What's Happening - March 2025
Fun new benefits for Paid Subscribers! And as always, plenty of blathering about other things.
Welcome to my monthly newsletter, giving you updates on the things I’ve been lettering, reading and writing this month.
But first, a quick update about this newsletter!
What am I newslettering?
Something a little different this month, I want to talk a bit about this newsletter. When I first got started with it, I had two plans. The first, obviously, was a way to let you all know what I was up to as social media started (and has continued) to disintegrate. The second, I wanted to send out comics.
Something I've really enjoyed has been being able to send out the monthly episodes of Hero of Legend as Niccolò and I create them. It's been a fun project, figuring out how to write a comic that works in 5-10 pages chunks, as single issues and (hopefully!) as a full collected volume. My secret, third hope was that these little chunks of comics would be enough that folks would feel like it was worth their time to sign up for a paid subscription to this newsletter. At least enough paid subscribers to cover the fees for hosting it on Ghost.
But I also realized that I haven't given much of a reason to support this newsletter at anything but the free tier, unless you just really like giving me money. So I want to change that! Starting this month, if you're signed up for the $2 premium tier for Reed 'em and Weep, here is what you'll get:
- Digital Deluxe copies of all my comics as they are released
- Exclusive Kickstarter deals
- My undying gratitude
A paid membership is $2 a month or $20 for the whole year. The Kickstarters for Hero of Legend run every 4 months. So if you're someone who has been backing Hero of Legend at the Digital Deluxe tiers, a monthly subscription will cost you the same amount for the same content, along with any other comics I make in the mean time.
With my current publishing plan, that means at least 3 issues a year along with a graphic novel every few years. But who knows, if enough folks subscribe at a paid level, I'll be able to start another serialized project just for folks at the paid tier.
And if you're someone who likes backing my books on Kickstarter and wants physical comics? Kickstarter just released a new feature that will let me send you a special link with exclusive discounts, another perk for paid subscribers.
And if you're already a paid subscriber, you can access all your digital rewards here.
Anyway, enough begging. Time to get to what you're all really here for: My ramblings about comic books!
What am I lettering?
This month has had me doing something I haven't done in quite a while: Lettering short stories! Short stories are both really fun to work on and really taxing. They're fun because they let me do one of my favorite parts of the lettering process, which is coming up with the lettering style to match an artist.
Working on a bunch of short stories by a bunch of different artists means that I get to do that process of creating the lettering style over and over. Finding the right font (and tweaking that font so it's just right), the right balloon style, the right stroke that makes sense for the artwork and the tone of a story. Actually lettering pages can end up being a bit mechanical sometimes. Not that I'm not making artistic choices, but they're choices that I'm making subconsciously a lot of the time. In creating a lettering style, those artistic choices are all conscious and actively considered.
It's also one of the most time intensive parts of lettering. For longer projects, it makes sense to really take the time to get the lettering style right, since I'll be stuck with whatever decisions I make for possibly hundreds of pages. For short stories... it sometimes feels a little silly to put as much time in figuring out what the lettering should look like as I do actually lettering the stories. But I still like doing it, even if it means that five 4 page short stories can end up taking twice as long as one 20 page issue.
Some prelaunch comics:
Some fun lettering:
What am I reading?
World Heist
Linnea Sterte is an amazing comic creator. She is someone who, if you're in literary comic circles, you've almost certainly heard about. Her books, Stages of Rot and A Frog in Fall were books I heard a lot of about when they were released. Whatever you think about the books themselves, I think it's impossible to think they aren't great works of art. And here is where I reveal that, despite being something that should absolutely appeal to me and my best attempts, Stages of Rot is a book that fundamentally does not work for me. I understand why people love it, but the storytelling is just too understated, too opaque, too many beautiful scenes without enough connecting tissue for met to fully connect with it. I say all of this just to give a bit of background on my feelings.
Now, World Heist?
World Heist rules.
The story telling is still understated, still opaque and elliptical. But it's also simple enough that those missing pieces work for me. The title basically says it all. This is a fantasy story about some thieves who are stealing a world. That's all you really need to know going into it, and then you can just let the gorgeous artwork and fun character moments wash over you. It's a short book, only about 80 pages. I linked the digital copy up above because the print version I got almost immediately came detached at the spine. But despite the book literally falling apart in my hands, this is one I would definitely recommend. I like it enough that, despite disliking both my previous readings, it's made me want to give Stages of Rot another try.
What am I writing?
The new episode of Hero of Legend came out earlier this month. This is the start of Chapter 4, and while this first episode doesn't have much of them, coming next month you'll get to meet some of our dragons. If you're so inclined, our prelaunch page for Chapter 4 is also live.
I have a lot of thoughts about dragons. I didn't really realize it until I started working on the back-up for the Digital Deluxe version of Chapter 3, where I laid out my process for creating the Bouldarians. I won't get into too many details about that here, but basically I have some strong feelings about fantasy races. (Mostly, I think they suck! Or at the very least have some unconsidered things they are saying about real life racial theories that most genre authors are not equipped to handle with the thoughtfulness they require.) Bouldarian's were my attempt to create a fantasy creature that is not just a human with one or two traits mixed around. I suppose whether or not I succeeded is up to you, dear reader.
In creating this new chapter of Hero of Legend, I realized I have similar feelings about dragons. There's this article on Reactor about the evolution of dragons in western literature that, toward the bottom, lays out two lineages of dragons, as seen in Dragonriders of Pern and Earthsea:
Pernese dragons, in other words, are tamed comrades. Earthsea’s dragons are demi-gods.
I am definitely on the Earthsea side of this equation. I think dragons should be ancient, unknowable, alien and dangerous. And next month, in Hero of Legend - Episode 12, you'll get to meet ours! Hope you're excited, because I am.
That's it?
Yep! Bye.