introducing DARKEST NIGHT (graphic novel)

I’m announcing a new graphic novel: DARKEST NIGHT! I will be serializing it via this newsletter, starting tomorrow and updating every Friday. Regular updates will be for subscribers only*, but I will eventually share chapters on the free version of this newsletter.

Magdalena Hererra, Mags to everyone, was born with a secret. She keeps the secret locked in the basement, where it cannot hurt anyone else. She feeds the secret, every day. No one knows the secret, besides her family—and her childhood best friend, who is back in town after being gone for ten years.

Nessa remembers the mysterious death that prompted her family to move away, and remembers what Mags is keeping in the basement...and she is not going to sit back and let it drain the life from her oldest friend.

Content warning: DARKEST NIGHT is an older YA comic. There will be death, sexual scenes (nothing explicitly NSFW), violence, and themes around self-harm. There are gay and trans characters who will be in violent situations, although the violence will not be homophobic or transphobic. As specific scenes come up I will provide more detailed warnings!

Acknowledgements:

A very big thank you to Mey Rude and Phoenix Mendoza for sensitivity reading and consultation, and Daisy Gaeta for proofreading.

Font: Neucha by Jovanny Lemonad

This comic is set in and was inspired by the Joshua Tree area, which was called the Oasis of Mara by its former inhabitants: the Serrano, Chemehuevi, Mojave, and Cahuilla people. I am drawing it on unceded Tongva land.

Thank you for coming with me on this journey!

*Regular updates for subscribers only because this is a work in progress, and I want to stop it from going wide as I’m in the process of writing and drawing it. I’m continuing to match and donate all money I make from subscriptions to trans charities!