One of the fastest ways to get started creating comic strips is to start with a blank comic strip template.

What is a blank comic strip template?

A blank comic strip template is a file created in a image editing software such as Photoshop or illustrator that is set up to standard comp strip sizes. These standards are typically set by newspapers since that is where most comic strips have historically lived.

Where can I get a blank comic strip template?

Right here! We have a standard 4 panel template for you to use right here in this post. The dimensions of the whole strip is 3×10 inches. The jpg is 300 dpi which comes to 900×3000 pixels. These can be printed if you prefer to draw them by hand.

Here is a JPEG of a 4 panel blank comic strip.

Here is a PDF of a 4 panel blank comic strip.

Do you remember when you read the comics every day? I do and I miss it a ton.

I remember tearing open the paper to read the latest Far Side, something that was more important to me than the news itself.

In thinking back to those days, I had this very intimate connection with Gary Larson and the Far side: it was as if it was its own community. Gary, like me and many of my friends who loved the strip, was a math/science geek (I cried during the Calculus epic Stand and Deliver - need I say more?). His humor had a special appeal for those of us who found humor in the absurd which, after all, is what being a geek is about. At a time when geekiness was the butt of most jokes, it was vinidcating to have one of own out there in black and white (and color on Sundays) for the world to see.

(I still laugh with my friends when we talk about classic Far Sides like the one where the wife amoeba yells at her husband “Stimulus, Response! Stimulus, Response! Don’t you ever think?”)

I laughed and knew that others laughed with me. Really, The Far Side was a community gathered around the daily newspapers of the world.

But I don’t do that anymore. Why? Partially time (I’m a Dad now and have little time for anything), partially habits (I don’t read newspapers anymore), but also because I just haven’t found my strip. I haven’t found my new Far Side.

Where has it gone?

Last month, I blogged about newspaper syndication, explaining what it is and giving them some praise. However, the system is faulty more than it is supportive of the cartoonist, the newspaper and the syndicate itself. Why is this? Simply because the business of newspapers comic strips has changed over the decades, even before the internet. Syndication was in fact a pretty good system at one point and parts of it still are.

Though the business has changed, the syndication system has not adapted well. The result is not so much in how comic strips are distributed, rather in what has happened to the funny pages. They have become stagnant with a lack of fresh new comic strips.

A business must grow to not only succeed, but to survive. Growth comes from continuous higher returns. The life of a comic strip used to end when a cartoonist retires or dies. The result is a sudden loss of income for the syndicate. But this provides a great opportunity to introduce a new strip, right? The problem is that the new strip cannot make as much money as the old strip, because it takes time for the new one to gain popularity and readership. This is then a financial loss for the syndicate. Their growth is stunted.

The syndicate’s answer to this problem is to continue the old strip as either reruns or under penmanship of a new cartoonist. This way, they avoid having to take a loss and can at least keep their current level of income from that strip, even if it is no longer substantially gaining readership because it’s like 30+ years old! Throw into the mix several syndicates competing for that rare open slot and you have a tough situation. Newspapers, cartoonists and you, the readers suffer.

Do you think there is a better answer? Let me ask you my dear blog readers, what do you think can re-ignite the funny pages, the same old comic strips or fresh new ones?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Charles Schulz died on Feb. 12, 2000. He personally wrote and drew every single Peanuts comic strip without an assistant for nearly 50 years. His death should have marked the end of Peanuts’ syndication.

Now I know what you’re asking. “But Marilla, don’t lots of comics continue after an artist’s death?” Yes they do and unfortunately, it is quite common. However in these cases, another artist picks up the brush and continues the saga. Schulz’s personal dedication to his craft would have been quite dishonored if someone else were allowed to continue the strip.

The newspapers, so fearful of losing readership don’t want to give up the immensely popular Peanuts whom millions of readers adore. United Feature Syndicate distributed it to thousands of newspapers for decades, certainly one of their top money-makers. Afraid to lose that revenue, they (along with Schulz’s estate) decide to reprint old strips as “Classic Peanuts”. This is what you see in the papers today.

Now here is the main reason why this is bad for the funny pages: There is less room for new comics! How are they (syndicates and newspapers) to find the next Peanuts level success if they limit their opportunities? Do they plan on running Classic Peanuts for another 50 years? How deep in fear will they get before readers simply get tired of rerun comics? Has this terrible precedent been set and will we one day be reading Vintage Doonesbury, Retro Ziggy, Antique Garfield and Archaic Dilbert?