Birds, Puffs, Joes, and Black Cloaks.
What a weird wonderful world we have built
Tell me you’ve seen a more gorgeous and expressive Dinah Lance in your life. Just try it! Mari too while we’re at it. Javi just draws the coolest most beautiful ladies. SWOON!
I also put these two on social media this past week because I sort of can’t contain my excitement over how beautiful and fun this issue is:
Look for this hotness the first week of July (BIRDS OF PREY #11). And then after that it’s Sophie Campbell — and when I say you are truly not prepared for that hilarious cuteness I am DEEPLY serious.
It’s also our FIRST TIME re-teaming on anything since JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS — collector’s item! (not really, but it should be!) ;D
Also, I can’t really help myself so I’m gonna just post a tiny little thing and hope that nobody gets mad at me — what’s the saying, better to ask forgiveness than permission? — I don’t usually agree with that sentiment but I did WANT to put something on here before (it might have been a naked Barda Butt but I will deny that under oath!) and they told me no/it got caught up in red tape long enough it became pointless… lesson learned! ;D
Some big news on SCARLETT this week as we’ve gone to a SECOND PRINTING for issue #1. Woo-hoo! Thanks for the support guys, it means so much. You can read more about the announcement here — below are the second printing covers that will be out in July.
Jason Howard Scarlett 2nd Printing Variant:
Jason Howard Storm Shadow 2nd Printing Variant:
Marco Ferrari Team 2nd Printing Variant:
Now that the fun cover stuff is out of the way, I want to address a rumor that’s going around about SCARLETT. The rumor is that I have made Scarlett and Jinx gay and in a relationship in the book and that just… is not reality.
These days I try not to get too in the weeds on whatever the social media comics discourse of the day is — but I feel I have to shut this one down hard because it’s simply not true, and I do not want people to feel rickrolled* when these two characters are NOT revealed to be romantic in the book.
I don’t want people getting their hopes up and feeling like they were baited into this— and it’s specifically why I wrote Scarlett referring to Jinx as “like a sister” in issue ONE. It’s to be clear about intention. We want to show an incredibly powerful female friendship here, but that doesn’t mean it’s romantic.
There have been a bunch of times over my career so far where I’ve argued for either creating an LGBT+ character or revealing a character is LGBT+ and it’s not worked as often as I’d like (it’s also one of the reasons why you will probably always find LGBT+ characters in my creator-owned books) but Scarlett is NOT a character I argued for being LGBT. It didn’t feel right to me for the character, the history, or the existing fanbase.
I’m sure that will annoy and disappoint some people on both sides of things — but what I’d really like it to do instead is reassure you that I never approach a change or update like that with a broad brush. I am a pretty careful writer in the scheme of things (often too careful). Not everything I do is going to please everyone or hit for everyone, but I am always trying to be cognizant of the material and respectful of both the characters and readers.
*If you disagree with my interpretation of the phrase “rickrolled” I direct you to when I wrote about it in a JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS Holiday Special I did like ten years ago with Amy Mebberson. Also, ten years? Time is such a little bitch.
Wow. I miss those girls. Working with Sophie again has me thinking of them more than usual. Also, did you know, prior to my CAPTAIN MARVEL run, JEM was my longest running series — 26 regular issues, two holiday specials, two oversized annuals, a MISFITS spin-off mini-series, AND a six-issue crossover event thing — wild! I wish I had truly appreciated how hard that is to do back then. I certainly do now!
MONDAY is FOC (Final Order Cutoff) at comic shops for POWERPUFF GIRLS #1. You can see all the incredible covers and learn more here. Fair warning, when you click the link, it feels like a truly overwhelming number of covers… but it’s actually only a handful of unique covers with variations in presentation — like clean dress or not, foil covers, metal covers (!) — so all very fun.
Also, remember that the solo Bubbles cover is part one of three connecting covers (see below) — so if you’re trying to get them all — don’t sleep on that one!
Here’s what the connecting covers by Karen Darboe look like — truly adorable. I believe they come in both regular and clean dress variations.
ALSO! I didn’t realize we had not one blank sketch cover option — but two! And I forsee some terrible Powerpuff Girls and Jeff The Landshark sketches in my (and YOUR) future! ;D
I feel like, because we moved BLACK CLOAK #7 from June to August, I haven’t been doing a great job at promoting the new arc. I have some great plans for the next two months (mostly just showing off how cool Meredith’s shit is) but today I just wanted to re-post the first three covers (#7, #8, #9) — and the cover for #9 in particular shows a new Black Cloak character — whose design is wild as hell. Meredith came to play people.
BLACK CLOAK #7 — in stores 8/21/24:
BLACK CLOAK #8 — in stores 9/18/24:
BLACK CLOAK #9 — in stores 10/16/24:
Y’know what, let’s also see a panel from issue 7. It’s just too beautiful not to share:
It’s hard to say that what Meredith is doing is even more impressive than what she did with Volume 1, because I am so deeply proud of that book. But there are even more layers here and the world feels even more lived in and real than last time. It’s tremendous work she’s doing.
As you guys know, I have been DOING THE PODCAST/INTERVIEW ROUNDS. LIKE. A LOT. Don’t feel obligated to read everything but here we go…
I was pretty nervous about going on this podcast as they are real GI Joe experts, I mean the cast is literally called TALKING JOE. Anyway, the guys were great, and I had a lovely time and I held my own (I think) as a non-expert fan:
Deanna at THE BEAT did this lovely POWERPUFF GIRLS focused interview with both me and artist for issue #1 Paulina Ganucheau!
AIPT got a double dose of the ol’ Thompson with a Creator Spotlight Interview
And also another POWERPUFF GIRLS interview with me and Paulina Ganucheu.
I did an interview/podcast thing with COMIC-WATCH about all sort of things — but most especially the POWERPUFFS.
Judy Stevens has a super fun new book releasing soon — COSPLAY THE MARVEL WAY — more info here!
Additionally, there’s a terrific looking Book Release Party if you’re in the Astoria area next weekend (6/29) — and Cosplay is encouraged! ;D
Okay. I have to get back to work as I’m VERY close to being caught up on scripts (SORTA) and my god, if that can happen I will truly collapse into a pile of happy goo.
Also on the agenda this weekend is finishing all the mailing. Thank you so much for the orders — it was a bit overwhelming with everything already on my plate — but I’m super grateful for the support — and since I was slow everyone gets extras! Everything I have left should go out Monday/Tuesday, but I will post here to confirm, and if you’re expecting something, please watch your Paypal/Emails for shipping confirmations.
Okay, I really do have to go (these always take so much longer than I anticipate — honestly a theme in my life — not one I enjoy). Everyone be good and try to stay cool. Drink more water! Did you just have some? Not enough, drink more!
~Kelly
So much good stuff!!!
Time does go by fast Kelly. On it with more water.