Vela Noir is the first graphic novel I have been quietly creating, although “creating” sounds far more organized than whatever the hell I actually do. She and her world have been living privately in my head for a while now. Bits of story. Characters. Images. Places. Objects. Music. Colors. Entire scenes that sometimes arrive before I understand why they matter. I haven’t shared much of it yet. But suddenly there she was, haunting the artwork for something completely un