Dashtoon uses AI to turn storytellers into comics artists
Summary
I realized that comic creation needs very high skills and developing a creator ecosystem in a new geography would take a lot of time and require a huge investment.That changed when DALL-E 2 was released, pushing text-to-image AI models forward. Stories also have to be the IP of its creator or Dashtoon, and the company may eventually train its own foundation models, partnering with data providers who dont break copyright law.There are other digital comic distribution platforms, including Marvel Unlimited and Webtoon. He adds that Dashtoon presents an alternative to traditional, labor-intensive methods of comics creation and distribution, which involved writers either learning how to do art themselves or hire a third party and then sell on Amazon and other marketplaces.Dashtoon will first focus on long-form content in genres like romance, drama and fantasy. In terms of creators, Dashtoon plans to first focus on working with published writers to convert their stories into digital comics and graphic novels for publication on Dashtoon Comic Reader, before building a community of creators that publish first on the platform.In a statement about the investment, Stellaris Venture Partners principal Naman Lahoty said that content consumption on mobile phones has grown from an average of 45 minutes per day in 2011 to 4 hours per day in 2021, thanks to new content formats like short-form videos, audio OTT, podcasts and casual games. As pioneers in this domain, Dashtoon is poised to lead the charge with the founder possessing a perfect mix of content, tech and global user acquisition experience and skills required to build this business.