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

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