Everyone’s talking about AI these days and it seems like every startup, no matter what they do, is “powered by AI.” It’s hard not to roll my eyes at the next company pitching “world-changing AI technology.”
But Dashtoon’s new AI-enabled software for creating comic books and webcomics genuinely seems incredibly useful and could change the webcomic, comic book, and graphic design industry as we know it today.
What Is Dashtoon?
Dashtoon Studio is a software suite that creates illustrated images for comics and webcomics instantly using some really impressive AI combined with a super easy-to-use interface that enables anyone to create gorgeous graphics with one click.
Dashtoon is also the name of the company and its app-based platform for distributing and selling webcomics in the US and worldwide.
Readers can download the Dashtoon app on Android and iPhone and start reading webcomics right away. All of the comics on the platform provide 10 free episodes, and after reading the first 10 episodes readers can purchase additional episodes with microtransactions.
As of the time of this writing, the app has over 4,000 positive reviews on Android and over 1300 in the Apple app store. According to the company, they are currently growing very quickly so we expect the company will generate a lot of customers and revenue for comic creators that have popular series on the platform.
How Dashtoon Studio Works
I signed up for Dashtoon by creating an account and the software immediately asked me what kind of story I wanted to write about. It generated a prompt with AI about an astronaut exploring an alien world and I just accepted what the AI suggested and clicked okay.
The software loaded for about 10 seconds and then created this gorgeous and creative webcomic with 6 panels after just one click. You can see all the panels the software created and what the Dashtoon website looks like for potential readers at https://dashtoon.onelink.me/ifIy/bl6neyio
Now I’m not a fan of publishing 100% ai-generated content for profit for many reasons, so I won’t be publishing any paid episodes for this comic, but the fact that the software could create such a gorgeously designed webcomic in less than a minute really impressed me. I’ve never written a comic before and never even imagined doing so, but as soon as I saw what the software could do my mind starting racing with ideas.
As a writer and creator for more than 20 years, I know how hard and difficult it can be as a lone creative trying to break into an industry, get noticed, and get published. What software like this offers creatives is massive. It’s like having a creative writing and designer partner who works 24/7 at lightning speed and is always ready to bounce some crazy ideas off you. And it can also instantly translate your ideas to the page and is willing to make unlimited revisions for you at the drop of a hat.
For me, having software like this feels like being a kid again. It gives me unlimited reign to be creative, try new things, and immediately see something tangible that I can work with, tweak, discard, or change so easily.
For someone with a passion for webcomics or comic books and the creativity and drive to share a story, I imagine this software could be really fun to work with and potentially life-changing. At a minimum, it could save you potentially thousands of dollars in digital illustration fees if you plan on creating a 150+ episode webcomic.
How Do You Earn Money with Dashtoon?
Dashtoon always offer the first 10 episodes of every webcomic for free.
After the 10th episode, creators can charge fees for readers and Dashtoon shares those 50% of the revenue with creators (subject to internal evaluations and approvals according to an email from the company).
Dashtoon Studio Pricing
Dashtoon studio is free to use with limits. The Basic plans is totally free but users can only create up to 100 images per day and can only train one character per day.
Who Owns the Images Created with Dashtoon?
The rights for all images created with Dashtoon Studio remain with the user as per the company’s current terms of service.
Dashtoon Discord
Dashtoon has an active Discord for creators and you can join it here.
Who Founded Dashtoon?
Dashtoon was founded in December 2022 by Sanidhya Narain, Lalith Gudipati, and Soumyadeep Mukherjee. Narain was part of the founding team at Pocket FM, so the team has a lot of experience in consumer-focused tech, content platforms, and microtransactions.
How can I work with Dashtoon?
If you want to read webcomics on Dashtoon, you can create an account at dashtoon.com
If you want to create webcomics with Dashtoon studio, you can create an account at dashtoon.com/create
Tom Corson-Knowles is the founder of TCK Publishing, and the bestselling author of 27 books including Secrets of the Six-Figure author. He is also the host of the Publishing Profits Podcast show where we interview successful authors and publishing industry experts to share their tips for creating a successful writing career.
