The Monthly Dunk 05.

Thumbs up for thumbnails, and a flower comic (throwback)

May 31, 2024

I almost forgot it was the end of the month, but I am committed to getting a newsletter out at the buzzer, so here I am, dashing this off.

Book updates: I finished my thumbnails! This stage is when the book starts to look (and read) more like a comic, albeit a super rough/loose/nearly-illegible one. It took a long time, and since you’re sketching every page by hand it means going through everything verrrry slowwwwly. Which scared me, because as I was working I kept thinking, “is this story boring? Are these characters still talking about this? This feels like it must be sooo boring. ” Because for me, spending hours on a couple pages, of course it would. It’s slow work! But to my great relief, when I sat down to read a printout (a big fat printout, see below) it didn’t feel nearly as draggy, because it’s comics! Comics are such a quick read! Even 270+ pages of comics, I read the whole thing in an hour. So… yay??

If you’ve ever spoken with a real life cartoonist before, you’ve probably heard them groan about this. The inverse proportionality of how long it takes to create a graphic novel, and how long it takes to read them. It’s a valid complaint, but it’s also something we creators are all aware of and still sign up for. And don’t get me wrong, I love writing a long story (this one is shaping up to be my longest yet). But sometimes I remember: there are shorter books out there. There are comics that are under 200 pages, under 100 pages even. WHAT IF I WROTE SOME OF THOSE FOR A CHANGE?

So this is me throwing it out into the universe, that maybe it would be fun to work on some early reader comics in the future. I think the books I made with my kids when they were younger have given me a bit of practice. Writing with them helped me unleash my silly, and let go of the rules we get hung up on. But while the books I made with (or for) my kids were fun, there’s still a long, winding journey to getting an early reader comic published, and I’m not entirely sure it’s the right journey for me. Time will tell, I guess.

Meanwhile, enjoy another one of these silly books I made with my kids: