This month was going to be my big push for the release of Clifford the Big Red Dog graphic novel, but as it’s a movie tie-in and the movie has been postponed until next year, the book will not be in stores until next year. This was a big disappointment, it was intended to have an October 2020 release.
Instead, I can report on progress for the third installment in the I Survived graphic novel series, I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944. My editor at Scholastic was gracious enough to send me copies of the book at various stages of art completion and I got to see it while it was still thumbnail sketches, while it was in inks, and after it was partially colored. We have a new artist this time around (I still don’t know his name!) with a very different style than the last two. It’s classic comic book art with a more realistic approach and the final result after colors is stunning.
I cried frequently as I did the necessary research to instruct the artist on how to draw the relevant historical details. There are no words for what the Nazis did to the Jews in Europe, but what they did to children is especially heinous and very difficult to read about. This book is about the Jewish partisans, small bands of resistance fighters who hid in the Polish woods and sabotaged German operations. It’s a hopeful, encouraging story, though the real history of the partisans seemed less hopeful to me as I researched. Successful or unsuccessful, maybe the real legacy of the partisans is their human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.
The I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 graphic novel is available for pre-order and scheduled for release on February 2, 2021.