What's Happening - January 2026

Well, happy new year! I'm sure this is going to be a good one. Couldn't possibly be worse than the last couple, huh? Now, just going to take a quick look at the news so far this year, and... Ah! Well. Nevertheless,

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

What am I lettering?

Line artists almost certainly run into this problem more than us letterers, but every once in a while, I'll get something in a script that would be trivially easy to do if it was a movie, but is actually quite challenging to render as text on a page. It's something that can be both a frustration, but it rare cases is also a place where I get to stretch my creativity a bit.

A recent book (Sibyl: Dark Decay #1, if you want to check it out) called for a character who finished another's sentences. On TV, that's as simple as just having one actor speak over another. On a comic page, its a bit more challenging. Do you overlap the balloons, covering the first speaker to show they're being interrupted? Do you have the second balloon just sit right next to the first, hoping the reader gets the idea? I wasn't a huge fan of either of those options, so I decided to try something different:

Not groundbreaking by any means, but I think its a fun way to render this particular idea. Not sure if I'll ever have cause to use this technique again, and if I don't, wanted to make sure as many people see it as possible, as I spent far longer messing around on this page than I should have.

Some other fun lettering:

What am I writing?

Hero of Legend #5 is finished! The final episode of chapter 5 will go out next Tuesday, if you're a newsletter subscriber. And I just have to put some final touches on the Digital Deluxe files before I send them out to Kickstarter backers and paid subscribers. A reminder that, If you missed the Kickstarter, a paid membership to this newsletter gets you all my digital comics for just 20$ a year!

Since it's the first month of the new year, I also want to give a little overview of what I have planned for my projects in 2026.

First up, let's talk about the Kickstarters. Coming up in June, we have Below the Depths, the second graphic novel in the Irulian Chronicles by me and Felipe Trindade. This is the sequel to Into the Deep, the second episode of which hit your inboxes earlier this month and the next one will be coming the first Tuesday in January!

Then, we have the sixth and final issue of Hero of Legend. This is going to be a big one (just finishing up the script for it right now!) When we launch this kickstarter depends on when Niccolò is able to finish the art work. If it's done quick, this might actually by my first Kickstarter of the year, with this project coming in March/April. But I think it'll likely end up later in the year based on his schedule and availability.

Finally, there's SCUM #1 This is one I'm SUPER excited for people to finally get to read. This will likely be in the back half of the year. Maybe September? Here's another sneak peak at some of the artwork:

So good. Really excited for this one.

With the script for Hero of Legend #6 almost finished, I realized that I'm in a bit of a weird place with my on going projects. I was working for a while to make SCUM, but now that that's in progress, I don't have anything pressing to start writing. We've been making Hero of Legend since the winter of 2023, so it's a bit weird to no longer have that as a fall back option of something to work on when I have the chance to do some writing.

One of my goals for 2026 is to actually dedicate some solid writing time. With the birth of my son in June and the amount of lettering work I've had the past few years, it's been hard to put aside dedicated time to write. SCUM was the exception to that, an idea that was burning a hole in my brain until I got it out on paper. But I want to try to be more intentional this year of taking the time to actually do some writing. I've had an idea for another fantasy comic to do after Hero of Legend that as been stuck in the amorphous idea stage, but has finally started congealing into a more manageable shape. Just got to get off my ass and start actually writing it.

I've also been thinking about starting to get back into some prose writing this year. Not sure if folks are interested in that, as I've been pretty strictly comics since I started this newsletter. If you would be interested in seeing some writing from me without any pictures, let me know in either the comments or shoot me a message.

Comics on Kickstarter

Live on Kickstarter

Tights #5 (and volume 1)

This is the 5th and final issue in the first volume of Tights. This is one of the longest running series I've had the pleasure to work on. Near and dear to my heart, because it also takes place in San Francisco. When we first started creating this book, Chris, the writer, and I lived about 5 blocks away from each other. It's a really fun, funny take on super heroes, and definitely worth checking out. Here's the synopsis:

When a judge is blackmailed by vigilantes into saving San Francisco, he finds himself becoming the very thing he hates most—a superhero

In prelaunch:

Below the Depths

SCUM #1

Hero of Legend #6

What am I reading?

A Garden of Spheres

I think I can officially say that Linnea Sterte is one of my favorite comic creators. Of her previous books, I loved World Heist, but had mixed feelings about the eisner nominated Stages of Rot. And I think my favorite comic creators are the ones that create comics that are uniquely theirs in such a way that the difference between a book I adore and one I think is a waste of time are a hairs breadth apart.

A Garden of Spheres is a book I adore. Sterte's art is always gorgeous. But A Garden of Spheres is next level. The book is a mixed of colored and black and white pages, both of which look fantastic. If you haven't seen the book before, you should click the link above and check out some of the interior pages. It is truly stunning.

The story is great, hitting the same mix of lyrical, empty spaces and deeply interesting world building as World Heist did, but on a much grander scale. Like Stages of Rot, this is a story that spans centuries. Unlike Stages of Rot, this book has gods and characters that you can latch onto and follow through the huge societal changes that happen.

A Garden of Spheres is huge book, but it's also just book 1 in a series. Sterte has a Patreon where she posts pages from the next volume weekly and only costs 1.50$ a month. Definitely worth checking out!

Anything else?

Nope! Bye.