I have never considered myself a comics geek, but they have definitely had an influence on me - from my Manga purple hair like Futurama's Leela to the name of our label TMet Recordings as an homage to Transmetropolitan.

As a child, comics were a rare and lurid treat for me. I would go to the dentist early so I could sit and devour The Beano.I have never considered myself a comics geek, but they have definitely had an influence on me - from my Manga purple hair like Futurama's Leela to the name of our label TMet Recordings as an homage to Transmetropolitan.

As a child, comics were a rare and lurid treat for me. I would go to the dentist early so I could sit and devour The Beano.One summer I discovered a box of 2000AD, and was instantly immersed in a world of megacities, robot warriors and genetic modification. A world not too far away from the one we live in today, as it happens - most reality TV is ripped straight from the pages of Judge Dredd. I wonder how long it will be before we see a real life trend for celebrity make-unders?

But not all comics are tall tales for small people. In Japan, there is a huge comic culture with a myriad of sub-genres, and it's not unusual to see adults reading comics in public.

There's also some serious money in comics and their more grown-up sibling, the graphic novel. Graphic novel sales in comic stores grew by 33% over the last year in the US.

Of course comics are not just for laughs - they provide a universal language, where only the speech bubbles need to change, and can be used to convey serious information. The US 9/11 report was converted into a graphical format because, as the authors Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon explain, "In a culture that has become the most visually oriented in the history of humankind, comics retain the original concept of storytelling and remain a potent force of information".

Comics are also now being employed in user experience design for websites and interactive technologies.

Popular net comic XKCD proves that you don't have to be able to draw more than a stick man to write a great comic. The XKCD Map of Online Communities is one of the funniest and most accurate maps of cyberspace I've ever seen. Apparently I spend most of my time on the islands below the Ocean of Subculture, and above the Sea of Memes.

Essentially a large comic, storyboards are used by filmmakers to plan every frame of a movie, and is one of the key stages of development. So if your ultimate ambition is to tell your stories on the big screen, then try sketching them out first as a storyboard. Atomic Learning provides a free shareware tool called StoryBoard Pro, along with some useful tutorials for aspiring directors.

In 1975 a famous Disney artist wrote the definitive Comic Strip Artist's Kit which is still useful today. About.com has some good links to Drawing Cartoons, Comics, Manga and Anime. Comic Depot also has a list of comic book publishers, for print, mobile and web comics. As comics and graphic novels can be distributed digitally, there's plenty of scope for new writers and artists on the small screens.

So if you want to start somewhere with your comic career, then head to Stripgenerator and send me the results!

2/8/07

As well as being TBI's strategist, Helen Baxter a.k.a. MsBehaviour runs dance-music label TMet Recordings, 3D animation company Mohawk Media and has a fortnightly slot on National Radio called 'Virtual World'.