Working With Two Artists to Bring a Manga/Western Graphic Novel to Life
Author Shawn Hainsworth shares the benefits of working with two artists to bring a manga/Western graphic novel to life.
One of the most rewarding parts of creating Zicky: Wrath of the Rat King has been working with not one, but two artists across the life of the project. From the very beginning, Zicky was conceived as a story that moves between worlds, the real and the imagined, and that idea shaped many of the creative decisions. Because the series is rooted in transformation, imagination, and shifting perspectives, it felt uniquely suited to multiple visual interpretations, as long as the emotional core of the character remained consistent.
Each artist brought a distinct sensibility to Zicky, and that contrast became one of the project’s greatest strengths. Jorge Gabotto leaned into expressive characters and playful energy, perfectly capturing Zicky’s cheeky humor, emotional openness, and family dynamics. His style is loose, minimal, and character-forward, allowing moments of humor, vulnerability, and everyday life to breathe. Jorge’s pages ground the story in relatability, reminding readers that no matter how fantastical things become, Zicky is still a kid navigating family, fear, and growing pains.
Zeno Decrux, on the other hand, brought a manga style to the book. His work emphasizes momentum, scale, and dynamic movement, making him a perfect fit for the fantasy elements and action sequences. Zeno’s world-building adds texture and weight to the imagined realms Zicky enters, giving monsters, environments, and battles a sense of danger and excitement. Where Jorge’s work invites readers into Zicky’s emotional world, Zeno’s pulls them forward through spectacle and motion.
As the story progresses, the boundary between those worlds begins to dissolve. Manga characters invade the real world, and fantasy elements bleed into everyday life. That narrative choice required an even deeper level of collaboration between the artists. Rather than dividing pages cleanly by sequence or location, Jorge and Zeno began collaborating on individual panels. Depending on the focus of a given moment, one artist would create the initial sketch and pass it to me for review. I would then send it to the other artist, who would add their contribution, often adding coloring or additional visual detail. The panel would then return to the original artist for finishing.
This back-and-forth process was time-intensive, but it allowed the art itself to mirror the story’s themes. Panels became literal meeting points between styles, just as the narrative explores the collision of imagination and reality. The result wasn’t a compromise between voices, but a dialogue of two visual languages interacting on the same page.
My role as writer and editor became more deliberate as a result. I had to articulate the rules and textures of each world with clarity, while also trusting each artist to interpret those details through their own style. Continuity was a major consideration throughout. Many characters have distinct representations in the real world versus the fantasy world, and it was essential that readers could immediately recognize those shifts. At the same time, we wanted to have fun with transformation, allowing visual exaggeration and surprise to play an active role in the storytelling.
Working with two artists reinforced for me that imagination is inherently collaborative. The visual language of the book needed to feel seamless, preserving the emotional throughline even as styles changed. The contribution of each artist depended on the other for the book to be successful.
Ultimately, this collaborative process made Zicky a better book. It demanded clearer communication, deeper trust, and a willingness to let the story evolve beyond my initial expectations. Comics are a uniquely collaborative medium, and Zicky exists because multiple creative voices were allowed to shape it in meaningful ways.
Check out Shawn Hainsworth's Zicky here:
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