Hair, Make Up, Tea Boy
You'll often hear cartoonists opine that authoring a graphic novel is like making a movie but you are writer, director, production designer, costume designer, hair, make up, and junior assistant tea boy to the dolly grip.
It's true that there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Scandalous incidents in the Winnebago. 14 hour sleepsand two hot yoga sessions a day minimum. Goop gift cards before I even lift a pen to outline my Oscar acceptance speech.
Another part of the job is casting director. What do my characters look like? Are they the right fit for the tone of my story? That's tied up with the art style and approach that suits each particular project. Some cartoonists have their trademark style and it's a matter of nuance. Others prefer to switch up between books.
The look of Punycorn began quite differently from where he ended. Below is the image that first accompanied my initial pitch in 2019. I was using sharper edges with a pen and brush pen to vary the line with bright colours and a touch of sponge and ink pad for texture.
Below are some more early ideas. I really like this style and I might use it for a different book, but it didn't feel quite right for the jolly silliness of Punycorn.
Below is a page from the pitch I prepared for publishers. Punycorn is rounder, but still has sharp edges somewhat at odds with his friendly character.
After I signed the contract I gave the characters another pass. This is brush pen on paper and coloured in Photoshop. Sixsmtih looks a bit different here. Mean muggin' more like her idiot brother.
Contrasting the haughtiness and power of the mature unicorns with Punycorn's less imposing physical presence.
Some more developments on the basic circle-with-limbs-attached approach used for Punycorn and stalwart companion, Wheeze. I was testing whether I could get the required range of emotions and attitudes from their shapes.
I still hadn't quite dialled in the style that would suit the lead character so looked around for inspiration. When in doubt, consult the classics. I studied Snoopy, Bone and the Moomins who have the friendly bounce and round shapes I was inching towards. I came up with the designs below using the iPad I got for Christmas 2020.
I finally settled on a design that I could work from while drawing the book. Round shapes make for a friendly huggable appearance. Perfect marshmallow, plushie material. Even while wielding a sword Punycorn is cute. I was happy enough with this to use it as my template for the finished pages.
A character design continues to be refined over a 200 page story and Punycorn looks a little different in the finished book. His snout is different. His legs are longer, snout more pronounced and mane has more bounce. The thing I have to look out for is not refining the design too much over the course of a book or the characters will look markedly 'off-model' by page 224.
And that is a peek at the tip of the iceberg of what goes into making a graphic novel.
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Punycorn published by HarperCollins
Blackwells/ WHSmith/ B&N/ BAM!/ Bookshop.org/ Hudson/ Target/ Walmart/ Amazon/ AmazonUK
Hardcover : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 0358571995
ISBN-13 : 978-0358571995
Reading age : 8 - 12 years
Distressed Beeping had a lovely and unexpected mention in The Beat's comics of the year. Thank you to Johanna Draper Carlson for the mention. Check out her review site which must be one of the most impressively comprehensive and longest running on the internet. She has also covered a bunch of my books so you know she has great taste.
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You can read more about the making of Punycorn, from pitch to publication over at my patreon.
And if you read and enjoyed the book please leave a positive review online where editors will read them and continue to pay me to make more books in the spirit of generosity and kindness that publishing is known for.
I now have a bunch of my books on Kindle. Dumped, Breakfast After Noon, The City Never Sleeps (short story sampler), Super Hero Pink(previously Gum Girl...it's a long story), Glister and Princess Decomposia.
I have DRM-free PDF versions of more of my backlist on Ko-fi and Gumroad
I still have books out in the world: Sunburn, Paris, Kerry and the Knight of the Forest & the awards nominated The Book Tour. Support my efforts through my store – digital comics – patreon or by leaving a positive review online.