2022 didn’t make things easy for me. Pandemic disruptions, immigration issues, shoulder dislocations, and incredibly challenging childcare problems hounded me through what I initially anticipated would be something like a pandemic rebound year—right before the Omicron wave hit and appeared to create ripples through unrelated parts of my life.
I’ve been resisting the temptation to expand at length on my personal woes. We’ve all been through hard times these last few years and you aren’t here for that. For me, mentally, I am putting 2020-2022 together in a three volume slipcase and shelving these bastards. Next set of years, please. I’m a big fan of taking stock and resetting intentions in the New Year and the possibility of 2023 being better both personally and professionally hangs high in my mind.
I have ideas for comics I’ve been meaning to get to for a while now, ideas burning a hole in my head, and 2023 has to be the year I move. Sometime over the pandemic I realized that I had a real thing going with these two characters below and I miss them. Would you want to see their further adventures in longer form? Where there’s a consumer demand, the market will rise to meet it.
2022 was pivotal for me creatively, so I don’t want to pretend it was all bad news. I launched my first real comic book series, Justice Warriors, with co-creator Ben Clarkson. We debuted to rave reviews and executed our story exactly as we wanted to with the support of our publisher Ahoy. Hell, forget writing—I got to draw six comic book covers! It feels like fulfilling a part of my career goals that should have happened earlier, in retrospect, but I’m here now.
The trade paperback collecting our six issue story drops next February and I’ll be asking you all to buy it. I think it’s some of the best work I’ve ever had a hand in making and it’s just the beginning of this world of stories about capitalism, cops, corruption, celebrity, and crime. We only explore C-words.
Ben and I are starting to develop volume 2 now and we will get our shot if enough people support this book when it comes out. I spent a chunk of December working on a backup story for the trade—one I wrote, drew, colored, and lettered myself. It’s short, a mere six pages, but is the longest comic I’ve made in many years. I will tell you, it felt good to devote that amount of time to drawing again.
A small teaser here, I just want to show you all these buildings I drew for the opening panels. It took a very long time. (“A dystopia that’s an endless city,” he thought. “Brilliant!”)
Now here’s a satisfied reader. This fellow purchased all of my variant covers for Justice Warriors. If you want to assemble this cover gauntlet, I have a limited number I'm going to sell at the turn of the year. My newsletter readers will have first dibs, so look for that in early January. I’ll sell a few single issues and full sets of the run.
I have a new drawing I’d like to share: Judge Death. I made this one for nothing other than my own enjoyment. Imagine that. I haven’t actually drawn much for practice or pleasure in my career—too many deadlines!—and that’s gotta change going forward. I created this a while ago, maybe even a year ago, and it’s been sitting around gathering dust, of no use to anyone.
Now, anyone who has paid attention to me for any amount of time knows I’m a Judge Dredd freak, so this shouldn’t be too surprising. My own comics are my top creative priority, but I wouldn’t mind drawing some other characters I love with more freetime I’m bound to have in the promising year of 2023.
One fact: it’s probably the only drawing I’ve inked on paper with a brush in the last year. It’s not the fastest method, but it’s where I get my best lines.
Finally, if you need some last minute Christmas or Hanukkah presents, a gift subscription to The Nib magazine is not going to be a problem for anyone. It’s good comics in a beautiful magazine format that they’ll get through next year. Low effort, high return. We have a 30% discount code for gift memberships for our paid members and for you reading my newsletter because I want to. If you’d like one or more, use the code GIFT2023 to save money.
I probably won’t have another newsletter out before the end of the year, as I’m racing to finish work in order to take a few days off, spend time with family, and hitting the reset button. So Happy New Year. See you then.