Program: Corel Painter IX (and a little bit of Photoshop)
I find painter much more fluid to work with than Photoshop. Perhaps because it is actually for drawing, and not for photos! Still, I plan to continue to work on various images in the hopes of familiarizing myself with the tools at hand.
comics to come? Probably.
sidenote - I know the proportions aren't perfect. after 3 days experimenting with brushes, i wanted to start something else.