Nine new books, and all six styles are open

Nine new comics joined the showcase this week. Each one was made the way every Hero & Ink book is made: a few photos, a short form, an original 26-page story, and a person checking every page before it is sent.

The nine

• The Christmas Campaign: a school librarian in Trondheim who runs Christmas like a campaign and never lets anyone say so, drawn with her husband and daughter. Modern comic.
• The Table That Tells: Nonna Rosa's six-table trattoria in Naples, where anyone who eats at her table tells her the truth. Watercolor.
• The Last Mile: a port logistics planner in Amsterdam who can get anything across the water, even the groom. Modern comic.
• The Hello Line: a tram dispatcher in Porto who hears what is wrong from the way you say hello. Anime.
• The Beastbinder: a marine biologist in Edinburgh, a seven-year thesis, and the dog who slept through all of it. Dark fantasy.
• The Keeper of Rooms: a pediatric nurse in Copenhagen and the flat she is making ready for someone she has not met yet. 3D animation.
• The Note Beneath Bologna: a piano tuner who hears the one wrong note in any room, in a book that ends on a question. Anime.
• The Night Fixer: the man in Seattle nobody credits and everybody calls. Cyberpunk.
• The Harbour Warden: a lifeguard in Bristol who does not shout, he shows up, and the eight-year-old who rates his dives out of ten. Dark fantasy.

Six styles, all open

Until this week the order form offered two of our six styles and marked the rest as coming soon. As of today all six are open: modern comic, 3D animation, anime, watercolor, cyberpunk and dark fantasy. Same hero, same story, in whichever look suits the person you are making it for. The styles page shows one hero drawn in all six.

Which style for whom

• Modern comic is the default: bold ink, clean color, reads as a comic book from across the room.
• 3D animation is the warm one, the look of a big-studio animated film. Kids and family stories live here.
• Anime gives bigger eyes and bigger feelings. It suits a hero with a strong personality and a story with a climax.
• Watercolor is soft and hand-painted. Grandparents, keepsakes, quiet stories.
• Cyberpunk is neon, rain and night. Engineers, gamers, anyone whose city looks best after dark.
• Dark fantasy is heavy ink and deep shadow. Quests, sea monsters, a thesis that fights back.

Whichever you choose, the faces are drawn from your photos, the city is theirs, and a person reads every page before it is sent.

Where to find them

Every book is in the showcase, and each one now fronts the gift page it belongs to: Christmas, wedding, graduation, new baby, proposal, Mother's Day, Father's Day, coworker, and a new page for grandparents. The price and the promise are unchanged: $49 USD, delivered as a high-resolution PDF, typically the same day, always within 24 hours.