I’m considering starting a webcomic and I think my work would be greatly enhanced if I found the right software for jazzing up my drawings. Does anyone use this type of software? Any good recommendations?
I imagine Photoshop/Paintshop Pro are the standard choices. Maybe GIMP if you want something free and dont believe in piracy.
For comic drawing, you want to go with a vector based application. So CorelDraw or Adobe Ilustrator. I would reccomend Illustrator. It is included in Adobe CS3. There is a free vector drawing software called DrawPlus but I have never used it:
I’m considering starting a webcomic and I think my work would be greatly enhanced if I found the right software for jazzing up my drawings. Does anyone use this type of software?
For raster-type image editing and drawing (as opposed to vector drawing and editing, for which there is other excellent software), there are two pieces of software that professionals and amateurs use alike: Corel Painter, and Adobe Photoshop. Many use these programs side-by-side, as both can do some things the other can’t. For drawing and painting purposes, however, both accomplish pretty much the same thing, in slightly different ways.
These programs are really amazing, and you can do things with images and drawing on the computer that you probably hadn’t thought possible. Any artist who is deeply familiar with these programs can draw or paint in a fraction of the time it would take him on an actual canvas.
To be successful, however, you’re going to need to learn. And, of course, you need the software. New versions are expensive, but slightly older versions you can often get at good discounts on eBay (50-70% the present version’s price). And you will unquestionably need a Wacom tablet, older versions of which, again, you can find on eBay and which should serve your initial purposes just fine. A tablet is not really optional. With a regular mouse you get no pressure sensitivity, which makes drawing with a computer pointless. They take about an hour’s getting used to, but they are also a hell of a lot of fun; really neat. And again, essential.
As for Gimp, I wouldn’t recommend it unless your goal is to just get a taste for what computer drawing programs can do.
I see Kevin has suggested vector programs (the two he listed are the standards), but that depends on how you’d like your comic to look. If you’re going for nice, clean lines, you would start in a vector program and use a raster program to color and otherwise enhance the aesthetic afterward. I’m not gong to lie: if drawing a comic is your goal and you don’t know much about the software as yet, you’ve got a lot of learning to do! 
Here is an example of using Photoshop. Note, he starts with a rough sketch and scans it into his computer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0hg7nSNz4A
If you want something high tech and have some money, you might want to look at drawing tablets , which means not having to use a mouse. Drawing with a mouse is like drawing with a potato. This should give you a good idea of what you can do and the tools that are used.
This is a Wacom Cintiq 21ux drawing tablet. This guy is good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE2APo\_EORQ
The final part. He adds coloring here:
Paint.net is free, open source, and Microsoft-backed drawing / image manipulation software.
but that depends on how you’d like your comic to look
Yes, I should have mentioned that vector based is usually the standard for manga style. So ultimately Jaskn is right. It depends on what style you intend to use.
Cool. I’m looking into getting a new computer, also, so it seems like an opportune time to pick up Photoshop and a tablet.