What's Happening - February 2026

Turns out, the only thing more powerful than comic books are solidarity and collective action.

Welcome to my monthly newsletter, giving you updates on the things I’ve been lettering, reading and writing this month.

Why was I striking?

In the past week, the teachers union I am a part of, United Educators of San Francisco, went on strike. If you want to know more about it, this is a pretty good article on how we got there and what happened.

This is the first time I've ever been a part of a real, effective collective action like going on strike. I've participated in lots of protests in San Francisco, but never something as coordinated or as powerful as this teachers strike. Despite still being on paternity leave from my teaching job, I was one of the strike leaders at my school site, which meant I spent most of the week leading chants. One of my favorites:

Listen up Maria Su
You need us we don't need you
If there's no money tell us why
Your salary is so damn high

I'm not a particularly loud person in my day to day life, but give me a bullhorn and a reason to yell at an authority figure and you can hear me from at least a few blocks away.

I don't usually share photos of my son, but this past week he ended up on the picket line with either me or his mother , who is also a teacher in San Francisco, and I think this is just a great little picture of him helping out with the strike:

What am I writing?

I bring the strike up here because it has both taken up a lot of my time and energy, and also has me revisiting a comic idea that I had previously shelved. It's a sci-fi book about a revolution, to give the bland gist of what it is without doing any real work to actually pitch it. I shelved the idea partially because there were some plot and character motivation issues that I just couldn't get to fit together. But the strike, and being a part of this sort of collective action, has made some of those pieces click into place. It'd still be a long way before I have anything to show you guys, but it's always fun to come back to an idea and get an outline you've thrown aside to actually start working.

For projects that are more immediate, as I'm writing this, the boxes of Hero of Legend #5 are on their way to me from the printer. I finished up the script for Hero of Legend #6, and Niccolò has already gotten started on the first couple pages. Based on how things are moving, we should be bringing that book to Kickstarter this spring. April, probably, so I have time to ship everything for Chapter 5 our before we get started.

Here's the first page from this upcoming chapter:

Don't let the chill vibes of this page fool you, this final chapter of Hero of Legend is going to be intense. Can't wait for you guys to check it out.

This month also brought a new episode of Into the Deep. This time around, we meet The Imperator, our heroes escape from prison, and have an unfortunate encounter with some sewage. In the process section, I also get into my extremely real and scientific Grand Unifying Theory of how you can pace comics.

Below the Depths is still going, and we should have that ready to go this summer. Make sure you're signed up for the prelaunch page so you don't miss out. Another little teaser to whet your appetite:

Oof. Hope that guy's okay! (He's not) Finally, SCUM #1 is also moving along at a steady pace. Really, really excited about this book. It's different from anything I've done before, but in a way I think you're really gonna love. I got the first big batch of colored pages from our colorist, Maja Opacic this past month, and they look fantastic:

And Halil Mete, the line artist for SCUM, has turned in another batch of absolutely stunning black and white pages too:

I think I might be worth putting out a black and white version of this book as a special edition.

Comics on Kickstarter

In prelaunch:

Hero of Legend #6

Below the Depths

SCUM #1

What am I reading?

Lux: From the Kingdom of Darkness

I haven't been doing a ton of reading this past month. I've basically been either striking, trying to squeeze in other comic work, watching my son, or asleep. But in the small amount of reading time I've had, I've been digging into Lux by Eastin DeVerne. I've linked the Kickstarter for this book above, though I'm not sure when or if it'll become available outside of that. It is a romantic fantasy story that feels a lot like a character driven fairytale. I'm really enjoying it! For all the time I spend reading indie comics, I usually stick to traditionally published books. It's cool to read a novel that wasn't published through traditional means, and one that is so good. If you're a fan of fairytale-esque stories or character driven fantasy, definitely worth checking out, if and when it becomes available outside of it's original Kickstarter run.

That's it?

Yep. See you next time!