Howdy Brave Being,
Welcome back! It’s the beginning of a new month and my favorite one of them all. October is so wonderful. It ushers in fall with the changing of the leaves and offers an opportunity to reflect as the days grow longer and darker (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere where I reside). Or jump for joy in the leaves because that’s fun too. Here’s me with my friend Blanca a couple years ago in New York City’s Central Park. Blanca is so darn cute. I’m clearly wild for fall.
Back to now. It’s been the start of a new chapter in my life and there are lots of things to talk about so I’ll just get down to it.
What I’m working on
Unpacking! My husband Ross and I moved into our new home. We love it and we’re excited about making a couple changes. One thing is that we want to add a fireplace (a façade with a gas insert) and to visualize it, we built one out of boxes. It will go all the way up to the ceiling—we just didn’t have a ladder taller than four feet—and the windows will likely be closed up so that it’s all wall (still deciding on that one). What do you think?
ADVENTURES EVERYWHERE
As for comics, I can finally talk about some secret things that I’ve been working on. My frequent collaborator Heather Ayres and I with artist Greville Jacques and editor David Brothers submitted a pitch to the ADVENTURES EVERYWHERE: A COMIC-BOOK ANTHOLOGY FOR KIDS and our story got accepted!
The anthology is headed to Kickstarter on October 15th and will be lettered by its curator Nathan Kempf. Nathan and I connected after he accepted the pitch and have been collaborating ever since to make sure that this Kickstarter campaign has everything backers will want and then some.
But what’s in it?! Well, our story will be previewed in next week’s newsletter, so stay tuned for that, but I can hint at a few of the other stories in the collection.
Chloe and the Quest for A Mighty Gift by Myrjam Van de Vijver. When Chloe gets told her baby sister is born, she goes on a quest to find the perfect gift to welcome her in the family with her faithful adventure buddy and unicorn plushie, Bubblegum.
Flicker! by Kayla Dean. A little girl discovers her mother used to be a superhero. In the wake of her mother’s death, she takes her mom’s powers on a little adventure to feel closer to her.
Toil and Trouble’s Paranormal Investigation Club by siblings John Smith and Shannon Smith. A team of young magical investigators descent into their school’s newly-cursed basement to find the culprit behind the mysterious disappearances of a number of their teachers!
SO CUTE, right? These are just a few of the 14 amazing, adventure-filled stories in the anthology, so if you have kids in your life or are a child at heart like me, or know librarians and teachers interested in sharing comics with their students, be sure to follow the project at the button below.
33
I’ve also been editing the dark action comedy 33 by Juan Ponce, Gavin Guidry, Marco Finnegan, Michael Fisher, Ellie Wright, Gabriela Downie, and Ariana Maher. It’s heading to Kickstarter on October 20th. Here’s the trailer for it which hooked me even though I’ve read it already and Guidry’s phenomenal cover below. Follow any one of the creators above to stay in the loop and I’ll also remind you when it’s live. :)
REINCARNATION
Remember REINCARNATION, that sweet slice of afterlife comic that me and Madeline C.B. did with Heather and Calico Davis? (See Madeline’s interview here for a refresher.) Well, it’s available in Nicole D’Andria’s ROAD TRIP TO HELL Kickstarter right now! Nicole soared passed her goal in 12 hours and is offering all backers a bundle of digital comics including REINCARNATION. Hit the button below and select any reward tier that says “Digital Comic Bundle” and you’ll not only get Nicole’s devilishly clever series, but also a boatload of incredible indie comics!
Tips & Tricks of the Trade
When it comes to making comics, one tip or strong recommendation that I have is to hire an editor, and I don’t necessarily mean me since I’m a bit booked at the moment. Editors can do all sorts of things, like catch those pesky plot holes and spelling errors, act as a sounding board for more general feedback, and proofread letters. The latter can reduce the number of edits the letterer has to make, thus preventing them from being overworked and reducing their page rate (see last week’s compelling interview with letterer Gabriela Downie below).
I’m speaking from experience, too, when I hired Heather to proofread letters on DEAD DREAMS: THE LUCID CHRONICLES #1. She caught a stray thought bubble tail pointing at the wrong character and called out missing dialogue from the script. I missed those things because I was too close to it and there could have been endless edits if I didn’t have another set of eyes.
Things I’m Digging
Tiffany Babb’s Teaching Comics in the Classroom presentation. I recently attended a Zoom presentation by poet, comics writer, and PanelxPanel’s frequent contributor Tiffany Babb where she presented a powerpoint for teaching comics in the classroom and made it available for free on her website here. Tiffany also has a story with Micaela Wainstein in the Adventures Everywhere anthology entitled Thanks, But I've Got Stuff To Do.
Comic Book Retailers. I LOVE comic book retailers. All the time really but I want to spend a second on shout outs. I recently called Danger Room Comics in Olympia, Washington (which will be my local haunt now) to order a book and Frank, one of the owners, answered. Frank remembered me and that I visited the shop three years ago. What a memory! While I was sad to leave Kenshi and Scott at Arcane Comics in Seattle (I’ll for sure still visit), Frank provided a warm welcome into the community here.
The experience made me reminisce about all the retailers I’ve met moving around the country these last six years, and I guess I’m feeling grateful for them. Eric Walker, owner of Watchtower Heroes Comics in Columbiana, Ohio, was incredibly nice, always had great stock, and was pretty much me and my husband’s only friend during the pandemic last year. Here’s a fantastic video from Eric with a super sweet message:
Then there was Howard in Alexandria, Virginia at Aftertime Comics, who was such a sweetheart and I loved his handwritten system of ordering books, super old school and I loved that. I just discovered that the storefront closed due to the pandemic but they are looking for a new location. Who are some of your favorite retailers? Show them some love in the comments below.
I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall. It’s about a teenager, Jess, who gets sent to her dad’s house in the wilderness of Canada and turns into a survival story. It’s just absolutely riveting. Kate has a way of making you so invested in the characters, too. It’s also clever in how it’s laid out, with “Before” and “After” chapters so you get snippets of the Jess’ life before she ends up alone and afterward when she’s faced with foraging, fishing, and fighting for her life with a dog as her companion. Every chapter feels like a cliffhanger and it’s fantastic.
Merry Musings
I think I’ll close with some autumn abundance, because I’m really feeling the season change right now. There’s this beautiful passage about the Autumnal Equinox in The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual, and Lore by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt that I sometimes make things from and it says:
Like the rest of nature, we a moving into the darkness before creation. In soul and spirit, we are invited to travel down to our roots for nurturing, where we can gather strength and energy for yet another season of growing. But just as black contains all the colors of the rainbow, the darkness grants us a window into all aspects of our nature. We can make friends with our shadow selves, discover answers to questions only we can unravel, or just sit quietly in the stillness. Visiting the unknown can be a scary path, but it is only through the night that we reach the brilliance of another day. The journey is well worth the effort!
Thanks for reading!
Mercy buckets,
Brittany