What a graphic novel needs from a maker
"Graphic novel" usually means a complete, book-length story in comic form, as opposed to a monthly issue or a comic strip. For a writer, that length is the hard part. Three things have to hold for a hundred pages or more:
- The cast. A reader notices when a scar moves or a coat changes color between chapters.
- The look. One style from the first page to the last.
- The structure. Chapters that each end on something, and pages that turn at the right moment.
Most AI comic makers work one image or one page at a time. Konyomi starts from the whole manuscript, so it can plan the chapters and draw the cast before it draws any page.
What Konyomi does for a graphic novel
| You want | Konyomi today |
|---|---|
| To draw a whole manuscript | Yes. Paste or upload up to 200,000 characters. Kon splits it into up to 40 chapters. |
| The same characters in every chapter | Kon draws each character once and draws every panel with those drawings as references. A new outfit is added as a new look of the same character. |
| A western graphic novel look | Noir, Classic comic, Painterly and Superhero are four of the ten art styles. |
| Control over the words | Every balloon and caption is text you can edit in place. |
| A book you can share | Publish chapters on a public story page, share the link, or save chapters as a PDF. |
| Print-ready files with bleed | Not built. The PDF comes from the print window of your browser. |
| Your own page size and panel grid | Not built. Kon plans the pages. Use the panel layout maker if you draw yourself. |
Art styles that suit a graphic novel
Noir
Classic comic
Painterly
Seinen- Noir: black and white with deep shadow. Suits crime, horror and anything set at night.
- Classic comic: heavy outlines, halftone dots and flat color, like a newsstand comic.
- Painterly: soft light and brushwork. Suits fables, memoir and quiet drama.
- Seinen: realistic, detailed ink. Read more about the seinen manga style.
Plan the book before Kon draws it
- Mark your chapters. Kon keeps headings that you wrote. Without them, it splits the text at changes of scene, time or point of view.
- Keep notes apart from story. A character sheet or a page of world notes can sit at the top of the file. Kon reads it for facts and does not turn it into a chapter.
- Describe what must not change. Write the scar, the eye color and the coat into the text once. Kon only invents what the text leaves open.
- Draw chapter 1 first. Check the cast and the style on a few pages before you draw the rest. After that, "Draw all" queues the remaining chapters.
Count the length before you start. A Konyomi chapter has up to 6 pages, so 40 chapters reach up to 240 pages. The free manga length estimator turns a word count into a rough page count.
What a graphic novel costs in gems
Kon reads a story once for 20 gems. Each chapter costs 100 gems to draw. A 10-chapter book therefore needs 1,020 gems. The 10-chapter pack has 1,200 gems for $34.99. The 25-chapter pack has 3,000 gems for $74.99. A new drawing of one panel costs 10 gems.
When another route is better
If you plan to sell a printed book, you will need pages built for print: bleed, a fixed trim size and checked color. Konyomi does not make those files. See manga page size for the numbers a printer asks for. If you want to work with an artist, a clear script helps more than anything else: start with how to write a manga script. How to make a manga without drawing compares four routes and what each one costs.
Common questions
Can I make a graphic novel with AI?
Yes. Konyomi draws a written story as chapters of comic pages, with the cast drawn once and reused in every panel. You can edit the text, redraw single panels, publish chapters and save them as a PDF.
How long can my graphic novel be?
A story can have up to 200,000 characters of text and up to 40 chapters. Each chapter has up to 6 pages, so a story can reach up to 240 pages.
Can I print a graphic novel made with Konyomi?
You can save chapters as a PDF from the print window and print them at home. Konyomi does not make print-ready files with bleed or printer color settings.
Is Konyomi a graphic novel creator for manga only?
No. Seven of the ten art styles are manga or anime looks. Noir, Classic comic and Superhero give a western comic look. Pages read left to right.
Do I need to draw anything?
No. You write the story. Kon draws the cast and the pages, and you review and correct them.
Konyomi turns a written story into manga, with the same faces on every page.