As an author-only, I’m keeping my sites on finding a collaborator for some graphic novel scripts I’ve been working on, so I would love to hear any further tips in the comments on how you’ve created a successful collaboration.
And in other graphic novel news, KidLitGN just announced changes to their upcoming pitch event along with this informative article by agent Andrea Colvin:
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
johnell dewitt 