The Deep Dark, which is rated 14+, is Ostertag’s first YA graphic novel as a sole creator. She originally published it as a webcomic on Substack under the title Deepest Dark. The story follows Mags, a high school senior who works in a diner, is kindling a romance with an old friend, cares for her ailing grandmother, and goes down to the basement every night to deal with a terrible presence, one that leaves her bleeding and exhausted. As she and her girlfriend Nessa grow closer, they begin to remember scraps of the childhood trauma that led to the monster in the basement, and together they work to overcome it. Graphix will publish the 480-page graphic novel on June 4, 2024, as a paperback with an MSRP of $16.99 and a hardcover with an MSRP of $27.99.
Ostertag was the artist for the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, written by Brennan Lee Mulligan, which ran from 2012-18; a print edition, funded by a Kickstarter, was published by Top Shelf Productions in 2014 (see “‘Strong Female Protagonist’”).
She was also one of the creators who protested Scholastic Book Fairs’ plan to offer a set of diverse books as an optional case in its Fall 2023 fairs; Scholastic subsequently reversed that decision and apologized (see “Scholastic Apologizes, Reverses Book Fair Policy”).
