Our Baby Is Strange - The Comic Script Breakdown
It's JoJo's Bizarre Toddlers — born into a Korean family, but he is a little special. A shonen one-shot storyboarded in Mangaplay Studio, the comic script writing software
It's JoJo's Bizarre Toddlers. Born into a Korean family, but he is a little special. A shonen one-shot with comedic undertones.
But, 'How Do I Make A Comic Book?'
I too asked myself that. Then I learned the Mangaplay Comic Script format and began writing!
My writing was atrocious but my ideas were always vivid. Our Baby Is Strange was one of the first manga I ever created and I am happy to share the journey with you.
Origin
While having a conversation on Discord, my friends and I came upon the topic of Isekai plots getting absolutely out of hand to the point where protagonists are being sent to another world and becoming kitchen appliances!
Japan, are you ok?
That got me thinking — what if I made an Isekai (another world) story about my friend, except he is reborn as a baby and thinks he is the same person he was from a previous life? (Spoiler Alert)
I opened up Mangaplay Studio and within 1 hour I wrote the comic script you are about to read.
What This Project Showed
It turns out that it is possible to set up the plot of a story in less than 5 storyboard / manga pages.
The whole thing took maybe 15 minutes to write out then the rest of the day was spent thinking about where to go with the story.
# Page 1 EXT. WESTERN FLORIDA - NEIGHBORHOOD - NIGHT
Panel 1
Fireworks pop and crackle across the sky above a quiet neighbourhood.
NARRATION
It's July 4th, Florida, United States, on a hot summer day...
NARRATION
Hot dogs fly.
Panel 2
A man throws his fist into the air, beer in the other hand, grinning wide as fireworks light up behind him.
DEQUAN
Yahoo!
Panel 3
The neighborhood celebrates wildly. Grills smoke, kids run with sparklers, families wave flags from porches.
NARRATION
The nation celebrates wildly. Meanwhile...
NARRATION
CHAPTER Chapter 1: A Divine Exit
Panel 4
A modest house at the end of a quiet street. Nothing special about the place or the man who lives there.
NARRATION
An unimportant man, from an unimportant place.
TITLE UNIMPORTANT PLACE
# Page 2 INT. DEQUAN'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT
Panel 1 [H]
Dequan is sprawled across his bed, passed out from the celebration. The sheets are tangled around him.
TITLE Dequan | (28)
Panel 2 [GROUP]
Legs close tight, holding him in comfort.
Panel 3
Close up on Dequan's face, dead asleep. A half-smile still on his lips from the night's festivities.
Panel 4 [GROUP]
His neck shifts suddenly, awkwardly against the pillow.
SFX TONK
Panel 5 [S]
A wide grin spreads across his face, frozen in a strange angle.
SFX SNAP!
Panel 6
Silence. The room is still. Dequan's body lays motionless on the bed, his neck at an unnatural angle.
# Page 3
Panel 1 [BLEED]
Total darkness erupts into a hellscape of bones and spirits. Skeletons dance around Dequan's soul as he floats between worlds.
The kanji for death looms above. Everything is chaotic and final.
SFX CRACK
SFX SNAP
TITLE DEATH
DEQUAN
What just happened...
DEQUAN
Is this HEAVEN?
DEQUAN
(thought)
Nope. I'm definitely dead. It was a solid run I suppose. But... If I am dead, how can I still think?
# Page 4 INT. HOSPITAL - NEWBORN NURSERY WARD
Panel 1 [BLEED]
Fluorescent lights flicker overhead. A sign on the wall reads WARD: NEW BORN NURSERY.
Panel 2
A nurse carries a wrapped newborn down a hallway past rows of bassinets.
Panel 3
A portal closes.
Panel 4 [GROUP]
The baby's eyes open. Wide. Alert. Far too alert for a newborn.
DEQUAN
Where... am I?
Panel 5
The baby's eyes meet with a doctor, the confusion settling into his small face.
DEQUAN
Am I dead?
Panel 6 [GROUP]
Dequan is heavily suspicious.
DEQUAN
No, It's far worse.
Panel 7
He glances at us all.
DEQUAN
I'm Korean!
TITLE Dokwan | (0)
What about publishing the manga?
In the case of Our Baby Is Strange, I chose to put it online partially for free.
Looking back there were a few options available, from crowdfunding, launching on Webtoon, or even publishing on self-hosting sites.
I felt it was best to not do any of those things. There was still a huge mountain to climb in order to become a better writer and give the world something I can truly be proud of.
But, 'How Do I Make A Manga?'
Use the comic script format, Mangaplay and the Desktop or Web App.
It's really that simple. The biggest pain point I've seen from new authors online is their inability to put their ideas on paper.
I am not a good artist so I work with artists to fill that gap but in order to do that you need to be able to express your thoughts clearly. What should go on each page? How many panels? Where does each line of dialogue go? How many characters?
These are all things to be thought about while telling a compelling story — Mangaplay Studio does that in one format.
Where did you go after making this manga?
After finishing Our Baby Is Strange I knew I had only scratched the surface of what the Mangaplay Comic Script format could do.
A four-page joke about reincarnation was fun, but I wanted to see whether the same workflow could carry a longer, quieter story — one with room for character and rhythm instead of just punchlines.
That's where Being Salaryman came in. It is a 20-page one-shot about two American friends mysteriously transported to Japan and reborn as office workers.
No magic systems, no demon lords — just the absurdity of Monday-morning commutes in a country that is not yours.
Writing it taught me how to pace a complete chapter inside Mangaplay Studio without losing momentum, and the lessons from Dequan's bad day made every scene of Salaryman's bad year easier to write.
