BURDEN - Cover Exploration (Patreon)

So I got a new agent and I've left Nobrow. We've been talking a lot about where I go next with comics and so I'm exploring all my old ideas. 

Burden the Faery Boy is a book set in my hometown of Glastonbury which is a centre of pagan, wiccan and english folklore. Burden is a young fae living in the woods who is fascinated by humans. He wants to learn everything he can about them so begs his faery guardians to let him go to human school. It would be middle grade, inspired by things like Hilda and Moomins but drawing on the folklore that I grew up amongst. 

I got diagnosed as autistic this year and its made me decontextualise a lot of the struggles I had as a kid to socialise. I am also fascinated by the historic association between autism, homosexuality and faeries. I haven't deep dived too far into it and I know it's a very emotive subject, but I have heard that in the past, autistic children were often thought of as changelings. It's horrific to think so many kids suffered under such ghoulish superstitions, but with a childhood filled with being called a freak, a weirdo, and worse, its something I'm interested in seeing if theres a way to reclaim it? 

Writing Norma is how I discovered I was on the spectrum but I want to now write a book which explores that really means to me.