By Steve Horton
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down…
Seriously, though, the path from zero to 100 in this case study about a debut graphic novel is a strange one. They say that when someone breaks into the publishing industry, they cement off that entrance so nobody can ever break in that way again, but I think there are still some lessons to be learned in how I did it, so hopefully more folks can get into traditionally published graphic novels for adults.
It all started in January 2017. The Moonage Daydreams exhibition opened in at London’s Orbital Comics. One year after David Bowie’s death (and near what would have been his 70th birthday), Robin Harman organized an art gallery of 20 original art pieces by comic book artists, all of whom reimagined Bowie’s album covers. Though I’m Stateside and wasn’t able to visit the exhibit in person, I was stunned by it. I thought to myself, why hasn’t anyone made a full graphic novel about the man himself?
I sent out a Tweet to this effect, mainly to myself, and that got the gears spinning and the ball rolling in my own mind. I contacted the first artist, who shall remain nameless as it didn’t work out, and put together a book proposal, firing it off to all the best graphic novel agencies in the country. Since this is a nonfiction project, and a graphic novel besides, we didn’t have any pages done, just some ancillary art. However, I had done a ton of research already and had written a first draft of the entire manuscript, which we included.
The first agent to really respond positively was Claire Anderson-Wheeler of Regal Hoffmann & Associates. As mentioned previously, the artist dropped out around this time. Anderson-Wheeler understood the situation, and I reached out to some friends to see who might make an effective replacement. My friend and legendary artist and writer Phil Hester immediately recommended another, equally legendary artist, Mike Allred, who works as a team with his wife, colorist Laura Allred, and is the world’s biggest Bowie fan.
Allred was coming right off a world-class run on the Marvel Comics title Silver Surfer. His yes couldn’t come fast enough, assuming we could get a decent publishing deal together!
We then set out to find a publisher. Insight Editions, the prolific coffee-table book publisher, had recently made a foray into graphic novels under a new Insight Comics imprint. Mark Irwin, the comic book inker, editor, writer, and now publishing head of Mad Cave Studios, was the editor of Insight Comics at the time and a huge Allred (and music) fan. He swiftly grabbed hold of this book and wouldn’t let go.
Anderson-Wheeler and Insight negotiated a deal quickly, to the delight of everyone involved, and the rest was history. It took nearly three years from that point for the Allreds to produce the finished, more than 160-page book, and it came out in January 2020. By February, the book made the New York Times Graphic Books bestseller list at #15 with a bullet. To this day, it’s the only graphic novel biography, as opposed to memoir, to make the list, which is generally dominated by manga and Dav Pilkey graphic novels. (Later that same year, the book won two Eisner Awards for art and coloring and was nominated for lettering.)
We had a whole tour planned, but you-know-what happened in March. Still, the book sold well and was translated into 15 languages. Now, five years later, I have more graphic biographies in the works with other artists and other subjects, and I’m back with Regal Hoffmann, this time represented by Markus Hoffmann himself, but the strange and swift tale of how BOWIE happened will never leave my mind!
Bio: Steve Horton is the New York Times bestselling writer of the graphic novel BOWIE: STARDUST, RAYGUNS & MOONAGE DAYDREAMS, winner of two Eisner Awards.
