Ink limits are settings in photoshop that determine how an image is converted to CMYK frmo RGB, LAB or other color models. There are two different ink limits, Total Ink Limit (TIL), and Black Ink Limit (BIL).

How is this relevant? If you're printing on newsprint or low grade paper, then you have a lower TIL, usually 220-240. When colors are converted from RGB to CMYK, no area will have colors (CMYK) whose total inks in any spot go over your TIL. Higher grades of paper can take higher TILs.

BILs determine how much K-tones are generated when you convert a file. This is determined by several things. One, the paper quality - the better the paper, the more K-tones you can have when converting files, and also the coloring style: whether it is coloring over inked art, or full digital painting. The later needs more K-tones, while inked pages do not.

K-tones are the Black ink in a CMYK file. Black is called 'K' in order not to confuse it with Blue. Because comics are printed on a wide variety of paper, and some times on high-quality newsprint, having too much K-tone will give your colors a muddy, de saturated appearance, even when the colors look great on your screen.

This is because of a process called Dot Gain.... paper is like a sponge - it absorbs ink, and the ink tends to spread. Think of it like using a sharpie marker on newsprint. Even though you only touch the tip to the news print, the size of the dot the Sharpie makes is always bigger than the tip of the marker.

On the other hand, using really good paper stock, such as a glossy, clay-coated paper used for comic book covers, has very little dot gain. You can think of this as using that same Sharpie marker on waxed paper - the size of the dot is almost exactly the size of the marker tip - it doesn't spread at all.

The same happens with printing. You can use higher K-tones on a cover that's printed on good paper stock without getting that muddy, de-saturated appearance. The downside to using this kind of paper for interiors is the cost. It's much more expensive than the regular paper used for the interiors of comic books.

A general rule of thumb is no more than 15% K-tones when coloring interiors, and less is always better.

Color holds are where you take the Black lineart and change areas of the lineart to color. Instead of being black, the lineart now ‘holds color.’ This can be done for a variety of reasons, from special FX to creating aerial perspective by pushing lineart back.

Below, you can see a page I colored from Superman Strength #3. The top shows the art without color holds, while the bottom half shows the color holds on the engine exhaust and background dust clouds.

I use iPhoto 6 to keep track of all my reference photos. All 3,100+ photos, screen captures of DVD movies and TV shows. I keep photos sorted by albums and Folders, and also use Keywords to sort them. For instance, if I click on 'Women', iPhotos only displays photos with the keyword 'Women' from that Folder, Album, or Library.

Snapz Pro X 2.02 is a great screen capture program for use with capturing images from DVDs.

Poser 6 - great for making quick references for lighting on faces when you don't have a pic that matches what you need.

Retrospect 6.1 and a 400 GB external drive for backing up all my files on a daily basis.

I also have an APC Battery Backup. In the event of a power failure, this allows me to keep working for about 40 minutes. More than long enough to save files I am working on and transfer them to my laptop, where I can work of the batteries for a few hours. Hopefully the power is never out long enough for the batteries to run out.