What's Happening - November 2025
Remember, remember: Hey, it's November.
Welcome to my monthly newsletter, giving you updates on the things I’ve been lettering, reading and writing this month.
What am I writing?
Before I get into anything else, Hero of Legend #5 is still on Kickstarter!
We've hit our goal and are trending slowly upward. We're currently working on these stretch goals:
Right now, we're sitting just a few backers short of our first stretch goal, which will get everyone a pdf copy of the script. We've also been absolutely bashed in the head by the dreaded Kickstarter Dead Zone. As I'm writing this, it's been a couple days since we picked up our last backer, so if you're waiting to back... Well, please stop waiting!
I'm really hoping we can hit our second stretch goal, because I would love to show off the ashcan of SCUM, which will be the first 14 of 48 pages in our first issue.
I feel like I say this every time, but it's always true: I think this is our best issue of Hero of Legend yet, and I really hope we can get it out to folks. The Kickstarter algorithm has not been particularly kind to us this time, so we can use any sort of boost folks would be willing to give us!
Last thing about the Kickstarter, I've just brought back the "I Letter Your Comic" reward tier that I've had on previous Kickstarters. For a slight discount from my standard lettering rate, you can get 24 pages of comic lettering from me and a digital copy of all 5 issues of Hero of Legend. Pretty good deal, if I do say so myself!
What am I reading?
Not a ton, to be honest! I'm going to be going on paternity leave starting after thanksgiving break, which is both really exciting, and also means that I have a LOT of work to do before that happens at the end of this week. That, and I was playing a lot of Silksong in my spare time (which is a fantastic game that I'm taking a small break from, having just reached Act 3.) Anyway, here is what I have managed to read:
Rose/House
This is a novella by Arkady Martine, who is the author of one of my favorite space opera books of the last decade A Memory Called Empire. The basic pitch on this book is that it's a haunted house story, except that what the house is haunted by is an AI intelligence. It's a really short book, but a very fun one! I'm a big fan of Martine's prose and world building, though I think I still prefer A Memory called Empire.
What am I lettering?
Lettering is such a funny part of the comic making process, because frequently the things I'm the proudest of are things that no one else would ever notices.
Thinking about this because I was working on the latest issue of Countless Little Deaths, and there is something about Manos Lagouvardos art that makes me want to pull out all the stops on little lettering tricks. Here's one example:
On the left, we have what would normally be the best option for lettering this panel, butting the balloons up against the edge of the panel and calling it a day. But it ended up feeling too cramped for me as I was working on it. So, we have the right option, where I extended the second balloon out of the panel while still keeping the first butted inside.
Whenever possible, I try not to have balloons go outside of the panels they're attached to. It's a lettering rule of thumb that helps make the lettering a part of the art, rather than just sitting on top of it. In this case, though, I wanted to give the knife, the face, and the little twist of hair a bit more space, and butting the first balloon and overlapping the second fulfilled that need to keep the lettering married to the art, while also giving me a bit more room to work with.
Like I said, maybe a silly thing to put this much thought into, but one of my favorite little lettering things I've done in a bit.
Kickstarter comics in prelaunch:
Some fun lettering:
That's it?
Yep! And if you haven't yet, please back Hero of Legend #5 on Kickstarter!