What's Happening - August 2024
With August upon us, we've reached an entire year of me writing this newsletter! Wow! Who knew one person could have so much to say about so little?
Welcome to my monthly newsletter, giving you updates on the things I’ve been lettering, reading and writing this month.
What am I lettering?
Along with being the one year anniversary of this newsletter, August is the month that I return to my day job as a Special Education teacher. Which is, frankly, pretty stressful! Especially the first couple weeks of it. Lost of figuring out what the hell is going on, and very little left over brainspace for any particularly eloquent thoughts about lettering. Honestly, barely enough brainspace to actually successfully complete the lettering projects that have due dates within the next two or three weeks.
It probably says something about how I'm doing work and time management wise that when a client told me they were going to go with a different letter for the third issue of their series, I was only slightly more annoyed than I was relived.
So, instead of waxing poetic about any recent or upcoming lettering projects and challenges, I'm going to dive right into a cool project that I really hope you take the time to check out:
The Few of Farbetween
Damien Becton is one of my favorite writers I get to work with. I really love pretty much all the books I get to work on as a letterer, but Damien really writes stuff that feels laser targeted at things I want to read. The Few of Farbetween is a fantasy adventure comic for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Final Fantasy. (Guess who is a fan of both of those???) Here's a quick synopsis:
What happens when a robotic AI crash lands on a fantastical world full of magical creatures and beings? In THE FEW OF FARBETWEEN, 18 year old Jeyada, magic-wielding sorceress, reluctantly allies with a friendly, inferior version of the AI to prevent complete takeover! When these characters learn of a plot to sabotage the Queendom that keeps them safe, fates get crossed, friendships are built, trust gets tested, and, of course, lots of fun sci-fi fantasy action!
The Few of Farbetween is on Kickstarter for the next 2oish days. I love this comic and want to have the chance to bring it to life, but it needs your support to make that happen. Check it out today.
Some other prelaunch comics:
Some fun lettering:
What am I reading?
V for Vendetta
Early in July, I was browsing through a Half-Priced Books with about 20$ of in-store credit, and I realized I didn't own a copy of V for Vendetta. Well, I do own a copy now! And it's a book that I think benefits from owning an older, slightly used edition of. It's impossible to read Alan Moore and David Lloyd's work in this book and not feel the broth of Thatcherite politics this comic was cooked up in. The fact that you can both feel how deeply 80s this book is, but also how prescient it was, is a testament to it's creators.
I've read V for Vendetta before, but something about this reading was different. Maybe it's just age. Maybe it's the way my politics and the politics of the world around me have gone since the last time I read it. But this book is truly something. I think From Hell is still probably the best thing Moore has ever written, but V for Vendetta has definitely risen on my list.
It's a messy book. It feels like creators that are actively working to find their voices, but in a way that helps me appreciate that messiness more. It doesn't quite have the wind-up clock construction that I appreciate in some of Moore's later work. But there is so much heart and anger and pure rendered emotion that, frankly, if it was more tightly constructed, some of that would probably be lost. There's one chapter in Book 2, Valerie, which almost had me actively crying on BART as I was reading it.
What can I say? Hot take, but I think this Alan Moore fellow might be a pretty good writer.
What am I writing?
With all the craziness of going back to the school year, it's been hard to find time to finish up work on Below the Depths. Hoping to have that done before the next time I send out one of these newsletters, at the very latest. Felipe is just about to start on some character and location designs for this book, and I'm really looking forward to showing some of them off to y'all.
Hero of Legend is also continuing it's journey, with physical copies of Chapter 1 now taking up quite a bit of space in my apartments little kitchen area. I'm planning to get those out to backers this weekend, as long as everything goes according to plan. Along with physical release, Episode 6 went out to all of y'all earlier this month. Just one more episode before we're off to print with Chapter 2! Speaking of Chapter 2, check out this awesome cover from Laura Todisco:
Isn't it just fantastic? Laura also did the B cover for Chapter 1, and as long as she's available, I'm going to try to get her to do a cover for all 6 issues. Something about the way she textures the colors... Chefs kiss. And you'll have the chance to get this, or any of our other covers when Hero of Legend - Chapter 2 comes to Kickstarter in October! We're currently sitting at 53 campaign followers on Kickstarter, but I'd love to get that number up to a nice round 100 before the end of August. Sign up to be notified here.
Anything else?
Nope! Bye.