Eight focus innovations — and everything around them
What a graphic novel can do on a screen
PanelWave keeps what makes comics great — the drawing, the panel, the reader's own pace — and adds what print never could. Here is everything, in the order we'd explain it at our drawing board.
01 · Why stick to an old print format?
Made for screens — not squeezed onto them
A printed page is a fixed rectangle: silent, still, one size. On a phone it becomes pinch-and-zoom. A screen can do more — lay the same panels out for every device, let a panel move, give a scene its sound, let readers tap and choose. PanelWave keeps the art and the pacing of the comic and adds what screens are good at.
- One work, eleven layouts. Phone portrait, tablet, desktop, big screen, square, flex landscape, A4 and US Letter (portrait and landscape) and 16:9 video. Each format gets its own page layout of the same panels — the reader picks the right one and re-picks when the device rotates.
- Page view and panel view. Readers see the whole page as you composed it, or go panel by panel with transitions — cut, fade, slide, zoom, push, cover. On small screens a panel is cropped around the focus area you mark, not its middle.
- Video panels. Single panels can move — rain, breath, a flickering light — while the rest of the page stays still. Loops, ping-pong or one-shot.
02 · A drawing that breathes
Video panels: your drawings, in motion
Animate a drawing with the AI video tool you already use — or with your own animation — drop the clip into a panel and choose how it plays. PanelWave makes the web version, the poster frame and the reversed copy for you. Only that panel moves; the rest of the page stays your comic.
- Four ways to play. Play once and hold the last frame, loop, play forward-and-back (ping-pong), or play once and then loop from a second you pick on a filmstrip.
- Three ways to start. When the panel comes into view, on mouse-over (page view) or on a tap — perfect for a reveal the reader triggers.
- Upload, done. Every upload gets an H.264 web version, an automatic poster frame and filmstrip thumbnails. Choose ping-pong and a reversed copy is generated, so backwards playback is seamless.
03 · Text stays text
Live-text balloons: one drawing, every language
When lettering is baked into the artwork, every new language means erasing and re-lettering pixels — page after page. In PanelWave the balloon is drawn by a lettering engine and filled with real text. A translation is a new string; the balloon re-fits itself, and readers switch language mid-story.
- Ten balloon types. Speech, rectangle, narrator caption, three cut-top styles, thought, shout, whisper and connector — with tails, presets and a style cascade from work to character to single balloon.
- Re-fits per language. Balloons auto-size to their text and re-measure for every language, so a longer German line still fits. The editor warns you when text overflows.
- A real translation workshop. Every string in story order, completion per language, DeepL drafts you approve, translation memory, a glossary for your series terms, and stale flags when the source changes.
04 · Linear is perfect. Branching is possible.
Story graph: linear today, branching when you want
Most stories are linear — and most creators will start that way. In PanelWave that costs nothing: every chapter is a graph, and a linear comic is simply a chain of panels, wired automatically when you import a script or pages. When a story wants more, the same graph allows a choice, a detour that rejoins the main arc, or a different ending.
- Linear by default. Importers wire a straight reading order for you. You never have to look at a graph unless you want to.
- Choices without code. A hotspot sets a variable or jumps directly; edges test it. Readers also get a “Choices” button whenever more than one path is open.
- Detours that rejoin. Optional scenes, side alleys and flashbacks that come back to the main arc — ordinary shapes in the graph.
05 · One panel, several cuts
Variants: the right version for every reader
Some scenes need more than one version. A fight that's gentle for younger readers and unflinching for others. A scar that stays because of an earlier choice. A thought balloon that changes once the clue is found. A variant is an alternative version of a panel with a rule; when a reader reaches the panel, the first rule that matches wins.
- Rules on variables. Each variant has a condition on your story variables — intensity, age, a choice, a found clue. Variants are checked in order; the first match wins, otherwise the base panel shows.
- Swap anything. Artwork layers, balloons, hotspots, sound, video, timing — a variant replaces exactly the parts you change.
- Let readers choose the intensity. Ask once at the start (“How intense should fight scenes be?”) or expose the setting in the reader's settings — every panel with variants follows.
06 · You draw. The assistant does the paperwork.
AI agents via MCP: hand over the busywork
Uploading ninety pages, wiring panels, lettering dialogue from the script, drafting translations, running preflight — necessary, but not the reason you make comics. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client to PanelWave and hand that work to an assistant. It works as you, with your permissions, and asks before anything public or destructive. The artwork comes from you: you upload your pages, whether drawn by hand or made with your own image tools, and the assistant works only with what you upload.
- From script to work. The assistant reads your script or outline and creates chapters, pages, panels, characters and balloons — after showing you a dry run.
- Upload whole folders. With the local bridge (npx -y @panelwave/mcp) it uploads a folder of artwork, skips duplicates and attaches every image to the right panel.
- Letter and translate. Place balloons on many panels at once, extract strings, draft translations for review and keep the glossary in mind.
07 · Built to outlive us
Open format & player: publish with us — or yourself
Your work is a file: panelwave.json plus your assets, in an open format (CC BY 4.0) that any software may read. Publish it on PanelWave with review links, embeds and QR codes — or export the work archive and serve it from your own server with the open-source player (MIT). Same work, same reading experience, no lock-in.
- An open, documented format. JSON Schema 2020-12, versioned, every 1.0 manifest still valid. Validate it with the open CLI, read it with the TypeScript types.
- Publish on PanelWave. A public reader link, unlisted review links for editors, an embed code for your website, a QR code for print, and a link to every page and panel.
- Or take it home. The work archive (zip) holds the manifest for every format and every asset variant. Unzip it on any static host and play it with the open-source player.
08 · Keep 100%. Not 70. Not 50.
Keep 100% of what readers pay
PanelWave takes no share of your content sales — on any plan, including free. When reader payments launch, the money goes straight to your own Stripe account: you are the merchant, only the payment provider's fees apply. We earn from the studio tools, never from your stories.
- 0% platform fee, pinned in code. The platform fee is fixed at zero in the payment integration — not a promotional rate.
- Paid straight to you. Payments are direct charges on your own connected Stripe account. PanelWave never holds your money.
- Gate what you want. Paywall rules per work, chapter, panel or bonus extra, with free preview panels — set up and tested in the content map.
The studio around it
Everything else you'd expect from a professional tool
Script & page import
Canvas editor
Preview = player
Publishing
Reading analytics
Exports
Extras
Teams
Accessible reading
Every great story starts as a sketch.
Open the drawing board and start with your script, the smoothest way in, or with the art you already have: panel images, video clips or pages without lettering. Add balloons, shape the story, and see your first chapter running on a screen.