How a personalized comic book is made, step by step

I made my first comics for my own kids. They handed me the plot, I turned it into a comic, and they were the heroes. Watching them read a story about themselves out loud, again and again, is the reason Bookva exists.

Bookva does the same for anyone you choose: a partner, a parent, a friend, a grandkid, or yourself. Here is how one of those comics gets made, step by step, using our sample book about a welder named Wes.

It starts with one person and one photo

You pick the hero and upload one clear photo of them. You can add up to 5 co-stars beside them, like family, friends and even the pet, each with a photo of their own.

In our sample, the hero is Wes. His co-stars are his wife Jenna, their son Owen, and Brisket, a beagle who steals food off the grill whenever nobody is looking.

A few details turn into the story

Next you answer a few questions about the hero: what they do, what they love, a secret, a line they always say. Here is what we told Bookva about Wes:

• He has been a welder for fourteen years and says they pay him to play with fire all day.
• He runs the smoker in the driveway all weekend, for whoever on the block shows up.
• His grandfather's secret rub is written in pencil on the back of a receipt under a fridge magnet, and he won't show it to anyone.
• His line: "Fire does the work, I just don't rush it."

These answers matter more than anything else in the book. We don't just mention them in passing. A detail only counts when it changes what the hero does, says or risks in the story, so that's how we use it.

We draw everyone as comic characters

From the photos, we draw each person as a comic character from several angles. We call this a character sheet, and every page of the book is drawn from it, which is how Wes still looks like Wes on page 30. The goal is a comic version that's recognizably them, not a copy of the photo.

Three story ideas to choose from

Then we write three story ideas built around the whole cast, and you pick the one you want. Wes got these three:

• Weld Done, Wes. The sky cracks open, and a Galactic Grill-Off demands Earth's champion. Jenna runs the clock, Owen calls the temperatures, and Brisket guards the meat, badly.
• Fire Does the Work. Every champion in the galaxy cooks with star-fire and fury. Wes brings a dented smoker, a pencil-written rub and his one rule.
• Wes & the Pit Crew. An alien armada lands, demanding the universe's best brisket, and Wes brings the whole family.

Look at where the details went. His catchphrase became a title, the driveway smoker became the reason Earth has a chance, and the beagle's habit became the running joke.

You see the cover and the beginning before you pay

We draw the cover and the beginning of the comic, and you read them before you pay anything. If it doesn't feel like them, you don't buy it.

Then we draw the whole book

Once you order, every page is drawn and lettered for this one story. It's usually finished within a day.

You read every page before it prints

The finished book comes to your email before anything is printed. You'll see every page before it prints, and changes are free. If a line reads wrong or someone doesn't look right, you tell us and we fix it.

Printed and shipped in the US

Each comic is printed one copy at a time at the standard comic size, 6.625" × 10.25", on heavy paper with bold color, and shipped to your door with tracking. Most orders arrive within about three weeks, because the book is written and drawn after you order.

What the AI does, and what we do

An AI writes the story and draws the art. Our job is deciding what a good Bookva comic is, and changing the rules the AI works by until every book gets there. A few of those rules:

• The hero has to really win, by doing something only they would do.
• The story has to be funny, and the jokes come from the details you gave us.
• Everyone you add gets a real part in the story, not just a cameo.

When a book comes out wrong, we don't only fix that book. We fix the rules, so the next book comes out better. You can read what buyers say about the result on our reviews page.

What happens to your photos

We use your photos only to draw the characters, never to train AI, and we delete them within 24 hours. We never keep any facial data on file.

If there's someone who would laugh out loud at seeing themselves as the hero, one photo is all it takes to start.