Cork illustrator signs deal to publish graphic novels

WHAT began as a pandemic pastime drawing comic penguin characters, has turned into a major three-book deal for Cork illustrator Sheena Dempsey.

Sheena, who grew up in Rochestown and now lives in Folkestone, Kent, already had a string of children’s book illustration credits to her name, including the Dave Pigeon series and Fearne Cotton’s Yoga Babies, when like many people, she found herself with time on her hands during the Covid pandemic.

Keen to utilise the unexpected break from regular commitments, Sheena started creating the first incarnation of what would eventually become a series of graphic novels, now snapped up by Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

“Where it all kind of began was the very beginning of the pandemic - the first few days that we were in lockdown,” said Sheena, a former pupil of Cork’s Eglantine primary school and Scoil Mhuire who after a spell at art college moved to England to pursue a masters degree and her career in illustration.

“I’d been wanting to make a diary webcomic for a while and I’d been talking about it to Mick, my husband. I said the pandemic seemed like a good time to do it; we’re going to be locked down; I’ve extra time on my hands.”

Not only was he consulted about ‘Isolation Penguin’, but Mick became the source of inspiration behind one of two main webcomic penguin characters, fittingly described as “polar opposites”.

“It was basically me and my husband as penguins and how we navigated the pandemic together, and our dog was depicted as a tortoise,” said Sheena.

By the time the webcomic developed into full graphic novel format, the penguins had also undergone some character realignment.

“In a really good dynamic duo it’s good to have contrasting characteristics and some of my husband’s characteristics are a little bit similar to mine,” she said.

“So I actually gave my husband some of my anxiety and he became the neurotic one in the book and I’m the really dynamic one with an impulsive streak!”

The penguins, who portrayed lighter moments of life during lockdown, soon became popular among Sheena’s Instagram followers.

“I was really enjoying it, to be honest, and it was a respite from my other contracted books,” she said.

Isolation Penguin also caught the eye of one of Sheena’s publishers, who suggested she develop the idea and pitch it as a children’s book.

The publisher ultimately rejected the project, but Sheena, after “licking my wounds for a while”, became determined to see the work to fruition.

“I thought about it and took it out of the drawer again and said ‘I’m going to work on this’.”

Sheena, who has illustrated the work of Swapna Haddow, Niall Breslin, Lucy Courtenay, and Simon Philip among others, as well as creating the artwork for last year’s Holly Bough cover, transformed her waddling comic characters into time travellers Pablo and Splash, who flip back to the era of dinosaurs, the ice age, and ancient Rome.

“ Pablo and Splash are loosely based on the characters from the webcomic, which were loosely based on my husband and I,” said Sheena.

“I worked really hard on it, and I changed agents. My new agent pitched it to 12 publishers and seven out of the 12 came back within two weeks and I had seven offers.

“It was unexpected and I was completely gobsmacked. I just didn’t expect there to be such an interest,” she said.

“It turned into a publishing auction with three rounds and Bloomsbury were the winning publisher.”

The success of children’s graphic novels such as Dav Pilkey’s Dog Manand Mark Bradley’s Bumble and Snug for younger readers has highlighted the growing market for the genre, reflected in trends among publishers and agents at last month’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

“Graphic novels are the gap in the market at the moment,” said Sheena.

“All the American imports like Dog Man are absolutely huge. Kids are just reading them voraciously and I don’t think there are a lot of makers in the UK.

“A few years ago I was looking at graphic novels and I felt there wasn’t much uptake from publishers but by the time I was actually pitching, they were all looking for them.

“I think it’s a recent thing that the English market has caught up with the US market - and I happened to have the right project at the right time,” she said.

“All the publishers are looking for graphic novel projects and it’s filtering down to Bumble and Snug, the five-to-eight age group, and at Bologna there was huge demand.”

Bloomsbury, she said, was a perfect fit for her and the publisher was keen to aim Pablo and Splash at the eight-to-nine readership of the likes of Dog Man.

The first book in the series is to be released next January, with book two in November 2024 and the third title in 2025, each book ending with historical facts and how-to-draw guides for budding graphic novelists.

With a new Dave Pigeon title with Swapna Haddow also set for release this year, Sheena will certainly not be resting on her laurels after the announcement of the book deal.

“I’m focusing on these three books for the next two years,” she said.

“But I want to make more graphic novels and I have lots of ideas.”