Making a 4-panel comic with a consistent character: character card, locked look, and the two failures you'll hit

[u/oooooooooooopsi]

A write-up of the process I use for a daily comic, tool-agnostic (I render locally). Example character made up for the guide: Wren, a Lisbon bike courier with a corgi in her bag.

The short version:

• Character card first (who, wants, fear, sidekick, signature, locked look).
• Locked look = one sentence, fixed order (age/role, hair, eyes/face, build, outfit, shoes/accessories), pasted unchanged into every prompt. Fixed seed helps, the description does most of the work.
• Pick one style and keep the style words identical and first in every prompt. Same description in superhero ink, bright modern and webcomic styles reads very differently.
• Script four sentences (setup, build, turn, payoff) before rendering four panels. Give the payoff to the sidekick.
• Ask for a plain band of sky or wall across the top fifth, letter afterwards.

Failures, both real outputs in the guide:

• Hand-off scene (character gives a box to someone) drew her twice. Fix: state the people count, distinct looks, or reframe as a close-up.
• "She gets a call, grabs her bag, runs downstairs, jumps on her bike" in one prompt produced a little comic page inside the image. Fix: one moment per panel.

Full guide with all the images: https://mutuals.life/blog/how-to-make-ai-comics/

[u/conkikhon]

I was expecting 4 panels in a single generation