Author: johnmanders

I'm an illustrator, author and cartoonist. I'm writing history for kids: The Western Civ User's Guide to Time & Space AND The Western Civ User's Guide to Reading & Writing.

Consortium boardroom sketch

As I mentioned earlier, I added to GLORIANA’s story: an evil cabal of wealthy financiers who want to take over the kingdoms of 16th -century Europe. Most of the architecture in Elizabeth’s world is Tudor-style. To differentiate the world of these bad guys, their architecture will be mediaeval Gothic. This is a sketch I did to help me visualize their world. Gothic looks heavier and more imposing than other styles.

If, like me, you’d been a student of art teacher Rolly Ivers at Cicero High School back in the 1970s, you’d have been given an introduction to architectural history. It was one of his passions. We all had 3-ring binders full of the mimeographed handouts he painstakingly assembled. I’ll always be grateful Rolly shared that with us. Because I have that foundation, I can whip out a sketch like this even before doing a bunch of research. Of course, I’ll look up Gothic interiors to amplify and fine-tune what I started here. But having a well of images in my head helps me to work efficiently.

Katherine Ashley

Henry VIII banished his daughter, Elizabeth, from court. I can’t discover why, except that Elizabeth did something to upset him or they had an argument. I don’t know if she were under house arrest or sent away. For my plot, I need Elizabeth to be banished to somewhere so bad guys can kidnap her.

In history, in real life, Katherine Ashley was Elizabeth’s governess. I decided to monkey with the truth and make Kat the headmistress of a school for young ladies, say half-a-day’s ride from Hampton. Now I have a destination for Elizabeth.

https://thetudorenthusiast.weebly.com/blog/the-life-and-death-of-kat-ashley
https://www.sparknotes.com/biography/elizabeth/section1/

Bad guy headquarters

A change I made to the story was to expand the scope of bad guys who are chasing after Elizabeth. Instead of one evil wizard and 2 hench-wizards, they will be backed by a whole group of wealthy financiers who are intent on subjugating the kingdoms of Europe. They are “The Consortium.” Of course they operate out of a menacing gothic stronghold.

This is the rough thumbnail sketch for Page 1, drawn at half the printed size.

Never say die!

It’s been quite a while since I posted! Here’s what’s been going on:

My original idea was to tell this story one page at a time, right here on this blog. It didn’t work out. GLORIANA is a saga, with lots of subplots, each involving a set of characters. It was too much for me to keep track of everybody. For instance, I needed some of King Henry’s soldiers to escort Elizabeth to a carriage after he’d banished her from court (that really happened). Where were these soldiers? I forgot to include them in the previous scene. Oops.

The other problem is I wasn’t easily able to design 2-page spreads this way. GLORIANA was a long-form online comic. After I started, I decided I want to make this a printed graphic novel instead. In print, the 2-page spreads need to look good. I wasn’t planning ahead. I’m an old graphic designer. If you’ve seen my picture books, you might guess that I design the whole project—thumbnail sketches of all the pages—before I start drawing illustrations. I blogged about that process at johnmanders.wordpress.com. Even before that, my picture book projects began with the author’s story, the manuscript. I was writing the story and drawing the pictures as I went along—an unwise move. Picture books are usually 32 pages. GLORIANA needs to be much longer than that. I was getting overwhelmed and I’d hardly begun.

So, I stopped working on it.

I really do believe in this project. I haven’t given up. I’m starting over. In the past months I wrote the manuscript. I had support and advice from my friends (thank you, Diana, Vince, Licia and Jenny!). GLORIANA is a tale of what-ifs: what if Elizabeth Tudor, after the big argument with Henry and her banishment, were chased by bad guys intent on assassinating her? What if these bad guys were part of a super-villain consortium bent on subjugating the kingdoms of Europe? What if the super-villain-wizard chasing her were a character from a popular play—a man who sold his soul to the Lord of Hell? How would she escape; make herself unrecognizable; where would she go? What if, during her flight, Elizabeth met real-life historical personalities who helped her? What if Elizabeth’s escape turned into an almighty battle between Good and Evil?

Elizabeth starts out as an unlikeable brat. I need her to become someone who values others. I need her to become a leader who would one day assume the throne of England.

The manuscript is finished. I’m storyboarding the graphic novel now. It looks like I’ll produce it in 16-page installments and self-publish. I’ll likely sell them on a crowd-funding site. If this is going to work, I need to find lots of customers! I will post updates here.

Thanks, friends, for your patience.

—Your old pal Manders