KCS Anthology

Welcome to New Subscribers Plus Resources for All

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 1 Comment

First, a big thank you to all those who opted into my newsletter through the Let’s Go!: A Kids Comics Studio Anthology. And a thank you to those of you who’ve been following me for a while.

This isn’t the post I intended to write, but I have two time sensitive opportunities I wanted to share.

The first is for kidlit graphic novel creators, or those who want to create graphic novels, or even anyone interested in marketing tips. Literary agent Janna Morishima is hosting a free masterclass tomorrow titled “How to Launch Your Graphic Novel” and today (Sept. 26) is the last day to sign up. Even if you miss this, she will be holding a in-depth course on the same topic, so follow her site for details. (Update, you can now access the full course at: https://kidscomicsunite.com/how-to-launch-your-graphic-novel/)

Art by Jade Vaughan for Kids Comics Unite

Second: The KidLitGN pitch event opens to agents, editors, and publishers in five days (Oct. 1). However, unagented and agented creators who have comics-style picture books, early/chapter, middle grade, or YA graphic novel projects can begin loading their pitches as soon as Sept. 28 at 8 a.m. The pitch window closes at 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 1.

Most of my original followers came from my picture book connections, so I want highlight the opportunity to pitch comics-style picture books (listed as Graphic PBs on the website) in the KidLitGN pitch event (think picture books with sequential art like Mr. Particular or Toys in Space).

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Behind the Scenes of “Runaway Train”

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 1 Comment

Tech and time weren’t my friends this week, but I did manage to mostly edit a video that I’m excited to share because it shows the evolution process of the script for “Runaway Train,” my and Maggie Shang‘s collaboration for the Let’s Go!: A Kids Comics Anthology. But instead of having all the cool captions and corresponding pictures added to the video, I ran into tech issues that I couldn’t solve in time to tag team with Maggie’s post about her process.

So here’s the video with loads of info about how we started our collaboration, how the scripts changed over time, Maggie’s artistic decisions plus really valuable insights she learned along the way, my scripting decisions, and what I learned from the comic’s scripting process for this anthology project. For the time-limited among us, I’ve included time codes and supplementary graphics and info below. I hope you have as much fun watching this video as Maggie and I did making it.

Time Codes:

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One of the Most Rewarding Posts…

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 1 Comment

Our Let’s Go!:A Kids Comics Studio Anthology is now 200% percent funded. It feels amazing to realize that two of my stories will be in print, thanks to the support of all the people who have backed our campaign. But even more thrilling to me is being able to share the success of our Kickstarter campaign with an organization I have long admired.

When we were setting up our campaign, we wanted to use our hard work and creativity to give back, so we chose two organizations for our “Community Tier.” One of them is Rising Star Outreach, a charity I have a connection with, and would like even more people to know about.

The founder’s story blew me away when I read about it several years ago. Becky Douglas lost her oldest daughter to a long-time battle with mental illness. When she discovered that her daughter had been donating to an orphan in India, Becky flew to the country to connect the dots. While she was there, she was shocked to see that so many of the beggars coming to her for help had leprosy, something she thought was a thing of the past. When she returned home, she wept, wishing that someone would do something to help, then decided that she would be that someone.

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I’m in an Interview!

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 1 Comment

Barney Smith, the host of Story Comics, a really great resource for comics and graphic novel creators, recently interviewed Maggie Shang and I about “Runaway Train,” our short comic for the Kids Comics Studio Anthology, which, by the way, was funded on Kickstarter within 15 hours of launch, but we still have two more stretch goals to meet, including the biggest one of sending a panel of anthology creators to the San Diego Comic-Con.

art by Maggie Shang/Runaway Train

But back to the interview. Maggie and I got to share some things we’ve learned about collaborations, anthologies, and short-comic creations. In the near future, we’re going to share the different scripts, how and why we changed them, and what we finally ended up with and why. It’s been a mini-course is editing, hitting deadlines, and crafting scripts to leave room for the art. But for now, please enjoy this interview:

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We have a Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page!

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ Leave a comment

We’re four days away from our Let’s Go!: A Kids Comics Studio Anthology launch and we already have over 100 backers! Click on the “Notify me” button to follow our launch: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kidscomicsunite/lets-go-a-kids-comics-anthology-for-readers-of-all-ages

This project has been fun, tiring, intensive but very rewarding and I’m thrilled that we’ve hit the point where it’s all coming together.

I’ll be posting a lot of content over the next few day, introducing more information about my work that’s in the anthology and showcasing work from other creators who are also in the anthology. In that light, you can see David Quinn and Ashlee and Geoff Wagner on Barney Smith’s Story Comics YouTube Channel:

Cover Reveal and Pre-Launch Info!

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 2 Comments

We have a cover for our upcoming KCS Anthology. The very talented Elizabeth Perez designed it and wrote a great article about how she developed the idea, which I highly recommend checking out.

Cover by Eli Estrella Perez: https://kidscomicsunite.com/anthology/contributors/eli-estrella-perez/

Nicole Harwood also developed an idea for the cover and talks about her process here: https://nharwood124.wixsite.com/ohhhh-doodles/post/my-cover-design-journey

Nicole Harwood: https://nharwood124.wixsite.com/ohhhh-doodles/post/my-cover-design-journey

For an in-depth article on how the design team went about developing and choosing the cover, check out our KCS Anthology Blog.

We also have our pre-launch page on Kickstarter! You can click on the “Notify me on launch” button to stay informed.

More exciting news to come, including two interviews about the two stories I’ve been working on with two amazing illustrators, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, sign up for our newsletter: https://kidscomicsunite.com/anthology/newsletter/

Interview with Author-Illustrator Bob Thibeault

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ Leave a comment

Bob Thibeault, author-illustrator and fellow KCS Anthology contributor, has kindly agreed to answer some questions about his short-comic entry that will appear in the Let’s Go!: A Kids Comics Studio Anthology, which we are getting ready to crowdfund this April!

Perfect timing to introduce our crowdfunding news, in fact, as Bob co-contributed to an article on our KCS Anthology blog about creating a Kickstarter campaign.

Thank you, Bob, for answering these questions:

What motivated you to sign up for the anthology?

I have been part of Kid’s Comics Studio since it began and have become a community member who has always wanted an opportunity to be a part of a group effort like this. 

How did you get the idea for your comic? 

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How to Pick an Anthology Theme: Plus a Sneak Peak of My Short Comic Collab

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ Leave a comment
art by Gina McMillen

The KCS Anthology team is hard at work finishing our upcoming anthology. Our newsletter crew ran an article about how the editorial committee picked our theme. It’s chock full of tips on how to create a cohesive theme that’s also broad enough for each creator to have the freedom to be themselves. One other fun nugget in this article is a glimpse into my and Maggie Shang’s anthology collaboration called “Runaway Train.”

As you can see from Maggie’s incredible graphic, it’s going to be a visual treat. This specific panel won’t be in the final, but these two characters will be. Especially that phenomenal train.

The script for “Runaway Train” is a spin off of a graphic novel I’ve been working on. When I shared various ideas with Maggie, she liked this one, so I got to work creating a new and fresh script that would fit into eight pages.

Eight pages is hard, folks. This story wanted to be at least a couple pages bigger, but I wrote and rewrote and Maggie drew and redrew and we finally got our ideas into an eight-page story that we hope will inspire young and old.

Maggie’s art is superb and perfectly suited for this story. In fact, her magical style inspired how I developed the story. I wanted her incredible art to have as much room to shine while still trying to maintain the pacing, plot, and tell the story I hoped to tell. It’s been an exciting project.

Maggie and I will be doing a podcast interview in March with Story Comic and will have more reveals soon, but for now, I hope you enjoy this little peek into what’s coming up.

To see our updates, sign up for our anthology newsletter: https://kidscomicsunite.com/anthology/newsletter/

Let’s Go! An Anthology Beginning

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 5 Comments

In a recent article for SLJ, Henry Herz asked “Why Anthologies?” Great question that I can now answer, having embarked on an adventure with 33 other graphic novel creators to produce a middle grade, crowdfunded graphic novel.

Why did I sign up to be part of this? Well, I’m part of Kids Comics Studio, a membership program of Kids Comics Unite (KCU). When Janna Morishima, a literary agent and owner of KCU, proposed the idea, my first thought was “how are we going to pull this off?” Followed by, “I’ve got to see how this works.”

So, I signed up and it has been a wild ride. Or should I say wild “journey.” That, after all, is the unifying theme for our anthology.

Aside from my curiosity about how it would all work, I was excited to learn how to crowdfund, and even more excited to work with an illustrator. I’m an author-only, and alas, lack the skills to draw the images I see in my own head, so I was very excited to work with an artist. Watching an artist translate my words into their own visual version has been so fun and amazing, which I’ll be writing more about soon.

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Free Halloween Treats and GN Tricks and Tips

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 4 Comments

I’ve been working on a graphic novel anthology with other members of Janna Morishima’s Kids Comics United Studio group. It’s been an amazing experience so far to collaborate with two amazing illustrators on two 8-page story entries.

I can’t wait to tell you all more about these collaborations as we continue to work on them, but for now, I can tell you about a cool Halloween-themed launch with Halloween printables for any trick-or-treaters that may need allergy-free treats.

We even have a treat for authors and illustrators–a link to subscribe to our newsletter, where we’ll share tips and tricks on creating anthologies, short-form comics, crowdfunding, and lots of other great information to help you all benefit from what we are learning.

For now, check out our landing page for all these goodies. You can also follow our journey on X, BlueSky, and Instagram: @kscanthology.

Happy Halloween! Stay tuned for lots more about what I’m doing for this anthology. It’s going to be a fun journey.