Hello everyone!
After the completion of my Father Gabriel’s Blessing animated cartoon back in 2023, I had to think long and hard about my next project.
I did have an idea for my next animated cartoon project and even storyboarded most of it, but ultimately I decided to shelve this for now and concentrate on my first graphic novel that I intend to publish.
The Story
The story of my graphic novel was originally a short story I wrote many years ago, and it had remained one of my favorites! In a nutshell, this is a story about a young Orthodox Christian convert named James, who after coming to the faith, has a strong desire to marry. However, he also has a desire for the monastic life. In the end, he falls in love and marries a beautiful young woman named Sharon. But after a few years, James and Sharon face a difficult trial and must decide on the future of their marriage.
This is all that I will reveal for the time being, but it is a very dramatic and emotional story that I hope many people will enjoy reading. I spent a considerable amount of time converting the story into a script and I am now working on the illustrations.
This will be a full color graphic novel that will be more than one hundred pages. I don’t want to reveal the title as of yet since I am still thinking about it and may end up changing it.
Publishing
My plan is to finish the manuscript and approach Orthodox Christian publishers and see if they are interested in publishing my graphic novel. Truthfully, I have not seen any Orthodox Christian publishers publish graphic novels, so I am not sure if they will be interested. Orthodox publishers such as St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press and Ancient Faith Radio publish plenty of childen’s books, but are they interested in publishing a graphic novel for young adults? I do not know. If you know of any Orthodox Christian (or even non-Orthodox) publishers who would be interested in publishing an Orthodox Christian graphic novel, please feel free to comment in the comment section.
But if all else fails, I do have a Plan B! I will self-publish my graphic novel on Amazon. It will be available to purchase both as a printed book and as a digital book to read. I may also publish using Apple’s iBooks.
Date of Completion
At this time, I do not have a date of completion. I am working on the illustrations only in my spare time and usually get one or two pages of illustrations done per week. Sometimes less, sometimes more. However, from time to time I will make blog posts on the progress of the graphic novel and will share sample illustrations and time-lapse videos.
So please make sure you visit my blog page often for updates, and subscribe to the IKONiMATION Mailing List.
Thank you very much for reading my latest blog post and feel free to post your comments and questions in the comments section. I am always happy to read and respond to your comments.