Tag: comics

Lots of art and a bit about Kevin Nowlan’s perfect comic…

How is it September* already..?

Actually … how the hell is it 2026 already!? Never mind…

Things have been a bit … crazy … at stately Ferguson Manor lately. Not all bad (some bad for sure), but yeah, definitely plenty going on. I feel like I say this often, but boy … seriously.

However, I was having breakfast this morning and realized I didn’t have my newsletter for August ready yet! I’m pretty sure I’ve made it every month since starting, so I couldn’t stand missing a month…

I don’t know if it’s important to you, but it is important to me. So I just had to decide what to talk about in this one…

No biggie, right?

The thing is, I started doing this newsletter last year thinking ‘hey, this will be a good way to keep in touch with anybody who’s interested in Malicent Black, in what I’m up to, sharing new work, you know … the usual.’

But see, the problem is … right now I’m working away on Night Movers, digging into the next Malicent Black book, and then waiting to hear back on at least three other projects. Anybody who knows me well at all knows I do not like to discuss projects that aren’t locked in. I’m far too superstitious. Hell, I’ve had enough projects killed even AFTER signing the papers (hello AT&T, thanks for killing my contract for seven more DC children’s readers) to know better…

I just don’t like to talk about things too early.

That leaves me with a newsletter that kind of requires me to talk about things that I can’t talk about!

So … let’s skip to the part where I just share some things I’m into, stuff I’m thinking about, okay? I’m also sprinkling a few sketch covers, some sketch cards, and a Spidey piece I did for fun after re-reading Amazing Spidey #230 for about the eight hundredth time recently, just so we get at least a bit of art in this thing…

First off … I just got the DC’s Finest – Batman: Blind Justice TPB. I haven’t read the whole thing yet. But I didn’t realize this reprints Secret Origins #39!!! I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say this is one of the finest looking comics ever printed. (Personally, I put it right up there with X-Men/Teen Titans.) Jan Strnad wrote a story I really dig, and Kevin Nowlan penciled, inked, lettered and colored this thing and it’s gorgeous. I think I own two or three copies of this comic anyway, and yet I’m still thrilled to have this finally included in a trade.

This comic (Secret Origins #39 I mean) is one I go back to often, especially when I feel like I might be losing my way. I’m not sure how it is for every artist, but I know I have a tendency to get too worried about the little fussy details, the feathering here, the rendering there … all of the things that are, quite honestly, window dressing. And then I look at this book and remember … oh yeah. Storytelling. Composition. Shapes. Spotting blacks. Acting. Secret Origins #39 is perfection. Somebody drew a perfect comic back in the 80’s. It’s been done.

Thanks to my trip to OAX last year I got the chance to look at Kevin’s story for Batman Black and White, and that is some beautiful original art. Seriously, it’s amazing. The only original art that has hit me harder than that would be the Kane/Romita pages from Amazing Spider-man #121, which I got a chance to see back in Seattle in 2018, when I was there for the Marvel exhibit at the MoPOP. And those Batman Black and White pages are glorious, no doubt.

But man, I think the art from the Man-Bat story in Secret Origins is even better. It’s just stripped down to a perfect core. If I ever manage to draw a single page that matches up to the perfection Kevin achieved here I’m probably going to retire.

I think I’ll just be chasing that ideal for the rest of my career, instead. And that’s fine. It’s the chasing, the DOING, that matters. Despite what certain people might say, it’s not the end result (or god help me the product or (ugh) the content) that matters … it’s the DOING, dammit.

Anyway … if you’re interested in some original art from things like my time on Dungeons and Dragons with Sal Buscema, or on X-Men Icons: Chamber, or any number of other projects … well, my art is live at Panel Punk Originals! Here’s the link:

Lee Ferguson

I’m also doing a con at the end of November (I know I mentioned this before but I’m mentioning it again…)

And right now it looks like I’m also going to be doing some eBay live auctions at Scout Comics in Fort Myers. The plan at the moment is to do these on the last Sunday night of each month. Tonight (August 30th) is the first one … we’ll have sketch covers, sketch cards, signed comics … it should be fun! Stop by if you’re into that sort of thing.

https://www.ebay.com/ebayLive/events/mujHOuOGtF2MrX0t?stype=1&sssrc=0&mkcid=16&mkevt=1&ssspo=MTfZXFxrThK&ssuid=whiczajztm2&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Alright, I think that’s it for now … I’ve gotta get back to drawing Night Movers before Matt sends a hitman after me…

Best,

LF

*Okay, it’s still August – barely.

ORIGINAL ART, SPIDEY STUFF, FREAK, FIRESTORM, BOWIE and more…

Well, well, well … here we are.

Hope things are good with you. This past week has been a crazy, stressful decade in the Ferguson household, but we persevere 🙂 And I have quite a bit to share this time, so let’s get started…

First off, I want to bring your attention to the fact that the ORIGINAL ART section of my website has been overhauled. Why? Because now the crew at PANEL PUNK ORIGINALS is handling my art sales, commissions, that kind of thing. I’m pretty excited by this, because while selling art and picking up commissions is obviously a big part of any art career, it also takes time away from … you know, actually making art! I never feel like I have enough time to do all of the things I want to do, and as a result, stuff like selling pages, etc., tends to suffer. But not any more! Do yourself a favor and check out PANEL PUNK’s website … I’ll post a link at the bottom of this newsletter (I spend too much time on this to have you bail on me right here at the start 🙂

Speaking of art … I did a few new pieces lately just because I felt the need to draw some Spidey villains. I guess there’s a new movie out or something, I dunno…

Anybody who knows me knows that I love Spidey (I learned to read before kindergarten only because I needed to know what was going on in all the Spider-man comics around my house…)

But if you’re interested in my take on a few classic Spidey bad guys, here you go…

First up … this guy.

The Vulture. Ol’ Adrian Toomes first appearance was in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2, by Stan and Steve. I always dug how he was really just a cranky old guy with wings, but he could give Spidey (especially new-on-the-job Spidey) so much trouble 🙂

Next up…

The Rhino. His first appearance was in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #41, by Stan Lee and John Romita. It’s funny, since the first time I ever came across the Rhino in a comic, it was actually a reprint of some issue of the Hulk … I only associated The Rhino with Spidey because of the reruns of the old cartoon (which, yes, of course I loved as a kid 😉

The Scorpion. Mac Gargan’s first (in-costume) appearance was in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #20, by Stan and Steve. I think the first time I ever came across the Scorpion in a comic, though, was actually a Marvel Tales reprint of issue #145, which starts a really fun two-parter by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, a team I really loved…

(More on that below…)

The Grizzly first appeared in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #139 by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru … and yes, of course he’s great! I’m a huge fan of the Conway/Andru stuff, and we all know if Sony were serious they’d stop trying to make the Venom-verse a thing and just build around THIS guy 🙂

I mentioned above that I’ve done a bit of writing lately … I don’t know if I’ve said anything about this before (and I don’t feel like going back through past newsletters to check) but I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a sequel to FREAK. For anybody who doesn’t know, FREAK was a book I wrote, drew, colored and published at Image waaaaay back in 2004. Thanks to a miscommunication the print date ended up being two months sooner than I’d expected, so the whole book became a mad dash to the finish line…

And since I’d never written OR colored a real comic at that point, well … there were a lot of sleepless nights. Also a lot of learning on the fly. I’m proud of the accomplishment, but there are plenty of things with the art and story that I flinch at whenever I take a look back … but then I’ve also always wanted to finish this story. I had planned to do quite a few books following this character and his world back in the day, but now I don’t really see that as being necessary (or as something that I’m even interested in.) But I do want to finish this, and along those lines…

Well, I have an 80 page script sitting here, waiting to be drawn. It’s a first draft, and there are things I need to add and change (hopefully there are some bits I can condense or remove because 80 pages is a lot of drawing 🙂 but I’m reasonably happy with it at this stage. I’m not sure if I want to pitch this somewhere, Kickstart it, or publish it online … but I’ve got time to figure that out.

Looking back at my old work there, though, has made me think a bit (okay, a lot) about how we grow and change as artists with time. Sometimes it’s just part of our natural growth as an artist (or as a human being) and other times I guess it’s more … forced? That sounds wrong. How about … intentional.

And when I look back on FREAK and wonder if I’d want to go through all of that again, I think about this quote from David Bowie:

If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.

Yeah. I mean … what am I gonna add to that?

Go make cool shit. Push yourself. Scare yourself. Surprise yourself.

Something else I haven’t mentioned since it happened … is the passing of Gerry Conway.

Man … that’s rough. I never got to meet Mr. Conway, but it’s no exaggeration to say that he had as much influence on my love of comics, and thus my career, as any artist has. As much as I love the classic Lee/Ditko stuff, as much as I love the Stern/JR Jr stuff … it was Gerry Conway’s run on Amazing Spidey, with artists like Romita, Kane and Andru, that cemented my love of the web-head.

Not only that … but man do I love Firestorm. I didn’t have a comic shop in my small town as a kid, so I only caught the occasional issue here and there, but it was the one DC book that I’d immediately grab if I spotted an issue in the wild. I’ve actually been working to put together a run of that 1982 series, issues 1-100, and at the moment … well, I’ve got 83 of them, as well as a couple of the annuals. Getting there.

I can’t wait to sit down and read this entire run.

Thanks for everything, Mr. Conway.

I should mention that I’ll be doing a con this fall … if you’re going to be in the Orlando area, stop by!

Okay, before I go … my wife keeps reminding me that I need to mention the big bunch of collected editions on the way which somehow include my work (sometimes quite a bit, sometimes just a little…)

ULTIMATES BY DENIZ CAMP VOL. 4: UPRISING – Aug 12, 2026

GENERATION X Epic Collection: Counter X – Nov 3, 2026

RUNAWAYS By Rainbow Rowell Omnibus – Jan 12, 2027

PREDATOR KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE OMNIBUS HC – Jan 26, 2027

…and apparently, this came out a few months back? I dunno … I haven’t seen it.

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Omnibus – Mar 31, 2026

Anyway, if you want any of these … well, I probably won’t have any copies 😉 Make sure to let your local comic shop know!

Okay, that’s it for this time … thanks for reading, and here’s that promised link to the PANEL PUNK site! My work should be available soon … if it’s not yet at the time I post this 🙂 Please consider signing up for the newsletter, since that will be the best way to keep up with art drops, commission openings and more!

https://www.panelpunk.com/collections/lee-ferguson

Best,

LF

SO HOW WAS HEROESCON 2026..?

Well, let’s get the suspense out of the way right off:

It was a GREAT weekend.

Aren’t you glad you signed up for this thing? For that kind of deep insight..?

Okay, I can do better…

It’s kind of a funny thing, because by the end of the third day, I was REALLY ready to be back home, sleeping in my own bed, taking it easy after the sensory overload that comes from being around a big crowd for so long…

But I also didn’t really want it to end. I saw SO MANY people over the weekend … but there were so many more I wanted to visit with and just ran out of time. I’m not sure I could have gotten to everyone I wanted to talk to even with two more days … it’s just such a huge con.

And it’s about the comics! I don’t have anything against celebrities or cosplayers, but it’s really cool to have a show that’s all about the comics and the art. Every con has it’s own personality, and this one suits me perfectly.

It’s always great to see my old pals Marc Deering and Matty Ryan in person. We trade emails and messages, but that’s not the same as getting to hang out together. And then Drew Moss. We’re not friends. We don’t even like each other. He just crashes this picture every year, I guess.

(Kidding! Drew is actually great 🙂

((It’s Marc you have to watch out for.))

Big thanks to Ron Randall, who took the time to walk me through some Kickstarter-related things over breakfast. As you’re probably aware, Ron regularly kills it with his Trekker series, and he not only knows how to make great comics, but how to sell them! Those talents don’t always go hand in hand. Ron, though, he can do it all, and is also kind and generous … if you don’t already have the full series, go buy some Trekker comics and thank me in the comments 🙂

https://trekkercomic.com

So many other creators that I got to see at least briefly (TOO briefly in most cases), and then there were all of the people who came to the table. Whether it was signing books they brought to the show, doing a sketch or more complicated bit of art, selling some books, getting pictures … everyone was so great and so friendly. Heroes just has an amazing crowd.

I also brought home (ahem) … a few too many books from Heroes. Uh … some of them were hardcovers. Big hardcovers. Okay, seriously … I was being stubborn and putting them ALL in my con backpack and I almost killed myself trucking that thing through the Westin lobby. A wheelbarrow would have been a better idea! See, when we fly, it limits what I can bring home with me, but when I know we’ve got a car we can fill … well…

So far, the only book of the bunch I’ve gotten a start on is COPRA vol 1 (the master collection) and boy do I wish I’d started reading this series sooner! I guess on the flipside, I have a lot of great comics ahead for me. Michel Fiffe … my god, man!

“Okay … you sound like the guy who wants to show off EVERY picture from his vacation. Besides HeroesCon, what else is going on with you, Lee?”

Oof … I don’t even know where to begin.

Let’s see…

I’m working away on NIGHT MOVERS, the graphic novel I’m doing with the way-too-nice-for-his-own-good Matt Garvey, and having a great time…

Also starting to work out the thumbnails for the next issue of MALICENT BLACK. If you’ve read book two (MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE), and if you’re somebody who knows me from way back … well, you’ve got a pretty good idea what’s coming in this third book. The story is something special, and I can’t wait to get further into it.

We just added the perfect colorist to the mysterious project Marc Deering, Top-Secret-Writer and I are putting together, and … yeah. He’s a good one. This project is coming along nicely, and I think people are going to be REALLY surprised by it.

I’m also trying to find the time to write and draw a sword and sorcery/horror book that I’m really excited about, AND finish the script for a sequel to FREAK that I kind of accidently started writing awhile back, but there are only so many hours in the day…

A couple of other things came up at Heroes (or on the way home thanks to “guy-with-the-cryptic-texts” CHRIS RYALL) that I can’t talk about yet, but when I can…

Oh, and I will have some news about original art sales and commissions in the not-too-distant-future! There are plans.

Whew! I think that about covers it? I mean … it really doesn’t.

But hey, it’s at least an overview of the past weekend and what I’m up to … now I gotta get back to work 🙂

-LF

LOKI, CHAMBER and IMPOSSIBLE THINGS…

What’s that? HeroesCon is less than a month away???

Yes, I know … and I’m trying to get an impossible amount of stuff done between now and then…

I know, Luke. That’s … literally what I just said…

But despite that, hey, if you’ve ever thought about getting a preshow commission from me, now is your chance! If you’re interested, here’s an example of the kind of thing I like to do … this is the layout for one of the 9×12 commissions I’m doing for the most recent Malicent Black Kickstarter…

I’ll be printing this out, lightboxing it onto some bristol and then inking it up. I’m working on the rest of these, but this is the only one I can show at the moment…

(And yeah, for a digital layout it ended up pretty tight, but in my defense … I was having fun.)

So if you’re interested, one of these on 9×12 bristol is $200 … if you’d just like a head and shoulders shot instead (still on 9×12 bristol), it’s $100. Drop me a line! There’s still a little time before the con…

But not much 🙂

Also, I can’t remember what I was looking for online the other day (something hugely important I’m sure), but I came across this preorder listing…

https://cheapgraphicnovels.com/generation-x-epic-collection-vol-06-counter-x-tp-pre-order-coming-soon-

You know, I think that’ll be the first time CHAMBER has ever been collected..? Maybe I’m wrong and I just missed it, though. Let me know if that’s the case.

I’m kind of excited to see this, actually. Don’t get me wrong … this is some REALLY early work, featuring lots (and lots and lots) of stumbles by yours truly. I was doing a lot of my learning right there on the page, and it shows. Still, it’s a project I look back on very fondly. I made some friends and I learned a ton about what it takes to make comics working on this…

Meanwhile, I’m still working away on pages for the NIGHT MOVERS one shot that I’m doing with Matt Garvey. It’s a big chunk of work, and I’ve got a ways to go … but I’m liking how this is coming together. I’ll leave it to Matt to show you the pages as this goes along, but if you backed the book, don’t worry … it’s in progress 😉

It’s actually been interesting to sort of find my way on this project, because with the past few Marvel things (Dr Strange, Ultimate Universe) and even the latest MALICENT BLACK book, I was doing a LOT of the drawing with color in mind, either knowing how I was going work the page when I got to that stage or trying to set up my collaborators with some opportunities to cut loose…

But you know, I really, really like to spot blacks. Not only that, I feel like it’s one of my strengths. I just like my stuff better when I’ve really done the work on the light and shadow. So with NIGHT MOVERS being a black and white book, I feel like maybe it took me a few pages to get my head where I needed it to be … but now I’m happily throwing shadows all over the place! Hopefully everyone will be into it…

And check out what I bought last week … believe it or not, this is brand new to me!

I’ve been on a major Barry Windsor-Smith kick lately (thanks in large part to the GREAT Fantagraphics book that just came out) so I can’t wait to get into this. It’s killing me that I’ve only briefly flipped through it so far…

Sometimes you don’t have time to read comics because you’re too busy drawing ’em!

And lastly, my variant cover for GEIGER #23 is out now. It was a blast, and people seem to like it, so hey, that’s nice. I’d like to do more covers. While interior pages are always going to be my favorite thing, covers can just be a really fun change of pace.

Did I share the inks for this yet..?

Okay, I think that’s all I’ve got time for this week … I’ll probably try to drop the next newsletter right after Heroes. I’m really looking forward to this con … it’s the only one I’m officially booked for this year, and I had a great time last year. If you’re going to be there, stop by and say hi!

(No … I don’t know where my table is yet 🙂

Best,

LF

Heroes Con, social media, lots of art, and whatever else makes it in…

Well, here we are … April 2026.

Congratulations.

Anyway, today (I’m starting this on a Sunday afternoon) is supposed to be a day off. I haven’t had a day off in awhile, so I told myself “this is it. THIS is the weekend you’re taking off. You can do this…”

So yesterday turned into a day away from my desk, but I spent most of that time putting together bookcases, rearranging things in the living room, you know … stuff that hadn’t gotten done because I haven’t had the time. So today … TODAY is my day to be lazy…

Except that I have this newsletter due, of course. And if I don’t do this today, then I’ll have to take time I need to spend drawing NIGHT MOVERS to get it out there.

So let’s get to it. First off … thanks to everyone who signed up for this newsletter from our last MALICENT BLACK campaign! I’m glad you’re here 🙂

Next … is anybody going to Heroes Con in July? I’ll be there. I had a great time last year, and I’m happy to head back. It’s a wonderful con. And if anybody is interested, I am taking on some pre-show commissions. Just drop me a note if you’d like to see about getting on the list…

Beyond NIGHT MOVERS and Heroes … well, we shipped off the last big batch of MALICENT BLACK packages yesterday!* This is … no lie … a huge relief for me. I was in pretty good shape when we started the campaign, and was confident I’d get the book wrapped up and ready to go in the time frame we had…

And then I picked up an unexpected Marvel deadline.

And then we found out our deadline for DREAD THE HALLS was sooner than any of us expected.

And then I picked up another (pretty insane) Marvel deadline.

And then I caught a bug and ended up feeling miserable for a few weeks.

And then I started stressing about everything that I wasn’t getting finished as quickly as I needed to. I felt like I was not only going to blow a deadline (or two), but that I was going to blow ALL the deadlines. I was gonna blow OTHER PEOPLE’S deadlines, man, on projects I had nothing to do with! That’s how underwater I was.

Things piled up. It’s taken me quite awhile to get things back under some semblance of control.

(Honestly, I’m still not where I want to be with the things I have to do, but it’s definitely so much better than it was that I don’t feel I should complain…)

So the past few months have definitely taught me some things about time management. Things I should have learned sooner, I suppose, but I’m pretty thick-skulled. And let’s face it, when you’re a freelancer, you rarely get ‘ideal’ gigs. I’ve always been willing to jump in on a project, no matter how much sense it made. No matter how far behind schedule the book might be. I always figure I can help out, and I always think “hey, if I pull this off, it’ll lead to something else down the road, something with a better deadline, etc…”

Nah.

Stress. It leads to stress, people.

So with that in mind, hey, you know how I have a Facebook page? I have my boring old “me” page where I fight the urge every day to go nuts about … y’know, things … and then I have an ‘art’ page or whatever. I don’t know. If you’ve been here long, you would be right to assume I don’t really do much with that page mostly because of my disdain for social media. I can barely muster the energy to do much on my other accounts.

(I don’t care to argue with strangers online, I’m not great at self-promotion and god help me I would much rather make comics than ‘farm for engagement’ because holy shit does that sound pathetic. I hate so much that THAT is apparently part of being an artist today…)

Okay, where were we? That Facebook page. It’ll be active again, because my wife wants to run it. So hey, along with this website and the newsletter that comes with it (for FREE!), there will be a Facebook page that’s more active than … well, than any of the rest of my social media. Yay? The nice thing is, my wife is a nicer person than I am and will do a great job with it. Why does she want to do this? I don’t know. I think because I frustrate her. I’m pretty sure it’s tough being married to me, but I never ask because I don’t really want to hear the answer.

Uh, here’s this link:

https://www.facebook.com/100032091891895

Alright, so meanwhile, I’m working on not just NIGHT MOVERS, but the next issue of MALICENT BLACK … and one more thing. Something I can definitely not reveal yet, but it’s something I’m pretty excited about. Mighty Marc Deering will be inking me again for the first time in awhile, and we’re working with a writer that … well, you’ll see. It’s early, and there’s still a lot ahead of us…

Speaking of Marc, I’m sure this MIRACLEMAN piece is the most recent thing he inked over me … though he’s got a page on his desk right now that’s gonna be for the Heroes Con art auction, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with it…

*And the other thing I’m working on are the commissions that are due some of the backers of the last MALICENT BLACK campaign. Those are the only books that haven’t gone out … but I’m working on the commissions, trying to make them worth it for everyone. Each backer picked characters that I’m really excited to draw, and I’m trying to work up some clever things for each piece. Some of these characters I’ve never drawn before and I’m excited to take a swing at … and then there’s one character I’ve drawn many times before, and will be drawing again. Soon. 🙂

I’m sure I’ll post those in a future newsletter, and hey, more likely than not, my wife will share them on Facebook, too. I wonder if I can get her to take over my personal Facebook page…

Hey, speaking of being bad at social media and promotion, I should mention that this Geiger cover I did (colored by the amazing Brad Anderson) will be out next month. It’s a variant for #23, I think:

I’m pretty excited to have that cover out there. I had originally wanted to do something with the Geiger logo, using it across the middle of the image with some kind of x-ray treatment, but I couldn’t quite nail that part of it down in a way that was able to earn the much-needed thumbs up … so in the end, we had to ditch that notion. Here’s the rough version of what I wanted to do, for anyone interested:

I also want to plug DREAD THE HALL H while I have your attention … it’s by many of the usual creators who work on DREAD THE HALLS each year, rounded up by Jordan Hart and my pal Chris Ryall. I haven’t seen any of this, but I’m sure it’s gonna be a ton of fun, just like last year, and I’m looking forward to reading it:

https://www.comicsbeat.com/exclusive-preview-dread-the-hall-h-is-back-with-a-new-2026-installment/

I also got this in the mail today (I’m still working on this newsletter, but now it’s Monday afternoon) … somebody posted a Batman page online the other day, and while I recognized the great Kevin Nowlan’s finishes immediately, I had no idea what the art was actually from! So I asked Kevin about it, and he was kind enough to send me a copy:

What else? Well, I’ve been reading a lot lately. A few of the things I’m currently reading or have recently finished…

Sure is GREAT that V for Vendetta is so relevant today, eh? Ya gotta love it.

Okay, that’s it for this time around … thanks for reading!

Best,

LF

MALICENT BLACK, OAX, a NEW PROJECT and ART FOR SALE

Hey everyone!

How’s it going..? Uh … yeah, I know…

Well, rather than me going off on a tangent about everything let’s just play a bit of catch up…

First, MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE is at the printer! Here are the hard proofs we’ve been looking over:

More so than the first book, Mundicide really sets up a lot of things for the future. We can’t talk about what those things are yet, but once you guys get the chance to read this issue (and the backup story) I think you’ll start to understand why Drew and I are so excited about the third Malicent Black book, which we’re planning to launch later this year…

In the meantime, I’m working on a project with Matt Garvey, and that project is live on Kickstarter right now!

NIGHT MOVERS

A Psychological Thriller About Love, Obsession, and How Far You’d Go to Find the Person You Love

How far would you go to find the person you love?

Night Movers is a psychological thriller set in modern-day Japan, where a young English woman living abroad wakes up one morning to discover that her boyfriend has vanished.

Not just missing…Erased.

No note.
No struggle.
No explanation.
An apartment stripped bare, like he was never there at all.

A woman alone in a foreign country, chasing the last trace of the man she loves.

What begins as a search for answers becomes a one-way fall.

This isn’t a loud, explosive thriller. It’s a quiet spiral into obsession that drags Stacy into the shadowed backstreets of the city, forcing her to become someone she never thought she’d be. Urban legends blur with reality. Hidden subcultures operate in plain sight. Neon streets give way to alleys no one talks about. Every door she opens leads somewhere darker.

This is a story about crossing invisible lines.

About love turning into fixation.
About grief mutating into resolve.
And about what happens when you chase the truth far enough that it starts chasing you back.

A slow-burn journey into Japan’s unseen underbelly, where hope becomes a liability, trust is a currency, and some discoveries change you forever.

By the end, you won’t just question what happened to him.
You’ll question every choice she made to find him.

From the creator of multiple award-winning indie comics, Night Movers is a complete 72-page, one-and-done graphic novel, told in stark black and white, designed to be read in one sitting.

No sequels required.
No cliffhangers. 
Just a gut punch ending you won’t see coming, one that will leave you thinking about what you just read for days afterwards.

Stacy has built a life in Japan. She has friends. She has routines. Most importantly, she has Aoto. Then one morning, he’s gone. Not just missing. Gone. Refusing to accept the easy answers, Stacy begins searching on her own, pushing deeper into unfamiliar parts of the city, chasing leads that may or may not exist. And the further she goes, the more everything starts to blur.

Night Movers is a psychological thriller about love turning into obsession, grief warping perception, isolation in a foreign country, and the quiet horror of not knowing what’s real anymore. It pulls on the heartstrings… then leaves you with a gut punch that will stay with you long after you finish the final page.

If you love the creeping dread of Gideon Falls, the self-destructive obsession of Kill or Be Killed, the noir fatalism of Fatale, the claustrophobic paranoia of The Nice House on the Lake, or the bleak psychological horror of A Walk Through Hell and films like Gone Girl, Prisoners, Black Swan, orOldboy, then Night Movers was made for you.

This is not a superhero book.
It’s not a quippy caper.

It’s a psychological thriller about ordinary people making extraordinary decisions under emotional pressure.

We’d love your support on this, so if you’d like to back our campaign, here’s the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattgarvey/night-movers

My wife and I also had the chance to go to the Original Art Expo a couple of weeks ago, and I gotta say … it was a great time. I wasn’t setting up, I mostly went to see some amazing art and finally meet Chris Ryall in person. We’ve known each other professionally for close to 20 years, as Chris was the head honcho at IDW when I worked on some GI Joe stuff, as well as Dungeons and Dragons, and then we’ve worked together even more recently on the Dread the Halls books. We also have plans to do more together, but it’s not time to talk about that yet…

Anyway, Chris has a great write up about OAX and the Kirby Awards here, and his newsletter is, as always worth the read:

https://open.substack.com/pub/chrisryall/p/tales-of-syzpense-102?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Not only did I have a great time hanging with Chris, soaking in the art and seeing some pals that I don’t get to see nearly often enough, I also got the chance to chat with Kevin Nowlan again (yeah, the same Kevin Nowlan I gushed about in my Heroes Con newsletter last year – he’s STILL far too kind and far too humble), I met Phil Hester in person for the first time, watched Stephane Roux do his thing with no small amount of awe, and I also finally met Walter and Louise Simonson. Not only are they both incredibly kind, but Walt … he’s a force of nature! The man was meeting fans and blasting out signatures and sketches at a pace that was honestly awe inspiring. And speaking of sketches, I made one purchase over the weekend…

I’m pretty sure the first time I ever came across the best villain in the DCU was also the first time I came across Walt Simonson’s work. Yeah, you know the book:

I have several copies of this thing around my house, because … well hell, why not? It’s one of my absolute favorite superhero comics ever. And it’s definitely where I became a Walt Simonson fan. So yeah, when it came time to get a sketch from Mr Simonson, Darkseid seemed like the perfect fit…

Okay, that catches things up (a bit, at least.) One last thing … I’m going to be (finally) putting a proper store on the website. I keep meaning to get it ready, but … deadlines, you know? However … seeing as how I’ve had this site going for ten months now, I thought maybe I’d do a sale. There’s a lot of original art (from Chamber, Black Canary’s Wedding Planner, Dungeons and Dragons, etc), as well as a bunch of Artist’s Proof prints for the pages I’ve done digitally (like Blade, Predator vs Black Panther, Giant Size X-Men, etc) that need a home. My office is kinda getting crowded, so maybe I can sell some art and make a bit of room…

So hey, til the end of March, everything on the website is 15% off, yeah? Just email me with the page(s) you want, I’ll let you know how to pay for it, and then I can get it sent your way. How’s that sound..? Just make sure to mention you saw the sale in my newsletter, and we’ll take care of it.

Alright, I gotta go get back to work. Please don’t forget to check out our Kickstarter 🙂

Best,

LF

This One’s About Sal

As a really little kid, my comicbook reading was a bit haphazard … I lived with my grandparents most of those early years, and both of my uncles would have comics lying around the house. Thus, I don’t really remember ‘buying’ comics when I was little (or having them bought for me, I guess) … comics were just always around! Mostly Spider-man stuff, with some Hulks thrown in for good measure…

Anyway, the first Sal Buscema-drawn comic I remember coming across was PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #19…

And just barely! Looking back, it appears THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #181 came out that very same month, and checking the publication dates, THE INCREDIBLE HULK #225, which is the first Hulk comic I remember ever reading was apparently already out and heck, may have even been in our house, waiting for me to find it…

I was really young and dumb, and these comics just appeared around our home. I had no idea how you got a comicbook. Maybe Stan Lee came in the night, dropping off issues of MARVEL TALES to the good little boys and girls? That would explain why I didn’t wake up to find comics of my own…

But I own all three of these, now. Coverless, beat to pieces, re-read a million times. They may have belonged to one of my uncles, but they stayed with me.

And yeah, this issue of Spidey really stuck with me … I still smile when I go back and look at it. Sure, Sal’s later Spidey stuff was spectacular (sorry), but I loved even his first go round with the web-head…

So over the years, as I fell further and further into the brain-rotting world of comicbooks, Sal was everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Not only was he a staple on THE INCREDIBLE HULK…

But he was prolific enough that he might appear anywhere else along with his regular duties on ol’ greenskin.

Oh, hey … weird fact. I LOVE the U-Foes. Because of these comics.

So yeah … Sal was there from the beginning. When I fell in love with comics, he was at ground zero.

It was pretty wild then, years and years later, when Chris Ryall asked if I would be interested in penciling a DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS series…

With Sal Buscema inking.

I mean, OF COURSE I said yes! I have NO IDEA why Chris thought of me for this one … I’d done some IDW stuff before, like the SNAKE EYES miniseries that came out around the first GI JOE movie, but really … there had to be plenty of guys interested in drawing D&D, and especially if it meant they’d get to work with Sal, right? So I don’t know how I ended up with the book, but I do know Chris was maybe just as excited as I was to have Sal on the project…

(And yes, Chris has turned me onto ROM. I missed it when it originally came out, but I’ve been reading the collected editions recently…)

Not long after, I got the script and set to work…

Doing my best (which wasn’t good enough), trying to make D&D fans happy and show Chris that he made the right call. I was pretty excited to see what the inks were going to look like…

And then a few weeks later, I got an email from Chris. He passed along a phone number and told me that Sal wanted me to call him.

My heart sank. Was I about to get ripped a new one by one of my heroes..? I was pretty sure I was. I hadn’t done a ton of stuff yet, but I’d been in comics long enough to know that sometimes you’re better off dealing with people via email … or not at all. It seemed like people usually got on the phone for the bad news.

And let’s face it. I was working hard, but I knew damn well Sal could pencil AND ink this thing on his own and it’d look 100% better. Maybe he was just gonna make sure I was aware of that fact.

“Kid, you suck, and even I can’t save this sorry excuse for a comic!”

But I called him, prepared for the worst.

And now, when I look back on the books I’ve worked on, the places we’ve gotten to visit, the people I’ve met in this crazy business … those phone calls with Sal are one of the very BEST things about my time in comics. Because that first call was just that … the first one. We’d end up talking pretty regularly throughout our time on D&D. He’d give me a call, ostensibly to talk over the newest pages I’d sent him, but really … our calls went all over the place. From art to Marvel in the 70’s and 80’s to bowling to never retiring because why stop doing something you love just to sit around..?

Oh, and the reason he’d asked me to call him that first time? I was using some crappy paper that wouldn’t take his quill very well. He was having a rough time with it, and asked if I could switch to another brand of paper. I’d only really been penciling up to that point, so I had no idea I’d drawn that first batch of D&D pages on something half a step up from toilet paper and then sent it to a legend.

Anyway … since he had a ton of other responsibilities, Chris wasn’t able to stay on D&D for long and had to pass the editorial reigns along to somebody else. Then soon after that, it apparently became a thing where I could no longer just FedEx pages to Sal for him to ink … he had to get set up with a printer so he could take the scans and print those out to ink the final couple of issues over blue lines. He didn’t really want to do that, and at one point told me he was going to just go ahead and leave the book … but I managed to talk him out of that in one of our marathon phone calls. I hated the thought of Sal feeling pushed off a project over shipping costs. Eventually, one of his sons helped him get set up. It worked out alright in the end … and it meant we had reason to keep giving each other a call. And anybody who knows me is probably laughing right now, because they know how much I hate to get on the phone for any reason!

But all I can say in my defense is … this was Sal Buscema 🙂

On one of those calls, I remember being really frustrated with something in the script … not that there was anything wrong with the script per se, just that I wasn’t figuring out how to set up the page or scene properly. How to tell the story. Sal told me to stop being so hard on myself, and to trust my gut. He said that I was really good at this, and that I needed to have more faith in myself. Now … I don’t even remember what part of the story I was struggling with at that time, but I remember Sal saying THAT. When Sal Buscema tells you that you belong … well, you gotta believe the man, right?

Eventually, we wrapped up the D&D thing. We talked a few times after that, but I tried not to bother him with too many random phone calls. I mean, between his other projects, his family, the bowling, the dozens of other things he filled his time with, the last thing I wanted to do was pester the guy. I’d drop him emails on his birthday or when I came across something I thought he’d get a kick out of, and then about, I dunno, eight or ten years ago or so, he agreed to ink me on the covers for a series I was going to be doing. I was pretty excited to reunite with him, but then it turned out … while I was drawing the interiors, I wasn’t going to be doing the covers…

Ah, comics.

Anyway … last spring, I think I shared this thing:

It’s a beast of a book, collecting all of the Spider-man stuff Sal did with JM DeMatteis, one of my favorite writers. Another creator I’d love to work with someday. It’s a great book, and in my opinion, it’s the best work of Sal’s career…

Think about that for a minute. This collects the run from 1991 through 1994. Sal was in his late fifties when he was doing this. He’d already drawn a million comics. He could have been coasting.

But he was doing the best work of his life instead.

That’s inspiring, right? I think so.

So when the news came that Sal had passed just a few days short of his 90th, like everyone else … I was sad. Hell, I was heartbroken. Whether we had talked recently or not, I hate the thought of a world without Sal.

But as I went and started reading through some of his work that evening, I found myself smiling. That’s the thing, I guess. Whether it was through those phone calls or all the work he left us, I think about Sal … and I smile.

Best,

LF

From my coal black heart…

Well, here we are…

The end of another year. This is my last newsletter of 2025, and I thought I’d send it out early since things only get busier for everyone as we close in on the New Year…

I don’t know how this year has been for you, but for me … well, I dunno. There’s been some good, been some bad. I’m not exactly sad to see 2025 go, but I’m also not really filled with a lot of hope for 2026, so … eh? It’s not the best time to be navigating the world as an artist who tries to be about the right things. The scrooges of the world seem to have the upper hand … even more so than usual, I mean.

BUT. Ya gotta keep going, right? One foot in front of the other and all that.

Anyway, I do want to thank everyone for the kind words on this year’s DREAD THE HALLS one shot. Chris and I figured out what our story was going to be about back in June, and while we were excited to tell this tale, I had no idea how it might land with others. I’m glad it seems to have hit the way we’d hoped. I imagine you can still find copies around, so if you haven’t gotten your hands on one yet…

And finally … I wrapped up the colors for MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE this morning. The book … well, it took awhile. MALICENT BLACK is a labor of love. So far, on each campaign we’ve basically made enough to cover the cost of printing, shipping, and lettering these, so Drew and I have to make the books around our ‘day jobs.’ It’s not always ideal … sometimes, you just want to curl up with a book, or watch something with your wife, or hell, sometimes you just want to be lazy, alright?

But Malicent is a living, breathing person at this point. If we don’t tell her stories, who will?

Anyway, I hope your holidays are great, and I truly hope that the new year is a good one. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support … see you soon;)

-LF

2025 is heading for the door…

Seriously, how can this year be almost over already?

Anyway … I hope everyone picked up a copy of DREAD THE HALLS last week! Christmas and horror is a combo that I just love, so working on these giant one shots has been a blast. Not only that, but the books are FILLED with a ton of great stuff from a bunch of creators I admire! If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you might still be able to find ’em at your local comic shop…

Meanwhile, I’m finishing up the colors for MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE, as well as working on the stickers, trading cards and digital artbook rewards, while also digging into a project that I can’t talk about yet … and I’m also honestly trying to keep my schedule a bit more under control for a little while here. Things REALLY got away from me over the past few months … I had way too many things to work on, while also trying to run a Kickstarter campaign, and (haha) have a life. I failed at the life part pretty miserably, I gotta admit.

You can learn to draw, you can learn to write … but it’s REALLY important to learn how to manage your time and HOW TO SAY NO. It’s so tough, as a freelancer, turning down work … but man, I’m telling ya. You gotta understand when you simply have too much work on your plate. No matter how fast you might be, there are limits…

Let’s see, I promised a peek at some more Malicent Black art this time, didn’t I? Hmmmm … the thing is, I don’t want to show much more. I want people to hold the book, to read it, to experience it..! But a promise is a promise, I guess…

Here are the flats for page 12 … if you know me, you know things could change quite a bit as I get into the rendering, but at the moment … at THIS VERY MOMENT … here’s what this particular page looks like 🙂

Yeah, Mal vomited up an inky looking little beastie which then went and jumped into a flame geyser. It’s really not that weird, considering all the other things that happen in these books.

Okay, I gotta get back to it. I’m still working my way through KING SORROW (wow does this book go places I did not expect and I love it) and I’m also stacking up quite a few Junji Ito books here (because my office needs more piles of books) and … uh, yeah, that’s about it. I mean, I might be trying to have a little bit better work/life balance, but I still have a lot to do =)

Best,

LF

Back into the swing of things…

Well, here we are … a couple of weeks since wrapping up another successful Kickstarter campaign for MALICENT BLACK. Drew and I are well into the planning for the next book, and I’m also into drawing a new project that I can’t really talk about yet, as well as writing a new thing that’ll probably be a surprise for some people once it gets to a point where I can talk about it and show it off a bit…

Also putting the finishing touches on MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE, of course…

But really, after having spent last week away from my desk, exploring the keys with my amazing wife while we celebrated our anniversary, it’s just kind of nice to ease my way back into a normal routine.

So aside from a lot of work that I can’t share right now, what else is going on..?

Well, I read GYO by Junji Ito over the weekend, and now it’s my mission to read everything else by the man. I loved it. The pacing, the storytelling. If you’ve read any of these newsletters, you know I’m a sucker for horror, so … yeah. Much more Junji Ito ahead for me.

Still working my way through KING SORROW by Joe Hill. Joe is a favorite, and this book has been great. It’s been slow progress for me, simply because I didn’t read a thing while we were on our trip (I had expected to read quite a bit, honestly), but I don’t mind … I have a feeling I’ll be sad when this one is over.

What else? I’m looking forward to this year’s DREAD THE HALLS one shot, of course. It comes out on December 3rd (so soon!) and if you’re interested in a preview of the story I did with Chris Ryall, Daily Dead has you covered:

https://dailydead.com/

I think that’s all for this week … I’ll bring some peeks at art for MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE next time 😉

Best,
LF