Roy Lichtenstein comic maker
Roy Lichtenstein painted single comic panels as if they were blown up from a cheap comic book: Ben-Day dots, flat primaries, heavy black lines, a balloon full of drama and a WHAAM! in the corner. This app does the same with your photo — print it as one, two, three or four panels, write the balloon, the caption and the sound effect, and drag everything into place. Every line, dot and colour comes from your photo. Turn a photo into a Roy Lichtenstein comic panel: pick a series and a layout, type in the balloon, caption and sound effect, and drag them into place. Drag inside a panel to move the photo.
How it works
- Open this page and try the sample, pick an example, or open your own photo.
- Choose a series — Romance, War, Brushstrokes or Mirror — a layout of one to four panels and a palette, or start from a favourite such as Comic strip.
- Type the balloon, caption and sound effect, drag them into place (and drag a panel to move the photo inside it), then save a PNG or open the layers in the PictorX editor.
A comic panel, blown up
From 1961 Roy Lichtenstein took single panels from romance and war comics, redrew them, simplified them and painted them large. The result looked mechanical — Ben-Day dots, flat red, yellow and blue, thick black outlines — but every line was chosen by hand. This app prints your photo the same way: it flattens the colours, outlines every area in black and prints skin and sky in dots.
Balloons, captions and sound effects
Lichtenstein's panels are full of words: a tearful speech balloon, a thought cloud, a yellow narration box, or a sound effect bursting out of an explosion. Type your own lines — they are lettered in capitals like a comic — and drag the balloon, its tail, the caption and the burst wherever you want them. Layouts of two to four panels zoom in closer on your subject in each frame, like a strip.
Four series to choose from
Romance prints the photo in dots and primaries on a field of Ben-Day dots, like his tearful heroines. War adds a WHAAM!-style explosion and a yellow narration banner. Brushstrokes turns the photo's colours into giant comic brushstrokes with inked bristles, after his Brushstrokes series, and Mirror shows your reflection in an oval mirror with diagonal glare and dot shading, after his Mirrors. Everything runs in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Roy Lichtenstein app do?
It turns a photo into a comic panel in the manner of Roy Lichtenstein — Ben-Day dots, flat primaries and black ink lines — with a speech or thought balloon, a caption box and a sound effect you can type and drag. You can make one to four panels in the Romance, War, Brushstrokes or Mirror series.
Is this a real Lichtenstein?
No. It is a digital homage made from your own photo, not a copy of any of his paintings. Lichtenstein's works are in museums such as Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
How is this different from the Pop Art app?
The Pop Art app prints a photo in many pop styles, from Warhol grids to Riso duotones. This app is dedicated to Lichtenstein: comic panels and strips, speech and thought balloons, captions, sound effects and his Brushstrokes and Mirror series.
Do my photos leave my device?
No. The comic is made in your browser.
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Ready to try it?
Open PictorX in your browser — no install, no credit card required to start.
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