iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by RetroRhino

David Mariotte @davidmariotte.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Comic artists (particularly newer and mid-experience folks)! I've put together 12* stories that you can use as portfolio/skill builders! 6 2-pagers, 6 4-pagers! 2 sci-fi, 2 horror, 2 superhero, a romance/slice of life, a comedy, a mystery, a Western, a smutty one, and 1 TBD. More info in 🧵

12 STORIES FOR COMIC ARTISTS TO PRACTICE WITH
By David Mariotte

A few notes from the writer:
Please remember that these are all meant to be fairly simple stories. They are for practicing the art of sequential storytelling and are not a magnum opus for anyone.
Focus on what is important to you--there are notes for specific color choices and the scripts include dialogue, captions, and SFX that could be lettered, but if that's not your skillset or what you want to work on, they should all work without!
If you want, definitely ask someone to collaborate with you! Bring in a colorist or letterer friend to get them some practice too!
These stories are meant to have enough details to help you tell the story, but also be open enough that you have a lot of flexibility to make them your own!
These stories are provided for free for the purposes of building your portfolio. My only request is that you credit me and anyone else you work with correctly and that you don't sell the completed stories (it's fine to post them online for free/to include in your portfolio or website, I'm even okay if you end up putting them in a for-sale zine with a bunch of your other work as long as they're not the only or main thing in the zine)
If you use AI in any capacity to create your version of these pages or you try to train an AI in any way with them (pages, script, etc), you owe me $100 million USD.
Once you finish any scripts you dig, you can reach out to me at dmariottewebhost@gmail.com and we can schedule a 10-15 minute digital portfolio review. We’ll talk about the comic you made off these scripts. We can talk about some of your other work if you provide a full portfolio, your goals in comics, and how to get there. It’ll be fun and easy!

1. SCI-FI (2 PAGES)
A cyberpunk hero in a bike chase across the moon. They actually works for the UPPS (United Planets Postal Service) and are delivering a package.

2. SCI-FI (4 PAGES)
A girl in a car is being chased by an alien spaceship through the countryside. She does a magical girl Transformers-mation to become a mecha magi girl. The spaceship has become a mecha kaiju and they fight. The mecha magi girl wins the day, but has secretly had help from a mysterious stranger.

3. HORROR (2 PAGES)
A big scary looking Michael Myers type guy hides in a closet and watches through the slats as a pair of yuppie young people come and make out in front of him. But actually, they're the killers and he was hiding and they found him and get him!

4. HORROR (4 PAGES)
A person is at a big box store and is trying to get headache medicine out of one of those stupid sealed cases--pressing the button, but no one comes. A worker finally shows up, but they've got like a weird eye monster on them. The protagonist runs, looking for help, but everyone's got the eye monster. The protagonist collapses from the headache and their eye bursts out and latches itself with its new tentacles to their face.

5. SUPERHERO (2 PAGES)
A car is driving way too fast in a city and a speedy hero is trying to chase it down until finally catching it and opening the door to... A pregnant woman who is about to have a baby that the hero has to rush to the hospital!

6. SUPERHERO (4 PAGES)
The hero is fighting Doppelgang, a villain who can create near-identical duplicates of himself. The hero must navigate around an army of duplicates, knowing trying to fight them all would be exhausting, to get to the real one (potential double page spread). The hero gets the real Doppelgang and saves the day.

7. ROMANCE/SLICE OF LIFE (2 PAGES)
A boy and a girl in parallel seem to be waking up late and rushing to get ready for school--making their lunch, barely getting their toast in their mouths--and seem to be on a collision course at the corner. When they arrive, they swap lunches, give a quick kiss, wish each other a good day and look forward to this weekend because they're actually already a couple.

8. COMEDY (2 PAGES)
A parent notices the cookies are missing from the cookie jar and starts interrogating the family, with the obvious suspect being the crumb-faced little one, but then.... "J'accuse!" their spouse tries to deny it with their mouth obviously stuffed with cookies and everyone laughs.

9. MYSTERY (2 PAGES)
A hardboiled detective smashes a window and begins exploring a messy apartment. After searching each room, they find keys in a trenchcoat by the door, only to call the window repairman to fix his apartment window and it ends on a "how'd this happen? it's a mystery" punchline. (Sorry this is also funny)

10. WESTERN (4 PAGES)
A cowpoke is HOT in the desert and their horse is hot too, panting and trying to fan themselves. They finish their canteen and crack open a cactus for water, they walk in circles under the circling vulture trying to catch whatever shade they can. The cowpoke notices the moon just starting to come up over the horizon and lassos it. The cowpoke pulls the moon up, making it nighttime, and they both sigh in relief as its finally cool.

11. EROTICA (4 PAGES)
A couple is at a park with one of them sucking on a creamsicle that melts all over their chest. They get their partner to lick it off, moving their top aside to let them suck on their nipples. Still wanting to suck on something for the creamy goodness within, the ice cream one starts giving the other head. The receiver pops all over the givers face and they both lick it up to clean up, with the giver requesting to cum a *lot* when they get home.

12. TBD (4 PAGES)

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