graphic novel anthology

Crafting Graphic Novels: A Writer’s POV

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 2 Comments
Ian & Qwak: script by J. DeWitt

One of the most popular posts on my website relates to illustration notes for picture books. My first kidlit love was picture books, but after writing several picture book drafts that skewed longer and older but still needed art to tell the story, I knew graphic novels were a better format.

Writing picture books is a good lead into writing graphic novels, but there are differences. Collaborating with two illustrators on the Kids Comics Studio anthology has helped me better understand how to write comics-styled scripts.

“Runaway Train” is the short comic that Maggie Shang and I have collaborated on for the anthology.

Runaway Train: art by Maggie Shang

This script underwent several changes to fit it into the 8-page limit. I would write, Maggie would draw, and once we had the two together, we would find that the pacing of the art and the story weren’t fitting within the space constraints (a reality for many projects). We went through a few drafts until we were both comfortable with the outcome. Major props to Maggie for all her drafts.

My take-aways from this experience:

Continue reading →

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/

Advice from Agent Janna Morishima

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 1 Comment

Happy New Year! What a better way to start it than hearing from graphic novel industry pro Janna Morishima on why she’s supporting a group of Kids Comics Studio members who are crowdfunding a middle grade graphic novel anthology. Parts one and two of the interview are broken into two articles on the #Kids Comics Studio Anthology Blog. Here’s a quote from part one:

MRK: I’ve been thinking about how you take such an interest in developing creators. What motivated you—as an agent— to decide to do a project to gather KCU Studio authors and artists to go down the self publishing route as opposed to something traditional?

JM: That’s a great question. I’m super excited to be working on a self-publishing project because although I think that traditional publishing is a valid way to go, it is getting increasingly competitive. It’s always been competitive but now it’s gotten even more competitive.

There are people whose work doesn’t fit into certain slots that the traditional publishing industry is looking for. Even if their work might eventually fit into traditional publishing, I think self-publishing is such an amazing way for people to get started and get their work out there! I am so excited to be giving it a try with everybody putting together this anthology.

I’m learning as much as everybody else is. I have a background that is very helpful I think because I know the whole traditional publishing process. There are a lot of parallels between traditional and self-publishing.

Part two is equally fascinating and shows a little cameo of Janna in an interview about the origins of Jeff Smith’s Bone graphic novels, which she worked on. You can see the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSBUX6GPsA

I hope you all have a great 2025!

To read all of first part of the interview between Maritza Ruiz-Kim and Janna, see here: https://kidscomicsunite.com/planting-seeds-for-a-comics-anthology-an-interview-with-kcu-founder-janna-morishima-part1/

To read all of part two: https://kidscomicsunite.com/planting-seeds-for-a-kids-comics-anthology-an-interview-with-janna-morishima/

And to subscribe to the KCS Anthology newsletter: https://kidscomicsunite.com/anthology/newsletter/

Three Amazing Opportunities for Graphic Novel Creators

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ Leave a comment

KidLitGN’s pitch event opened last night for loading pitches and this morning for agents, editors, and publishers to view and select pitches. GN creators still have until Oct. 3 at 8 pm EDT to load pitches. And agents, editors, and publishers can view pitches until Oct. 31 at 8 pm EDT.

See kidlitgn.com for details.

Also on KidLitGN’s blog, is a comprehensive Q&A from literary agent Janna Morishima, where she mentions the opportunity to join Kids Comics Studio–the membership part of Kids Comics Unite. The latter is free and open for joining year round. Kids Comics Studio, however, opens for new members at select times of the year (it’s open for a few more weeks) and has a monthly or yearly charge. Kids Comics Studio offers weekly workshops, critique and accountability sessions, networking with other graphic novel creators and a whole host of opportunities you won’t find anywhere else (see here for more details). I’ve been a member of Kids Comics Studio and have benefited from the community’s knowledge in countless ways, one of which leads into the third opportunity…

Some Kids Comics Studio members are putting together an anthology that we will be crowdfunding in April 2025. We’ve been hard at work coming up with a theme, planning our design, marketing, and of course, creating our comics. I’m collaborating with two amazing illustrators on two projects, which I’m hoping to share with you in the months ahead. And, we are rolling out our newsletter, where GN creators and other interested parties can join our journey through this process and learn what we have learned as we’ve collaborated to create this graphic novel. You can sign up for the newsletter at this link: https://bit.ly/kcu-studio-anthology

So there you have it, three opportunities to dive into the graphic novel creator’s world, KidLitGN’s pitch event, Kids Comics Studio, and the Kids Comics Studio Anthology newsletter.

You can access Janna’s amazing article here: https://kidlitgn.com/2024/10/02/what-are-agents-looking-for-a-qa-with-graphic-novel-agent-janna-morishima/