Amazing Tales of Superheroes, Starring You

The New York Times
By MICHEL MARRIOTT
Published: November 2, 2006

As digital technologies stretch the boundaries of the publishing industry, a software package is making it easy for mere mortals to go to their computers and — Ka-Pow! — create their own comic books.

With Comic Book Creator by Planetwide Games, users can populate their comic books with practically any digital image, including their own digital photos, stock and Internet images as well as screenshots from DVD movies and video games. The latest version of the program, Marvel Heroes Comic Book Creator, which is available in stores for about $30, includes licensed images from Marvel’s Spider-Man, X-Men and Elektra franchises.

The program offers more than 300 page templates and scores of fonts, colors, effects and features, including the ability to incorporate audio and animation. Another feature lets users turn their creations into virtual fclip books, giving the action a sense of, well, action. The results can be printed out or posted to Wweb sites and blogs.

MICHEL MARRIOTT