Whether you like New Years and New Year’s resolutions or hate them, nobody wants to start out a new year this way — plagued with injury and illness (with a lovely side of democracy crumbling around you but we’re gonna stay away from all of that today because I know you’re getting that — as I am — on all sides and it’s fucking inescapable and exhausting and so fucking debilitating and — AHEM) — WHAT WAS I SAYING?
Yeah. Anyway, the way I have had to start this year is not the way anyone wants to start a new year and I appreciate the hell out of you guys sticking with me despite it all.
The good news (or bad news if you hate long newsletters) is I’ve got a lot of things to talk about and link to and show off. Because I’m running exceptionally behind in this damnable year some of it you guys will already know about (new Jeff book!) but there will be a few surprises in here I hope!
I have been sitting on about a dozen orders since the end of the year due to injury or illness, but they all FINALLY went out today. If you’d like to have your tracking number, please check your Paypal as that’s where it gets added. If you can’t find it, just shoot me an email.
Because we’ve successfully finished all shipping, I feel more comfortable with giving you all a new code for the store (but Paid Backers should check the very bottom of this post for an even deeper discount code).
Enter: RIVALJEFF at checkout for 10% off your order. Please only one code per order, one use per code. Thanks!
I’ve also updated the store so we’re current — including last week’s ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #5 and THIS WEEK’S BIRDS OF PREY #19. That said, you may want to wait to use that code, as I’ve got a few very cool very rare Stanley “Artgerm” Lau ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1 FanExpo Variants. They’re all first printings (of issue #1) and are quite lovely, especially the foil and arm spot color versions IMO.
I’ll put them up at the end of the week — I’m still trying to figure out how to price them. I obviously always want to give you guys the best deal, but I don’t want to price low enough that people who want to flip them on Ebay grab them first. Probably the non-foil ones will be a fairly reasonable price and the foils and spot color, which I have fewer of and which are much more rare, will go for ridiculous prices. But just wanted to give you a heads up!
I did a bunch of interviews (mostly about Absolute Wonder Woman and Jeff) and some people also wrote some very nice things about things I’m involved with (again, mostly Absolute Wonder Woman and Jeff)... and I’ve put as many of those links as I could manage down here — but I have been meaning to do a fun “links post” for many months… which means there’s a lot gathered over a couple months… so it’s all quite narcissicistic up in here, and if you need to tap out, I’ll understand. lol. But to all of you reading, thank you so much for the support, you’ve all been really incredible, I couldn’t have done any of this without you guys.
BLACK CLOAK and THE CULL both made this awesome CBR list of Best Indie Books Since 2020. Lots of good other stuff there to check out too!
Screenrant ran a completely charming piece about the Blade Runner vibes of BLACK CLOAK. If you like sci-fi and fantasy and detectives and haven’t tried BLACK CLOAK yet, please give it a try! We want to do more and there are two really fun arcs out so far.
Screenrant ALSO ran a lovely piece talking about some of my other comics to check out if you’re enjoying ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN. Thank you, Screenrant, who knew we could be such friends?
A lovely write up about BIRDS OF PREY VOL 1: MEGADEATH at DC.com
Collector’s Paradise loves AWW <3
Lots of lovely people do:
What’s “news” and what’s “announcements”… uh, I dunno? But we got a lot to get through and we need colorful banners to break things up, so here we are:
My bff Matthew Rosenberg has a supercool new book coming out with fantastic artist Stefano Landini. It’s called WE’RE TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH US and it’s what you’d expect from these two master talents — which is the unexpected. I never know where Matt’s going to go but I’m always pleased and Landini’s work is just so cool and stylish and totally effortless in its world building. Covers below are all open order, the main cover by Landini is terrific, but I’d be remiss to not mention the terrific Mattia De Iulis variant and Tula Lotay Variants. That Chip Zdarsky guy also has a pretty cool incentive variant too.
Anyway, I really do love this one. Oh! There’s a super fun trailer up for it on youtube —
You can learn more about the book on Matt’s excellent substack below and FOC is MONDAY (3/3/24) so please tell your shops you need it.
Another good friend, Tyler Boss, also has a terrificly cool new horror book coming out at the end of the month with artist Adriano Turtulici — YOU’LL DO BAD THINGS. This is, I think, my first look at Turulici’s work, and I am blown away. It’s incredibly stylish and cool stuff — Image describes the art as “drenched in pulpy Giallo film-inspired neon gore” and that is… right on the money. The line work is beautiful and innovative and the color is… well, it’s just SO my kind of thing. This (as well as WE’RE TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH US) is lettered by the insanely talented Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, who lettered THE CULL, among tons of other fantastic things. You can read a preview at Image. And if you like to read advance reviews, there’s a good one here. I’m really excited about this one, I think everyone should be. The FOC is MONDAY 3/3/25:
ALSO with an FOC of MONDAY (3/3/25) is ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1 and when I tell you how freaking good this book is… my god you guys. This is some generation great work with a character in my opinion — Deniz Camp writing, Javier Rodriguez on art, and Hassan Otsmane Elhaou on letters (Yes again! He’s on all the best books!) This is the kind of book that makes me look at ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN — a book I am WILDLY proud of — and go… “hmmm. but what if we could do MORE?”
It’s a totally ground-breaking book in my mind. It’s definitely a bit odd (can you do ground-breaking without being a bit odd? I’m not sure you can) but I hope you guys give it a try and strap in for what I think is going to be a singular experience of a book.
There’s a preview of the book here. And a selection of some of my favorite covers (Swoon! A David Aja!) — though there are A LOT so consider clicking through to check them all out:
While we’re talking Deniz Camp, we’re past the FOC, but it’s still worth bringing your attention to his new Image book ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS, the first issue is out March 12th and it looks very interesting. And while I’m not familiar with artist Eric Zawadzki’s work, this is Deniz Camp, Jordie Bellaire, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou rounding out the rest of the team and that’s… an incredible team. Plus what I’ve seen of Zawadzki’s work is super cool thus far. The book has a cool site full of information and a short Image trailer. Good stuff!
Yeah, you read that right, Jeff has his own damn header now. I think when you create this many things to link to… there’s no way to deny you’ve earned your own header.
So the big Jeff news since I’ve posted last is that his popularity via Marvel Rivals have netted us a few things — first an all-new Mini-Series by yours truly, and secondly, reprints of some of his previous issues, to help meet demand of all the people looking for Jeff stories and merch.
So first, the mini-series! Unfortunately, for the quick turnaround to meet demand on this one, Gurihiru aren’t able to draw it, but they are doing covers for the series and the series is artist is the incredibly talented Tokitokoro. And if you’re not sure if they draw a Jeff you like, just look at this sketch of my short king:
And if that doesn’t convince you, here are the two initial covers for issue #1 — the first by Gurihiru, and the second by Tokitokoro. Both super fun:
I’m sure we’re going to end up with a boatload of covers — I see already a Nao Fuji and Todd Nauck listed as well as a foil variant. You can read more about what the series will be about at Marvel’s site. I’m not sure what the final name of the book will be — we’re still deciding, but I think it will probably NOT just be called “Jeff The Landshark” — so expect these covers to change at least a little bit.
In addition to the all-new mini-series, Marvel reprinted both IT’S JEFF #1 (fourth printing) collecting all of IT’S JEFF Season 1 and IT’S JEFF: THE JEFF-VERSE #1 (second printing) collecting all of IT’S JEFF Season 2. These both released on 2/12/25 — but even if you missed it, it still might be easier to find these books since there are fresh printings out there. I have not received any comps (yet?) for these, but I hope I will, I’ll update the store if/when possible (though I do have a few Jeff related items in the shop right now — fair warning they’re all exhorbitantly priced).
We ALSO got the announcement of Jeff’s third print volume — which collects Season 3 of IT’S JEFF, plus the short “Jeff Week” webstrips done by Gustavo Duarte last year. FOC on this one is 4/7/25 and it releases May 7th, the cover by Gurihiru is below:
That does it for Jeff Announcements I think, but there are still lots more articles to get through! And, FINALLY, some official merch. A lot of folks have missed out on the limited edition plushes that have released (there have been two variations of that one I linked above). But the below is also super fun and is still available for pre-order at Big Bad Toy Store:
Here’s an article that is mostly a joke I made about video games that I hope is not going to get me in trouble with unreasonable people, over at Polygon. -_-
Jeff got a little write up thanks to Marvel Rivals popularity and my boy’s shocking geek world domination.
CBR did an awesome “Jeff The Landshark” Guide that basically takes you through most of what he’s done/been up to in comics.
Some people, including at least one person at Screenrant, wants Jeff to be in a movie or TV show.
And this guy… who actually makes those movies and TV shows, agrees. Pretty fun:
Okay. I’ve got some sneak peeks here for both BIRDS OF PREY #19, out THIS WEEK — closing out a short two-part arc with artist Juann Cabal, which has been super fun and next month’s ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #6 — the beginning of a two-part arc drawn by Mattia De Iulis. But before I show off both of those, I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #5 moments from this past week, I tried to not use the most spoilery stuff, but worth scanning past quickly if you haven’t read the issue yet and are concerned with getting spoiled.
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #5. This was the end of our first arc, and I just love this close out issue, I don’t know if I love it MORE than issues #1 and #3, but it’s close and I’m hard pressed to think of a time when I felt that way about so many “pieces of the whole.” Feels nice.
Art by Hayden Sherman. Colors by Jordie Bellaire, and lettering by Becca Carey. Look at the colors in this first one! The fading purple hues of the city, the glow of the Sacrifice Lasso… just incredible stuff.
Okay, with that gloriousness out of the way… BIRDS OF PREY #19 — in good shops everywhere this week. Art by Juann Cabal. Colors by Adriano Lucas. Lettering by Clayton Cowles:
I know people are VERY attached to Hayden’s approach and general style in the first arc of ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN, I obviously am also incredibly into it. And Hayden will be back (they’re already drawing issue 8 as we speak!) In the meantime, Mattia De Iulis is going to take us on a wild adventure into hell and it is… gorgeous (and also terrible, as you would expect). Here are a couple peeks at what you’ll see inside issue #6 from Mattia’s art & colors — this is out at the end of THIS month:
Yeah, we’re all very lucky.
The Monarch (orange) and Clive Warren (grey) — who are brothers who have almost never been apart since birth — are very good cuddlers, the evidence:
Thanks for reading everyone. Hold fast.
<3 Kelly