Adrianna Helfrich

The Darkest Color

An illustrated fantasy novel about a witch, a curse, and a deal.

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My thesis project is a proposal for a fantasy graphic novel. The story follows a witch named Cosma, who, in a desperate attempt to break the curse threatening her life, makes a bargain with a strange and powerful entity called Sim. Over the duration of the project, I wrote the outline of the story and illustrated much of the first chapter.

This project was born of my love for fiction and any story involving magic, as well as the desire to be able to see myself within the pages of a fantasy. There is a distinct lack of representation in the fantasy genre, which tends to outright ignore anyone outside of a very narrow set of people at it’s best. I wanted to be able to create a magical world without the bounds of modern discrimination within the genre.

The single life goal that I’ve had ever since I was a child was to be able to write a book, though it took me a very long time to find a story within myself that I truly wanted to tell from start to finish. Now that I’ve got it though, it’s become incredibly important to me that I see it through to the end. Thesis might be over, but this project is only just beginning:)

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