What's Happening - August 2023

Welcome to August!

This is my monthly newsletter giving you updates one what I’ve been lettering, reading and writing this month. So let’s get to it!

What am I lettering?

The first couple weeks of August have mostly been spent finishing up the lettering on books I’m not allowed to talk about yet. But, there are a couple of cool books I’ve lettered that are live on Kickstarter this month that you should definitely check out.

Tights Issue 1-3

The third issue of Tights is live on Kickstarter! Tight is an action packed, really funny superhero comic in the vein of something like Kickass or The Boys. Here’s the pitch:

The world is recovering from a second major pandemic. Global economies are in the toilet, crime rates are at record highs, and now everyday superheroes, aka “Tights,” have emerged in an attempt to right society’s wrongs.

Unfortunately, most of these Tights don’t have any professional crime-fighting skills, let alone superpowers. No, they’re out-of-work regular Joe and Jane vigilantes who often find themselves clogging up the criminal justice system and fighting a losing battle against law and order. That’s why they’re a particular pain in the ass for our protagonist—the young, brash, anti-Tights federal judge, OLIVER ANDREWS.

But when Oliver is blackmailed by Tights into helping them take down San Francisco’s major crime syndicates, he will ultimately find himself becoming the very thing he hates most—a superhero.

This series has been a blast to letter. Issues 1 and 2 were drawn by Edison Neo, who is one of my favorite comic artist working today. Issue 3 is drawn by Kyle Petchock, who is a similarly fantastic artist. I might write a post at some point about the changes I made between the lettering of issues 1-2 and issue 3, to better match each of these artist style. But, unless you’re a nerd who wants to hear more of my thoughts about lettering, the important thing is to click this link below before the campaign ends on 8/23.

Epic Fantasy: Three One-Shot Comics

Epic Fantasy is a Kickstarter campaign for not one, not two, but three awesome one-shot comics. There are two different super hero stories here to check out and one fantasy book. I designed and did at least some lettering work on all three of these books. Here’s what each of them is about:

Endless Hunt:

A warrior King hunts for his lost love only to find her and remember that she was never really lost at all. Scemu, warrior king of the Frozen Tundra of Ryk ventures on a quest to find his Queen Arula, seemingly kidnapped by an evil Sorcerer named Draoid. Through a sequence of nightmarish encounters Scemu finds himself cast into different worlds, questioning his own reality as he ventures to find the woman he loves.

Granite: Separation Anxiety

Alaina Callan is Granite! The hard living, fun loving, rock skinned superhero endorsed by your least favorite products and adored by millions. But when her superhero powers begin to fail her, Alaina has to come to terms with the possibility of what being human means.

Noir: Curtain Call

Noir has been engaged in a series of events around the city labeled, “The Gauntlet”, by none other than her nefarious nemesis The Director. When we meet Noir, she has made it through to the final stage of this dastardly event as The Director aims to end those responsible for his turn to villainy once and for all, and will keep Noir from stopping him by any means.

Take a minute to check these books out! You can get one story if there’s a single book that stands out, or dive into all three. The campaign is running until 9/4.

Some Fun Balloons

What am I reading?

The Unwritten

The main comic I’ve been reading this month! Am currently on trade #5. If you want to see my thoughts about it (mostly my thoughts about Todd Klein’s lettering) You can read my post about it here:

MADNESS; or, the Modern Dionysus

This is an awesome graphic novella by Mark O. Stack, Helen Robinson, and Jodie Troutman. Picked it up on a whim after seeing some pages posted, and ended up really enjoying Robinson’s artwork and storytelling. Her character acting is top notch, and really sells Stack’s script. An interesting mediation on pain and suffering, and a really fun read. If you want to check it out, you can get a copy from Weekend Warriors online shot here.

Book of the New Sun

Started reading this to follow along with the podcast Shelved by Genre, which is worth a listen even if you don’t want to read the books. I just finished Claw of the Conciliator, the second book in the series. I’m not sure how much I actually enjoy the process of reading these books, but love thinking about them afterwards (and listening to hosts of Shelved by Genre talk about them.) There’s also a possibility that they’ve completed rewired the way I think about writing fantasy stories? Not an easy read, but I think a worthwhile one.

What am I writing?

As of the writing of this Newsletter, Felipe and I have completed 56 out of 102 pages of Into the Deep. Felipe is hard at work on the next batch of ten pages, which I’m really excited about. After this next batch, we’re into big action sequence that ends the book. Might have a few pages from that to show in next month’s edition of this newsletter.

I’ve also started working on my next project, something I’ll call Untitled Fantasy Series until I get the time to make a fun logo for it. I’ve got the whole thing plotted out, and the first of 6 issues of this series written, and once I’m done writing this newsletter, I’ll probably go start working on the next one. Not to get to far ahead of myself, but this is a series I’m hoping I’ll be able to serialize in this newsletter! But like I said, that’s a long way away. For now, you’ll be able to see more behind the scenes bits and pieces as I start to put this series together.

What’s the end of this newsletter?

Not sure! Bye!