In 4 Panels - my duel with A.I. comics!

PLUGO: artist • comics • illustration (scbwi)

Hi {name},

Welcome to our June MUSEletter. I've been holding on to an excellent interview hoping a larger platform will see the value I see in it. Only recently I decided my subscribers shouldn't have to wait for it and was planning to post it in full for you here – but then a gauntlet was thrown and the result was my duel with an AI Comic. I'll explain below - but as always: Comics first!

- Go Doggo!
- PLUGO vs. AI
- Teaser: Exclusive Interview with author Teresa Robeson
- Cool Stuff Dept.

verses A.I. comics

Just the other morning a good friend of mine dropped me this text message →

I didn't ask for the prompts used in generating these graphics. But my Pal's a funny guy, one of the funniest I know, so the humor is innate. Since I only recently broke-away from using 4 panels only in Go Doggo, I had thoughts.

Setting aside a sudden beard growth (I can relate) and a missing limb, these comics were functional for telling their gag. But did they truly "work" as 4-panel comics? Let's take a closer look at the three generated takes on a single gag.

I immediately saw what I could do to make more use of a four panel gag. I edited my take (below) and then took another 10 minutes to push that joke further (very bottom left). In retrospect, not only did I neglect to add that missing arm in panel 1, I think the gag in my second iteration of this experiment works only in relation to this whole series of strips; trying to get a poop joke right. But maybe it has something to do with the nature of poop jokes in general, you tell me.

Before I include my final take on this gag. I thought I would ask AI for a brief explanation of how a 4 panel comic works. I wondered - would its explanation justify the three generated comics above? Or would it prove its actual lack of understanding? Let's find out –

A 4-panel comic makes use of Sequential Storytelling across four comic panels. These panels are read in a sequence that moves the story forward, each panel building on the previous one. Due to the limited space, four-panel comics are short, punchy, and focus on a single idea, gag, or a brief situation. It is typically structured after the following pattern –

Panel 1: The Setup/Establishment

- Sets the context or "normal" state of the initial situation.

Panel 2: The Rising Action/Development

- Something builds on the initial setup; a problem, question, or idea is presented.

Panel 3: The Climax/Turning Point

- The central moment or peak action with the most interesting or dramatic visual of the comic.

Panel 4: The Resolution/Punchline

- Shows the result or unexpected outcome; it completes or inverts the initial concept.

The goal is usually to create a quick, memorable moment, whether it's through humor, insight, or emotion.

For Humor: The setup might show a character confidently preparing for something, the turning point showing them failing miserably, and the punchline might show their reaction. A Four-panel comic is very concise and focused using four panels to–
• Set up a situation.
• Develop the situation
• Have a climax
• Provide a resolution or a punchline.

They demand creative storytelling within a limited space, which is why they can be so satisfying when done well. They are an excellent format for quick, visual storytelling.

This 4-panel comic defies the above mentioned pattern, using a symmetrical juxtaposition instead: panel 2 and 3 mirror each other, so do panels 1 and 4. However, for the punchline to fully deliver the reader needs knowledge of the previous gags, or more explicit clues in the art.

Interview Teaser

with Author Teresa 何 Robeson

PLUGO: Teresa, I was wondering if you could give us a short introduction of yourself and your journey as an author?

Teresa 何 Robeson: Oh, dang. So okay, I was born in Hong Kong, and that is a large part of my connection to the Bruce Lee story, I grew up there until I was 8, when my family immigrated to Canada. I spent the rest of my formative years in Canada until I met my husband. We were both attending University of British Columbia, and then got married, he's American. So I moved to the States after that.

My mother had always thought that I should become an artist and or writer, and so I said, No, no, thank you. I'm going to do something else. And how did that pan out, Teresa? Not wel. Okay., mother was right. Eventually, after my husband and I were married, he was going to grad school, and I was doing office jobs which were so incredibly boring and mind-numbingly dull that I started taking classes on how to write.

I've always loved children's literature, I was probably the only 20 something year old I knew who still read picture books by myself. I thought I should write children's literature. So I took some courses on that and I just started writing for kids' magazines, doing poetry and short stories and stuff.

By 2010 I wanted to write books, whereas before I always thought I just don't have books in me. But I started writing books and got an agent, lost an agent, went for a couple of years without an agent, got another agent and sold my debut book, Queen of Physics, and then sold another. Then, in the course of having my second agent, she found a call out for people to to write graphic novels through the Penguin workshop program. Penguin does the Who is/Who was, series of books, and they were starting the graphic novel line.

So my agent said to me, "Hey, want to try writing graphic novels?" And I said, "Heck, yeah!" Because you always say Yes, yes, yes; you have to. And so I just started studying books on how to make comics, graphic novel and stuff. The two biographical, graphic novels that I wrote are on the Dalai Lama, Who is Tibet's exiled Leader, and then the Bruce Lee one Who smashed Hollywood barriers with Gung Fu.

Book Review: You can find my review of this book on PLUGOarts.com

Watch for an announcement on where you'll find the rest of this interview in the near future.

Cool Stuff Dept.

Turns out my next book is coming out in August. The first of two anthologies I'll be published in this year just received a Kirkus Review. Because Cocinas & Lucha Libre Ringsides was published by a university press, there are resources for review a like this. It's a key step to getting the book into libraries. Here's a quote from their review –

“Some stories are brief and humorous while others are longer, more thoughtful pieces reflecting on serious topics. The strongest narratives are the ones rooted in memoir and family history”