About 5 years ago, when this whole project was just a twinkle in our eyes, awesome comic book artist (not to mention storyboard artist for “The PJs”) Todd Herman did some early character studies for us. We still hope to do a graphic novel version one day. Thanks Todd!    (click pictures for larger versions)

As we progressed on our animated screenplay, awesome comic book/pop culture artist JR Williams did some character designs for us as well. Thanks JR! (his name links to his site, pictures link to larger versions)

Then, our friend 10-year-old Dylan, son of our friends Sarah & Bryant of Anna Bananas coffee shops, found himself reading our script well past midnight on a school night because he couldn’t put it down. This was the big kick in the pants we needed to turn our clunky truncated screenplay into more enjoyable prose. Thanks Dylan!

Illustrated novels from our childhoods like Alice in Wonderland, Hans Christian Anderson and, more recently, the wonderfully quirky Here Be Monsters, inspired us to add pictures. Neither of us are brilliant illustrators but considering we also wanted to create a companion coloring/activity book, our simple drawings seem to have served us well.

The second half of Kyle’s poem at the end of the book was actually written by Dielle in middleschool and was part of the inspiration for this story. Always wanting dragons to be more than mindless beasts, this story satisfies the ageless dream of having a dragon for a best friend.

Our other main inspiration was the animation of legendary Ray Harryhausen who created fantastical creatures for films such as Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, the Sinbad movies, One Million Years BC, etc.