Posted in: Comics | Tagged: above the clouds, Agent, graphic novel, vault comics, wonderland

Melissa Pagluica's Debut Graphic Novel Above The Clouds, From Vault

Published Thu, 24 Mar 2022 06:57:09 -0500

Last updated Sun, 09 Jul 2023 07:39:29 -0500

In 2013, Bleeding Cool reported from ECCC and a mini-comic launch for Melissa Pagluica's Above The Clouds. Bleeding Cool reporter Matt Harding wrote;

"a young Sacramento-based artist by the name of Melissa Pagluica whose first major comic convention is this year's ECCC. I was immediately impressed with Melissa's artwork, which was a literal mosh pot of styles combined to make a burning hot stew of awesomeness. Her comic "Above the Clouds" is a work in progress, and appears to be a "Brave"- type story in which I can't wait to see completed. Her light, joyful attitude is easily conveyed through her artwork, which covers a vast array of personal creations of her own to recognizable characters such as Avatar, The Last Airbender."

Since then it has been a webcomic, and was recently Kickstartered into print, but has now been picked by Rebecca Taylor at the original graphic novel imprint Wonderbound from Vault Comics for comic book stores, libraries, bookfairs and bookshops for next year. It will be Melissa Pagluica's debut middle-grade graphic, with a story that intertwines two stories, one about a hero who must save a dying world, and another about a young girl named Eily whose world is silent until she is given a book. She falls in love with a story about an unlikely hero who must save a great world tree from a dragon. Only, the story she's reading isn't done and now she must get a reluctant author to finish what he has started.

Melissa Pagluica told me "This project was definitely one of perseverance. I aimed to learn as much as I could about putting together a comic and it has gone through every process there is. A webcomic that ran for 5 years, a successful kickstarter, the ups and downs of printing a book and distributing. It's easier to look back now and kind of laugh at how 2020 went, but at the time I had just received my books from the printers, finished fulling all the rewards to backers, and was set to debut the book March of 2020 at ECCC…and then COVID hit. I had a garage filled with boxes and nowhere to go for the next year. But Britt Siess reached out in April of 2020, and during that year it has been amazing to have someone in my corner. I'm still kind of amazed how far this project went… especially since it was originally supposed to be a short story (said every comic creator, I imagine). And mostly, I'm really excited to work with Wonderbound, we have some fun plans for the story!"

That would be Britt Siess at Britt Siess Creative Management, an agent who keeps popping up in the Bleeding Cool Power List, and who sold world English rights to Vault Comics. Above the Clouds will be published next year and Melissa Pagluica has also started her new webcomic, Monster Heart, on Webtoon.