NINE GATES: My journey to making a graphic novel

Greetings! Never mind that last post, I was ranting like a mad man! Recently I promised you in depth interviews and videos about my newest book Short Stories of a Man Named Frankie Dingle: Adventures of Absurdity. Well you're still going to have to wait for that! Ha! It seems I've sold but one copy so far (pathetic) seemingly because a lot of people don't understand that its only available in digital format. So I will have to adjust my marketing strategies and get that rolling.

I wanted to talk a little bit about my other current project, Nine Gates  my graphic novel! I'm in the prelims right now with it and am unavailable to scan in and post any progress pictures unfortunately but I am coming along. The script for the first chapter was finished quite sometime ago and now I have finished most of the character designs, and page 1 pencils and the cover pencils as well. Currently starting on page 2, of which I have the prelim pencils done so far. Everything with time and effort.

I'm looking to hopefully get this published through an actual big name publisher (IDW; DARK HORSE, IMAGE or SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS) so as not to have so much pressure on myself to sell it. All of their submission guidelines are luckily all the same pretty much: Cover Letter, Whole Story Synopsis, Character Breakdowns, and 5 penciled, inked and lettered pages. Five is the minimum but its pretty much what I'm shooting for right now.

The cover letter, synopsis, character breakdowns and pencils part is easy for me and somewhat the inking. I run into a huge problem with the lettering part however. Like what do I do for that part? So that is really going to be quite a doosy for me. I'll figure something out I'm hoping.

I picture this series in black and white (basically like a manga graphic novel) interiors with of course full color covers and wraps and what not. It's sort of a cross between; Avatar/Korra; Ral Grad, and Lord of the Rings. Sort of. The rest of it is something different that I've never come across myself out there in the comic world. I'll post the synopsis and stuff soon and hopefully some pictures. Thanks.