Comic-O-Matic, by Margo Burns

Comic-O-Matic, by Margo Burns, with Nina Paley's Face-O-Matic

Step 1: Random characters are selected to start. Choose your own if you want different ones - the new ones will show up after you click "Make this Comic Strip".

Step 2: Optional: You can set a scene per panel, "Washington, D.C.", "Later that day..." etc. HOWEVER, you will lose a line of space for dialog if you do so.

Step 3: Write your own dialog. You can use the faces below to inspire you! Want it to be a thought? Change the radio button below from "Talk" to "Thought"! Because cartoon characters don't always speak in words, if you put any of the following words (no spaces!) inside square brackets - like this: [heart] - you will see some interesting results: cloud, storm, sweat, steam, heart, bubbles, lightbulb, curse, questionmark, sigh, and pain.

Talk Thought

Step 4: Leave the panel checked if you want to keep the color or uncheck it and a new random color will be generated when you click "Make this Comic Strip." To choose different eyes and mouths, click on the one you want to change and select whichever you want from the scrolling list. They are numbered to help you find ones you know you like. (Using Internet Explorer, or just want to keep things random? Use the Random Interface!)

Step 5: Don't forget to title it and take credit!

Title

Written by

Step 6: Generate your comic strip!

or Start Fresh!

3-panel comic

DEVELOPMENT NOTES: Blog at http://comicomaticdeveloper.wordpress.com

Internet Explorer users: The drop-down menus in this version don't work with IE. Please use the Random Version instead - or switch to Firefox, Chrome or Safari!
Want to see if Margo has new features she's experimenting with? Check out the Preview Version!
Accented and umlauted international characters have been added to this font, based on Nina's handwriting for Comic-O-Matic!
Using a hard return in a dialog currently does odd things (try it, if you really want!). Sorry if you like it, though: I'll be fixing it!
I haven't got a routine written yet to alert you when you've entered too long a sentence: it just chops it off. Words that are too long for the dialog box are replaced with "XXXXX". Try manually hyphenating really long words by inserting a hyphen and a space.
SEND FEEDBACK TO margoburns@gmail.com
♡2011 by Margo Burns and Nina Paley. Copying is an act of love. Please copy! copyheart.org
CC BY SA

		Programming by Margo Burns
		Art by Nina Paley