Maze Comic Book Cover #109 - Lizardzilla

Issue #109 in the maze comic book series is called Lizardzilla and features a maze of another Lizard. I played off of the most popular movie franchise of all time and included an AI image for the background of Tokyo. Also, this comic reads right to left to go along with the theme. I thought it would be fun to think of a very small monster instead of a gigantic one. Did you see Maze of the Week #213 yesterday ?

My comic book cover mazes are archived by year:

Comic Book Cover Mazes - Year 1 (Issues #1 - 53)

Comic Book Cover Mazes - Year 2 (Issues# 54 -105)

Comic Book Cover Mazes - Year 3 (Issues #106 - )

Maze Comic Book Cover #109 - Lizardzilla

Seems like that tower has been seen before ?

Maze of the Week #213 - Tokyo Tower

Maze of the Week #213 features the Tokyo Tower located in Minato City, Tokyo, Japan. I made this maze with colored walls rather than coloring the actual tower because I thought it was easier to solve the maze. The tower was completed in 1958 and is 332.9 m (1,092 ft) tall. You can learn about the tower on Wikipedia or watch this great informational video:

The maze: The actual tower color is white and orange. I used an outline to contain the maze. Start and Goal is written in Japanese.

Tokyo Tower Maze

If you enjoy this maze, come back tomorrow for a special surprise !

Download is available on the home page.

Other blog posts you may enjoy:

What I Use to Make My Mazes

Today I want to give you some background on how I actually make the mazes you see on this site. I touched on this in Part 2 of my Maze conversion project, but wanted to expand upon it a bit here since it is something I am often asked about. This isn’t a How To Make Mazes post, which I have written about extensively, but rather the tools I use and my thoughts on them and mistakes I made in the past.

Some Background - What I used to use to make mazes

When I first started making mazes in high school I drew with pen or markers on paper in Mead art sketch pad books. I mixed the mazes in with other random artwork that I did, switching things up to stay interested. Eventually I decided I liked making mazes and would do many in a row. Then I got hooked and kept making mazes over the years, Eventually I wanted to make more complex and started using the computer to make them. I first used Microsoft Excel. Yes, Excel. Not ideal looking back, but it did give me a grid pattern to work from, but really NO flexibility in design. See the original Microsoft Excel maze below, “Lost in The City”.

a maze of a city skyline

“Lost in the City” Maze made in Microsoft Excel

I actually did a few more in Excel that are on this site. I wonder if you can you find them ? There is an Excel maze in the fan art section. See if you can find it ! I will say that as along as you only need right angles, Excel works better than you think, although the creating is painstakingly slow.

Eventually I got tired of making maze walls by selecting each individual cell and placing the appropriate grid outlines in them. Next I moved on to Microsoft Paint. This gave me the ability to use color and to create much more interesting mazes. I also didn’t need to fit everything into the same grid if I didn’t want to ! The mazes I made in Paint were much better than my Excel ones IMO, but because I was building these mazes a pixel at a time they took months. Yes, MONTHS to make. There is also not an ability to create any grid guidelines to help you draw a maze in Paint - and believe me this is important! Here is an example of one of my Paint mazes:

Empire State Building Maze

Empire State Building Maze Made In Microsoft Paint

So The Empire State Building Maze took months to complete as it was done to scale and created a pixel at a time. As you can see from how small the pathways are on your screen, this maze is shrunk down significantly from actual size. When printed it is 3 feet wide and 9.5 feet tall in full resolution. Yes, it is solvable. You start in the arrow below the A, reach the top point and return back to the start. Brutal. But, Paint is not a vector graphics program. And all of these mistakes I made are all to get to me saying this: To Make Digital Mazes use a Vector Graphics Program. Now, what I use today.

Why Vector Graphics ?

Vector graphics are made up of pathways that can be resized without losing resolution. Non-vector programs use Raster graphics (like png, jpeg, gifs) where the picture is made from individual pixels. That means if you resize the picture you will lose resolution. Making a Vector Maze means you can size it larger or smaller and it will still look good. That isn’t the case for Raster Mazes. The first circle below is raster (PNG) and it looks ok. Check out what happens when you increase the size by 400%. See the pixilation ? (those of you reading this on phones are saying not really)

PNG Circle Paint
PNG Circle Paint 400%

And now the direct comparison between the two types of files which clearly shows why vector is the way you want to design ! The larger I made this the more the Raster would pixelate.

Circle made in Raster vs Vector example

Raster vs Vector Example at 400%


What I Use to Make My Mazes

Inkscape. I do all of my maze making in Inkscape. Inkscape is a free open source vector graphics editor, but you can use a similar product if you already have the needed skills in that program. I found, that like most programs, Inkscape basics can be learned quickly playing around in the program. You can learn a bit more from YouTube videos, and to finally master it so you aren’t frustrated all the time (While muttering why can’t I just do XXXXX) that will just take time and practice. The Inkscape website also has a forum and the majority of the questions are under Beginner’s Questions, so you are not alone! I have also upgraded my initial download if Inkscape once and was frustrated for 2 weeks trying to find the things I used to know how to do. (And to be honest I still struggle to find things on occasion).

When I started making comic book cover mazes I also started using AI for the comic backgrounds. Typically I use Gemini, but a few have starryai or Bing Image Generator. It just saves me a lot of time not having to create a background of a a farm/space/city/jungle that would take me days when AI can do it quickly even if it isn’t perfect ! I have no idea what the animals are below, but that background of a savannah took less than a minute !!

Giraffe Maze Comic Book

And finally, I had the idea to make comic strips that are maze and labyrinth themed. I used Google Gemini to create the comic panels based on my idea (they aren’t all perfect but good enough to show the idea). Here is my daycare comic:

Doyoumaze comic strip #3 - Daycare

Time to make some mazes (or labyrinths). If you want to see step by step instructions, I have over 70 different sets to choose from !

Animal Mazes - A look at various wild and exotic Animal Mazes

Previously I showed you a collection of some Barnyard Animal mazes. Lots of fun animals you would find on a farm and also designed to be solved by children. Today I take you through the other animals that are more commonly found in the wild. Animal Mazes are some of my most popular and always get a lot of downloads. Some are realistic pictures while others are cartoonish so you’ll see a variety of maze styles . Let’s take a look !

In total we have 40 mazes !

18 Interesting Exotic Animal Mazes:

We start off in the ocean with this Walrus Maze. I really like the whiskers on the face of this guy.

Walrus Maze

Walrus Maze

Our next maze, the Quail maze highlights the wonderful feathers of the quail ( as best I could make them).

Quail Maze

Quail Maze

We go from the ocean to the sky to the ground with this Iguana Maze. Unlike other mazes this was made using a free drawn construction.

Iguana Maze

Iguana Maze

And then there is this Newt Maze, also free drawn and perfect for kids.

Newt Maze

Newt Maze

And now one of my former daily mazes that won some voting contests, The Bald Eagle Maze. I revised this maze to make it for kids. I originally made this as a difficult maze if you are interested.

Bald Eagle Maze

Bald Eagle Maze

Another daily maze that became a winner as Maze of the month, the Hippopotamus Maze (Thank you spell check). This Hippo maze was remade to be easier, but if you prefer a hard version

Hippo Maze

Hippo Maze

I really like this Penguin Maze. It is one of the few mazes that only uses an internal section to create the maze surface, using this penguins nice white belly !

penguin maze

Penguin Maze

A Bird Maze that has a bit of a cartoon look and is a bit more challenging for most kids. I also have a new, easier version available in the Animal Maze Section of the site.

Bird Maze

Bird Maze

We return to the plains of Africa for this Rhinoceros Maze. I don’t know about you, but I would not want to make this guy mad !

Rhinoceros Maze

Rhinoceros Maze

And we can’t forget the real big guy, the beautiful elephant ! Here is an Elephant Maze for you to enjoy !

Elephant Maze

Elephant Maze

Let’s return closer to home and an animal that I see all the time where I live. Here we have the Rabbit Maze. Also a nice maze for Easter.

Rabbit Maze

Rabbit Maze

There are some animals I have never seen but I would like to, like a Lemur. Enjoy this Lemur Maze.

Lemur maze

Lemur Maze

How about we go back to the water for this cartoon Octopus Maze

Octopus Maze

Octopus Maze

Never get between a racoon and it’s food. Instead try this Raccoon Maze !

Raccoon Maze

Raccoon Maze

Aaaannnnnddddd aaaa sssslllllloooottttthhhh mmmmaaaaazzzzeeee. Or a sloth maze when said at regular speed !

Sloth Maze

Sloth Maze

And we of course have a Monkey Maze. I don’t remember what kind of monkey this is…

Monkey Maze

Monkey Maze

This one has a bit of a different look than most of my mazes with a background to better show the jumping dolphin. Dolphin Maze

Dolphin Maze

But the maze we end with has to be the Vulture Maze. A bird you do not want to see, especially if it seems to be following you !!!

Vulture Maze

Vulture Maze

 

22 Exotic Animal Mazes in comic book style:

I also started making Comic Book style mazes - many of which include new animal mazes ! Here is a gallery of 1 color, although each has an alternative color. All 44 maze downloads are available at the link above (plus many additional non animal mazes).




Since I made this blog post I have transitioned to making maze art, including an animal (with more to come in the future) !

Giraffe Maze