The making of Peculiar Woods
During my college years (2008-2011), I devoted most of my free time to illustrating and watching movies. Writing stories was a constant hobby and passion, though I felt I wasn't that good at it. I had many sketchbooks filled with nonsensical stories and amateurish doodles. To improve, I enrolled in a creative writing course at the Gotham Writers Workshop and began creating comics daily for Wawawiwa Comics. It was a slow process, but over the years, I honed my storytelling skills and found my style.
In 2020, the idea for Peculiar Woods was sparked after a conversation with a TV executive who was looking for a new middle-grade animated series. After the pitch meeting, I was surprised that they loved it! However, due to my drawing style and inexperience at pitching, they felt it was more suited for a preschool project, which they weren't looking for at the time. They invited me to send them my next big idea.
Since I already had a Peculiar Woods pitch bible ready, I shared it with my editor at Andrews McMeel Publishing, who liked and trusted the project enough to buy the rights for the first two books in the series, kickstarting my first graphic novel. With a signed deal, I focused on reworking and improving every aspect of this story, even the logo and some character design elements evolved as shown below. With my wife Viviana's unwavering support and countless sleepless nights, I wrote, illustrated, and colored the first volume in the series.
"Peculiar Woods - The Ancient Underwater City," was a labor of love, taking three months to write the script and six months to sketch and complete each page. By the summer of 2022, the book was completed and set for release in May 2023. Initial reviews were encouraging, and the series found a place in bookshops and many school libraries across the United States. "Peculiar Woods - The Mystery of the Intelligents," was no different, taking almost a year to complete and it's set for release in June 2024.