The Way of Fire — Graphic Style for Comic Strips

This document is the canonical visual brief for every 3-panel comic generated for this wiki. Reference it before any new render. Sibling to brand-guidelines.

Render Format

• Layout: 2 to 6 panels, vertical stack. Panel count is chosen to fit the chapter's arc — not fixed at three. A simple binary (before / after) is two panels. A standard arc is three. A richer journey or multi-stage teaching may be four to six. Pick the count that lets each panel earn its place.
• Dimensions: 1024 × 1536 (portrait)
• Output path: wiki/static/img/book/<slug>.png
• Embed: right after the chapter byline / opening, before the body

Color Palette

Use	Color	Hex	Note
Background	Royal Navy	#0F172A	Primary dark canvas.
Background highlight	Sapphire	#1E3A8A	Sub-panel backgrounds, depth.
Background midtone	Midnight	#1E293B	Secondary surfaces.
Linework	Holy White	#F8FAFC	Figures, structure, contour.
Sacred light	Pale gold + cyan	n/a	The mystical glow. See "The Flame" below.

Avoid orange-red "flame" tones entirely. They read as wildfire / destruction.

The Flame — Critical

The "holy fire" in these comics is NOT a physical orange-red flame. It is a mystical, ethereal, supernatural glow that only spiritual eyes can see — depicted to the viewer as:

• Luminous pale-gold-and-white light
• With cool cyan-blue inner glow
• Soft halo-like edges, translucent, otherworldly
• Sacred-radiant, like aurora or divine nimbus or transfigured light
• The viewer should feel awe, not danger

Where "fire" appears in the chapter content, render it as soft pale-gold/white luminescence with cyan undertones. Never red-orange crackling flame. The flame is light, not heat. It is what the spiritual eye sees, made visible to the viewer.

Title and Footer Bars

• Title bar (top): sapphire background with pale-gold lettering and small holy-fire accents
• Footer bar (bottom): same treatment
• For tagline expansions, use a slim cream-colored sub-bar with smaller dark text beneath the main footer (asterisk-footnote treatment)

Canonical Characters

Apostle Delmar Coward Jr.

Reference photos (use as --input-image whenever Apostle Delmar appears):

• wiki/static/img/apostle-delmar.webp — local reference
• ~/Documents/github-repos/other-repos/encountersite/public/assets/apostle-delmar/apostle-delmar-1.png — clean studio portrait
• ~/Documents/github-repos/other-repos/encountersite/public/assets/apostle-delmar/apostle-delmar-4.jpg — close-up with hat (great for face detail)
• Plus apostle-delmar-2.png through apostle-delmar-7.jpg in the same folder

Canonical features (cite verbatim in any prompt depicting him):

Apostle Delmar Coward Jr. is a distinguished Black male preacher, mid-60s to early 70s. Bald or closely shaved head, completely clean-shaven (no beard, no mustache). Warm welcoming smile with kind eyes and smile lines. Quiet apostolic gravitas. He dresses sharply — tailored gray or navy blazer, often over a light blue or patterned shirt, sometimes with a paisley scarf or fedora. Wears a beaded bracelet on his left wrist. NOT a generic older Black preacher; render his actual face per the reference photos.

Hard rule: do NOT render Apostle Delmar with a beard or mustache. He is clean-shaven. Earlier renders with a "gray beard" were incorrect and have been replaced.

Gary Sheng

Default reference photo (use as --input-image whenever Gary appears):

• ~/Documents/github-repos/mypersonalwebsite/public/gary-speaking-1.webp. Clear recent photo of Gary with good face detail. This is the current default. (The older gallery-sources/gary-pfp-warm.png and gary-pfp-bold.png paths are gone; do not use them.)

Additional references (use the right photo for the scene context):

• Second speaking pose: ~/Documents/github-repos/mypersonalwebsite/public/gary-speaking-2.webp
• Contextual gallery frames (events, editorial, group shots): ~/Documents/github-repos/mypersonalwebsite/public/images/gary-*.webp
• Captioned manifest of the gallery photos (slug, caption, solo-vs-group): ~/Documents/github-repos/mypersonalwebsite/content/gallery.ts. Read this when picking a photo by specific context.

For most WoF comic scenes (Gary as the believing co-author), the default gary-pfp-warm.png is sufficient. Use speaking-pose photos for panels where Gary is at a podium or addressing a crowd. Use other gallery frames for specific contextual scenes the chapter calls for.

Canonical features:

Gary Sheng is a Christofuturist Christian technologist, East Asian (Chinese-American) man, age 33. Short dark hair brushed up and back, clean-shaven, warm almond-shaped brown eyes, smooth complexion, athletic build. Smart-casual modern dress. Calm present attentive presence. Render his face accurately per the reference photo. A small fiery-dove pendant or the dove of holy fire above his head is the only Christian symbol he wears; never a cross necklace.

Jesus

Reference photo (use as --input-image whenever Jesus appears):

• ~/Documents/github-repos/faithwalk-os/wiki/static/img/jesus-reference/jesus-1.webp

Canonical features (cite verbatim in any Jesus-depicting prompt):

Jesus is a first-century Galilean Jewish man, age 32, primarily Levantine Arabic (Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian) with a slight Ethiopian or Egyptian feature influence. Medium olive-brown to warm tan-brown skin. Dark wavy or loosely-curled hair (2c-3a wave-curl pattern), shoulder-length. Slightly broader nose with softer bridge and wider tip. Slightly fuller lips. Deep brown almond-shaped eyes. Full dark wavy beard. Strong cheekbones. Wears a simple undyed woven tunic of the period with a cloak or mantle.

Hard rule: do not render a Jesus-depicting image without --input-image jesus-1.webp plus the canonical features prompt. The default model bias is Westernized European Jesus; without the reference + prompt, the output drifts back to that bias and breaks the visual continuity of the FaithWalk family.

Distinguishing Multiple Figures

When a panel contains multiple human figures, each non-canonical figure must differ from the canonical characters on at least two visible dimensions: facial hair, hair length, age, gender, ethnicity, or build. Otherwise the model tends to clone faces. Specify the contrasts in the prompt explicitly.

Compositional Conventions

• Vertical panel stack, 2 to 6 panels depending on what the chapter needs
• Each panel numbered in the top-left corner (1, 2, 3, ...)
• Panel sub-title in small caps in the top-left of the panel
• Caption line at the bottom of each panel in italic
• Banner phrases (in small caps) inside panels for visual emphasis
• Generals-of-faith lineage figures (when present) rendered as softly-outlined silhouettes behind the principal figures

Voice for Banners and Captions

• Title and footer in confident apostolic register
• Banners are short imperatives or declarations (LUKEWARM IS NOT ENOUGH, THE LINEAGE OF FIRE, COMPLETE SURRENDER)
• Captions are one-line clauses that anchor the panel's beat
• Scripture references in the format BOOK CHAPTER (ACTS 2, GENESIS 1, 1 CORINTHIANS 14)

Reusable Prompt Scaffold

<N>-panel cinematic biblical comic poster, vertical stack. Deep royal navy
and sapphire backgrounds. Holy white linework. Soft pale-gold-and-cyan
MYSTICAL HOLY LIGHT (not orange-red flame; light not heat; what spiritual
eyes see).

Bold sapphire-and-pale-gold title bar: '<TITLE>'.
Bold sapphire-and-pale-gold footer: '<FOOTER>'.

[If Apostle Delmar appears, cite canonical Delmar features verbatim.]
[If Gary appears, cite canonical Gary features verbatim.]
[If Jesus appears, cite canonical Jesus features verbatim AND pass jesus-1.webp.]

Panel 1 '<SUBTITLE>': <visual description>. Caption: '<line>'.
Panel 2 '<SUBTITLE>': <visual description>. Caption: '<line>'.
... (as many panels as the chapter needs — pick the count that fits the arc)

CRITICAL: <any unique constraints for this comic>.

Pick the panel count from the chapter's structure:

• 2 panels: binary contrast (before / after, false way / true way)
• 3 panels: classic setup / turn / payoff
• 4 panels: setup / complication / turn / payoff, or 4 distinct beats
• 5–6 panels: a journey or multi-stage teaching where each step earns a frame

Maintenance

When a new canonical character is added (e.g., another general of faith), document them in this file with:

1. A reference image path
2. Canonical features in a verbatim-citable block
3. A hard rule on what NOT to render

When the visual style evolves, update the relevant section here before generating the next batch.