How They Did It
What they took on, and won
The degree, the marathon, the year of treatment. What they faced, what nearly stopped them and how they got through, drawn so they can finally see it the way everyone else does.
Free to design. You pay nothing until you have seen your cover.
Picture it
Three comics this could be
Each one grew from a single line. Yours starts with whatever you tell us, and every page is about your people.
The degree she earned while working nights and raising two kids.
His first marathon, eighteen months after the knee surgery.
A year of treatment, and the people who showed up for every appointment.
What we'll ask
Questions written for this story
No generic form. These are the questions this kind of story asks, so the comic is built from what only you know.
- Who is in itThe people and pets in the story, with up to three photos each, so they look like themselves on every page.
- What did they take on?e.g. Maya's first marathon, after two knee surgeries
- How should it feel?The feeling every page is written and drawn to.
- Want it told as another kind of comic?The real story either way — the same people, the same things that happened, drawn as a superhero adventure, a mystery, a fantasy.
- How long should it be?Both are a whole comic, cover to cover. The short issue tells the story in four pages; the full issue has twelve.
- What goes on page 2?A classic comic opens with a full-page ad for a made-up product, drawn in the style of its day. Keep it for the real comic-book feel, or give that page to the story.
- What nearly stopped them?This is the part of the story a reader actually feels.
- How did they get past it?What they did, who helped, the day it turned around.
- How did it end?The finish line, the result, the day it was done.
See the cover before you pay a thing
Build the story, pick the style, and see your real cover, drawn free. The rest of the comic is drawn once you order.
Start this storySix kinds of story
Or tell a different story
01Starring Them
Any genre you like, with them in the lead: superhero, spy, explorer or romantic hero.
Picture it
- Mom, secretly the city's last line of defense, saves the day and still makes school pickup.
- Your dinosaur-mad seven-year-old leads the expedition that finds the last living T. rex.
- The two of you as rival spies in 1960s Monaco who keep falling for each other.
02The Vacation
The vacation you still talk about: the plan, the detours, and everything in between.
Picture it
- The road trip where the car died in Nevada and the week only got better.
- Your honeymoon in Japan, missed bullet train and all.
- Four friends, one rented camper van and a wrong turn in the Scottish Highlands.
03Their Life So Far
The moments that made them, told like the origin story it is.
Picture it
- Dad at eighty: from the farm kid who fixed tractors to the man who built the family business.
- Forty years of night shifts, for the nurse who's finally retiring.
- Your best friend at forty, from the bowl cut to the person everyone calls first.
04How We Met
How you two met, what nearly got in the way, and the moment you both knew.
Picture it
- The wedding neither of you wanted to go to, and the dance that changed your minds.
- Two strangers, one canceled flight, and fourteen hours in the Denver airport.
- Twenty-five years married, starting with the worst first date on record.
05The Story We Always Tell
The one everybody retells, from Great-grandma's crossing to the Thanksgiving the oven died, drawn as the epic it always was.
Picture it
- Great-grandma crossing the ocean alone at nineteen, with one suitcase and a recipe book.
- The Thanksgiving the oven died and dinner was cooked on the grill in the snow.
- The day the dog swallowed the wedding rings, an hour before the ceremony.