With the latest update to ChatGPT, converting the first strip of SPACE HOUNDS! into a normal graphic novel page took one command: “redo this in an appropriate art style.”
So, yeah, maybe it’s just about time to finally turn SPACE HOUNDS! into an actual graphic novel.
Converting all of SPACE HOUNDS! into an actual graphic novel is going to be more challenging than the first strip suggested… clearly, many of the strips need to be broken into pieces because they’re too text heavy. Still, it opens up some really lovely possibilities.
Well, I don’t know if this is going to successfully pull together into a visually coherent graphic novel, but I’m having a lot of fun revisiting SPACE HOUNDS! and seeing these new interpretations of my beloved Quinley Wooferson.
This is so much fun! The graphic novel pages I’m getting are really capturing the heart of what I always saw when I looked at the original strips of SPACE HOUNDS! anyway… but in a format and style that will probably make a lot more sense to other people and will certainly work better for turning them into an actual book.
Well, I got the first 8 strips of my SPACE HOUNDS! comic converted into 11 pages of graphic novel today. So, that’s a start.
The art style is all over the place… but… that’s partly on purpose to serve the differing levels of seriousness of different moments.
I’m loving it.
I’ve now converted 11 of my original SPACE HOUNDS! comics into 20 pages of a graphic novel. Though, we’re thinking we might print them chapter by chapter as comic books first. Either way, I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. There’ll never be anything else quite like it…
Basically, I story-boarded SPACE HOUNDS! by using actual photos of my dogs wearing duct tape costumes on a duct tape spaceship set, and now I’m converting it to drawings and graphic novel-style layout using ChatGPT and Photoshop. That’s a wild process.
But I think I’m learning things that will help me convert my books into graphic novels next. Obviously, you start with Otters In Space. And once it’s a graphic novel, that’ll give me a huge head start on turning it into an animated movie when the time comes.
I’ve been playing a very long game. And even if it never pays off the way I’d like it to, it’s still been worth it. Because I love the things I’ve made, and it’s been fascinating figuring out how to make them.
I think making things is often more fun when you’re figuring out how to do something in an entirely new way… ideally something bizarre that no one else would even think to attempt.
Today, I finished converting the first episode of SPACE HOUNDS! into graphic novel form, and I made it well into the second one. I’m hoping to have several of the episodes available as printed comics before the end of the summer.
This process is so weird… but really fun!