Kids Comics Pitchfest 2025 Showcase
Comics creators from around the world submit their unpublished projects to be previewed online by editors and agents. A panel of judges (click here to see the juror list) select the top pitches. Projects are archived here so that industry pros may view them and discover new talent.
HOUWEI - HEARTS OF DRAGONS
Houwei, pronounced Hoo-way, is the Chinese word for defender.
Thousands of years ago, as civilization grew in China, the Jade Emperor bestowed special abilities on selected everyday people to be Defenders of those they live among. These abilities were hereditary upon the passing of a current Houwei.
Heart of Dragons is a story about family dynamics.
Vincent balances his life as the superhero Houwei with the support of his family and friends. His ‘created’ family may not be blood, but that matters little to a family forged in love.
In contrast, the Medvedev family’s bond of love had fractured a long ago. A missing father and their wildly successful business of destruction has pitted brother against brother.
Age Range:
Young Adult (approx ages 13+)Genre:
Adventure, LGBTQ+, Magical Realism, Mythology/Folklore, Realistic Fiction/Slice of Life, RomancePage Count Estimate:
Roughly either six 24 page issues or 144/168 graphic novel
My Why:
This story started off as an adventure project for a friend. Atticus has two dads and one of then happens to be a super-hero. We too real-life circumstances and added the twists and turns of what-ifs. Atticus is the adopted son of Blane (from Kentucky, where I am also from) and Vincent (who‘s grandparents fled Taiwan before World War 2). The super-hero aspect comes from the mythology of the Jade Emperor. In the course of her story, the supporting characters are real people with a twist of being mythological beings that decided to remain earthbound. Of course super-heroes need super-villains. This is the aspect of how family dynamics play into the family structure that we will be playing with as a fairy tale romance takes a dark turn.
James Quillen
It was fate that James, along with his grandmother, bought a Superman comic every day when he started kindergarten. Learning to read, education, imagination was important for the first grandson. That four-color world of Superman grew to overtake his life.
College led to a Navy career, but the journey‘s to those other worlds never ceased. Just the writing had - until Scott Snyder‘s writing class re-ignited the desire to create his own worlds, not just visit other people‘s worlds.
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