The other is Comic Book Magic, targeted to graphic novelists. This automates colouring and adds some basic movement to frames, like billowing smoke or a waving hand. This one will go for less than $100.

"For people who do comics, their main concern is dialogue. They don't want to spend too much time on drawing," Vogelesang said.

This new program also responds to the comic book's emancipation from ink and paper. Web-based comics have enjoyed cult followings since the Internet's inception. A "Publish" button in the program asks the user to which medium the work is destined: iPods, PlayStation Portables, YouTube or mobile phones.

This also gives Toon Boom a passage into the Web, one of the last remaining strongholds of a rival program, Macromedia Flash.

The company is confident. Chief operating officer Stephen Chu said the most frequent comment he heard from test volunteers was: "With this I don't need to use Flash anymore."

Labels: let's get technical, Quebec, tools of the trade