MALICENT BLACK work-in-progress! DOCTOR STRANGE #450 final order cutoff! And should I maybe start numbering these things..?

Hey, welcome back (unless this is your first time reading one of these newsletters … in that case, thanks for taking the plunge!)

So there’s a variety of things going on … let’s see how many I can get through. This newsletter is, as usual, brought to you by coffee and stress, the freelancer’s best friends!

First … the final order cutoff for DOCTOR STRANGE #450 is upon us! I drew a story in this – written by J Michael Straczynski – and I really enjoyed this one. If you’d like a copy, it’s a good time to let your comic shop know! I’ve had a chance to read the entire thing and it’s a proper celebration for one of my favorite Marvel characters.

Next, more MALICENT BLACK! A few things … while I’m still inking those interior pages, I also decided that the cover I did a few months ago didn’t quite hit all the notes I wanted to hit. I actually like the piece of art on it’s own, but I’m not sure it’s quite the right piece to grab newcomers on Kickstarter. So yeah, I decided to do a second cover. I love to do extra work! I guess that previous one will be a variant. Anyway, here’s a look at the sketch for the new cover…

I’m also writing (yes, that’s write … er, right) a prose story to go in the next issue of Malicent. I really, really enjoy writing (heck, I only started drawing my own comics as a kid so I could tell the stories I wanted to tell), but I make my money drawing, so I have to take my shots when I can. Drew was originally going to do another prose story for this issue, but he’s been extremely busy with The Gamer and a few other things lately, so I decided what the hell.

It’s a fun story (well, I think it’s fun but it’s actually kinda dark) and it sets up something for the THIRD Malicent Black book that Drew and I are really, really excited to get to. I was going to include a peek at it here, but … I dunno. Should I?

Oh what the hell. Here you go.

…

The thing that was Malicent Black and yet was not Malicent Black stood still in the quiet room, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. Thin tendrils of ink touched by magic crept out from her, seeming to taste the stale air before returning to their mistress. Finally, Not-Malicent stepped forward, walking over broken glass and dead bodies. As she reached the only dim light in the room, she bent and picked up a small clear cube. It seemed to be filled with constellations of stars. And one of the stars in the bottom back left corner of the cube was pulsing with a slow red heartbeat.

Not-Malicent smiled and left the room.

…

I’ve also decided to go and put a proper store on my website. I knew I’d have to at some point, but didn’t take the time to do so when I first set it up simply because I wanted to have the site ready to roll as quickly as I could. It’s a character flaw, I know. I tend to push something I don’t want to do off for as long as I can, but then once I decide to do it, I act like it has to be done RIGHT NOW. Sigh.

On an unrelated note, my wife is a saint.

Anyway, yes, one of these future newsletters will have an update on the store. Honestly, I have way too many things I’m trying to get to this week, and I’m beyond stressed about most of those things, so the webstore won’t be ready right away … but it is coming.

Speaking of stress … apparently one of the ways I manage (or more likely, just ignore – again, I have character flaws, okay?) stress is to work long hours and then stay up way too late playing, say, Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

I have a big love for turn-based strategy games, and then when you add in about a million of my favorite Marvel characters, well, yeah, it’s like this thing was kinda made for me. And while I can go weeks (or months) without playing, it’s kind of become a cozy home away from home I enjoy getting back to from time to time. As long as I’ve had this game (and as much as I’ve played overall) I’m just into the beginning of Act 3 and having a great time.

I also just finished reading this book…

That classic Englehart/Rogers/Austin era was over and done with by the time I really discovered monthly Batman comics, so it’s been a newer revelation for me, and I really didn’t know much at all about Marshall Rogers’ work before I picked this up. This book does a very nice job of taking you back to that time and showing you just how influential that (amazingly brief) Batman run was, and gives you some insight into a talent that left us way too soon. It seems like we say that sort of thing far too often when it comes to comicbook creators, doesn’t it..?

Alright, I think that’ll do it this week … but I’m gonna leave you with one last thing. I showed off the beautiful Cully Hamner page I bought a few weeks ago, and decided I should also start sharing some of the other art that hangs in my office. I don’t have a ton of stuff, but I like what I have…

Here’s a Big Barda that I got from Gary Frank when we met at a con in London in 2016, I think? Time flies. I actually wanted to buy a piece of art from him, but Gary insisted on an art swap instead. Clearly, I made out on this deal. But he knew I was a huge fan of Kirby’s New Gods (yes, we’d just met, but since I introduce myself “Hi I’m Lee Ferguson and I love Jack Kirby’s New Gods how about you?” I guess somehow he figured it out…

Best,

LF