I’m really starting to wonder if a picture book can really tell the story of Ulele and Juan Ortiz. The story I’ve written is quite complex. Combine this with the fact that no one has ever seen this world of Florida’s Native Americans before and I think it might be a challenge to convey everything in one picture per page.

But graphic novels use multiple images per page to tell their story. They seem like a much better format to use for my book. So I decided to take my favorite of the three finalists and have him illustrate another page from my book but this time using the graphic novel form. I also auditioned a new artist who specializes specifically in graphic novels and had him draw the same scene. Here are the results:

Ulele and friends
Ulele and friends