How We Created The Little Mermaid & The Pirate Queen
Get a Behind-the-Scenes look at how we created "The Little Mermaid & The Pirate Queen"!
Hi Lifeline Comics Readers!
We recently put out a Census/Survey for readers to tell us what they want to see more of from this newsletter. And one message we got loud-and-clear is that you want more “how the sausage gets made” behind-the-scenes content.
So now that The Little Mermaid & The Pirate Queen #1 has been live for a couple of weeks, we thought it would be fun to do a deep dive into how we created the series and take you on the journey with us from concept to comic!
We’ll also talk about Friendly-Neighborhood Spider-Man, Totally Spies, Only Murders in the Building, and more!
Let’s get into it!
How We Made The Little Mermaid
Phil: We’ve known for over a year that we wanted a The Little Mermaid-inspired series to be the fourth installment in the EverAfterVerse.
Kat and I are both lifelong fans of the source material and have wanted to put our own spin on the classic tale since we first started adapting classic fairytales.
But because this story was so important to us, we knew that we wanted to do it right. And that meant (a.) spending a lot of time nailing the story and building our team, and (b.) debuting the project at the right time.
It was of paramount importance to us that we establish the longevity of the EverAfterVerse before adding another big series to its ranks. We wanted our three existing series (The Beast & Snow, Nightmare in Wonderland, and The Witches of Oz) all be two issues into their run before we added another title to the slate. This way we could instill confidence that our shared universe was moving forward and driving towards satisfying arcs/conclusions and not just continuously adding new issue 1s to the mix.
So while it was a long road to get here, it gave us a lot of time to make the absolute best book possible! Let’s talk about how we made it happen!
Coming Up with the Concept
Phil: Kat and I knew from the start that we wanted to take a sequel approach to the series rather than a retelling. That was the path we took with The Witches of Oz, and we really enjoyed the opportunity to follow our leads’ arcs past the “happily ever after” featured in their original story. And we knew that with source material we loved as much as “The Little Mermaid”, we would have more to say continuing the story than we would doing our own retelling.
After deciding on the sequel approach, we needed to nail down our tone. In the interest of honoring the source material and making this series feel different from our other comics, we thought a Seafaring Adventure comic would be a perfect fit.
Once we made that determination, it was a no-brainer that PIRATES needed to be involved! All of the best Gay Swashbuckling stories feature pirates. And we knew a Pirate/Mermaid romance would be one that would appeal to both us and to our audience.
With the setting, tone, and featured players worked out, the final piece of the puzzle in nailing down our concept was finding the heart of the series — the character story that hooks you in.
What we landed on was a story about contentment/satisfaction. When you hear “princess who lived happily ever after”, you think happiness and peace. When you hear “pirate captain”, you think of freedom, adventure, and no rules.
We really wanted to dive into those preconceptions and explore the idea of two women from completely different worlds who should be free and happy. But for their own reasons, they each feel trapped. This, for Kat and me, is the most interesting aspect of the series. And something we’re so excited to explore as the issues progress!
Making the Public Domain Property Our Own
Kat: Piggybacking off of Phil, with every EverAfterVerse title we want to give these public domains our own take.
The Beast & Snow is a mashup between Beauty & The Beast and Snow White with the twist that Belle is a werewolf and Snow is a vampire. Nightmare in Wonderland is another mashup that takes Sleeping Beauty into the dreamlike Wonderland trapping her and her ex-lover, Alice, into a nightmare. Witches of Oz took inspiration from everyone’s love for Glinda and the Wicked Witch as a potential couple, all while exploring themes from both the books and other adaptations to put a spotlight on Oz’s imperfections and how that reflects onto our own world’s imperfections.
So how did we make The Little Mermaid our own? A property that we didn’t use a mashup for which has multiple adaptations to pull inspiration from? The Little Mermaid has such a rich mythology that we felt could have been explored even further past “the end”. Can a mermaid truly be satisfied as a human and vice versa? Can we add more sea elements like pirates and maybe some other mythological creatures?
We wanted to use the foundation that the Hans Christian Anderson tale introduced and expand on not just Aria’s character, but her whole supporting cast, while creating a new support system for her along the way.
Building the Cast/Romance
Kat: Speaking of the cast, that was probably one of our favorite elements to craft while creating the building blocks for this series. Phil and I both love character work! So we wanted to create an intriguing cast to build around Aria.
Elliott - He’s an interesting wildcard as Aria’s first “lover” turned best friend. Elliott is the reason why Aria wanted to experience being human in the first place. But does her new want for more change their dynamic? And, of course, Aria is still a Princess, how does her need for adventure affect the royal family and the rest of the kingdom?
Mikayla - One of the biggest departures from the original Little Mermaid is the added addition of pirates. Mikayla introduces that life to Aria, and shows that the world is not as black and white as mermaid and human. Maybe there’s something more out there. The “fish out of water” and the “girls that come from different world” is going to be a big element when exploring their relationship and their romance as a whole.
Deciding to do Safe and Spicy Editions
Phil: One of the most unique things about The Little Mermaid & The Pirate Queen compared to our previous comics is that this one offers two different versions of the comic interiors: the Safe & Spicy Editions!
Doing a deep dive into the performance of the two Editions will likely be its own newsletter topic at some point. But until then, let’s focus on how we decided to go down this path.
We originally only wrote TLMATPQ as a Mature comic, just like our other EverAfterVerse series. But as we built the story and realized just how universal The Little Mermaid source material, we realized that we wanted this comic to be accessible to all readers — fans of Mature content and otherwise.
So we decided to use the Marvel Red Band method of producing two different versions of the same comic. The differences range from the minor (slightly more violence/nudity in otherwise identical pages) to the major (completely different versions of the same page, as shown above), with the Spicy Edition containing two additional pages of mature content.
In addition to making the comic more accessible to different types of readers, we thought this approach would be fun for collectors and readers who enjoy both Safe and Mature comics. Going through both versions of the comic to spot all of the differences is something Kat and I like to do with the Marvel Red Band comics. So we wanted to make sure that we put enough differences between the two editions to satisfy folks who want to check them both out.
Working with Rafi de Sousa & Terry Moore Again
Kat: When trying to figure out the look for this book. We were like, Rafi De Sousa would be perfect. She’d had already done a whole pirate AU with Lena Luthor and Supergirl on her Instagram, and we absolutely adored working with her during Phil and I’s first collaboration, Like Father, Like Daughter/Haunting Crossover.
WAIT, why don’t we ask Rafi to do the book?! We were lucky enough to be able to fit in Rafi’s schedule and bring back the dream team. She has the perfect balance between cartoony and emotional, which was the perfect tone for this adventurous love story. And we’re really happy that our frequent collaborator, Maru Davalos, was able to add her bright color work to the mix.
Terry Moore was another artist we were ecstatic to work with again. I’ve been a fan of Moore’s work for DECADES. I, of course, adore his claim to fame, Strangers in Paradise, but I also really appreciate his darlings like Rachel Rising and Motor Girl.
It was already an honor to have him on the Witches of Oz Wicked homage, and we think he did an equally great job for our take on Little Mermaid. And he was so generous that he also threw in the original art for one lucky backer to keep in their collection. Believe the hype, Terry is one of the coolest kids in comics!
Our Other Campaigns
In addition to TLMATPQ, we have one other live campaign that ends this Thursday AND a new campaign that launches next Monday!
Slice of Life #6: The Cheerleader Gets the Girl
ENDING THIS THURSDAY! See Lucy finally get the girl in the 60-page newest issue of our WLW Romance Comic: “Slice of Life”!
We’ve already unlocked three Stretch Goals and two Backer Goals! Let’s see how far we can climb before the campaign ends!
Rainbow Canvas: Valentine’s Annual 2025
LAUNCHING NEXT MONDAY! The newest volume of our LGBTQ+ Anthology “Rainbow Canvas” which collects BRAND NEW STORIES from the worlds of popular Queer Webtoon Canvas series!
The line-up of featured Webcomic series will be revealed when the campaign launches — but trust us when we say we’ve got some AMAZING comics in this book! Follow the Pre-Launch Page below to be notified when we go live!
What Have We Been Up To?
Let’s talk about how we’ve kept busy these last few weeks!
Six: The Musical on Broadway
Phil: For Christmas last year, I got my mom tickets to see Six: The Musical — a concert-style musical about the six wives of Henry VIII — on Broadway. Both of us have seen Six before, but it’s a show we both (especially her) love and it had been a few years, so I knew it would be a great experience to go again and see it with a different cast.
Six is an incredibly fun show. It’s accessible — drawing you in immediately and never lulling — with a very clever script. The songs are catchy and often find themselves in our music mixes. And it’s only one act, making it a tight one-and-a-half-hour play.
It’s an incredibly feminist production, spending most of its runtime making clever quips about Henry VIII and seeing each of the wives trying to “outdo” the others’ trauma. It’s very entertaining throughout, but my favorite part of the show is its surprisingly poignant ending which provides some astute commentary on the way that history looks at/talks about Henry VIII and his wives. Very powerful stuff.
Six the Musical is one of the best shows on Broadway right now. It’s one I always recommend to tourists looking for a crowd-pleaser and a wholly unique experience that’s more than meets the eye.
Media
Let’s discuss some non-comics media!
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Kat: Comic Books consume a lot of my life. So, surprisingly enough, I don’t watch that much superhero TV - unless it really draws me in. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is one of the few Marvel Disney Plus shows that has always been on my MUST WATCH list. I’m a HUGE Spider-Man fan, and I’ve been patiently awaiting another Spider-Man related TV show.
And, I have to say, it didn’t disappoint. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Spider-Man cartoon not completely aimed for children. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man walks the line for a true all ages experience as it gives enough of an origin story for people who don’t know the character as well, while developing a whole new supporting cast that mixes Spider-Man deep cuts like Tombstone and Marvel fan favorites like Nico from The Runaways.
As a hardcore Spider-Man fan, I like that they’re adding fresh elements to the franchise to not only develop Peter, but his supporting cast, which has always been such an important element to the franchise. I like the balance between high school, science, and, of course, Spider-Man action. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has a ton of potential, and I’m excited to add it to my weekly watch list.
Phil: A new Spider-Man show? Sign me up!
The most striking thing about FNSM, to me, is its animation style. We’ve seen a lot more comic book-style animation over the last few years. And this new series continues that trend, with many shots literally looking like they come from a comic book — even adding panel borders for some key moments. While some of the motion can look a little stiff or uncanny in this style, it’s overall super cool and unique.
In the story department, I quite enjoyed the competent handling of a “new/green” Spider-Man story. We’ve seen the origin 100 times, but FNSM manages to sidestep the “worn out” parts of the origin while still addressing the most essential elements. The result is a Spider-Man origin story that doesn’t rehash what we’ve already seen but still gives us a novice Spider-Man to follow as he learns the ropes.
My favorite thing about FNSM is the street-level approach of the series. With comic book adaptations these days, it feels more-and-more like we constantly need world-ending treats and massive stakes to tell a story. Here, it’s nice to see the drama centered specifically around Peter’s life. This might change over time and we may see more “Avengers-level” threats. But until we get to that point, I’m going to enjoy the more personal and grounded approach to this fun new series.
Totally Spies
Kat: Do you want to know a little-known Kat fact? Growing up, I LOVED Totally Spies, and when I say loved I mean OBSESSED. Growing up, there were so few shows where women were allowed to be bad asses, but Totally Spies came with the wave of teen empowerment that birthed the likes of Kim Possible.
They were women that were allowed to be girly, who also just happened to be capable spies. The earlier seasons focused on them being high school kids trying to keep a balanced life between spy and normal kid, while the later seasons shifted to their college adventures.
Totally Spies had a few years gap, and when it returned it did something very surprising - it continued right where it left off. As the obsessed Totally Spies fan, of course, I wanted to see where they landed after those initial college years, but for your casual fan I couldn’t imagine them even knowing they went to college.
This season changes a lot, and almost nothing at all. Their handler, Jerry, has been painted into the background as a new handler takes center stage. And instead of the glitz and glamour of California they’re shifting their story international (which probably makes sense for a French-Canadian show that never had Cali ties to begin with). But the rest of the series is pretty by the numbers. There’s an A-plot (that has less stakes with them being away from their high school and college shenanigans), while the B-plot focuses more on “modern” and high-tech missions.
Totally Spies Season 7 isn’t bad, but I’m not really sure who their target audience is supposed to be. Adults who loved the show that somehow made it through six seasons like me? Kids who have no idea of the history being referenced? The random Max lurker? 🤷♀️
All I ask, for the love of God, please just have Mandy figure out their spies already (permanently). Mandy will forever be the most interesting antagonist, and we need to give her some new flavor. An angle the series continues to tease, but drops anytime there’s a chance for a follow-through.
Only Murders in the Building (Season 4)
Phil: I’ve enjoyed every season of Hulu Murder Mystery series Only Murders in the Building so far. Even the preceding Season Three, while the least personally appealing to me, was plenty fun despite my finding the mystery of the season to be the least engaging. So I expected Season 4 would continue this trend of being a good time, but was unsure whether it would fall closer to Seasons 1-2 or to Season 3 in my rankings.
Thankfully, the latest chapter of OMITB was much more my speed and may just be my second favorite season of the series so far (after Season 1). Something that Season 3 (and to a slightly lesser extent, Season 2) was missing for me was a personal angle to the mystery. Season 1 saw Mable have a history and relationship with its primary victim. Season 2 saw the victim have a relationship with all three of our lead sleuths (granted, not as strong a relationship; but we the viewer got to spend a good amount of time with this character before their death). But Season 3’s victim was actively disliked by the majority of the cast.
Thus, I found Season 4’s victim to be a refreshing return to form. It added a strong personal motivator for Charles throughout the season and really tugged at the heartstrings of the viewer since we’ve also spent time with the victim in the preceding four seasons. It was honestly a perfect blend of Seasons 1 and 2, with the murder having a personal relationship and thus a big impact on our leads AND ourselves.
The Hollywood angle of the season worked a lot better for me than the Broadway setting of last season. And the suspects/recurring characters for this installment were a lot of fun — with special mention to the three actors playing Charles, Mable, and Oliver in the film adaptation of their podcast. All three actors were a hoot every time they were on screen, and got a surprising amount of screentime throughout.
Whodunnits, by their nature, usually have a bit of an unsatisfying conclusion. Either the Whodunnit will tip their hand too early and make the killer too obvious, or they will not give any meaningful hints and thus the reveal comes out of nowhere. OMITB tends to be pretty “middle-of-the-road” with their killer reveals. And this season continues that trend of being satisfying enough, but certainly not mind-blowing. The magic is definitely in the journey for this series rather than the resolution.
And while the “stinger” teasing the mystery of Season 5 is a lot less interesting than the stringer we got teasing this season, I do very much look forward to the return of this show later this year. On the backs of its three leads and a colorful supporting cast, OMITB continues to be one of the most consistently entertaining serialized shows around.
Comics
Let's discuss some comics we've enjoyed recently!
As always, we’ll spotlight an Indie Book, a DC/Marvel book, a Live Kickstarter book and a Webcomic!
Indie Book: Power Rangers Prime (BOOM! Studios)
Kat: BOOM! Studios first started publishing Power Rangers in 2016, and almost 10 years later the publisher continues to reinvent the franchise. Power Rangers Prime feels like a new season of Power Rangers that has never aired on TV. It has the same maturity as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comics with a brand-new cast that takes on influence from multiple Power Rangers TV seasons. Melissa Flores and Michael YG expertly transition from the old to the new to give fresh breath to the comic book franchise.
DC Comic: The Question: All Along The Watchtower
Kat: Since Absolute Power, DC has made a big effort for their titles to feel more connected, and Alex Segura & Cian Tormey’s The Question is no exception. The Justice League has expanded to all superheroes who want to be part of the team. No more “invites only”! Renee Montoya finds herself on the Watchtower with the likes of her ex-girlfriend, Batwoman, as she tries to solve a murder mystery.
The suspects make the DC universe even more cohesive, all while still feeling like a Renee book with interpersonal drama weaved in. The Question: All Along the Watchtower is exactly the balance I want to see in every DC title moving forward.
Kickstarter: THE PRINCE IN THE BASEMENT
“On the day of her coronation, the Princess awakens a forbidden secret that could ruin everything: an imprisoned Prince in the castle basement, bearing a face identical to hers. An 18+ queer fairy tale romance graphic novel.”
Phil: A Mature Fantasy comic that is just dripping with intrigue. The mystery of the origins of the Prince and the Princess bearing identical faces and opposing claims to the same throne is already super compelling. But when you throw in the LGBTQ+ undertones of their both falling for the same man and the journey the princess must take to uncover the truth, and I’m SO sold on this book.
At a whopping 424 pages, this black-and-white comic promises a ton of content. And I’m super excited to find out the answer to the big question posed of the Prince and the Princess on the campaign page: “Can the two find sanctuary in a world where only one of them was meant to exist?”
Check out “The Prince in the Basement” on Kickstarter!
Webcomic: Where We Stop Over (BL)
“Gu Sui, a cheerful city boy, transfers to a small-town high school and bonds with his deskmate, Ruan Shuer. Together, they explore friendship, school life, and first loves, creating heartfelt memories and discovering the beauty of growth and true love.”
Phil: I’m a sucker for a “Light Boy”/”Dark Boy” romance story. And while only five episodes into its run, Where We Stop Over already does a lot of groundwork to establish a pair of interesting characters who will find connection in their stark differences.
Set in a small town where the cheerful Gu Sui has just moved to for school, I quite enjoy the slow slice of life pacing of this book. Webcomics in general are quite dominated by action/fantasy, so it’s nice to read a quieter comic that isn’t afraid to sit in a moment and that takes its time revealing details about its characters.
The premise of our leads meeting — with Ruan’s younger brother stealing Gu Sui’s wallet — is grounded and opens an interesting dynamic between the pair. In a short time, we both feel like we get a strong sense of their individual characters (particularly their respective moral compasses) while getting the sense that there is a lot unsaid that we will learn as the series progresses. I’m excited to continue this journey with them.
Read “Where We Stop Over” here!
In Closing
Thanks, as always, for reading!
We hope that you enjoyed the walkthrough of how we brought The Little Mermaid & The Pirate Queen #1 to life.
Be sure to check out that campaign and our other live campaign, Slice of Life #6: The Cheerleader Gets the Girl, before it ends this Thursday! And follow the Pre-Launch Page for Rainbow Canvas: Valentine’s Annual 2025 to be notified when it goes live next week!
Subscribe above for biweekly updates on our future projects!
Buy Lifeline Comics on our Website!
Current Kickstarters:
Slice of Life #6: The Cheerleader Gets the Girl (Ending 2/06)
The Little Mermaid & The Pirate Queen #1 (Ending 2/20)
Rainbow Canvas: Valentine’s Annual 2025 (Launching 2/10)
Next Cons/Events: Emerald City Comic Con (Table O-28)