What's Happening - September 2025
Sturdy, Dirty, Thirty
Last year, one of my friends was trying to remember the phrase "Thirty, flirty and thriving," and instead ended up with the above subtitle. Anyway, I turn 30 in 5 days.
Welcome to my monthly newsletter, giving you updates on the things I’ve been lettering, reading and writing this month.
What am I writing?
First update, for my birthday, I'm running a sale over on Kofi. Until the end of September, you can pick up everything in my store there 30% off using the code BIRTHDAY. If you want any of the back issues of Hero of Legend, you can get those there. If you're a reader of Hero of Legend, but haven't checked out my sci-fi graphic novel Into the Deep, now is also a great time to pick it up. Especially because...
Felipe just put together this awesome cover image for our sequel, Below the Depths. If everything goes according to plan, we'll be launching the Kickstarter for this in June 2026. But you should sign up for the prelaunch page now! Why? Well, hey, it's my birthday. Come on.
Into the Deep and Below the Depths (what I'm now calling The Irulian Chronicles, so that I can easily refer to the whole series) are some of my favorite things I’ve written. The 100-ish page graphic novel is my preferred format when it comes to writing. I think Into the Deep is pound for pound probably the most complete and action packed thing I've ever written. And, not to sound too full of myself, but Below the Depths is even better.
But that's not all. The next episode of Hero of Legend is finally coming, the first Tuesday in October! Really excited to start getting the episodes from Chapter 5 out to you guys. You'll see why once you get to read it, but a lot of the secrets and questions from the first four issues finally get answered here. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're signed up for the prelaunch page for this project as well!
Last, but definitely not least, want to show off some of the art from my brand new cyberpunk book called SCUM. I talked a bit about what this book is all about last newsletter, so this month I want to give you a little visual teaser:
More to come! Soon!!
What am I lettering?
Gonna keep this section pretty short this month, because I have a lot of lettering I should be working on rather than writing this newsletter!
I talked a bit about this last month, but with a 3-month old baby and my day job, I'm needing to be more intentional about the lettering projects I pick up. I think I'm doing some of the best lettering work I've ever done on some of my current projects. But I've also taken on some projects that pay but just aren't as interesting to me artistically. With my time the way it is, and the fact that I'm unlikely to quit my day job teaching at any point in the near future to focus solely on comics, I'm rethinking how I take on new projects. And as long as I have enough lettering work to fund my writing projects, I'm good to go. It's exciting, and a little freeing, to realizing I can choose to just take on projects that I really, truly want to do.
Anyway, instead of any lettering insights, or my usually September birthday month navel gazing, here's a Kickstarter comic I think is worth checking out:
Macabre Valley
Zack Quaintance is someone I know from back when I wrote criticism about comics. I don't really do that any more (except for a few paragraphs in this newsletter) but Zack still does! And on top of that, he also writes great comics. I really loved his comic anthology last year, Death of Comics Bookcase, which this news story spins out of. Here's the blurb, from the Kickstarter page:
A young reporter gets a job covering the night cops beat at a newspaper in South Texas. When a Border Patrol agent is gruesomely murdered, our hero must untangle a violent mystery with a beloved local priest and a werewolf at its dark center.
The art, by Anna Readman, colors by Brad Simpson and letters by Becca Carry are all also great, and this is a book I'm just genuinely excited to read. So, check it out!
Kickstarter comics in prelaunch:
What am I reading?
The Magic Fish
This is a book I'm actually reading for my day job, we're teaching this in our 7th grade English classes. I wish I had gotten to read something like this in middle school as part of the curriculum. This is a fantastic book, gorgeous art, a touching story, and the kind of book that is really fruitful to teach in middle school. Lots of themes that are both easily noticed but deeply ingrained in the story, so that all the kids who are reading it are able to grab at least on of those threads to pull on. Really excited about Trung Le Nguyen's next book, The Bear Prince, which comes out in a few weeks.
That's it?
Yep. See you next month!