Okay, let's see if I can address everyone in one post 
HareBrain, The sparsity of the first couple of panels is something that I've tried to address. I have added a bit more clutter to them, though in a way I like having the book starting off as kind of serene and have each panel become more and more crowded (I struggle to fit every living dwarf into the final few panels, they're pretty hectic). With those ones the added clutter are more things like extra clouds, birds flying and relaxing type things.
Brian, the naming of the characters leads to a puzzle at the end of the book. Readers have to take the initials of each dwarf that dies and use them to spell out a secret message. Regarding the narrative voice, there's three characters that write the story (although the third character only gets the final panel). That fifth page that I posted is the final year for that character before he disappears (hence why it sounds like he's going crazy... I hope). I didn't think of it at the time, but I can see how this might cause an unexpected break in the story, especially if I'm not providing the sixth panel (that mentions the character's disappearance) with the submission. Maybe I need to submit a different panel?
Out of interest, what age bracket are the picture books aimed at that your wife is working on?
Hey Judge, I'm purposefully trying to avoid certain stereotypes in the story, which is why the dwarves don't have the traditional dwarvishness that you mentioned. Not only that, there ends up being 100 characters in the story, so it would be a massive struggle if they all had the typical flowing dwarven beard. About the clues, they'll be included at the back of the book as part of the riddle and hidden in secret messages (If you look at the writing on the wall behind the guy in the throne you can see an example of this... gotta flip the picture around though) throughout the book.
Springs, just noticed your pm... will read in a sec A lot of agents that I'm considering mention author/illustrators and how to submit for this type of work. It does seem more common for authors and illustrators to be separate, but I can find plenty of examples where they're not, and certainly all the books that inspired me to start this project were done by the same individual. To be honest though, I don't think at this stage that I could let someone else take over the narrative side, I've invested too much into it.
HareBrain, The sparsity of the first couple of panels is something that I've tried to address. I have added a bit more clutter to them, though in a way I like having the book starting off as kind of serene and have each panel become more and more crowded (I struggle to fit every living dwarf into the final few panels, they're pretty hectic). With those ones the added clutter are more things like extra clouds, birds flying and relaxing type things.
Brian, the naming of the characters leads to a puzzle at the end of the book. Readers have to take the initials of each dwarf that dies and use them to spell out a secret message. Regarding the narrative voice, there's three characters that write the story (although the third character only gets the final panel). That fifth page that I posted is the final year for that character before he disappears (hence why it sounds like he's going crazy... I hope). I didn't think of it at the time, but I can see how this might cause an unexpected break in the story, especially if I'm not providing the sixth panel (that mentions the character's disappearance) with the submission. Maybe I need to submit a different panel?
Out of interest, what age bracket are the picture books aimed at that your wife is working on?
Hey Judge, I'm purposefully trying to avoid certain stereotypes in the story, which is why the dwarves don't have the traditional dwarvishness that you mentioned. Not only that, there ends up being 100 characters in the story, so it would be a massive struggle if they all had the typical flowing dwarven beard. About the clues, they'll be included at the back of the book as part of the riddle and hidden in secret messages (If you look at the writing on the wall behind the guy in the throne you can see an example of this... gotta flip the picture around though) throughout the book.
Springs, just noticed your pm... will read in a sec
A lot of agents that I'm considering mention author/illustrators and how to submit for this type of work. It does seem more common for authors and illustrators to be separate, but I can find plenty of examples where they're not, and certainly all the books that inspired me to start this project were done by the same individual. To be honest though, I don't think at this stage that I could let someone else take over the narrative side, I've invested too much into it.
