a graphic novel prequel to “The Tempest”

Prospero: Hast thou forgotten the foul witch Sycorax, who, with age, and envy, was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?

Ariel: No, sir.

The Tempest (Act I Scene II)

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Some character sketches for Sycorax the witch

For a while now, I’ve been trying to get a particular project off the ground… a new graphic novel I’ve written called Sycorax Waning. The story is a prequel to Shakespeare’s The Tempest and features some of the key characters from the play: namely, Sycorax the witch and Caliban her deformed child.

My plot is fully developed and I’ve written the first 25 pages of the 200-page script. Earlier this year, after a long search for a suitable artist, I teamed up with a very skilled lady named Inko based down in Brighton. She’s put together a collection of excellent concept drawings for me, some of which you can see in this post.

My aim is to work with Inko over the coming months to get the first 15 pages of the script illustrated. Using this sample, I’ll approach relevant publishers to see if they’ve got any interest in the project. As I’ve been discovering the hard way, UK publishers really aren’t keen on graphic novel scripts on their own. They want to see the finished, fully drawn product… or a chapter-length portion of it, at the very least!

Some character sketches for Caliban: half man, half fish

If you fancy an introduction to the project and some background to The Tempest, you can read my high concept story proposal right here: Sycorax Waning_Introduction

If there are any publishers or editors out there who want to know a bit more, please get in touch with me and I’ll send you a whole swathe of supporting materials. To get this project off the ground would be a dream come true and I’d love to see Inko’s drawings really get a chance to come to life.

PS – in case you weren’t aware, The Tempest itself has recently been adapted into a graphic novel by the clever folk at Classical Comics. I highly recommend it. Their entire collection, in fact, is seriously impressive and is doing great things for Shakespeare in the 21st century.