Going Under, A Graphic Novel
It’s nearly Halloween and I’m acclimating to my new home in Philadelphia! I miss my friends and family in Ohio, but coming here feels right. Philly is kind of like if you took Brooklyn and Pittsburgh and mashed them together. And I say that as someone who has lived in both those places and loves them deeply. Also, nobody is trying to take away my healthcare in this state, so that’s a great bonus!
In addition to settling into my adorable new apartment in my adorable Philly neighborhood, I also went to New York Comic Con, where we launched a project that I have been working on in secret for months now…
And here it is!
From superstar creator LaurenZside comes Going Under! Meet Lauren, a fairly normal high school senior, navigating the ins-and-outs of life at 18. With finals, college applications, and the unknown worlds of adulthood on the horizon, Lauren is grateful for her family, her close friends, and her love of all things spooky! But when school starts and everything begins to change, how will Lauren find stability when nothing is as it seems?
Story Created by LaurenZside and H.E. Caldwell
Written by Kelley Skovron
Art and Cover by Nel Robinson
Letters and Design by Jeff Powell
Wait, what is this now???
It’s my first comic book! As a life-long comics reader, I’ve been wanting to work in this medium for a while. In fact, it nearly happened a few years ago. We had scripts and character design sketches and actual pages…but as happens sometimes in publishing, it all fell apart at the 11th hour because of something completely out of our control. I’m not going to talk specifics about that project (who knows, maybe it could still happen some day!), but I will say that I was devastated. Unlike prose novels, which for better or worse have a well-worn track of How To Get Published, getting a comic published—at least initially—seems mostly down to a series of seemingly unconnected events that happen to fall in place to produce a comic. I worried that I’d missed my window.
But nope it turns out the road to comics publication can just be extremely circuitous. Because out of the ashes of that project came this project. The editor I had worked with on that project had begun working with a new comic publisher called Bad Egg, and years later when a project pitched by Youtuber LaurenZSide came across his desk, he immediately thought of me as the writer!
Wait, Youtubers…and you?
I confess that I knew little about Youtubers when my editor contacted me with the offer. So naturally I asked my offspring, who are both GenZ and know a great deal about the world of Youtubers. And when I mentioned the folks associated with Bad Egg, such as “Jacksepticeye” and “MoistCr1TiKaL”, I was informed these were in fact “top tier” Youtubers.
So yes, I’m working with the delightful LaurenZside and her team, along with the immensely talented artist Nel Robinson to create a dark fantasy story for teens that is essentially “What if Alice in Wonderland, but creepy urban legends”, and I am having so much fun with it! The first book will be out this spring, followed by book 2 next fall.
This is my first time working on a comic, and I’m learning a lot as I go. My hope is to be able to share at least some of that in this newsletter!