# A graphic novel’s bible — model sheets, the panel script, continuity and the production board Recipe No. 9, Books and writing. From The know.sh Cookbook: https://know.sh/cookbook/comic-book Which hip Oda wears her key ring on. Whether the reveal falls after a page turn. Which pages are pencilled and which are still a line of script. Your assistant reads your script and lays out the bible, a model-sheet card per character, a table per chapter, and a kanban board of every page by stage. - For: a writer-artist making a graphic novel alone - You get: model-sheet cards, a page-by-page breakdown and a production board - Time: an evening, then ten minutes a week - Made with: Shelf, Document, Your AI assistant, Elements, Proposed notes, Look up ## How it works 1. **Lay out the shelf from your script.** Give your assistant your world notes and the script so far, and ask for the bible as short rules, a *Characters* document, a script document per chapter and a production board. 2. **Give every character a model-sheet card.** Ask for a card element per character: height, costume, the props they carry and on which side, and a link to the turnaround kept on your drive. 3. **Break each chapter down page by page.** Ask for a table element at the head of each chapter: page, panel count and beat. Check that every reveal falls on an even page, after the turn. 4. **Watch the continuity, move the board.** Ask it to read each chapter against the cards and leave a proposed note where a prop drifts. On Friday, tell it what you finished and it redraws the kanban board. ## Try this prompt Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model): > Using know.sh, read the page sections in *The Lamplighters of Vey — chapter 2, The unlit street* and add a table element to its first section: one row per page, with the columns Page, Panels and Beat. Count the panels from the script, write “splash” beside a one-panel page, and give each beat in one sentence. Then list every reveal that falls on an odd page. Change nothing else. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model): > Using know.sh, read every page section in chapters 1 and 2 of The Lamplighters of Vey and list in *Continuity* each prop, costume detail and street name, with every page and panel it appears in. Leave a proposed note wherever the same thing is described two ways. ## Elements in the specimens Written as your assistant writes them through the know.sh MCP server. Each reads as plain words until you turn elements on (Account → Elements). Kanban board, specimen 1: ```element kanban { "caption": "The Lamplighters of Vey, week of 21 September: pages by stage", "description": "Three columns. Script: chapter 2, pages 41 to 48, high priority; chapter 3, pages 49 to 60; and chapter 3, pages 61 to 72, outline only, low. Pencils and inks: chapter 2, pages 25 to 28, being inked; pages 29 to 32, being pencilled, high priority for the splash on page 32; pages 33 to 40, thumbnails only. Done: chapter 1, pages 1 to 12 and 13 to 24, coloured and lettered, and the chapter 1 cover.", "columns": [ { "label": "Script", "cards": [ { "label": "Ch. 2, pp. 41–48", "ticket": "Draft 2", "priority": "high" }, { "label": "Ch. 3, pp. 49–60", "ticket": "Draft 1" }, { "label": "Ch. 3, pp. 61–72", "ticket": "Outline only", "priority": "low" } ] }, { "label": "Pencils and inks", "cards": [ { "label": "Ch. 2, pp. 25–28", "ticket": "Inking" }, { "label": "Ch. 2, pp. 29–32", "ticket": "Pencilling", "priority": "high" }, { "label": "Ch. 2, pp. 33–40", "ticket": "Thumbnails" } ] }, { "label": "Done", "cards": [ { "label": "Ch. 1, pp. 1–12", "ticket": "Lettered" }, { "label": "Ch. 1, pp. 13–24", "ticket": "Lettered" }, { "label": "Chapter 1 cover", "ticket": "Lettered" } ] } ] } ``` Table, specimen 2: ```element table { "caption": "Chapter 2, pages 25–32: panels and beat per page", "columns": [ { "label": "Page (panels)", "align": "left" }, { "label": "Beat", "align": "left" } ], "rows": [ [ "25 (1, splash)", "Vey at dusk from the bell tower, fog lying on the harbour. Chapter title." ], [ "26 (5)", "At the guild hall Oda draws her route card: the Coopers’ ward is marked “no oil”." ], [ "27 (6)", "The coopers bar their doors. Tamsin: “Then light it with what you’ve got.”" ], [ "28 (3)", "After the turn: one lamp already lit on Hollin Street, dark for twenty years." ], [ "29 (4)", "Oda follows the light. The fog parts around it and closes behind her." ], [ "30 (6)", "None of her keys opens the Hollin Street lamp box. The lock is new." ], [ "31 (4)", "Running back, she reaches for her key ring. Panel 4: one key short." ], [ "32 (1, splash)", "After the turn: a figure in the fog holds a lamplighter’s pole, her key on its hook." ] ], "notes": "Reveals sit on even pages, 28 and 32, the left-hand page a reader sees first after turning. Page 27’s six panels hold the reader before the turn." } ``` Card, specimen 3: ```element card { "label": "Oda Brask", "aside": "Lead, every chapter", "rows": [ { "term": "Age", "value": "34. Lamplighter of the Coopers’ ward since chapter 1, page 3" }, { "term": "Height", "value": "Seven heads tall; a head shorter than Tamsin" }, { "term": "Coat", "value": "Oilskin, knee length, six horn buttons. The red lining shows only from chapter 3, where it tears" }, { "term": "Pole", "value": "Brass hook and snuffer, a head taller than she is; carried in her right hand" }, { "term": "Key ring", "value": "Twelve brass keys, one per ward, on her left hip. Eleven from page 31, panel 4" }, { "term": "Model sheet", "value": "Turnaround, version 3: linked from the *Vey characters* folder on the drive" } ], "note": "The picture is a link. The turnaround itself stays in your drawing app and on your drive." } ```