In a world of constant reboots and reimaginings it might be easy to dismiss a comic that retells the story of Peter Pan in a modern setting. But with The Wendy Project, creators Melissa Jane Osborne and Veronica Fish have created an incredible exploration of grief, family, imagination, and mental health. We have an exclusive sneak peak of the brand new graphic novel right here including some incredible process pages.
The book’s publisher, Papercutz, describes this inventive take on the classic tale: “16-year-old Wendy Davies crashes her car into a lake on a late summer night in New England with her two younger brothers in the backseat. When she wakes in the hospital, she is told that her youngest brother, Michael, is dead. Wendy–a once rational teenager–shocks her family by insisting that Michael is alive and in the custody of a mysterious flying boy. Placed in a new school, Wendy negotiates fantasy and reality as students and adults around her resemble characters from Neverland. Given a sketchbook by her therapist, Wendy starts to draw. But is The Wendy Project merely her safe space, or a portal between worlds?”
Emet Comics’ founder, Maytal Gilboa, created the company with a clear statement of intent. “My mission statement is to tell stories that the media would find non-commercial or unproven. When you’re looking at the space of animated adult content, you won’t find any series put there focused on a female heroines, so that would be an unproven model or an unproven type of storytelling. We want to take risks in those spaces to dispel those myths and change the way people think about content, primarily the way that they think about content for women or young girls. My personal mission statement is to empower as many female creators and female voices as I can,” Gilboa said in an interview with Women Write About Comics.
With The Wendy Project, Maytal and Emet have definitely achieved that goal. This is an original reading of a classic text that’s been completely refocused on the female protagonist and her journey. This is not the Lost Boys Peter Pan. We’ve had the chance to read the book and it’s an incredibly imaginative, unique, and touching story, put together with unbelievable craft and care by Osborne and Fish, The Wendy Project is less of a reimagining of Peter Pan and more of a reinterpretation of its themes, using the classic book as a cultural touchstone to tell a universally relatable story of loss and grief.
In our gorgeous preview pages, we see Wendy’s ethereal pastel-hued version of Neverland through pages from her very own sketchbook. In the book she’s trying to decipher exactly where her brother has gone and whether she’s truly lost him for good.
One of the most exciting sneak peeks that we’ve gotten our hands on are Veronica Fish’s amazing process pages, showcasing some of the more grounded moments from the book as well as giving us a wonderful insight into just how the comic books we love are actually made.
Originally released as a four part series from Maytal Gilboa’s Emet Comics, the book has been collected as part of Papercutz’s “Super Genius” imprint, distributed by Macmillan and is available now!
Images: Papercutz
