MYSTERY ART, MALICENT BLACK and MORE…

(This newsletter is brought to you by the letter M*)

Time for this thing again? Time flies when you’re at your desk every … single … day. I guess?

Let’s start with that mystery art…

What’s it for? I mean, it’s a mystery. I can’t say right now. But it’s something I had a ton of fun doing, and wanted to share with you. Yes, you.

Meanwhile, still hard at work on the next issue of MALICENT BLACK…

You know Mal … making friends wherever she goes…

Getting closer and closer to being ready for the next Kickstarter…

I’m enjoying drawing this issue old school so much that I don’t remember why I’ve been working digitally for so long…

Oh, right. Deadlines.

I’m still quite a bit quicker digitally, and honestly … so often I get a script with no time left on the clock. That makes it hard to do anything but work in the fastest way possible.

But as far as Malicent goes…

Drew is working on that third script, and beyond that, he’s also busy here:

https://www.thegamer.com/author/drew-ferguson/

He’s really good at videogames. Good enough to write about them. Me? I’m the guy who could maybe write a guide on “How NOT to be an awesome vampire in Oblivion.” That … I’ve got nailed down.

Anyway, when I’m not at my desk writing or drawing (or being a terrible vampire in Oblivion), I’ve been catching up on some reading. Picked this up recently, and it’s brand new to me. I’m enjoying it immensely.

I’m a big fan of JM DeMatteis, and the various artists who collaborated with him in this book (especially the late, great, Keith Giffen and of course Shawn McManus) MORE than hold up their end. This is a great collection, and I can’t recommend it enough. Dr. Fate is a character that I’d love to take a swing at someday.

Also, before I wrap this up … table assignments for Heroes came out this week. If you’re going to be at HeroesCon … here’s where to find me!

If I’m not at my table, odds are good that I’m just watching Kevin Nowlan draw.

That’s it for this week … thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. I truly do appreciate it!

…hey, wait a second. I have one last thing to show ya. Got it right before hitting “publish.”

Here’s a Miracleman piece I penciled a few years back, inked by Marc Deering … and recently colored by the amazing Mike Spicer! We’ll have prints of this at the con, if you’re interested 😉

Okay, THIS time I’m really done. I gotta go draw =)

-LF

(*Sesame Street rules.)

MALICENT BLACK Returns, HeroesCon 2025 and more…

Okay, first off … hopefully this went out to everyone like a good newsletter should. If you’re getting this it’s because either you signed up via the website, or because in that Kickstarter survey for MALICENT BLACK, where we asked if you’d like to keep up to date on future projects and more Malicent news, you clicked ‘yes.’ So … thanks for being here! I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.

And with that in mind … hey, the next MALICENT BLACK campaign is coming up!

One of the next few newsletters should have a link to the prelaunch page. Drew has been done with the script for a long time, but I’ve been playing catch up for awhile now. Between the work for hire gigs (BLADE, GIANT-SIZE X-MEN, PREDATOR vs BLACK PANTHER, FLASH GORDON QUARTERLY) and some other fun stuff (like DREAD THE HALLS, working up pitches, a variant cover or two and writing an unnecessarily long article about ROSS ANDRU that you can find right here: https://ontheflipsidecomics.com/en/featured-artist-ross-andru/ ), time has been at a premium. I’ve also gone from working 100% digitally for the past few years to at the very least penciling everything (and sometimes inking) old school. It’s been nice to get back to that, but it has been a little slower…

And I’m not the only one who’s been busy! Here’s just a bit of what Drew has been up to…

The Bleeding City: Ep 1

So how about a peek at that next MALICENT BLACK book, anyway? I’ve shared this piece on social media, so maybe you’ve already seen it…

Malicent Black … making friends wherever she goes. I’ll show some more next time. I’m really excited about this book, and I think it’s my favorite story I’ve ever worked on…

Meanwhile, this year I’ll be at https://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/ for the first time! I’m stupidly excited to make the trip. I’ll be bringing Original Art, Artist’s Proof prints, comics, maybe a few trades, even some of the DC children’s books … if you’re making it to the con, stop by and say hi! I have no idea where our table is. I don’t worry about these things.

I’ll also be taking on some commissions, both preshow and at the con. I’m not sure how many I’ll be doing, though, so if you’re interested, it’d be best to hit me up early!

Anyone who knows me knows I haven’t made many cons the past few years. The reason? I’m extremely antisocial! But I’m going to Heroes anyway and you should too!

In other news … I keep going back to this book Mike Hawthorne did recently:

I love this thing. Not only is it a great comic, but I love the way Mike came at it. It’s sort of an old school ashcan, and it’s Mike getting back to his roots and to the things he loves about comics. It’s inspiring! I mean, this is why we do this, right? We all have something that calls to each and every one of us. A “hey, if you can only make one comic, what would that comic be” sort of thing?

So you should read this. Mike has a brand-new website at https://www.thinktankcomics.com/ where you can find this and a bunch of other stuff that you’re gonna want!

I also saw the news about Peter David’s passing while this newsletter was waiting to get finished off and … man. Like so many others, I am a huge fan of his work. I never got the chance to meet him, much less work with him, but my heart goes out to his family and friends, and to the rest of us, who won’t have any new comics written by Peter to look forward to. I know as a longtime Spider-man fan I’d definitely come across his work before, but I’m pretty sure my brother bringing home this comic from the local shop we’d just discovered is what led me to search out more and more of his stuff…

The thing is, my brother and I used to coordinate which of us would buy a series to avoid doubling up. We’d JUST discovered our first comic shop, and wanted to read as much as we could afford to bring home. He’d buy SHE-HULK and NAMOR, I’d buy AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and NEW WARRIORS, etc. So from this point on, he was the guy who bought the HULK…

But it wasn’t too many months later that I just started buying the HULK, too.

Rest in peace, PAD.

I think that’s all for now … see ya in a couple of weeks, if not sooner…

-LF

Hey there.

Well, here we are.

On the internet.

Together.

(Kinda.)

I felt like it was time to make a new website. I can be a bit hard to find at times, and as an artist … well, that’s not helpful. So like I said … here we are. I’m glad you came by to check this out.

There’s a lot of art on this site … and honestly, it’s been kinda weird going through it all. There’s stuff from my very early days (shudder) … pages that make me wince now, but still somehow come with fond memories for the friends I made on this project or that one.

There are also pages where I was experimenting toward some end goal at the time where I now wonder why I didn’t just draw the thing the way I knew to do it, but … you know, I like to experiment. What can I say? Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

Eh.

That’s art.

Mostly, seeing all of this stuff together in one place like this just … makes me want to go draw some more. 😉

-LF