--- license: cc-by-4.0 task_categories: - text-to-image - image-to-image tags: - comic-generation - sdxl - qwen - local-ai - pillow - comfyui - pipeline - ai-comic - public-domain pretty_name: "GritAI Comic Pipeline - AI-Generated Classic Literature Comics" size_categories: - n<1K --- # GritAI Comic Pipeline **One person. Local hardware. 13 complete AI-generated comics in a single day.** A fully local, reproducible pipeline that transforms story descriptions into complete multi-page comic books with panel layouts, character consistency, and dialogue overlays. Zero cloud APIs. Zero subscriptions. Just SDXL + Qwen + Pillow + PowerShell. ## Pipeline Architecture ``` Story JSON → Stage 1 (SDXL Base) → Stage 2 (Qwen Edit) → Stage 3 (Pillow Assembly) → Bubble Renderer → PDF ``` ### Stage 1: SDXL Single Base Generation - Checkpoint: `realcartoonXL_v7` (RealCartoonXL) - Single base image per page using character-consistent prompt - Same `base_seed` across all pages for character consistency - 20 steps, CFG 7, 1024x1536 portrait ### Stage 2: Qwen Parallel Panel Editing - Model: Qwen 2.5 VL (image editing mode) - Takes single base image → branches into N unique panels simultaneously - Each panel gets a unique `edit_prompt` describing the scene - 4 steps, CFG 1 (fast inference) - All panels generated in parallel via ComfyUI API ### Stage 3: Pillow Panel Assembly - Custom Python/Pillow assembler (replaced ComfyUI CR Comic Panel Templates) - 12 layout templates: H2, H3, V2, V3, G22, G33, H12, H21, H13, H31, V12, V21 - Auto-scale and center-crop panels to fill slots exactly - 8px black borders between panels - Assembly time: ~1 second per page (down from 6s with CR node) ### Stage 4: Bubble Renderer - Overlays narration boxes, speech bubbles, and thought bubbles - Reads `text` arrays from story JSON - Position-aware: places bubbles within correct panel boundaries - Three types: narration (rectangular, cream), speech (rounded, white, tail), thought (cloud, dots) - Comic font rendering with word wrap ### Orchestration - `run_story.ps1` — One-command story generation from JSON - `run_comic_pipeline.ps1` — Per-page pipeline execution via ComfyUI API - `pillow_assembler.py` — Panel assembly with layout templates - `bubble_renderer.py` — Dialogue overlay system - Auto-titling with arched gold text - Auto-PDF generation ## Hardware | Node | Specs | Role | |------|-------|------| | Rig1 | RTX 5070 Ti + RTX 3060, Windows | SDXL generation, ComfyUI, dataset staging | | Spark-2693 | NVIDIA DGX Spark, Blackwell, 128GB unified, Linux | Robotics, local LLM inference (future) | ## Output Stats **Produced in a single session:** | Metric | Value | |--------|-------| | Total stories | 13 | | Total pages | 80+ | | Total panels | 230+ | | Layout templates used | 6 (H2, H3, V2, G22, H12, H21) | | Avg time per page | ~1.5 min | | Avg time per 8-page story | ~14 min | | Stories with dialogue | 3 (WotW, Frankenstein, Dracula) | ## Stories All source material is public domain classic literature. | # | Title | Pages | Panels | Template Mix | |---|-------|-------|--------|-------------| | 1 | War of the Worlds - Vol. 1 | 4 | 16 | G22 | | 2 | War of the Worlds - Complete | 8 | 23 | H2, H21, G22, H3, V2, H12 | | 3 | Frankenstein | 8 | 23 | H2, H21, G22, H3, V2, H12 | | 4 | Dracula | 8 | 23 | H2, H21, G22, V2, H3, H12 | | 5 | The Time Machine | 8 | 23 | H2, H21, G22, H3, V2, H12 | | 6 | Jekyll and Hyde | 7 | 19 | H2, H21, G22, H3, V2, H12 | | 7 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | 8 | 23 | H2, H21, G22, H3, V2, H12 | | 8 | Treasure Island | 5 | 15 | H2, H21, G22, H3 | | 9 | The Invisible Man | 5 | 15 | H2, H21, G22, H3 | | 10 | A Christmas Carol | 6 | 17 | H2, H21, G22, H3, V2 | | 11 | Hound of the Baskervilles | 4 | 12 | H2, H21, G22 | | 12 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | 4 | 12 | H2, G22, H3 | | 13 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | 5 | 15 | H2, H21, G22, V2 | | 14 | The Island of Doctor Moreau | 5 | 15 | H2, H21, G22, H3 | ## Story JSON Format Each story is defined as a single JSON file: ```json { "story_id": "frankenstein", "story_title": "FRANKENSTEIN", "base_prompt": "character description for consistency across pages", "base_seed": 8001, "global_settings": { "width": 1024, "height": 1536, "stage1_steps": 20, "stage1_cfg": 7, "stage2_steps": 4, "stage2_cfg": 1, "sdxl_checkpoint": "SDXL\\realcartoonXL_v7.safetensors" }, "pages": [ { "page_title": "THE CREATION", "page_template": "H21", "panels": [ { "panel_id": 1, "seed": 8201, "edit_prompt": "scene description for this panel", "text": [ {"type": "narration", "position": "top", "content": "The storm answered my ambition."}, {"type": "speech", "position": "bottom-left", "content": "LIVE! In the name of God -- LIVE!"} ] } ] } ] } ``` ## Layout Templates ``` H2: [████████] H3: [████████] V2: [████|████] G22: [████|████] [████████] [████████] [████|████] [████|████] [████████] H12: [████████] H21: [████|████] H13: [████████████] [████|████] [████████████] [████|████|████] ``` ## Samples ### War of the Worlds - Complete Edition (with dialogue) ![WotW Page 1](samples/wotw_01.png) ![WotW Page 3](samples/wotw_03.png) ### Frankenstein (with dialogue) ![Frank Page 2](samples/frank_02.png) ![Frank Page 5](samples/frank_05.png) ### Dracula (with dialogue) ![Drac Page 2](samples/drac_02.png) ![Drac Page 6](samples/drac_06.png) ## Covers ![Covers](covers/) ## Key Technical Decisions 1. **Single base → parallel edit** — Generating one base per page and editing it into multiple panels preserves character consistency far better than generating each panel independently. 2. **Pillow over ComfyUI for assembly** — CR Comic Panel Templates couldn't scale panels to fill non-G22 layouts. Custom Pillow assembler handles all 12 templates with center-crop fill. Reduced assembly from 6s to 1s. 3. **PowerShell orchestration** — ComfyUI API called via PowerShell, not Python. Enables Windows-native workflow with direct filesystem access. 4. **Bubble renderer as post-process** — Text overlays happen AFTER page assembly, reading from the same JSON. No re-rendering needed to add/edit dialogue. ## License Pipeline outputs are CC-BY-4.0. Source stories are public domain. ## Built by **GritAI** — A one-person AI lab focused on reproducible AI generation, local deployment, and proving that meaningful creative output doesn't require cloud subscriptions or enterprise budgets. - X: [@BonusLockSmith](https://x.com/BonusLockSmith) - Gumroad: [gritai.gumroad.com](https://gritai.gumroad.com) - Reppo: [reppo.ai](https://reppo.ai)