Dragon Road Pitch Bible

[buoyant helm]

I'm working on pitch for my third graphic novel, a lesbian fantasy road trip called DRAGON ROAD! Where my previous book Hex Americana was grounded in our world, I want this one to feel totally new and exciting. To that end I've been designing sets, vehicles, and characters that all give a unique adventurous vibe. The culmination of this is an 11-page comic that acts as a conceptual teaser for the story. While it is not a specific scene from the story, it acts as a neat and tidy way to introduce the world, the main cast, and the overall tone of the book.

I'll start with posting that teaser comic, and then work backwards to show off the concept art that got me here.

i put one page under spoilers since it shows some fingers bending all the wrong ways, just in case c:

first up, concept art for the main trio- these were early enough that i didn't even have names for the characters

The black-white-pink aesthetic is something I've used in other comics, and I wanted to return to it here as a striking way to tell an ambitious story within a more reasonable amount of time. I loved working on Hex Americana, but I don't want to spend another 5 years on this book!

Then I began working on concepts for the bike. The setting of Dragon Road is an industrialized fantasy world, which gave me a lot of leeway in how I designed everything. I was considering how to make a motorcycle stand out as its own character, and fell in love with the head of giving it stirrups like a horse. Other parts of the bike are inspired by early 40s and 50s motorcycles, as well as Hermes from Kino's Journey.

I did concepts for a couple different buildings that might show up on the trip, and wanted to similarly meld influences and eras. So a motel could be inspired by a medieval inn, and a fuel station could look like a miniature stable.

The knights only get a brief appearance in this comic but it was important to show, since Vera (our eyepatch butch) used to be one of them. They all have an implanted eyeball that magically connects them to their Mage, which she can use to see through them or even force them to act. The storytelling opportunities this offers is so so juicy, I can't wait to put it together

Similarly, the 'magemobile' only shows up briefly, but it was important as a way to show how other vehicles in this universe might look. I'll need to do some proper design sheets for it, but it and the bike are fully modeled so that I can plan complicated action scenes with ease (a process I refined in my prior book Hex Americana)

I'll end this here with some exploratory art I did of the two romantic leads, showing my Utena influence a little more openly. That's all for now! Let me know what you think 🙂

[acoustic bronze]

OMG I'm so in love with everything UWU
Is there a website / any social media links so we can follow the comic's development or something like that? (Discord compression doesn't do your art justice 😭)

[buoyant helm]

Thank you! My site is http://breewolfstuff.com and my social media (Insta and Twitter) are all @breewolfstuff. If you're into this you'll probably also love Hex Americana when it comes out in August, it's also about gays in sick vehicles

[errant widget]

Bree! This is stunning. And I love the teaser. I already can't wait to get to know your characters better (and what's going on with the horns)!

Would you mind if we shared with one of the above images in an upcoming issue of our newsletter?

[buoyant helm]

Thanks so much! What's the newsletter and what context would this be in?

[errant widget]

Also, I've long been curious about the graphic novel industry. Would you mind me asking where you take this from here? Is this teaser used as a pitch to secure funding or a publisher? What's that process look like?

[buoyant helm]

Tbh that's sort of something I'm figuring out myself. I have an agent to help me pitch this and negotiate with a publisher, which is not something I had when I started work on Hex Americana. My hope is that a publisher can offer enough funding that I can work on the book full time for about 2.5 years. We'll see how that goes of course

Hex Americana, on the other hand, was a very low payment from the publisher but I retain the IP and I will receive the lion's share of the profits when the book eventually debuts

[errant widget]

The Work With Indies newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/workwithindies/decoy-games-twin-drums-codeglue-and-more

If you scroll to the bottom, you'll see that we will like to occasionally shine a light on our member's posts from #1042164881706733640. We're working on a redesigned newsletter now that will hopefully allow us to do so more often and with a more visually pleasing aesthetic.

[buoyant helm]

So my social media will need to focus heavily on promoting Hex so that it'll get the preorders and word of mouth it needs to succeed (I'd love to see my publisher step up for that, but I can't guarantee they'll have the budget)

Got it, yeah sure that sounds good to me c:

[errant widget]

What's 2.5 years of funding look like?

[buoyant helm]

Really I'm just hoping for enough money doled out over milestones (pencils, inks, etc) that aren't poverty level wages

Which in a creative industry is easier said than done

This is also while I'm trying to sell a board game prototype to a new publisher, reach out to some folks for potential collaborations, hype Hex for its release, etc

[errant widget]

Well, count me in as a fan, a backer, purchaser, evangelist, etc. And let me know if there is anything that I can do to help.

[buoyant helm]

I'll definitely be tooting my horn about Hex once we get closer to August! In the meantime, I'm just trying to find gigs to stay afloat

Specifically if you know anybody who wants a vehicle designer, I'd be hella into that

[wheat folio]

This is so cool

[buoyant helm]

Today's work: modeling a side character's prosthetic arm for reference (and fun)

[buoyant helm]

finished up the model and the character design!

also been doing some early type exploration for logo design