Comic Banana

It's day 15 of me trying 30-day 30-comics challenge, which I started with two goals in mind:

1. Get 100 waitlist signups for my project

2. Validate a niche and go all in

None goal has been met so far. My waitlist signup count is stuck at 2, and the comic challenge is starting to get boring.

To add insult to injury, I got shadowbanned on X, where I was maintaing the streak for the challenge. So creating more posts everday is probably suggesting X algorithm that I'm just a spam account lol, but who will tell them I have this streak to finish!

Things I have tried so far:

1. [AI images] Turn text posts into Linkedin carousel posts of comic panels

2. [AI images] Turn text-heavy social media posts into comic strip

3. [AI images] Turn blog posts into comic strips

4. [AI images] Create comic strips for product launches

5. [AI images] A comic series featuring small indie hackers struggling with distribution (that's an irony in itself)

6. [Non AI images] Create consistent-character product explainer comic panels

7. [Non AI images] Create comic-style hooks for social media posts

I got no significant response for any of these, except for 5th one. However, on that fateful night, just as that post was starting to gain traction, I got shadowbanned for making too many replies in a short period of time.

I also started to feel uneasy about using AI generated images to create high-quality comics, out of respect for traditional artists. Because of this, I began exploring non-AI generated images.

I'm unsure if I should stick with this idea or move on. How do you handle this situation?

Hey everyone, I need some brutal feedback before I code myself into a corner.

I’m building a tool that helps founders create vector-based comic strips to explain their complex SaaS products. I don't have users yet, just testing it via a "30 Days 30 Comics" challenge on X and Bluesky.

The Tech Pivot

I originally used AI to generate the images, but realized it’s a slot machine. Getting consistent characters across 6 panels is a nightmare.

So, I pivoted. I still use an LLM to write the script, but I rebuilt the art engine using modular SVGs (like OpenPeeps). The result? 100% perfect character consistency and exact brand color-matching. (A sample generation below.)

As I map out the rest of the build, I’m stuck on two things:

1. Does the "No-AI" or "Ethical-AI" positioning matter to B2B?
   As an indie hacker, I always disliked how image AI models are trained. But for B2B buyers, should I even mention the "Ethical / No-AI" angle? Or should I just purely sell the "100% On-Brand Consistency" angle and leave my personal feelings out of it?

2. Is my retention strategy a distraction?
   My core feature is Landing Page Explainers.

   • The good. High value. B2B companies have budgets for landing page assets.

   • The bad. Low frequency. High churn risk after they finish their explainer.

To solve this, I’m debating adding two features before launch:

• 1-Panel Visual Hooks: A template for deadpan visual jokes to stop the scroll on Twitter.

• LinkedIn Carousels: A workflow that turns a text update into a 5-slide PDF comic carousel.

Does pairing a high-value anchor (explainers) with high-frequency social templates make sense? Or does it just dilute the "premium B2B" positioning?

A "this won't work because X" is way more valuable to me than "looks great."

Cheers!

So here I was, overly excited to spread the word about "The Underdog Indies" - a free AI comic series I'm creating exclusively to promote small Indie Hackers struggling with distribution.

I drafted an overly excited post about it, built a funny comic (or so I thought) and hit Post button.

2 hours later, I had ~200 impressions, but it got stuck there, and I didn't immediately realise why... It was around 3 AM, so I went to sleep and checked again after waking up. The impressions were around ~500 but engagement was pretty low. I checked with my friend's account if he could see my post. And boom all the replies I made to my own posts were marked "This post is unavailable" and I started contemplating what I had done wrong...

3 big mistakes

1. Taking advice from grok (in Expert mode) on how to promote my post and reach a wider audience. Yes! it kind of led me to digging my own grave. It asked me to repost my own post immediately. It suggested me the threads where I should post a thoughtful reply linking my post immediately. So I did and ...

2. This one wasn't grok, just my dumb intution. I thought tagging and DMing biggies like @IndieHacker and @ProductHunt would really be a great idea. My internal reasoning was, sole purpose of it was to help other small Indie Hackers get more eyes on their great product and I have no plans to make money out of this comic (the way I would pay the bills is by cross promoting my comic maker). Turned out nor Indie Hackers want me to promote them (except 3 kind souls) neither X want me to tag these biggies. But I'm not sure how DMs work in X yet, maybe they didn't reach too?

3. Couldn't control my own excitement. Replied to comments left within seconds. Was liking replies of handful of people who supported me with sub milliseconds. The irony is AI makes you go fast, but there's a speed limit imposed by all the modern social media to slow you down if you are just getting started. And it sucks!

Few good things happened...

• I learned the hard way how dangerous it is to rely entirely on a single platform (talk about a Single Point of Failure, lol). A single mistake and shitty algorithm can fu*k all your efforts. I lost the visibility on my 11 day streak that I was maintaining for 30 day 30 comic challenge.

• I created an account on Bluesky and will be treating it as my primary account.

• Creating a personal blog website to have absolute control.

Another big decision I made

This one seems unrelated but maybe pushed the buttons of the X algo. The tool I have been creating generates comic panels using AI and everytime I post I get that little "Made with AI" tag so maybe just maybe AI generated images are the culprit itself.

The big decision I made is. I'm pivoting to a simpler, vector-math-based image generation system for my comic creator. No AI BS. Only ethically generated SVGs from now on! I'm using characters from Openpeeps to begin with, but will be adding mathematically generated mountains, water, cars etc going forward. TBH, I never truly wanted to make money out of AI-generated art anyway and thinking of ways to avoid that. So now I can sleep peacefully!

PS

• Hope you found something useful from this.

• My X post which caused all this apocalypse in my tiny world - https://x.com/IndieKartik/status/2065075157547483375?s=20. I feel bad that you won't be able to see the comic I created.

• Will be cross posting my blogs on substack now, would really appreciate your support - https://substack.com/@iamkartikshrivastava

Cheers!

So it is 11th day of my 30 day 30 comics challenge. And couple of days back I came up with this banger idea to create an AI comic series.

It's called "The Underdog Indies".

For those of you who don't know me yet (which means all of you). I'm building a thing called Comic Banana whose sole purpose is to turn wall of text present in a product into memorable comic strips. Topics such as hard to understand powerful feature. A complex pricing model. Infographic emails. Etc. These get quite boring and nobody tends to read them when explained in text, which directly impact UX and sometimes increase support queries. I believe this can be solved by comics!

Anyways, back to "The Underdog Indies" - It is an AI comic which will exclusively feature small Indie Hackers who have an amazing product but can't reach out to enough people due to poor distribution.

Why not use PH you say? Well I glad you asked. There's this problem with current distribution channels like PH (even Indie Hackers too :P). They are flooded with Mid to Big Time Indie Hackers who have amassed a good follower base who always have their back when something new gets released. This keep small time hackers from truly leveraging it.

So, I've 3 simple conditions on who are going to get featured in this AI comic:
- Nobody gives a damn about your idea (that's what you think!?)
- You believe it can change the world (like literally). This ensures readers always get a delight reading the comic.
- You show up every day with pure silent grind. This ensures you are here for long run, not just a quick buck spree.

If a hacker has surpassed the initial grind then they are ineligible. Small time Indie Hackers only. With a grand idea!

If you like this idea, I really need your support to push this hard far out there to all the Indie Hackers who can benefit from it.

The AI comic will be free of cost, delivered via a mailing list in pdf format.

Cheers!

PS - Please like my post on X where I publicly announced this comic today, only 4 likes so far :( - https://x.com/IndieKartik/status/2065075157547483375?s=20

Videos are great for product launches, but they have one massive flaw:

They force a predefined pace on the viewer.

If your product is novel or complex, a fast-paced video means the viewer might miss your core "Aha!" moment entirely.

Comics solve this. They allow a reader to control the pace, take in multiple concepts at a glance, and actually absorb the value of a complex tool.

Day 3 of my 30-Day AI Comic Challenge: I made this product launch comic for RedReplier, a brilliant Reddit monitoring tool by @tarasshyn

Here's the story 👇

https://x.com/IndieKartik/status/2062209373309665339?s=20

So I've been working on this Linkedin2Comic spin-off of my larger AI comic creator project called Comic Banana.

I've given myself around 2 weeks to see if I get any engagement on x.com on it. But it wasn't as much as I expecting it be. So, I've decided to go on a 30 day 30 comics challenge.

The 30 day 30 comics challenge

The goal is to reach 100 organic waitlist signups and good user engagement on this project. Few areas I'm going to explore are:

1. Blog to comics: Give your blog link and get a shareable Comic strip for it

2. Email marketing comics: This one is more of a B2B idea, where brands can come and create emails which leads with a comic strip to attain whatever goal they want to achieve. For example there can be comic strips for story driven narattive on product they want to promote. Comic strips for welcome email automation, for abandoned cart and so on.

3. Comic strips for sales decks: Sales decks requires lot of explaining which may or may not be converted into comic format.

4. Comic strips for raising startup funds: Another form of sales pitch but will be sent to angle investors to raise funds. This requires story telling so might work.

What I did on day 1

I tested the latest iteration of prompt chain I've and created a 10 page or 20 panel comic strip. You can read it here: https://x.com/IndieKartik/status/2061531438152134979?s=20

Thanks for taking time to read. See you tomrrow!

Hey Indie Hackers! 👋 I’m Kartik. And I'm first time posting here :)

For the past few weeks, I’ve been building Linkedin2Comic, a SaaS that turns boring LinkedIn text posts into highly engaging comic strips and visual carousels. I do that by taking Linkedin profile pdf as input, find interesting story angles from it and turn it into a story.

I have a practically non-existent audience on X (@IndieKartik - literally 30 followers lol). So, to test the waters, I started reaching out to people who post interesting stories about their product/success and sharing what it looks like when converted into Comic strip.

The Good News:
People are actually liking the outputs! Despite having a tiny account, the visual "Aha!" moment is getting good traction, likes, and impressions on X. Some posts where people liked what I created: [1] [2]. And some other posts with good engagement [3] [4]

The Bad News:
It is absolutely not converting. Even though people are engaging with the comics on X, I have exactly 2 waitlist signups.

The core engine of the app is already built. Right now, I'm just integrating the credit system and finalizing the pricing model before I go live. But before I push this out into the wild, I clearly need to fix my conversion problem. I am targeting at least 100 waitlist signups.

I need your brutal help to diagnose my landing page:
Here is the site: https://comicbanana.com/linkedin2comic

If you have 2 minutes, please tear my page apart:

1. The Copy: Is the value proposition confusing? Am I failing to explain why someone needs this?

2. The Design: Does the page feel trustworthy enough to hand over an email address?

3. The Disconnect: Why do you think people like the comic outputs on X, but aren't joining the waitlist?

Cheers,
Kartik