Surreal panel comic of fantasy anthropomorphic characters

About this image

This whimsical dark fantasy sequential comic page depicts a baroque-era tea party set in 1587 Vienna, featuring a grinning top-hatted Cheshire cat jester, steampunk noblewoman, and allegorical harvest deities. Rendered in lush warm renaissance oil painting style, the surreal dialogue explores allegory, existence, and the whimsy of the strange magical gathering. The paneled layout shifts between wide group scenes and intimate character close ups for a cozy, imaginative fantastical mood.

Comments (14)

• @CaylaCatz · Sep 29, 2026

  I like how you flattened out the speech bubbles. It works really well with the longer sentences. And floating them into the larger image helps relieve the crowded feeling in the tinier panels. If I ever make Chessie into a real comicbook page, I think I would have to study comicbook layouts more because honestly it wouldn't have occur to me to have the bubbles float into another panel. I tend to think of each panel as it's own time capsule.

• @antares · Sep 29, 2026

  I'd like to add two more things: 1) I kept the background colors of the bubbles very light to enhance readability, but you can choose whatever color you like, and the nuances too, according to the colors of the panels, and 2) You can choose from a wide range of fonts while maintaining consistency across all sheets. 😎

• @CaylaCatz · Sep 29, 2026

  It is very good at keeping consistency to my original image which is an important factor. I like that. And the tails on the speech bubbles is quite a bit better than what the AI does sometimes. I might use it gradually -- first to correct the tails because sometimes I lose a page I like simply because I don't want to deal with fixing tails pointing to the wrong person. Comic Life right? You might want to add 2 links in your description -- 1 a link to mine so it's easy for people interested in speech bubbles to compare the change in the font, the speech bubble shapes and colors, and the better tails. And the other to Comic Life? (bad memory) so people who are interested can easily visit. Panos likes making comics too and has had trouble with speech tails. More than fonts, the occasional wrong tail bugs me.

• @antares · Sep 30, 2026

  Ok! As I already pointed out, Comic Life is not an online platform, but a small program you can use on your computer. Here is a link to their website, where you can download and try it: https://plasq.com/apps/comiclife/macwin/ A while ago, I also posted a blog here on BP, with a simple tutorial on how to use it. You can find it on blogs by searching for antares. 😎

• @antares · Sep 29, 2026

  I used the same words as in your original storyboard, but you can write exactly what you want in each speech bubble; if the text is long, you can split it across two bubbles (as in the last panel). 😎

• @panos · Sep 29, 2026

  You have become very skilled in comicbook craftin, my friend. I eait until i have the time to read about your intrepid bombshel reporter. don't think i have forgottten about her

• @antares · Sep 29, 2026

  Thanks pal! You can find the whole story in 5 or 6 blogs I posted here some months ago. If you don't find them, let me know 😎

• @DavidP · Sep 29, 2026

  Oh yes, I know how good Cayla is at producing this. As are you with the Diana series

• @DavidP · Sep 29, 2026

  You do an amazing job with these pages

• @CaylaCatz · Sep 30, 2026

  I tried to install but it said I was blocked by the administrator. I'm the only one using my computer and I didn't block it. When I'm ont on a hotel network and back home, I'll figure out why. I have different privacy things on for files and things due to being on a hotel wifi, so maybe that's affecting it.

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