Kids Comics Pitchfest 2023 Showcase

An Atomic Life: From the Big Bang until Noon Today

When eleven-year-old Stella asks what her French fry is made of, Flighty Hydrogen, one of the countless hydrogen atoms from which the entire universe was created, pops in to show her. Along with Stella, we watch Flighty’s journey through time, from its appearance after the birth of the universe to its current home: a fry on Stella’s lunch tray. Flighty floats through space, excited to bump into other hydrogen atoms and chat, however briefly. Flighty’s excited when stars form and when new atoms appear, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, the atoms of life, created in the heat of the stars. After stars explode, spewing dust and gases full of larger atoms, Flighty lands on a crowded dust particle heading toward the Milky Way Galaxy.

My Why:

My original intention for creating a story from an atom’s point of view was to simplify various concepts in chemistry. This led me to investigate the source of atoms, which became the study of the beginning of the universe. When I discovered that everything in the universe originated from hydrogen atoms, I had my story. THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE meets THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS RIDES AGAIN.

However, I was writing it like a novel and an editor suggested, during a discussion at an SCBWI conference, that I turn it into a graphic novel. Yes! The perfect way to present a story from a hydrogen atom’s point of view.