Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Is this a decent-good summary?

The following is a summary of volume 1 of my graphic novel idea, that is intended to be a submission file. I’m looking to get published & I tried to adhere to the requirements as close as I could. I would like some second opinions on whether or not this summary is comprehensive enough. It was a little challenging to condense this WIP story idea & its universe & mythos into a summary. The story is viewed mostly through the perspective of Roger & Ike.

A badass anthro lizard roughs up a wanted thug vandal in a local billiard hall, with psychic ability, martial art like moves, & his switchblade, all without touching his laser revolver. He carves the name of the place he vandalized into the vandal’s chest & then partially burns the thug by smashing a bottle of vodka over his head & igniting it, then beams him up with a probe stored in a compartment in his hovering motorcycle. He performed the last action because the one of the acts the vandal committed was damaging a local place with a Molotov cocktail. The vandal attempted to stealthily escape after noticing he was at the bar of the billiard hall. Roger Draco is the most talented & devoted of the Quellers, so his skill with telekinesis, shape shifting, hand to hand combat, & knife wielding is stellar. Part of this is due to decades of talent harnessing & self training, but he is also a hybrid of two lizard races that have heightened supernatural ability. He fights the thug with his supernatural ability, hand to hand combat & his switchblade because its more intimate & conveys more passion. He tops it off with carving the name of the place he vandalized into his chest & partially burns the thug with the ignited vodka to permanently brand the vandal with a reminder of their vile act. Roger Draco is a troubled & rough, but compassionate & friendly to those who are not vandals or bigots. Vandals & bigots caused him much emotional agony & PTSD, which is alluded to throughout the story. He has the hardest clash with Mayor Huffland, of Earth Big Spring & his crony, Levi, who manages the current business in Earth Big Spring. Roger brands Huffland & Levi the same way he did to the vandal, especially since they attempted to harm Retro, Patron of the R/70 & the one who is like a brother & master to him. He is especially out for their blood when they mutate themselves & recollect their past lives as those who incited the Riot War & caused him so much torment in the past. His past is implied in pscyhic flashes & flashbacks or is hinted at. He sees the potential in Ike.
There is another anthro lizard standing in front of an old theatre, his dialogue alluding to him knowing something of great magnitude is about to unfold. This character is Retro, Patron of the R/70 theatre, which is a vintage theatre, still in its 70’s era guise as most places in Dimension 67 Big Spring are. Retro is also the manager of the local retro pop culture & history protecting vigilantes, named the Rebels of The Quellers. His dialogue alludes to him knowing the Quellers would discover Earth Big Spring, knowing it exists & that locals in D/67 Big Spring are losing touch with pop culture & history. The locals are flawed in this way, the Quellers & the Patrons are flawed in that some of their behavior is questionable, despite otherwise being decent, talented, & their passions being for good causes. He is eccentric, but wise, & helps Ike with the beginning of his training, with learning the magnitude of retro pop culture, history, & art. At the end of volume 1 he sends Earth R/70 back in time, to shortly after it closed. He reveals the implication that he is some type of deity or demigod of retro pop culture & history, which is moderately astonishing even to the Quellers & he grants Ike heightened psychic ability to help him become a strong Queller, especially since his capabilities are limited compared to the races of Dimension 67. He makes his great supernatural power apparent throughout the story.
Meanwhile, a band of vigilantes named the Rebel’s of the Quellers, who are from a an alternate dimension of anthropomorphic cartoon aliens, of a mostly 1960’s & 1970’s culture on a planet called Raequalia, in an alternate universe named Dimension 67, are called to chase a vandal. Ford The Pilot, the Patron of the Jet Drive In, which was being vandalized gives chase, then pursuing the culprit in his jet. The chase ends up in space, then, after the vandal randomly mashes in coordinates, desperate to escape, they end up in another dimension. Dimension 67 is a cell animated parallel universe populated by sentient anthro animals & this dimension’s version of humans. The culture of most of North America & another continent alluded to in the story is of the 60’s & 70’s time frame, & their technology appears vintage, but is adapted with advanced tech & their advanced power source. Ford The Pilot, Patron of the Jet Drive in, a classic drive in theatre, is one of the primary Patrons of local establishments & will have more character development in volume 2. He helps the Quellers at the end of volume 1. He accompanies the pilot Queller on a couple of missions.
During the scuffle, the vandal is captured but a stray laser bolt hits Ford’s jet, sending him barreling toward a nearby planet he was observing. He was observing it due to it resembling their home planet. It is Earth. The Quellers land on the planet after the crash, find their moderately injured friend, notice that they are in an alternate dimension version of their hometown, Big Spring, Texas, sense with psychic ability, the social troubles, cultural stagnation, & loss of some of its history & also interact with the authorities. They realize they must intervene. This is an awesome discovery, but those who sensed the social, historic, & cultural strains, are also disturbed.
This event is witnessed by a now hiding mutant human teenager, named Ike. Ike is discovered by the youngest band member & is taken to their planet for reasons that tie into their desire to interact with the alternate dimension. Ike’s appearance is similar to a catgirl, only definitely not mammalian features. His normal parents are abusive & socially conservative, where as Ike is broad minded, artistic, curious, & has seen the local problems, particularly the neglected history & dystopia, & yearns to help alleviate it. He requires guidance, & feels helpless, & hopeless. Ike is amazed & grateful for his newfound liberation after joining the Quellers. Ike realizes the magnitude of history & retro pop culture after Retro guides him during the first aspect of his training, he initially doubts himself as being merely human, but his confidence rises as he becomes more immersed in the culture of D/67 Big Spring & recieves a pair of powered gauntlets frequently used by Quellers. When the final standoff happens, Ike utilized his new heightened, but unstable psychic ability to help one or more of the Quellers, despite being told to stay in safety.
The primary vigilante, Roger Draco, the most talented & devoted of all of the Quellers & the badass in the opening sequence, is sent back to Earth by way of them knowing how to open portals without tech, if they are not in a vehicle, to make an example out of the teenager’s abusive, xenophobic, socially conservative parents, Ike’s father being a crony of the corrupt local mayor & leave a message for the Earth Big Spring’s mayor. He briefly tortures one of them & slays both of his parents, leaving a postcard with the message with the father’s corpse. Shortly after this, he takes a psychic reading of the entire community & is angered by its social & economic problems. Earth Big Spring is in a dystopia. He then goes to Earth R/70, to take a more detailed reading of the place, & is disgusted by its current trendy, pretentious, vapid state & then comes across the mayor & his crony, who own it. They scuffle & he returns to D/67 Big Spring. He makes an example out of Ike’s parents as a warning to not give the Quellers or their local authorities any trouble. He brands Ike’s father in a similar fashion as he does other vandals due to the contents of the psychic reading he takes shortly prior to torturing & killing Ike’s father, & subsequently learns more specifics of how he abused Ike. He warns them of their atrocities, the disrespect for local history, particularly Earth R/70 & alludes to how they had better not give them any trouble. The mayor is shown early on in an implication that they are pretentious, vapid, & unethical people who want to keep Earth Big Spring in a conformist dystopia, because free thought poses a threat to their socially conservative domination. They are the epitome of everything that is wrong with humanity.
Ike becomes better acquainted with the Quellers, especially the youngest member, who are local guardians of history & retro pop culture, but also keep bigotry in line, learns about their history. He is mesmerized by their sense of individuality & supernatural ability. He says he wants to join them & apply it to his version of their hometown. Roger agrees & the Quellers are thrilled. We learn a little more about the main Quellers as individuals & their unique styles of work. Ike is prompted by an intuitive hit after Roger brings him a trinket from his slain father & informing him of his freedom, to propose joining the Quellers & establishing Queller organization in Big Spring. Ike can also relate to them as several of them & other characters are artists. He is introduced to them one by one & Roger is introduced in a more unusual & rough way.
We see Retro Nostalgia, who is the Patron of the R/70 Theatre, & the community leader, Patron of the Howard County Courthouse, & county judge, Judge Montgomery Artwyn, but not yet introduced to Ike. Judge Artwyn breifly visits Earth Big Spring & has a look around the local park & takes disheartening psychic readings. He encounters a fragment of the old courthouse & becomes infuriated after a psychic reading revealing it was lost to ignorance & superficiality. Judge Artwyn is not fully revealed yet & most of his dialogue alludes to him sensing the plight of Earth Big Spring through decades of nightmares & that he & Retro are of a venerable age. Some of their dialogue also alludes to the past of D/67 Big Spring.
Judge Artwyn meets with the teenager & relays more historic information to him. Ike gets acquainted with the old & wise Judge & learns more about local history & Artwyn himself. This further encourages Ike. Judge Artwyn displays his great supernatural ability as he shows Ike the gorgeous & preserved local park & historic spring of D/67 Big Spring. Around this time all of the other Patrons of businesses go check out the Earth Big Spring equivalents of their business, & take psychic readings, & subsequently feeling the sorrow of their loss &/or disregard.
Then, as beginning of his training, he was sent to search for Retro as a test of his persistence, where during this search, he enters the relics dealership on Main, where the Patron shows him around. He shows him around due to a psychic message from Retro, telling him it will encourage Ike. Ike is acquainted with Roger’s father, the Patron of Draco Relics & Curios, Lord Arturafex. Lord Arturafex is a friendly character with an impressive antique shop & thrift store shop like relics dealership. This does indeed, further inspire Ike. Arturafex also touches on his native culture, which is centered around retro pop culture of the 60’s & 70’s, hence the reason why he is a relics dealer. Ike is told he will learn more during his training. One of the Quellers earlier reveled to be Roger’s uncle, step in & begin a business deal outside in the Queller’s Volkswagen bus. Roger steps in around this time, & Ike learns that Arturafex is Roger’s father. As Arturafex & his brother interact, Roger has a brief exchange with Ike, after Ike, without revealing it, observes family & friend photos in Arturafex’s office. Roger, without revealing, realizes he inadvertently rubbed salt in Ike’s wounds regarding Arturafex being a good father to Roger as a troubled teenager, & reminds Ike that he will not have to endure any abuse again. After Ike leaves, & then the other Queller leaves, Roger & Arturafex have a moderately sentimental moment that alludes to their past.
After coming across the Patron of the Ritz, Crosley, who is a granfatherly old timer & then finding Retro at the R/70, he is briefly further educates him regarding art, retro pop culture, & local history, which he was already interested in, much to the dismay of his parents. Ike has a major revelation about the magnitude of retro pop culture & history, especially since Retro was poetic & used relics from Earth R/70 that Ike had, in his bag, which is what little he owned. Ike had to hide these things & his art from his ignorant abusive parents. Retro is introduced in an interesting way that has a point regarding testing Ike’s persistence.
Ike is returned to the band, continues to interact with them while the mayor of Earth Big Spring plots. Ike gets to know the Quellers more & they get to know him better. Ike gets to know Retro better. Mayor Huffland plots to drive them away & receives weapons from the government to stand a chance against them.
Ike learns of the magnitude of retro pop culture & history & recognizes the acceptance of from the people of this dimension, whom he can relate to ideologically & artistically. He is also become more in awe with his surroundings. He doubts himself as a mere mutant human, but receives little moments of encouragement from his new friends.
A massive gala is held by Judge Artwyn, where Ike gets acquainted with Fenton Salvator, the Patron of the Hotel Settles. Fenton is a hospitable & extroverted character. The mayor, a few government officials, & the local press, from the Earth variant of the community meets with Judge Artwyn at the gala. Artwyn offer them a choice between peaceful intervention or turbulent revolution. The Earth officials leave, although the mayor has to be thrown out. Judge Artwyn is revealed, surrounded by other Patrons of establishments & with prostitutes hanging off of him in the Grand Ballroom. This is one of the scenes that conveys that they have transcended antiquated taboos. He alludes to the disdain for the conservative extremists winning in Earth Big Spring. Artwyn also informs him of how they will handle formal interactions. Mayor Huffland aggressively addresses him to which Artwyn frightens him with a mental message, & Roger frightens him even further. One of the Quellers throws him out, back into the city offices of Earth Big Spring with another warning.
The mayor & accompanying fellow Earthlings go home to sleep, & are left questioning their world view, stressing, & the mayor becoming vengeful, Judge Artwyn goes to contemplate his stress of the situation, overlooking the community atop Scenic Mountain. Tension is mounting. Throughout the story, all of the primary Patrons find the Earth equivalents of their establishments & their varying, mostly negative leaning reactions are seen.
The mayor is given pistols & a portal device sometime after this, before the Quellers return them to D/67, for their punishment from destruction of history. They were told that this would be community service with Roger proposing them also serving Retro & the Quellers. Wanton destruction of history, especially as a reckless property owner, is a major offense called Grand Vandalism in D/67 Big Spring, punishable by hard community service.
The Quellers go to Earth R/70 & clash with the mayor & his crony again & they are briefly taken to Retro. Ike has grown more fascinated by his environment & there is a blossoming friendship between he & the youngest member, Jerron, although he is getting closer with the other main protagonists. A riot breaks out in Earth Big Spring, & Retro makes them leave it be, because he will handle it. He urges Ike in a poetic fashion, to not stress too much for the same reason. Earth Big Spring is now crawling with armed guards.
The mayor & his crony continue to clash with the Quellers, especially after Huffland tackles Retro & the mayor attempts to kill him. The mayor attempted this twice, the first time resulting in a car chase. They have also since mutated themselves into an anthro form in an attempt to strengthen themselves. They have also discovered their past lives as those who were the conservative extremists who instigated the Riot War, which was a time of social upheaval in D/67 Big Spring. Roger gives them their comeuppance similar to how he handled the thug vandal in the opening sequence. Retro healed himself from the laser shot which moderately astonishes the witnesses, as they did not know he was quite that powerful. He also heals Roger’s injuries, which receives the same reaction.
By now, Ike is immersing himself in this culture he may not be accustomed to, but can certainly relate to as a broad minded individual. He is gradually increasing in confidence. Judge Artwyn breifly goes to Earth Big Spring & uses a supernatural act to stop the riot. He does this out of love & to send the message that he will not allow the town to be destroyed by the social unrest.
Retro has had an individual, who is the D/67 equivalent of a previous owner of the R/70 gut Earth R/70. He is a man who is warmed hearted, more open to ideas for it & who’s out of touch relatives of his Earth counterpart made the R/70 into a trendy, vapid, pretentious place. Retro, Ike, & the Quellers briefly return to Earth with the mayor & his crony to give them a taste of their own medicine with the now gutted Earth R/70, especially since them attaining their dream robbed other local artists of theirs, since the R/70 would have made a great forum & business for them, as well as a more beneficial business for the community.
Retro sends the R/70 back in time to how it appeared shortly after closing in the 80’s, much to the awe of every witness. Retro & Roger warn the armed guards that Judge Artwyn will be informed of the guard’s intent to fight back & continue to allude to D/67 intervention. Judge Artwyn orders the beginning of the intervention.
They return to D/67 Big Spring & to the R/70. Retro is prompted by inquiry from the mayor, to allude to the fact that he is not only a powerful Patron but also some type of deity or demigod of history & retro pop culture. Even the Quellers are moderately astonished by this, as they were only recently shown his unknown higher power, but this took it even further. He shows he is a deity or demigod of retro pop culture & history in an amazing & awesome manner, not only a powerful Patron. He heavily implies it with the visual & his dialogue.
Retro grants Ike moderately heightened psychic ability to help him as a future Queller & the first Queller of Earth Big Spring. Roger informs Judge Artwyn of the armed guard’s intent & Monty goes to Earth Big Spring. Roger meets him there. They have a brief argument with the guard who addressed the Quellers around the same moment Retro sent Earth R/70 back in time, & Roger & Judge Artwyn return to D/67.
Several of the guards portal to D/67 Big Spring & there is a brief standoff between them & the Quellers, two of which were seen earlier in the story, joining in. All attacks & defenses are based on the unique skills of every Queller. The guards are eventually picked off one by one, aside from the main guard who escapes with the mayor’s crony. Ford helps them(potentially other pilot characters). Ike breifly helps one or more of the Quellers before being forced back into safety, showing the beginnings of his dedication. The Quellers & the culture of Earth Big Spring in general, believe individuality is an integral part of culture & conformity is seen as dangerous, because conformity causes cultural stagnation.
Jerron gets injured & is taken to safety, where Ike remains at his side at the Queller’s club, alluding to growing friendship. Its implied that the mayor’s crony, Levi, is being placed in charge of the locally established armed guards, he is becoming more vengeful, & that there is mounting tension in Earth Big Spring between the conservative extremists & the egalitarians, as with the Riot War in D/67 centuries ago.
Ike is taken to a room in the R/70. He notices the mayor being made to help clean the auditorium. The beginnings of the mayor’s redemption is alluded to. He receives an article of clothing bearing the Queller’s insignia is presented with a book about the Quellers as he kneels before Retro. Judge Artwyn & Fenton stand at the top of the Hotel Settles, Artwyn overlooking the community in contemplation & Fenton observing. Roger goes to the top of the R/70 & stands on the upper facade prepared to defend both D/67 Big Spring & Earth Big Spring as Earth Big Spring’s revolution begins. Retro stands under the marquee as all of the other Quellers gather, including Ike. Ike is feeling more hopeful & less helpless & is well on his way to becoming a Queller. He has taken his first steps on this journey.

It’s hard to tell without knowing the submission requirements, but I would suggest sticking to describing the action that takes place, in order, and spend less time with backstory and what’s in the future. For instance, I thought this:

A badass anthro lizard roughs up a wanted thug vandal in a local billiard hall, with psychic ability, martial art like moves, & his switchblade, all without touching his laser revolver. He carves the name of the place he vandalized into the vandal's chest & then partially burns the thug by smashing a bottle of vodka over his head & igniting it, then beams him up with a probe stored in a compartment in his hovering motorcycle.

was a strong opener, but then you go back and explain the rationale behind it all, which lost my attention.

Rather than mentioning halfway through the summary what will happen at the end of volume 1, tell the story of volume 1 from start to finish, and leave future volumes alone for now. Maybe say something like ‘has series potential’ to suggest future volumes.

Thanks. I felt the need to go into the rationale because the requirements mentioned explaining what happens to the characters & why, which I was thinking part of that was explaining why characters do certain things. There is more to why he did what he did aside from being a rough & troubled vigilante. Any alluding to future volumes was because I have to state in the cover letter & synopsis how many volumes there will be, if its intended to be a series, & other relevant details. Some of the requirements didn’t go into a load of detail & I may even be overthinking some of them.