PENS - I tend to use Sakura Micron Pens which provide a wide range of pen tip sizes as well as a brush pen (which I use to make the shiny bits for characters with black hair). These pens may be obtained from an Office Max or Office Depot, though they generally do not have all of the sizes. I have found that Dick Blick has everything I need readily available though I am certain you will be able to find them in any art supply shop.

PAPER - What I use for illustrating Red String (since chapter twenty-one) is DELETER TYPE-A Size B4 paper. This is standard manga format paper, though you can also get standard comic pamphlet size paper as well. You can get it from places like Japanimation but don't limit yourself to any one paper. Sometimes for smaller projects I just use 8.5x11 bristol from Office Depot or something.

FINISHING - I use Photoshop for lettering my comics. You can always letter by hand, but I am personally not comfortable with my handwriting. I also use Photoshop for adding screentones to my pages. Screentones are not cheap outside of Japan and applying them by hand is an art form all its own.

SCREENTONES - There are many places to purchase screentones; Japanimation, Akadot Retail are just a few. There are also sites out there that provide FREE screentones. A few free resources are: psychobob's tones, Screentone Depot, and Screentone's gallery.

Choosing what format you work in when creating your comic is a personal decision. Gag-a-day, or newspaper style strips are generally four panels and are placed horizontally. However, you can also choose to do long-format stories in this format, though generally those work better when you draw them like a page out of a comic book. The four panel set up is much easier on readers since there is no scrolling involved, so it tends to keep them in the flow of the story easier. In the end, comics are a pretty free-form media. You can do what feels most comfortable to you.

No matter what, be sure to work large when you scan in your comics!! I cannot emphasize this enough. If you work in 72 dpi your work will be unsuitable for print. You might not think of printing to start off, but if your comic stays afloat for more than a year you might start considering the possibility. Your minimum scan size should be 300 dpi (if you don't know what dpi is then please google it) since that's what print-on-demand printers require. 600 dpi is preferred.

StrawberryComics.com is hosted on Dreamhost.com which is an awesome place for webcomic people. Before I move to their service the best I could find for hosting a graphics heavy site was $150 a month and they would all harass me for excessive bandwidth usage. Dreamhost, on the other hand, charges $9.99 a month and I have no problems with bandwidth. They cater to webcomic people and are very cool.

However, hosting your site yourself means you will need to design your own site or pay someone to do it for you. If you are not ready for this step, there are a lot of free places where you can host your comic. These places already have a built-in visitor base and this will definitely help a comic just starting out.
Check out: Drunk Duck, Smack Jeeves, or Comic Genesis.

SITE DESIGN - Those of you brave enough to design and maintain your own website, please look into Joel Fagin's Comic WEBSITE DESIGN TUTORIAL. The information there is invaluable! There is nothing worse than visiting a webcomic with poor design. Make your readers experience the best it can be! He also has a lot of other tutorials including webcomic basics, designing a logo, growing your fan base.

I don't recommend selling merchandise or putting together a book of your collected comics until at least a year of publishing on the web. In fact, until you build your audience you're very unlikely to sell much merchandise anyway. You need to grow your reader base and earn their trust with updates that are on time and a story that holds their interest. If you start shoving merchandise in their face too early they are going to feel awkward. You don't want your readers to feel awkward. It's just... awkward!

BOOKS - If you are a small, unknown author of a webcomic, your best bet is to print through a print-on-demand printer like Ka-blam or Lulu since you are not required to print a large quantity all at once. Print-on-Demand is more expensive per copy of your book, but you don't need to sit on 1000 books or more as you try to sell through them. In order to gauge interest and figure out an appropriate quantity to order, a lot of authors take preorders for their books. Preorders are orders taken BEFORE the book is printed and available. This will also help pay for the initial printing of the book. Preorders should be taken no more than a month before your book goes to the printer or you risk making your customers angry and impatient. Also, whatever happen make sure you get that book printed and off to your customers. I myself have been on the crap end of an author who didn't pull through and I didn't get a refund I will never trust this author again, sadly. Don't destroy your readers trust in you. Follow through with your promises.

If you are going the print-on-demand route (and thus do not plan to have your book in big chain stores since the prince per book is so high) an ISBN and barcode are not really necessary. If you are printing a large batch of books through an offset printer then You can acquire ISBN+Barcodes at: Bowker - My Identifiers

Retail price depends on the cost per unit of your book. If your book costs you $1, charge $2, if it costs $3 you should sell for $6. Usually just above double your cost. This covers costs if you are going to sell your books in stores or through solicitors who require a 50-60% discount on the cover price of the book. The last thing you want to do is be losing money on your book.

T-SHIRTS - This seems to be the bread and butter of a lot of webcomic creators. Finding the design that just clicks with your audience. I have no tips on doing this other than a shirt with wider appeal will sell more. If the shirt is very specific to your comic, you will find it harder to sell to non-readers. For instance, a shirt that reader "I love __your character name__" is way less likely to sell than something that has a funny slogan that anyone on the street could appreciate. Check out other webcomic folks shirts to see what I mean.