Comic/Graphic Novel Artist — Kickstarter Sample Pages

Please do not use AI to respond to me without acknowledging it. Do tell me with you intend to use AI to work on this project. Please so not send a portfolio of commercial brochures and data flow diagrams. That covered, main event.

I'm looking for a comic/sequential artist to produce a set of sample pages and character reference sheets for a Kickstarter campaign. If the campaign funds (which is the intention and the plan) this becomes the start of an ongoing commission to illustrate a complete graphic novel (approx. 70–100 pages), with you as the artist throughout.

This is the important part: I am looking for a reliable long-term collaborator (I've been burned before), not a one-off gig. The Kickstarter package is a paid trial for both of us (I expect no freebies). If it goes well and the campaign funds, there is a substantial, properly paid body of work to follow: full-page-rate, staged payments, clear deadlines. Please only apply if you can commit to ongoing availability over several months if this progresses. Flakiness at the sample stage is the main thing that would rule someone out of the full work.

The story
A decades-spanning graphic novella (working title: Get In, Get Up, Get Out) about two men — one white, one Black, both drawn as genuinely desirable in their own distinct registers whose relationship begins with a paid encounter and becomes a lifelong, unlabelled attachment. Told in short, mostly-dialogue vignettes across roughly 35–45 years, from a hotel room in the late 1980s to old age. It is frank, (probably) funny, emotionally restrained, and set in London.

Art style
Naturalistic. Real anatomy, real light, real ageing. Not stylised, not cartoon, not manga. Faces need to hold likeness across dozens of pages and communicate a lot with very little (a look, a held silence, a hand). If your portfolio is mostly stylised or cartoon work, this probably isn't the right fit. However, if you're not sure, ask.

Content and themes — please read before applying
The story is adult in subject matter but not sexually explicit — nothing sexual is ever depicted on the page; everything happens in the gutter between panels. That said, the themes include:
** Sex work (male escorting) as the origin of the central relationship
** A gay/bi relationship between two adult men, spanning decades
** An interracial relationship, handled without the story ever making race the subject of dialogue
** A lot of swearing
** Ageing bodies, injury, and mortality (the story ends with both men elderly)
** Class and money as a recurring, sometimes uncomfortable thread

Please only apply if you're genuinely comfortable illustrating all of the above. I'd rather find that out now, at the sample stage, than four pages into the full book. No judgement either way — just be honest about it in your application.

What's needed for this initial package (please see the Artists Brief attachment)
** Character reference sheets for both leads (front/three-quarter/profile, plus hand studies at different ages)
** An "ageing chart" showing both characters at several life stages, same pose, tracked side by side
** 1 fully finished, lettered sample pages
** A cover concept

What I need from you
** Examples of sequential work — several consecutive panels/pages, not just single illustrations showing you can hold a likeness and stage two people talking in a room
** Your day rate or per-page rate
** Confirmation you've read the content note above and are comfortable with it
** Availability over the next few months, and realistically beyond if the campaign funds
** A willingness to meet in person (if in London) or to video conference if not. I like to see who I'm collaborating with and hear their voice

Process
I'll be paying for a short test pages at full rate before any commitment either side, so you can see the material and I can see the fit. No unpaid samples requested or expected. If I get the Kickstarter funded you'll get your full rate.
Happy to answer questions before you apply.