Many people commented that they liked my comic illustrations and asked how I create them. Here is my process:
- Paste a reusable prompt fragment that’ll take any content, think about what to draw, then draw it.
- Paste a style variation for different comic styles (optional).
- Paste the content itself and run it.
I use ChatGPT with gpt-image-2 more often than Gemini with Nano banana 2.
Here are the prompts.
STEP 1: Reusable Prompt Fragment: I have a few of these right now:
Draw this as a full-color explainer comic page (portrait) - sequential explanation, friendly narrator, diagrams embedded inside panels, visual metaphors, self-aware captions, and clear cause-and-effect storytelling.
Style: expressive characters, comic-style ALL CAPS, vibrant modern colors, clear visual hierarchy.
Prefer pictures over words. Use recurring visual metaphors so the reader understands the idea even while skimming.
First, write a memorable storyline that captures the most important points to convey - as a single cohesive story.
Just reading the storyline should communicate the entire message unambiguously.
Critique the storyline: what is confusing, doesn't flow, or has low impact? Revise. Repeat until the storyline is GOOD!
Draw each storyline element (typically a sentence, but sometimes a continued phrase, or multiple sentences) as a panel's caption. (If there are 8 panels, there must be 8 storyline elements)
Each panel's image should support and strengthen its caption - and reinforcing past panels / anticipating future panels where helpful.
Example:
Draw this as a simple black and white line drawing comic strip (1:1) with minimal shading.
Single panel.
Style: expressive characters, comic-style ALL CAPS.
Prefer pictures over words.
No need to cover everything - just one key item is enough - e.g. the funniest, most important, or most surprising point.
Convey the INTENT of the point. An apt analogy that visually communicates instantly might work better than a literal depiction.
Keep it funny. The strip itself should make readers laugh.
Example:
STEP 2: Style Variation: This is optional. Here are examples of a few different styles:
These are cataloged in my LLM Art Style gallery (see blog post).
STEP 3: Paste whatever content I want to illustrate. Some examples are:
- Transcripts of my talk
- Contents of my blog post
- An email reply I’m sending
The main insight is that ChatGPT and Gemini can think about what best to draw, and then draw it. So I can, with some careful prompting, delegate the comic design to them for any content, making this an automatable flow.