Fans of suspect boards, sibling banter, and mischievous city birds– here is YOUR BOOK. Zeb and Bel: A Case of Bird Problems is the first book in a new graphic novel series for kid readers. Local prankster parakeet Payton goes missing during a neighborhood magic show. Is this one of his usual pranks? A petnapping? Or actual magic? While their human owner Josephine and her two moms help search Perpleck City for the bird, Zeb and Bel run their own adventurous and hilarious investigation. There’s a musical number on the balcony, and cameo appearances from corgi butts. If you keep your eyes peeled as you read, YOU could crack the case ahead of Zeb and Bel!
I started drawing this duo- Zeb, the dog on the left, and Bel, the cat on the right- waaaay back in 2017, years before finishing The Real Riley Mayes. They are based on my very first pet and my most recent pet, but they grew into their own characters. They are such a great brother-sister duo, it made sense for them to solve mysteries together.
It took awhile for agent Susan Hawk and I to figure out how to pitch it… it’s a mystery, yeah, but light. It’s funny, yeah, but also has the whole range of emotion that siblings share. Over the course of sketching the story, new TV shows for adult audiences came out. So we pitched it as “like Only Murders in the Building, but with PETS.” (I promise you the pitch had nothing to do with my 400+ drawings of Martin Short.)
It has for sure been a sweet gig, drawing these two as they solve all their world’s problems, whether it’s missing parakeets or sibling differences. ZEB AND BEL #1 comes out in January of 2026, but you can preorder it now. 🙂 Thank you to everyone who helped in your own special ways.
Rachel Elliott 