Hello everyone! As part of October’s newsletter, we spoke with graphic novel author Jeremy Whitley, writer of titles such as The Dog Knight and Navigating With You Vol 1. In light of The Dog Knight being banned by the state of Texas in school libraries, we sat down to talk with Whitley about writing nuanced trans rep for middle-grade, the collaborative process involved in graphic novels, and his upcoming sequels Navigating With You Volume 2 (November 24, 2026) and The Dog Knight: Chaos Bites Back (February 2, 2027). Enjoy, and don’t forget to preorder! Preorders keep trans stories on our shelves!
RTB: What’s your favorite way to describe The Dog Knight beyond its basic summary or elevator pitch?
JW: I like to tell people that it's about a kid looking for their place in the world and a group of magical dogs who are each defined by one of the most important dog values. But more than that, I always want to tell people about The Yorkshire Terror.
I think Terror is the character I enjoy writing most. He's the avatar of Justice and, as such, is a Yorkie with all the conviction and self-importance of Batman. I think explaining him is explaining the whole tone of the book in its quickest version.
The big place that the "fun magic dogs" part of the story intersects with the "gender identity" part of the story is that Frankie is a character who is defined by these same traits that make us love dogs and dogs care about us. They can't lie about who they are. They are caring. They are stubborn. They have this overpowering sense of justice that makes it so they can't just walk away and let it be when they know something is wrong. These are the elements that make someone a hero, but these are also the elements that make it impossible for Frankie to present themselves as anything but who and what they are.
RTB: At Read Trans Books, we talk a lot about the importance of acceptance within trans stories: who is accepting, who is unaccepting, and how that creates different narratives. In The Dog Knight, we are introduced to Frankie long after they have come out and our first moments with them establish how their mother supports them being non-binary. Why did you find that so important to establish so early on?
JW: As someone who has a gender nonconforming kid myself and sees so many of these stories about queer and trans kids coming out, I am struck by the number of the parents who are black or white on this. Either their parents are hateful or their parents are immediately understanding and accepting of everything. While there obviously are parents on both ends of the spectrum, I think a lot of us fall in the middle. Some parents want to support their kid, but don't know how. Some parents are their kid's champion but still fighting some internalized issues of their own. For Frankie's mom, I wanted to create a picture of this mom who was doing her best, but also had these cracks in her own reactions or understandings.
For example, in that opening segment, we see Diane supporting Frankie verbally, but we also see through Frankie's eyes a mom who is excited when she sees Frankie in a dress, even though it's obviously uncomfortable to Frankie. Diane wants to support Frankie and be their champion, but she's still fighting some of her own expectations about what she thought her kid was going to be. It's not easy to get over yourself as a parent, but it's something you have to keep trying to do and I wanted to show Diane as a mom who was accepting, supportive, but also still dealing with some of her own stuff.
RTB: It’s really interesting to hear about your motivations for writing nuanced parents as a parent yourself. What do you hope your young readers get out of that sort of portrayal?
JW: I hope young readers, especially those dealing with their own questions around gender and sexuality, see an example of a supportive parent who is really trying. And that when looking at all of this through Frankie's perspective, they have the freedom to understand their own parents and their potential questions around all of these changes as well. Kids should never have to deal with parents who are unsupportive or bullies in their own right, but parents are people too and it can take us a while to get things right.
RTB: Graphic novels are an inherently collaborative process between writer and artist. Yet when that process is done well, it creates a seamless story. Could you give us some insight into working with Bre Indigo and what they brought to The Dog Knight?
JW: Yes! Bre has made this series so much better just by being themselves. I knew, as someone who identifies as male myself, that there were elements of this story that could be difficult for me to get right. I think any time you're creating a character who is unlike yourself in a major way, it's important both to do your research, but also to understand your blind spots. Even as a queer person, not every queer person has the same experience and it's easy for us to think we get it without knowing what we're missing. When I was originally looking for an artist on this book, I wanted to have someone who had a keen eye for things that were in my blind spot.
When Feiwel and Friends (our publisher at Macmillan) signed the book, they said they wanted to find an artist who they considered to be consistent with their brand and made sense with the other sorts of books they put out. I was fine with that under one condition: I wanted them to look at non-binary artists. I knew that not only would I not have to explain the basics on being non-binary to a non-binary artist, but that they would be able to bring insight and ideas to the book that I would never think of. To my editor Holly's credit, she went out looking and brought back an excellent crop of non-binary artists who were already working on great comics. However, the moment they showed me Bre Indigo's work, I knew that was the person who needed to be drawing this story.
Bre started out asking me a lot of questions about "would it be okay if I put Frankie in this?" or "is it okay if I add another panel where Frankie has to think about this?" and my answers were always "yes". I think that, as a comic book writer, if you're not using the artist you have to make the book better, you're doing everyone a disservice. And Bre has brought so much to this book as we've gone. I think Frankie is a fuller, rounder character because of things Bre has brought to the table and I never get tired of new Dog Knight pages popping up in my inbox.
We're on the third book now and Bre has grown a lot, but I think most decidedly in confidence. Bre will just tell me "hey, I thought it would be cool to do this, so I drew this thing in" and they are always right. The art I get back is always better than the pages I sent in and that's awesome.
RTB: Speaking of working on Book 3 of The Dog Knight: Book 2 is coming out in February, and the sequel to your other series, Navigating With You, is out in November. You sent us copies of both and we can definitely see the increased confidence in Bre’s artwork in The Dog Knight: Chaos Bites Back, but we also see it in the writing for both these books. Both feature more complicated, intricate dynamics between characters and bolder themes ingrained into their stories. What changed or developed for you as a writer between books one and two of these series that influenced this?
JW: I think there's some increase in confidence on the part of myself and the rest of the team, but I think even more than that, second stories have the ability to be so much more complex. There's so much less to explain about our characters and who they are. I love being able to jump in, confident in who these characters are and what they do, and run into another story about them.
I think it also helps having consultants in place on all of these things and friends I know well from groups who are represented that I can bounce things off. There is nothing better for writing fictional people than getting to know and being able to pull from real people. Having friends in the trans community and spending more time around them - be it just hanging out or working on comics together - helps me to know so much more about what stories are out there, what people are dealing with, and what stories the world just doesn't need any more of from a 40 year old white cis guy.
I think I've also grown to know myself a lot better over the last few years. Coming to understand my own orientation as a demisexual guy on the ace spectrum and working on so many pieces of work where I get to see myself represented does a lot for helping to identify the sorts of stories that I wished I had and other people are still looking for.
RTB: So much of what you said about building community and understanding your place in communities really comes through in the character growth of your main characters in both these series. With weeks until we’re reunited with Gabby and Neesha in Navigating With You Vol. 2 and months before we see Frankie again in The Dog Knight: Chaos Bites Back, what can you say about how these kids are navigating their community? And what parts of these stories ring true as what the world still needs to hear?
JW: I think one of the key things about both of the upcoming sequels is community. They both show how their lead characters having the bravery to come out, take stands, and be themselves affect the people around them. Frankie's relationship with their new/old best friend continues to evolve as Dallas starts to better understand herself. And Neesha and Gabby both find themselves participating in communities of friends who are navigating their own issues. Being yourself is contagious and opening the minds of those around you can go a long way to helping them find their own way.
I think what motivates me to make books like these is the very same thing. Seeing characters come to better understand themselves helped me to better understand myself and I know has done the same thing for a lot of my readers. I'm a big believer that anybody can be a hero and the most heroic thing you can do is be yourself and set an example for those who aren't ready yet.