January Is Graphic Novel Month


This is a page of a graphic novel draft.

The Goal

A 125 page draft of your graphic novel in script or thumbnails (depending on your preference.)

The Preparation

That’s what December is for. Hit the library, do your research, make some character reference pages: whatever you need to hit the ground running in January. I’m assuming you already have your paper, pencils, brushes, or Wacom tablets.

So is this.

The Background

Kelci Crawford and I are both in the planning stages of our next books. Last week, we were talking over Twitter and we thought it would be helpful to make a plan for a month kind of like NaNoWriMo. We thought it would be useful to be able to pace ourselves with others, kind of like marathon runners cluster together to avoid dropping off their pace. Or maybe cycling teams are a better analogy, as people are working together to help each other stay on pace.

Would You Like to Join Us?

I am willing to write critiques of work and otherwise give advice. I’ll post links to your site and give you shout outs in this space. You can talk to me (@don_macdonald) and Kelci (@KelciDCrawford on Twitter about your progress and how things are going in general. If you don’t do Twitter, you can always drop me a line via e-mail.

IMG_5982.jpg

and this.

Your Reward

You will have your draft done. Of your entire book. Do not discount what a big step this is. You will still have work ahead of you, but you will have your canvas stretched and primed with a nice underpainting, ready for you to start really laying in the color. Now you’re in the game. I’ll link liberally to anyone that works with us and I’ll pimp your book when that time comes. Also, as convention season rolls around, there will be high fives, fist bumps, or bounty hunter nods all around (depending on preference).

-Don

3 thoughts on “January Is Graphic Novel Month

  1. The_Mangaman says:

    Well you may not know this Don but Kelci and I have been talking for a while about an OGN I’m currently working on. Just today I got the project officially approved as a senior thesis so I am extatic on working along side you guys over the course of Dec and Jan.

    Good luck to you both and don’t forget to get some sleep :)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *