Graphic novels have long been an excellent medium to engage students in reading. Some of the benefits of graphic novels include:
- Dual-Coding - Having both a visual representation and a text description provides students with two ways to consume, process, and recall the information being presented.
- Inference Skills - Students have to mentally bridge the gap between Panel A (a character reaching for a doorknob) and Panel B (the character standing in an open room), which encourages high-level cognitive participation in the reading process.
- Accessibility - The visuals help reduce cognitive load, allowing students to focus their mental energy on the text itself. Also the "chunked" nature of the text is often less overwhelming than a wall of words, helping them maintain stamina.
- Introductions - Graphic novels can also be the gateway for students to larger texts. Reading a graphic novel version of "Tuck Everlasting" may prompt a student to take the full novel for a spin.
However with new AI tools, educators and students now have free options to enter into this world and create basic, but good, graphic novels of their own. This is something I have been working on recently with Gemini and NotebookLM, and I am excited to share with you both the results that I have made and the tools and directions for you to do the same.
See below for all of the details. And as always feel free to share with others, and please share with me your creations, comments, questions, and suggestions.
📚 Finished Examples
Before we cover the detailed steps for creating a graphic novel, here are 25 examples of graphic novels I created using this method, to give you an idea of what can be made. These cover a wide range of topics, grade levels, and art styles. Feel free to explore any of these, or scroll down further to the section with directions for making your own.
For each graphic novel I have included:
- A short description of the content covered
- A short description of the art style used
- A link to the PDF version of the completed graphic novel
- A link to the "script" I gave to NotebookLM to generate the graphic novel
🦐 A Fistful of Bubbles
- Description - A Pistol Shrimp defends his burrow from a crab by snapping his claw so fast it creates a bubble hotter than the surface of the sun and a sound loud enough to stun the enemy.
- Art Style - Vintage Pulp Realism. Mimics the hand-painted Sergio Leone movie posters of the 1960s and 70s
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - Highlights several of the over 60 National Parks across the United States.
- Art Style - "Modern Vintage" Poster Style - Bold, screen-printed aesthetic with large fields of flat color. Inspired by the classic WPA (Works Progress Administration) National Park posters from the 1930s and 40s.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
☁️ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
- Description - Visualizes William Wordsworth's classic poem, illustrating the narrator's journey and bringing the famous imagery to life.
- Art Style - Impressionist Oil Painting. Modeled after Van Gogh or Monet. Thick, visible brushstrokes, exploding with motion, swirling yellows, and vibrant greens.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - Follows Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking research in Gombe, Tanzania, as she patiently works to gain the trust of the local chimpanzees.
- Art Style - Soft Colored Pencil & Pastel. Textured, sketchy lines that look like a naturalist's field journal.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
💡 Lewis Latimer: The Lightbringer
- Description - Details the vital contributions of Lewis Latimer to the development of the electric light bulb, transitioning the world from gas lamps and darkness to modern illumination.
- Art Style - Charcoal and Gaslight. Moody, dark environments illuminated by single, bright light sources (the bulbs). The contrast between the deep shadows and the brilliant white/yellow light is the main visual motif.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🪓 Paul Bunyan: The Tallest Tale
- Description - A retelling of the Paul Bunyan tall tale.
- Art Style - Woodblock Print / Folk Art. Thick, rough black lines that look like they were carved into wood. Earthy colors (forest green, lumber brown, flannel red). The texture looks like grain on timber.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🫘 Percy Julian: The Soybean Chemist
- Description - Tells the story of Percy Julian, a brilliant chemist who discovered how to synthesize important medicines from the humble soybean.
- Art Style - Vintage Apothecary. Amber-colored glass bottles, green plants, and brown wooden tables. The chemical formulas float in the air like white smoke. The style feels warm and organic.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🧱 Play Well: The Building of a Legacy
- Description - The true story of Ole Kirk Kristiansen and the origin and early development of the LEGO company.
- Art Style - Photorealistic macro image of a highly detailed LEGO diorama where every element is constructed entirely from individual LEGO bricks, plates, and tiles.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - The true story of Robert Goddard and his work as a pioneer of modern rocketry.
- Art Style - Retro Sci-Fi Pulp. Looks like a 1930s Amazing Stories comic cover. Bright primary colors (Red rockets, Blue sky). Speed lines and dramatic "worm's eye view" angles.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🦎 The Axolotl who Wouldn't Grow Up
- Description - Set in the canals of Xochimilco, Mexico, Axel the axolotl chooses to not grow up so he can stay young forever and even regrow his own limbs if needed.
- Art Style - The "Modern Alebrije" Style - Draws inspiration from Mexican folk art, specifically Alebrijes (brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures) and Muralism.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
☕ The Boston Tea Party Heist
- Description - Retelling of the Boston Tea Party as a high-stakes "Ocean's Eleven" style heist.
- Art Style - Woodcut / Etching Print Style. Imitating historical engravings from the 1700s but with dynamic comic book framing. Heavy cross-hatching shadows, sepia tones, and parchment paper texture backgrounds.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - Historical thriller about a young courier traveling from China to Rome along the Silk Road, smuggling a "secret technology" (silkworms) past bandits, crossing mountains and deserts.
- Art Style - Traditional Eastern brush-ink and watercolor style, blended with gritty Western comic book dynamism
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - A Noir Detective story where the detective tracks a single Carbon Atom. It starts trapped in a piece of coal (jail), gets burned (escapes), floats as CO2 (the getaway), and eventually gets captured by a tree (rehabilitation).
- Art Style - Sin City Noir / High-Contrast Style (Black, White, and Red). Dramatic shadows. Venetian blind lighting. Images are defined by negative space and silhouettes rather than detailed line work.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - Presented as a "Steampunk" industrial revolution happening inside a leaf. Workers (enzymes) operate massive gear-driven machines that capture sunlight and crush carbon dioxide molecules to produce energy cubes (sugar).
- Art Style - Steampunk Industrial. Brass gears, copper pipes, and steam vents set against a backdrop of translucent, glowing emerald green organic walls. Lighting is dramatic, with beams of sunlight cutting through the steam.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - In a world that has turned completely grey, three heroes - Red, Yellow, and Blue - must hug each other (mix) to create Orange, Green, and Purple and paint the world back to life.
- Art Style - Wet-on-Wet Watercolor. Soft, bleeding edges where colors merge. The background starts as a pencil sketch on textured paper and fills with vibrant, translucent liquid colors as the story progresses.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🌋 The Core Descent
- Description - A futuristic drilling vehicle descends through the Earth. As they pass through each layer, the pressure and heat increase, and the crew encounters "rock monsters" representing the physical properties of the Mantle and Inner Core.
- Art Style - Low Poly 3D. Geometric, angular shapes with flat lighting. A blocky, crystallized look perfect for representing rocks, crystals, and minerals.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🪼 The Immortal Jellyfish
- Description - A story about the Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) that is injured and, rather than dying, reverts its cells back to a polyp stage to be "born" again.
- Art Style - Sumi-e / Minimalist Ink. This utilizes black ink wash painting. Strictly black, grey, and white, perhaps with a single accent color.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🐛 The Indestructible Moss Piglet
- Description - Terry the Tardigrade is a microscopic "water bear" who inadvertently goes on a journey from a mossy roof gutter to the vacuum of space.
- Art Style - Soft Gouache & Pastel. This style uses textured collage or soft paint strokes to create a gentle, tactile world.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - Explores the ancient Greek myths behind constellations like Ursa Major and Orion while explaining how these celestial stories still guide and fascinate observers today.
- Art Style - Bioluminescent Night. Deep indigo night sky. The characters are silhouettes in the foreground. The constellations are glowing, translucent blue spirits made of starlight that overlay the realistic sky.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - A reimagining of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but instead of a moor in England, Mary moves to a large modern urban city which to her looks all grey and made of concrete.
- Art Style - Urban Watercolor. The city starts as monochromatic sketches (pencil and grey wash). The plants are vibrant, exploded watercolors (greens, pinks, purples) that literally bleed color into the surrounding grey panels as the story progresses.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🌱 Wangari's Trees of Peace
- Description - The true story of Wangari Maathai, who noticed the rivers in Kenya drying up. She starts the Green Belt Movement by planting nine seedlings in her backyard and eventually mobilizes women to plant millions of trees to heal the land.
- Art Style - African Wax Print / Batik Style. Bold, flat colors with intricate geometric patterns filling the clothing and foliage. The trees should be stylized with vibrant emeralds and indigos, creating a rich, textile-like texture..
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - Follow "Drip," a personified water droplet, as he evaporates from a puddle, joins a cloud party (condensation), and parachutes down as rain to water a thirsty flower.
- Art Style - Pixar-style 3D render. High saturation, glossy textures on water, soft volumetric lighting for clouds, and cute, expressive character design.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - A dramatic retelling of the "Weighing of the Heart" ceremony. Anubis places a heart on a scale against the Feather of Truth. The story visualizes the journey of the soul through the Duat (underworld).
- Art Style - Papyrus Scroll Illustration. The characters are drawn in the traditional Egyptian profile view (flat 2D), but the backgrounds have modern 3D depth. The texture of the image looks like aged, brown papyrus paper with frayed edges.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
- Description - A rookie joins a "Hotshot" crew. They aren't spraying water; they are digging a "fire line" (removing fuel) to stop a forest fire. The story focuses on the heat, the physical exhaustion, and the strategy of fighting fire with dirt
- Art Style - Textured "Ash and Charcoal" - A rougher, sketchier style using heavy cross-hatching and texture overlays (noise, splatter) to mimic soot, dirt, and smoke. The lines are jagged rather than smooth.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
🍄 The Wood Wide Web
- Description - A "Mother Tree" (an old Douglas Fir) uses an underground network of fungi to send sugar and warning signals to younger saplings during a drought.
- Art Style - Bioluminescent Noir - Contrasts the stark, dry world above ground with the vibrant, pulsing electric network below.
- Read the Graphic Novel - PDF link
- See the script - Google Docs link
If you or your students would like to make a graphic novel similar to my examples above, you can do this with the help of Gemini and NotebookLM.
- Gemini will help you create a specially-formatted script for the graphic novel.
- NotebookLM will generate the actual graphic novel. This will be done with the "Slide Deck" tool in NotebookLM.
| Note: Although this feature is normally used for slide decks, the slide decks it creates are actually just PDFs where each slide is made of an image. That is a perfect match for what we need to make a graphic novel, since a graphic novel is just a series of pages where each page is an image. |
- 💡 Choose a Topic
- 🎨 Choose an Art Style
- 📄 Create the Script
- ✍️ Review and Edit the Script
- 📓 Create a Notebook
- 📖 Generate the Graphic Novel
- 💾 Download the Graphic Novel
💡 Choose a Topic
The first place to begin is to decide what the graphic novel should be about. This could include:
- An original story written by the students or teachers
- Subject matter content being learned in class
- Retelling or reimagining of an existing story, poem, or movie
- A biographical story about an interesting person
- A story to explore a career of interest
- A story that deals with modern issue and offers social commentary
- And much more
- Graphic Novel Story Ideas - Google Docs link
For example this could be as short and simple as:
Story Concept - "The Wright Brothers: 12 Seconds" - The true story of the Wright Brothers. Focuses not just on the flight, but the crashes. Orville and Wilbur are depicted as bicycle mechanics tinkering with gears and wings. The climax is the 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk.
Or it could be the entire story written out in full.
🎨 Choose an Art Style
Since "graphic" is in the name "graphic novel", the art style is critical. The same story can become a completely different experience with different art and design. There is no "correct" art style for any particular graphic novel, but you should take some time to think about what visual style will best convey the story.
If it helps, I have put together a Google Document with a wide range of art styles. You can access that with the link below.
- Graphic Novel Art Styles - Google Docs link
I want to make a graphic novel based on this story description: [paste in your story description]. Suggest five different art styles that would work well for this story. For each art style provide the name of the art style, followed by a detailed description and defining characteristics of the style.
This has helped me to discover art styles I did not know about or know how to describe accurately.
📄 Create the Script
Once you have your story description and art style, you are now ready to generate a script. The script is a specially-formatted document that will have all the details and directions needed by NotebookLM to create the actual graphic novel.
You can either create this script entirely yourself or you can have Gemini help generate it.
If you want to write the script yourself:
I have put together a Google Docs template that you can copy and fill in with all the details for your script. You can make a copy of the template with the link below:
- Graphic Novel Script Template - Google Docs link
The template includes detailed directions on how to fill in your script information. You can also click on the script links for any of the 25 sample graphic novels above to see more examples of how the script can be completed.
This approach is fantastic for anyone who wants to have full creative control of writing the script, characters, dialogue, art style, and more, rather than have AI do that for you.
If you want Gemini to generate the script:
On the other hand, if you prefer to have AI write the script for you, I have created a Gemini Gem that you can use. You can access the Gem on my EduGems website (edugems.ai) at:
On the other hand, if you prefer to have AI write the script for you, I have created a Gemini Gem that you can use. You can access the Gem on my EduGems website (edugems.ai) at:
- Graphic Novel Script Gem - edugems.ai/gem/graphic-novel-maker
The Gem will ask you to provide the follow details:
- Story Concept: A brief summary of the plot, the lesson to be learned, or the specific information you want the graphic novel to cover. Here is where you will paste in your story description.
- Target Audience: What is the grade level or age group of your intended readers?
- Page Count: How many pages would you like the final script to be? (I usually choose about 10 pages).
- Art Style: Describe the visual aesthetic in detail. Here is where you will paste in your art style and its detailed description.
- Source Material: Feel free to paste a story, an article, or a rough outline here. You can also upload files if you have existing text to adapt. If you have written the story yourself, here is where you would upload it.
- Additional Details:
- Character Descriptions: Tell me about your leads (hair color, specific outfits, unique features).
- Language: Should the dialogue be in English, or another language?
- Tone: Is it funny, serious, educational, or mysterious?
You will want to export the completed script to Google Docs.
- Simply click on the "3-dots" button at the bottom of the response
- Choose "Export to Docs"
- Click the link that is generated to open the Google Doc
✍️ Review and Edit the Script
Now that you have the script generated you will want to read through it carefully to see if there is anything you want to change, remove, or add. This is the time to make sure the script tells the story the way you want it to be told. Feel free to make edits as needed.
This would also be the time to remove anything from the Google Doc that is not part of the script, such as the comments Gemini often adds to the start and end of a conversation.
📓 Create a Notebook
To make the actual graphic novel you will use NotebookLM at notebooklm.google.com
Once you are there, start by creating a new Notebook and then add your script document as follows:
- From the "Add sources" window, click the "Google Drive" option.
- Now browse your Google Drive to find your Google Docs script file.
- Select and add that to the Notebook.
- NotebookLM will now import the script and generate a quick summary of its contents.
📖 Generate the Graphic Novel
You are now ready to make the actual graphic novel!
| Note: There are limits on how many Slide Decks you can generate per day. With the free version of NotebookLM you are currently limited to around 3 Slide Decks per day, so you will want to make sure you have thoroughly reviewed everything before generating the graphic novel. |
- In the "Studio" panel of NotebookLM, click the pencil icon for the "Slide Deck" tool.
- This will open the window titled "Customize Slide Deck".
- For the "Format" leave the selection on "Detailed Deck".
- For the "Length" leave the selection on "Default".
- For the box titled "Describe the slide deck you want to create" enter "Retell the story as a graphic novel." This is critical to get NotebookLM to properly convert your script into the graphic novel format. Optionally to can also include the art style and grade level in this box.
- Finally click "Generate".
If the graphic novel did not turn out the way you wanted, you can regenerate it and you will get a new version.
However you may also decide that the script needs to be edited before generating the graphic novel again. If you do make any changes to the original script, you will need to re-sync the script with the Notebook. NotebookLM does not automatically pick up changes you make to files after you first import them. To re-sync the script:
- Click on the script in the "Sources" panel.
- This will open the script in that panel.
- At the top of the panel, click the link that reads "Click to sync with Google Drive".
💾 Download the Graphic Novel
When you are happy with the graphic novel you have generated, you can easily download it as a PDF file.
- Simply click on the graphic novel in the "Studio" panel to open it.
- Then click the download button at the top.
🏁 Conclusion
Those are steps I currently use for creating graphic novels with Gemini and NotebookLM. Over time I may find better ways to accomplish this and will be sure to share any updates. If you have suggestions for how to improve this process, please share them with me.
Also, if you or your students create graphic novels, I would love to see what you make. Please feel free to share your creation with me at ericcurts@gmail.com. I am so excited to see what you make!
Post by Eric Curts
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