Before you start
You need a story idea (one paragraph is enough) and credits: about 300 for a 12-page book, or 600 to 700 for 24 pages. You do not need to design characters or write prompts.
Step 1 - Describe your comic
Open Graphic Novel Studio and click New graphic novel. On Tell me about your comic, give it a Title and write a paragraph in Story idea. Example:
A lighthouse keeper on a remote island finds a message in a bottle from their own future self, warning of a catastrophe they are somehow meant to cause.
Optionally pick an Art style tile, the number of Pages, and a Genre. Leave them blank and Sonnet chooses.
Click Build my comic (5 cr). Sonnet writes the full brief below: premise, setting, tone, chapter outline, key scenes and a described cast.
Step 2 - Review the brief
Edit anything. Then check the settings:
- Page format (2:3 Comic or 4:5 Instagram) and Bubble & Caption Style are locked once the project is created. Pick them now.
- Image Model: keep the default (GPT Image 1.5 panels + GPT Image 2 cover, 9 cr a panel) for most books, or choose GPT Image 2.5 (also 9 cr) for the best quality when you do not mind waiting longer.
- Content Rating: All Ages, Teen or Mature.
Estimate Cost shows the expected total. It usually comes in above the real cost, because it assumes four panels a page.
Click Create Project & Define Characters.
Step 3 - Approve your cast
Each character is a card. Pick 1 to 4 images per roll and click Generate (6 cr per image), or Generate All References for everyone at once. Rerolls add to your options; click the one you want to approve it.
Close but not quite? Type what should change in the note box ("shorter hair", "add glasses") and roll again: the new images are edits of the picture you picked. You can also Upload Image or Import from Library.
The approved picture is sent with every panel that character appears in, so get it right here. Then click Next: Generate Script.
Step 4 - Script
Claude writes every page and panel in a couple of minutes. Edit any scene, dialogue line or caption, or change a page's Layout. Click Save Edits before you leave the step; nothing there autosaves. Then click Next: Generate Art.
Step 5 - Draw the panels
Click Generate All Panels. Each panel takes about 1.5 to 6 minutes, one at a time, so a 12-page book takes around an hour. You can close the tab; it keeps drawing, and the progress comes back when you reopen the book.
You pay 9 credits for each panel that is drawn. A failed panel is not charged, and the button changes to Redraw N failed; click it to draw only those again. To change one panel, click Redo, reword it, and choose Regenerate with New Prompt.
Step 6 - Assemble and export
Click Next: Assembly, then Assemble All Pages. It is free and takes a few seconds a page. Open Reader to page through the book, and Reassemble any page after a change.
Click Next: Export and download a PDF, EPUB (Kindle), CBZ (comic readers), or the Bundle with everything.
Troubleshooting
- A panel keeps failing. The image service's content filter may be refusing the scene. Reword it with Redo. The filter is strict about close physical contact between an adult and a child character.
- The run stopped with panels left. Your balance ran out or the server restarted. Top up if needed and click Generate again; it carries on where it stopped.
- The book says Pages missing. A page has no assembled art. Redraw its failed panel, then Reassemble that page.