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;)
Hey, nice to have you back. Hope everyone had a great time at NYCC … I kinda felt like Robert Nevelle here, holding down the fort while almost everyone else…
Disappeared off the face of the Earth.
Anyway, in case I haven’t mentioned it, we have a Kickstarter going! I’ve probably mentioned that. The second issue of MALICENT BLACK, officially called MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE is off to a great start. One week in and we’re at 80%!
Considering that NYCC took up so much bandwidth on our first weekend, I couldn’t be happier. And to be fair, we knew this first weekend would be a tough one in terms of getting eyeballs, but our other option, with the holidays approaching and other things planned, was to wait until January to launch. We didn’t want to do that because first of all, Drew and I are dying to get this book out there … and second, hey, who knows what things will be like by the time January rolls around?
Here’s the link to our campaign … if you’ve backed it, we thank you. It means a TON to us. If you can’t back it, hey, we understand. All we ask is, if you could, please share this link around. This sort of book only happens when people spread the word and support it, and we need your help for that:
Now would be a GREAT time to check out our campaign, since Drew’s update just went live…
We’re also joined by my pal Matty Ryan this time … Matty and I have known each other for a long time. I honestly can’t remember how we initially met … maybe on the Event Comics Boards back in the day? That might be it. Pretty sure Matty reminded me at HeroesCon and here I am, forgetting again. (My brain is fried, back off.) I do know we actually met in person on my first and only trip (so far) to New York City, when he took me to a great little Irish pub for lunch on one of the days I was spending at the old Marvel Bullpen, meeting editors and working on my craft. Since then, Matty has lettered and designed FREAK at Image Comics (where he coached me through so many production obstacles – I had decided I was writing, drawing and coloring a book on my own and had QUITE the learning curve in front of me 🙂 as well as THE MANY ADVENTURES OF MIRANDA MERCURY, so it’s been very cool to get to work with him again.
And speaking of Matty, how about a peek at the first lettered page of MALICENT BLACK: MUNDICIDE..?
I think Matty is going to beat me to the finish line, here … I’m still coloring this issue of Malicent, along with this year’s DREAD THE HALLS story with Chris Ryall. It’s been a pretty, uh, intense few weeks around here. I have a week off planned for November, and I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to that week 😉
I DID finish off the pages I had as part of the ULTIMATE UNIVERSE: TWO YEARS IN #1 story I worked on … did I show anything from that, yet? I don’t think so. Here, a tiny peek … don’t tell Marvel.
Okay, I think I also mentioned getting back to sharing some of the art I’m lucky enough to hang in my studio awhile back … how about this one?
Yeah, that’s obviously by the amazing Amanda Conner (inked by the also amazing Jimmy Palmiotti) on the Power Girl story they did for JSA Classified back in the day. This was another gift, and I love this page. Amanda’s characters never seem like drawings … they’re just people, you know? And I mean that in the very best way.
I’m afraid I don’t have any new books to share with you this time … I’m trying to work my way through THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT and it’s been great, but man, most nights I am too tired to make much progress. Maybe I’ll finish it up in that week off in November 😉
Thanks again for your time, and if you haven’t yet, please take a look at our Kickstarter campaign!
Here we are again … glad to have you back! I know I say this a lot … but thanks for reading these. There are weeks where I’m really excited to get started on the newsletter, and other weeks where I’m busy, run down, or simply unmotivated … but I’m always happy I put one of these things together in the end.
First … hey, now that the story from DR STRANGE #450 has been out for a bit, I’ve added the black and white art to the gallery here on the site. And if you want to check out the unlettered pages with Carlos Lopez’s fantastic colors … here you go!
Meanwhile, I’m getting into the colors for the next issue of MALICENT BLACK. I’m not showing anything quite yet, but in future newsletters? Sure 🙂 I’ll also be able to share a bit of news on a couple of variant covers we’ll have on this one. Right now the campaign is planned to start at the beginning of October and end on my favorite day … Halloween. It’s a bit later than I had hoped for, but sometimes life gets in the way, and my insistence on having the colors almost finished before hitting that launch button … well, here we are. It’s important to me to have the book ready to go to the printer as soon as we receive those funds from Kickstarter. We’ll keep you posted and share that prelaunch page soon.
At the moment, aside from the colors for the next MALICENT BLACK, I’m laying out the short story I’m doing with Chris Ryall for this year’s DREAD THE HALLS special, doing a bit of writing on something brand new, and thinking a lot about the stories I want to tell over the next few years. Long story short, I did a podcast last week (it’s not out yet but I’ll warn you when it’s time 😉 and the podcaster noted what a wide variety of projects I’ve worked on. And I don’t tend to think back on what I’ve done too much … I generally think ahead, to what’s next.
But…
Yeah.
I mean, I have done a really wide variety of stuff. And I guess in some ways that’s kinda cool? I dunno. I always – always – try to find my way into a character or book. I always want to find something, some connective tissue, that I can work with. I try to make even the most commercial stuff have a bit of a personal hook if I possibly can. So it feels less like mercenary work. It doesn’t always work out.
But there’s also the fact that … man, drawing comics is how I pay the bills. So while I might have some stories that grab me more than others, the fact is I’ve done a lot of comics and looking back … some of them, I’d probably turn down if I could do it all again. Okay, scratch that. There are a few that I’d definitely turn down if given a do-over.
I’m only going to get to draw a certain number of pages in this life. I can only tell a finite amount of stories in the time I’m given. If we don’t manage to burn this planet down too soon (I remain skeptical) then the stories you tell will outlive you. That’s one of the cool and sad things about telling stories. So your choices matter. The stories you CHOOSE to tell … matter.
I guess all of this is just a way to say I think I’m getting pickier and pickier about what I do as the time goes by. It’s a big part of why MALICENT BLACK is so important to me. This series, despite all of the monsters and ghosts and spaceships, is about the things that matter to me. And I think the world is a better place when creative people find ways to tell the stories they care about, rather than just cashing the checks for remixing the same stuff we’ve seen a million times. It’s also another in a long list of reasons why AI sucks and will never replace art, but hey … you’re reading this, you know that too.
Anyway … before I go, I’ll drop one last thing here. It’s the process for page one of the DR STRANGE story above. I’m happy with how it came together, but it didn’t start with the same shot … panel one was a different view:
I really liked the idea of starting with that shot you can see in the thumbnail, and again in the pencils … this story is about the origin of Doc Strange’s cloak, so I thought having it be the focus of the very first shot, before the reader even knew what this story was about, was kinda sneaky. I like doing things like that.
But I also knew that with this being the first shot of Doc Strange in this story, there was the chance my editor would want a cleaner shot of the guy whose name is on the front of the book. So I went ahead and laid it out with the cloak dominating the first panel, but prepared to go to Plan B if I needed to…
And as you know by looking at the final art, I needed to 🙂 And I totally get it. Heck, not only is this the first shot of Dr Strange in this story, this is the first story in the book, so it’s the first time the reader lays eyes on Strange in this, his big anniversary issue. So I penciled a new shot of Strange on a different sheet of paper, scanned and digitally dropped it into the page for the inks. The one complaint I have is that I think the first pass had better depth … it felt like Dr Strange was going someplace, while the new version feels more like he’s arriving at his destination. It’s a small thing, and probably only bothers me, but I’d adjust that background now if I could.
Anyway, I tend to not save the various scraps of paper or layers that go unused in the course of making a comic, but since I actually have this one, I thought I’d share 😉
Alright, that’s it for this week. Be nice to each other.
(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:
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 =)
LeeFerguson.Art 