Jane is 13, looks nothing like your standard plucky heroine, and knows it. She lives in a fictional 18th century Maritimes village with her mean parents and is blamed for her baby brother being lost at sea years ago. But when Peter, her crush, is kidnapped by a beautiful mermaid, she puts aside her insecurities and dives into the sea to rescue him. With three gifts from a village crone, she swims down to find not only the mermaid, but all manner of monsters real and imagined.
“I’ve had this book in my head for almost four years and am really excited to finally share it,” Brosgol told Paste. “It’s a completely different world to draw (no classrooms!) and a story that’s both personal and challenging. If you’ve seen me staring out to sea with my brow furrowed, this is why.”
Brosgol, 34, is best known as the artist behind the Eisner and Harvey Award-winning graphic novel “Anya’s Ghost” (2011), which is currently in the works as a film starring Emma Roberts. Her most recent graphic novel, the autobiographical “Be Prepared,” was published earlier this year: she also works as a storyboard artist for stop-motion animation company Laika Entertainment (Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings et al.), and Cartoon Network.
Head on over to Paste for more early artwork from “Plain Jane.”
