On the morning she turns eight, Maya finds a map under her pillow that leads to a door in the garden wall — and behind it, a kingdom that has been waiting eight years for her birthday.
In the Storybook Gouache look
Start with this ideaFor a birthday
A birthday comic starring your kid.Make them the hero of their own comic.
Put the birthday kid at the centre of the story: their face, their best friend, the dog, the thing they're obsessed with this year. Panel & Ink draws them in a look you pick and writes an adventure around them, rated Everyone so the whole party can read it.
How it goes
Four steps to issue #1.
- The premise
Write the adventure around them: the birthday knight, the space captain turning nine, the detective who finds the missing cake. Choose Everyone as the rating on the first step — warm, kid-safe, nothing frightening.
- The look
Storybook Gouache for the little ones, Silver-Age Halftone for a superhero, Webtoon Colour for the kid who reads comics on a phone.
- The cast
Add a photo of the birthday kid to their model sheet — and of anyone else who should be in it, with their permission — and each is drawn in the look from their photo.
- The issue
Issue #1 is written and drawn around them. Review the panels, ask for another take on any that miss, then download it to play at the party or send round the family.
Start from one of these
Make one of these yours.
Press start and the premise lands in the box of a new comic with its look already picked. Change every word, or the look, before anything is drawn.
No. 1 No. 2 Leo, who turns six today, is secretly the captain of a spaceship disguised as his bunk bed, and every issue the crew lands on a planet nobody has charted.
In the Silver-Age Halftone look
Start with this idea
Looks that suit it
Draw it in one of these.
Or in any of the twenty-eight. A comic picks one look on its second step, and every panel of every issue keeps it.
Storybook Gouachesoft painted picture-book 
Silver-Age Halftonebold ink, halftone dots, bright primaries 
Sunday Funniessimple round cartoons, soft colour 
Webtoon Colourglossy digital colour, soft glow
The letters page
Questions, answered.
Can I use a photo of my child?
Yes, when it's yours to use. Every photo asks you to confirm you have permission for anyone in it, and an Everyone rating keeps the story kid-safe.
Who makes the account — me or my kid?
You do. Accounts are for people 13 and over, so a parent or another grown-up makes the comic and shares it.
How do we share it?
Download it. A finished issue downloads as a narrated video with music, or as its panels in a zip with the captions.
More to make