Advice for book writing.

[StevenB]

I just took one look and n0pe

totally immature no matter what you do with it



for more maturity in a Graphic Novel, you should use humans. Unfortunately furries are literally the most childish design you will ever achieve

that's all

Sometimes it can work in favor of the story to use more childish characters and paint them against a darker setting/story since it creates a kind of disonance. Howard the Duck for example, is one of the more (or at least he used to be) mature Marvel characters and it worked because no one took him seriously since he was just a cartoon duck which added to his isolation. It allowed for a couple of mature themes that were subsequently made lighter due to the character being a duck.

Then there is also Maus, one of the most well-known and well-received graphic novels. The usage of anthro characters (mice vs cats) makest he conflict easy to grasp (the mice are easily recogniseable as weak creatures who are preyed on by literally every predator, as is the case in nature), adds symbolism and makes the novel easier to acces for younger readers without sacrifisng the weight of the material an themes. 

However, I will agree with you that this has become more difficult over the years, especially with the rise of fursonas on dA and whatever. Zootopia is a perfectly fine movie but it came under fire (although granted, just by a vocal internet minority) simply because anthro has become such a negative stigma.

@Benny; I've taken a look at the characters ut I find myself kinda turned away from Benny's design I have to say. You should drop the cartoonish proportions. Especially since iwth bunnies people will immeditaly make the connection with Bugs Bunny which makes it hard to take it seriously. Furthermore, I find the design to be very plain, he;s literally just every other rabbit character every to me. The addition of a horn making him part unicorn also feels kind of farfetched to me. Sorry for not mincing my words on this, but I hope to give you some unfiltered feedback through this.

I think your best bet would be to ask your boss to hire a professional artiist if she feels so strongly about pictures, and maybe get to the bottom of why she wants that so much. 
Furthermore I think you should take Dragon's advice and put your primary focus on improving the story itself. Maybe if you post more info people can help you plot out how to work out the designs of the characters.