AI enthusiast, AI Comic Creator, Engineer
Can’t Draw? Still Have a Story to Tell: Meet Inkroost’s Süha Boncukçu
Süha Boncukçu had stories to tell but lacked the drawing skills to turn them into comics. That challenge inspired Inkroost, a platform combining AI creation tools, publishing, and animation. We spoke with him about opening doors for storytellers, responding to AI critics, and the future of independent comics.
For Süha Boncukçu, Inkroost began with a personal challenge: he loved writing stories, but couldn’t draw the worlds he imagined. A computer engineer and engineering manager at an industrial AI company, he began exploring how AI could help bring those stories to life. What started as a collection of tools for his own projects grew into a platform built to help other creators do the same.
Inkroost brings together comic, manga, and webtoon creation, publishing, and animation. Creators can work with its AI assistant, take control of individual panels and layers in Pro Studio, or upload artwork made through their own process. Boncukçu’s approach emphasizes flexibility, transparency, and the freedom to share work across platforms.
In our conversation, he discusses the inspiration behind Inkroost, the challenges of turning comics into animated episodes, and why he believes AI offers opportunities for experienced artists as well as newcomers. He also shares how he responds to criticism and his hopes for a future where more independent storytellers can find their audience.
Inkroost brings together comic, manga, and webtoon creation, publishing, and animation. Creators can work with its AI assistant, take control of individual panels and layers in Pro Studio, or upload artwork made through their own process. Boncukçu’s approach emphasizes flexibility, transparency, and the freedom to share work across platforms.
In our conversation, he discusses the inspiration behind Inkroost, the challenges of turning comics into animated episodes, and why he believes AI offers opportunities for experienced artists as well as newcomers. He also shares how he responds to criticism and his hopes for a future where more independent storytellers can find their audience.
QUESTION 01
Süha, tell us about yourself before Inkroost. What is your background, and what first drew you to comics, storytelling, and technology?
I am a computer engineer from the old ages of 56kbps. Today, I work as an engineering manager at an industrial AI company. Since childhood, I have always been interested in sci-fi and fantasy genres. That meant reading a lot of comic books and mangas. The thing that drew me to creating comics was and is my lack of talent in drawing. I really can’t draw a straight line with a ruler and even though I enjoy writing stories, not all my stories are suitable for novels. Since I have the knowledge to use AI, I saw it as a way to share my stories with others like myself.
QUESTION 02
How did you first get into AI? Was there a particular tool or experience that made you realize it could help people tell stories they otherwise couldn’t bring to life?
I am probably one of the people we can consider “ahead of the curve” considering my day job. We are really hammering ourselves with the latest tech at all times. I was looking for a way to keep myself at the bleeding edge of this tech while also not “working” during weekends and after hours. Considering I’m also writing a sci-fi book and I have so many thrown away pieces of different stories, it all happened naturally.
QUESTION 03
What inspired you to build Inkroost? What were creators missing, and how did that shape the platform you wanted to create?
I first wanted to help myself with creating. When the set of tools I started to use reached a certain size, I realised it could be useful for others as well. This basically opened up doors to a bottomless ocean for me. I learned there are quite talented people out there who started their comics journeys years and years ago. I learned there are some old best practices as well as some new ones we can set with AI. Even today, Inkroost stays ambitious to answer all needs of creators and come up with creative ways to show what is possible. It is indie, exciting and democratises creating comic books for everybody. So if there is a story, there is a way.
QUESTION 04
For someone discovering Inkroost today, what can they do there? Walk us through the journey from an initial story idea to creating, publishing, and finding readers for a comic, manga, or webtoon.
If you land on Inkroost as a creator today, you are lucky. You just find your way into a chance of making a real difference.
Now, you can follow a couple of paths depending on your experience level. Inky is Inkroost’s assistant that knows about a thing or two to create comics. You can choose to talk with Inky to create your chapters. Every page goes through your approval and there are bunch of tools lets you to edit or change generated pages. Don’t you like Inky? You can also just connect chatgpt or claude to your Inkroost account and just talk with your own agent.
If you are more experienced or want more control over every page detail, you can use Pro Studio. It allows you to decide your own panel layout, work with them layer by layer while building your asset library to have full control on whatever detail you want to focus on.
In both cases, character sheets, item sheets and 3d rendered location sheets help with consistency of your storytelling.
Do you have your own workflow? You can bring your work to Inkroost and Inkroost magically creates these layers, character sheets and style for you. So it becomes almost immediately familiar with your work so you can combine multiple tools with Inkroost.
Inkroost provides multiple tools to help you promote your work and share with the world. For instance, it generates a free promotional video for each chapter published. You can also export your work in various formats and take your work to any platform of your choosing including Comics Authority.
Now, you can follow a couple of paths depending on your experience level. Inky is Inkroost’s assistant that knows about a thing or two to create comics. You can choose to talk with Inky to create your chapters. Every page goes through your approval and there are bunch of tools lets you to edit or change generated pages. Don’t you like Inky? You can also just connect chatgpt or claude to your Inkroost account and just talk with your own agent.
If you are more experienced or want more control over every page detail, you can use Pro Studio. It allows you to decide your own panel layout, work with them layer by layer while building your asset library to have full control on whatever detail you want to focus on.
In both cases, character sheets, item sheets and 3d rendered location sheets help with consistency of your storytelling.
Do you have your own workflow? You can bring your work to Inkroost and Inkroost magically creates these layers, character sheets and style for you. So it becomes almost immediately familiar with your work so you can combine multiple tools with Inkroost.
Inkroost provides multiple tools to help you promote your work and share with the world. For instance, it generates a free promotional video for each chapter published. You can also export your work in various formats and take your work to any platform of your choosing including Comics Authority.
QUESTION 05
Pro Studio offers control over individual panels, layers, lettering, and character consistency. Why was that level of creative control important to you, and what can creators do with it that they might struggle to accomplish with a basic image generator?
After realising the basic and highly automated flows do not answer incredibly talented people’s needs, Pro Studio was designed and published.
The set of tools and freedom Pro Studio offers are needed for those looking for a unique look for their comics. It is also important for people who want to project their exact imaginations to screen.
Because for story tellers, it is important for their character to stand in a specific way or the perspective of one item to be slightly different.
We are trying to help creators bring imagination to life which needs flexible control over output.
The set of tools and freedom Pro Studio offers are needed for those looking for a unique look for their comics. It is also important for people who want to project their exact imaginations to screen.
Because for story tellers, it is important for their character to stand in a specific way or the perspective of one item to be slightly different.
We are trying to help creators bring imagination to life which needs flexible control over output.
QUESTION 06
Inkroost Animate lets creators turn comic chapters into episodes with character voices and vertical versions for social media. What goes into that transformation, and what should creators realistically expect from the results today?
Inkroost Animate is yet another piece of ambitious goals Inkroost pursues.
A realisation moment led experiments with using comics as story boards. A well told story includes hints for a good animation as well.
Inkroost starts with consistency in mind. Not just one 30 seconds of amazing footage but dozens of chapters following creators’ stories and choices including character voices, style choices and more.
Inky is again there to help. The plan process takes creator’s choices and prepares a walk through with scene cuts, script changes and voices. This means, people can listen and have a very good idea of what’s gonna happen in the generated video before the generation itself.
As per video generation standards today, it is likely to have unwanted weird scenes for longer videos even if you use the best models. Inkroost provides an ai video editing tool where you can select the scene you want to change and describe what you want to change to achieve desired results.
Once the generation is complete, you can choose to download your video, share it on Inkroost or connect your YouTube to publish directly over there. A cropped video for shorts is automatically provided.
The Animate feature is new and unfortunately still expensive. If we are accepted for any grants or provided cheaper inferences, prices will be lowered!
We are also constantly experimenting with different video generation models and providers.
A realisation moment led experiments with using comics as story boards. A well told story includes hints for a good animation as well.
Inkroost starts with consistency in mind. Not just one 30 seconds of amazing footage but dozens of chapters following creators’ stories and choices including character voices, style choices and more.
Inky is again there to help. The plan process takes creator’s choices and prepares a walk through with scene cuts, script changes and voices. This means, people can listen and have a very good idea of what’s gonna happen in the generated video before the generation itself.
As per video generation standards today, it is likely to have unwanted weird scenes for longer videos even if you use the best models. Inkroost provides an ai video editing tool where you can select the scene you want to change and describe what you want to change to achieve desired results.
Once the generation is complete, you can choose to download your video, share it on Inkroost or connect your YouTube to publish directly over there. A cropped video for shorts is automatically provided.
The Animate feature is new and unfortunately still expensive. If we are accepted for any grants or provided cheaper inferences, prices will be lowered!
We are also constantly experimenting with different video generation models and providers.
QUESTION 07
Finishing a comic is one challenge. Getting it seen and earning money is another. How do Inkroost’s discovery features, Patreon support, print and ebook exports, and connections with other publishing platforms help creators take that next step?
Indeed, finding an audience stands as one of the biggest challenges of our day.
From the start, we did not want to charge readers for commissions. This meant finding different ways to monetise for creators.
First thing to do is getting exports. Inkroost provides many different export formats and promo kits to share work on different platforms. This is especially important to build an audience that follows a creator specifically.
Then there are options. For people with Patreon accounts, we provide an integration. This integration allows creators to hide their chapters behind a gate only their Patrons can access and read. Another option is exporting the Amazon KDP kit to publish material on Amazon. Yet another option is getting an export to share it on another platform as Comics Authority.
For people interested in mangas specifically, Inkroost has a direct publish button towards AI Manga platform. More direct push integrations are on the way.
From the start, we did not want to charge readers for commissions. This meant finding different ways to monetise for creators.
First thing to do is getting exports. Inkroost provides many different export formats and promo kits to share work on different platforms. This is especially important to build an audience that follows a creator specifically.
Then there are options. For people with Patreon accounts, we provide an integration. This integration allows creators to hide their chapters behind a gate only their Patrons can access and read. Another option is exporting the Amazon KDP kit to publish material on Amazon. Yet another option is getting an export to share it on another platform as Comics Authority.
For people interested in mangas specifically, Inkroost has a direct publish button towards AI Manga platform. More direct push integrations are on the way.
QUESTION 08
Inkroost welcomes both AI-assisted and hand-drawn work, while emphasizing that creators keep their work and can publish elsewhere. Why did you choose that approach, and how do you build trust between creators who may have very different views about AI?
Inkroost is embodiment of the fact that just because you use AI does not mean there is no effort in it.
Using this fact, the ambition is making creators lives easier and becoming part of the workflow as a no-brainier choice. This requires freedom and we are providing that.
Transparency is yet another aspect. Inkroost clearly labels everything on the series and does not try to trick people. Even though there is a loud group of people on social media; our data shows that people care more about content quality than the tools used to create.
Using this fact, the ambition is making creators lives easier and becoming part of the workflow as a no-brainier choice. This requires freedom and we are providing that.
Transparency is yet another aspect. Inkroost clearly labels everything on the series and does not try to trick people. Even though there is a loud group of people on social media; our data shows that people care more about content quality than the tools used to create.
QUESTION 09
How do you handle the anti-AI crowd? Have you personally faced criticism or hostility over Inkroost, and how do you decide when to engage, when to listen, and when to move on?
I did receive some comments here and there from people never visited the platform. My first action is giving these people some coupons so they can experience the flow first hand. I can’t say that works but at least stops the negative engagement. I’m quite used to navigate different opinions so I’m pushing people for constructive criticism when engagement stays and try to improve.
QUESTION 10
What do you think AI critics get wrong, and which concerns deserve a serious response? How do those conversations influence the decisions you make about Inkroost?
The most obvious thing they miss is that many people seem to think it’s taking their creative jobs. However, it is actually offering an incredible opportunity for people with a good eye for design. They can now work multiple times faster and achieve better results than an amateur like me!
QUESTION 11
Where do you see AI storytelling going over the next three to five years? What opportunities and challenges do you see for independent creators, and where do you want Inkroost to fit into that future?
AI democratises the mediums and levels the playfield. Many amazing stories are never drawn or animated due to different hardships whereas yet another money making formula is seen on the screen every season.
I see real opportunity for people with continuous stories. Building underground, indie audiences are now possible.
Inkroost will assist in every step of creating those content. We can’t let this opportunity to be abused by giant corporations just to get the same things over and over again. It is time to let imagination loose.
I see real opportunity for people with continuous stories. Building underground, indie audiences are now possible.
Inkroost will assist in every step of creating those content. We can’t let this opportunity to be abused by giant corporations just to get the same things over and over again. It is time to let imagination loose.
QUESTION 12
Is there anything we haven’t mentioned that you want to say?
It’s great to be a part of a big wave and learn from amazing creators every day!
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