, and the main focus will be the background, rather than the characters. Which is NOT A GOOD THING. So ALWAYS do this whenever you put sprites in your comic. Also, remember to uncheck Draw Opaque!
Now drag your sprite over the panel. You may notice sometimes that the background shows through some of the white spaces on the sprite. No fear, there is a way to solve this.
Take the sprite off the panel and fill in the white spaces with some colour that isn't in the background. Bright green is good, since that rarely shows up anywhere. Now, drag the sprite back over the panel, and fill in the spaces with white again! Genius.

Now, to add the text! You'll need to put Draw Opaque on for this. Click the Text tool, and select your font and colour. You may also want to make it bold so it stands out a bit more, and even put a shadow on it. Put the text box at the TOP of the panel. Not at the bottom, not in the middle, at the TOP. This ensures attention will be drawn to it, without it covering any sprites. If it does cover sprites (for example, if a character is jumping or flying), THEN you can put it at the bottom.
Write your text in there. If more than one character is talking, you'll need to make a separate text box for each character, since you can't change part of the text's colour in a single text box - you have to change the colour of the whole thing, unless you go and manually recolour it, which is just lame and stupid and everyone will laugh at you.

Copy and paste another panel, and put it level horizontally with the last one, but leave some space between the panels. Repeat the above steps to make your comic!

Step 4: Things To Watch Out For

Congratulations on making your comic! Here are some things to avoid if you don't want it to look terrible and be mocked and laughed at.

1. Make sure you have a good grasp of the English language (or whatever other language you're writing the dialogue in). Correct spelling and grammar are ESSENTIAL - it's hard to take a comic seriously if the spelling is atrocious. Make sure you know the difference between your (possessive) and you're (contraction of "you are") and their (possessive), there (locative) and they're (contraction of "they are").

2. Avoid copying and pasting loads of panels in order to create an effect of silence. ONE blank panel is enough to signify a pause, stunned silence, whatever. Remember, it's the characters' expressions that tell the story, not the dialogue or lack thereof.

3. Avoid creating your own special effects in MS Paint. I guarantee you 90% of the time they'll turn out looking bad. If you want special effects, use clever combinations of sprites, Photoshop, or draw them by hand.

4. DON'T resize sprites by hand. They'll end up looking really disproportionate. Use the Stretch/Skew... option in the Image menu.

5. Make sure it's clear which character is talking. Either give them a font colour that clearly corresponds to them, or put their name followed by a colon ( : ) before their speech.

6. Don't overfill your panels with text - keep a character's speech to 2 or 3 lines at a time. Remember that comics are supposed to be primarily VISUAL - lots of text would defeat the purpose. If you want to be verbose, write a story. Sometimes lots of text is inevitable with plot moving - in that case, try to space it out throughout the panels, rather than cramming it all into one panel.

7. Serious sprite comics are BAD. Don't do them. As Psy of Fireball20XL said, "I can't feel the death of Sonic's recoloured mother in his 'just standing there' pose". That's not to say it can't have a plot, but keep it funny. It's hard to be tragic with pixels.

That's all, folks! Good luck making your comics! Maybe someday, you'll be better than me!

...Actually, you'll probably be better than me after about two days... >_>

Description
Hey, kids! Do YOU want to make sprite comics the way Jutah does? I can't imagine why you'd want to, but if you do, then listen up, 'cause I'm gonna show you how it's done!
You will need:
One (1) computer
MS Paint
Patience
Imagination

Step 1: Recolouring Sprites

If you wanna recolour sprites, this is the way to do it. Just follow these simple steps to success.
Step 1: Open the sprite sheet in MS Paint.
Step 2: Find the colour on the sprite(s) that you want to change.
Step 3: Use the Pick Color tool (the names of the tools on the left pop up as you mouse over them) to pick up the colour.
Step 4: Find the colour you want to change it to at the bottom, and right-click on it, making it the background colour.
Step 5: Click on the Eraser/Color Eraser tool. Notice how it's the same colour as the background colour? Right-click and drag around the sheet, and only the colour you picked will change!
Step 6: Repeat this for all other colours until your sprite sheet is complete.

Step 2: Creating Panels

Open a new window in MS Paint and draw a single rectangle. Make it longer than it is wide. It doesn't have to be too big, but don't make it too small or you won't be able to fit any text in there! Keep this window open so you can copy and paste the panel - you don't want your panels to be changing size throughout the comic. That'd be silly.

Step 3: Making Your Comic

Now you're ready to start! Got everything you need? Then here we go!
Open up a new window in MS Paint. That's three windows you should have open now: your sprite sheet, your panel, and your comic-to-be. You can use File > Open to select a new sprite sheet if you need to change to one. After that, they'll be listed in the File menu, and you can just click on them to switch.

In your blank window, press CTRL + E, or click on Image > Attributes... This will bring up a dialog box. In the box, change Width and Height to 2500, set the units as Pixels, and set the colors to Colors. 2500x2500 might seem huge, but this gives you a lot of space to work with. You can resize it later by going to the bottom right corner and dragging it to the size you want.

Now, copy and paste your panel into the comic. Put it towards the top left, but not RIGHT at the corner - leave some white space around it. It looks better. Also, when copying and pasting, after you paste something, you might notice a white block around it that won't go away. Well, to get rid of it, you see those two things underneath the toolbar on the left? Click on the bottom one. Presto! The whiteness is gone! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then click on Image and uncheck Draw Opaque.

Open a new window and open the background you want to use in your comic in it. You can switch between backgrounds if need be. Copy and paste your background into the panel, and resize it so that it fits.

Now, to the sprite sheet! Copy and paste the sprite into the comic. Now don't deselect it! Click on Image > Stretch/Skew... (or press CTRL + W) and change Horizontal and Vertical to 200. You must do this with EVERY sprite you put in your comic. If you don't, they'll be tiny, and the main focus will be the background, rather than the characters. Which is NOT A GOOD THING. So ALWAYS do this whenever you put sprites in your comic. Also, remember to uncheck Draw Opaque!
Now drag your sprite over the panel. You may notice sometimes that the background shows through some of the white spaces on the sprite. No fear, there is a way to solve this.
Take the sprite off the panel and fill in the white spaces with some colour that isn't in the background. Bright green is good, since that rarely shows up anywhere. Now, drag the sprite back over the panel, and fill in the spaces with white again! Genius.

Now, to add the text! You'll need to put Draw Opaque on for this. Click the Text tool, and select your font and colour. You may also want to make it bold so it stands out a bit more, and even put a shadow on it. Put the text box at the TOP of the panel. Not at the bottom, not in the middle, at the TOP. This ensures attention will be drawn to it, without it covering any sprites. If it does cover sprites (for example, if a character is jumping or flying), THEN you can put it at the bottom.
Write your text in there. If more than one character is talking, you'll need to make a separate text box for each character, since you can't change part of the text's colour in a single text box - you have to change the colour of the whole thing, unless you go and manually recolour it, which is just lame and stupid and everyone will laugh at you.

Copy and paste another panel, and put it level horizontally with the last one, but leave some space between the panels. Repeat the above steps to make your comic!

Step 4: Things To Watch Out For

Congratulations on making your comic! Here are some things to avoid if you don't want it to look terrible and be mocked and laughed at.

1. Make sure you have a good grasp of the English language (or whatever other language you're writing the dialogue in). Correct spelling and grammar are ESSENTIAL - it's hard to take a comic seriously if the spelling is atrocious. Make sure you know the difference between your (possessive) and you're (contraction of "you are") and their (possessive), there (locative) and they're (contraction of "they are").

2. Avoid copying and pasting loads of panels in order to create an effect of silence. ONE blank panel is enough to signify a pause, stunned silence, whatever. Remember, it's the characters' expressions that tell the story, not the dialogue or lack thereof.

3. Avoid creating your own special effects in MS Paint. I guarantee you 90% of the time they'll turn out looking bad. If you want special effects, use clever combinations of sprites, Photoshop, or draw them by hand.

4. DON'T resize sprites by hand. They'll end up looking really disproportionate. Use the Stretch/Skew... option in the Image menu.

5. Make sure it's clear which character is talking. Either give them a font colour that clearly corresponds to them, or put their name followed by a colon ( : ) before their speech.

6. Don't overfill your panels with text - keep a character's speech to 2 or 3 lines at a time. Remember that comics are supposed to be primarily VISUAL - lots of text would defeat the purpose. If you want to be verbose, write a story. Sometimes lots of text is inevitable with plot moving - in that case, try to space it out throughout the panels, rather than cramming it all into one panel.

7. Serious sprite comics are BAD. Don't do them. As Psy of Fireball20XL said, "I can't feel the death of Sonic's recoloured mother in his 'just standing there' pose". That's not to say it can't have a plot, but keep it funny. It's hard to be tragic with pixels.

That's all, folks! Good luck making your comics! Maybe someday, you'll be better than me!

...Actually, you'll probably be better than me after about two days... >_>