WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND
(wait... I'm doing this wrong)
Hey Guys
Sorry for the radio silence. Had some big script and pitch stuff I had to get out the door this week and it took all I had. I’m sure you’ve been there.
At the very bottom, there’s a paywall, and that will take you to our latest X-MEN WAR Round — it’s Round 5! Omg. Don’t think I forgot!
All right. Let’s get into this!
NEWS!
SNEAK PEEKS!
HOUSEKEEPING!
CATS!
X-MEN WAR ROUND 5 — FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS ONLY!
I’ve got a surprising amount of news!
First, this SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH Holiday Special one-shot got announced this week and Veronica Fish and I are re-teaming for a 12-page short. I’m very excited to be writing Sabrina again, if only in this small dose. It was especially a joy to partner with Veronica again. You can check out the cover by Veronica here:
Also looks like these two BIRDS OF PREY #3 variant covers by Chris Bachalo and Otto Schmidt are out there in the wild!
DC.COM did a really nice BOP interview with me for the launch of the book.
And POLYGON’S Susana Polo wrote a lovely piece about issue 1.
Sales, reviews, and buzz have all been really excellent for the series so far and I’m hoping we can build on that and get a really solid ongoing out of this. I’d love to be writing this book for a long time. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend it as it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done, work for hire or otherwise. <3
And I could use a little help here — if any of you liked BLACK CLOAK VOL 1 and ever rate/review things on Amazon, we could use some ratings/reviews on there. Good ratings/reviews DO move books on there in my experience, and the more we sell, the easier it is to do the best possible Volume 2. So if you ever do that kind of thing, please consider us.
I told you guys a while back about my love of a new game called CONNECTIONS (it’s one of a few daily games I play along with Wordle and Framed). I am still really enjoying it — and just learned it’s in beta — and I don’t want it to go away — so I’m trying to spread the word. EVERYONE PLEASE PLAY CONNECTIONS.
And then this past week on BLUESKY, longtime social media pal Unlimited Rice Pudding, let me know that Connections not only has a pre-beta archive where you can play the archived games — but you can also MAKE YOUR OWN. WHAT?!
And I tell you guys what… I maybe did not know deep my levels of nerd ran until I started making these? So yeah, I made my own, of course. And I’m sharing it with you here today, you lucky dogs.
I am giving you ONE clue (well, one opening clue, if everyone seems to be struggling, I will consider additional clues). But the one clue is that, despite your concerns, EVERYTHING IS SPELLED CORRECTLY.
I hope you can get it! Please do report back in the comments because it’s literally all I’ll be thinking about. lol.
UPDATE: People are STRUGGLING. Apparently I made this a bit too hard. A few people have gotten it, but same who know the game pretty well are struggling, so here are a couple additional hints, including one I posted in the comments yesterday.
There is an X-Men Category and Polaris is NOT in that group.
Think…celestial.
SO MANY SNEAKS AND PEEKS!
BIRDS OF PREY #2. Art by Leonardo Romero, colors by Jordie Bellaire. And I’m 99% sure those SFX are drawn in by Leo. This is out 10/3/24 (and there are copies in the webstore now! omg)
Also can’t resist showing off a favorite panel from BIRDS OF PREY #3.
When I die, let it be in Barda’s violent arms.*
*Not really tho. I wrote this because it seemed funny and slightly poetic. But that would be a very bad way to die and I would ACTUALLY like to die peacefully and painlessly in my bed please, unlike Carol Danvers, I am no hero.
THE CULL #3 is out in October as well and here are two gorgeous (and slightly terrifying!) panels from that issue. Art and colors by Mattia De Iulis. Lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Uh, no?
Yeah, things are gettin’ real in here! Eeeek.
If you were a paid subscriber to this Substack you could be reading the first two issues of this comic book right now! ;D
I still can’t show you cover or interiors on BLACK CLOAK VOL. 2, mostly because I’ve been running behind, but Meredith has been doing some AMAZING character design. Here are a few that aren’t TOO spoiler-y?
I mean, they honestly look like a new cast of Guardians of the Galaxy, or something. I love it. So that’s, left to right: NIDA, NYCILA!*, SASHENKA, and the former queen of Kiros — now prisoner of Kiros — TALINE SIDRA.
*That’s right, Nycila made the jump to Volume 2! You remember her from the Black Cloak Character Creator Game, right? Are we gonna do it again? OF COURSE WE ARE. Look for that next month!
IT’S JEFF! This is by Gurihiru from our forthcoming Season 3 on Marvel Unlimited.
Jeff laughing at himself AS Jeff-Venom in a movie on an airplane is a meta delight I truly was not prepared for. The genius of Gurihiru, everyone.
Season 3 of IT’S JEFF on Marvel Unlimited is IMMINENT. I believe it begins next month? As a reminder, this season is broken in half — 6 episodes this fall, 6 in winter/spring 2024.
Because Gurihiru is so in demand (no surprise!) 4 of the 12 strips from IT’S JEFF Season 3 will be drawn/colored by Nao Fuji — you may know her from her work at Marvel — especially on her adorable Marvel Unlimited Marvel Meow strip. It’s ALWAYS hard to lose Gurihiru from a project, but Nao is incredible and truly the best guest artist we could hope for. If you need any convincing, here are two random panels from one of her forthcoming IT’S JEFF strips:
I mean, LOOK AT THIS BABY!?! God I love him. It’s honestly annoying. lol
Quick Order Update: All orders have been shipped as of yesterday (9/22/23). If you were expecting something — it should be there by Tuesday/Wednesday at the latest!
Unfortunately there’s been some problem with my shipment of THE CULL #2 and they’ve still not arrived from Image/the printer. But I did get SECOND PRINTINGS of issue #1 and I also have BIRDS OF PREY #2 in the store — LIVE NOW as well as that gorgeous BLACK CLOAK VOLUME 1 trade I mentioned above.
UPDATE! YAY! THE CULL #2 FINALLY ARRIVED! I HAVE UPDATED THE WEBSTORE! If anyone ordered yesterday but ALSO wanted a copy of THE CULL #2, if you place an additional order, I will combine them into one shipment and refund you the additional shipping.
Please note any of you hoping to get BOP #2 early by ordering early from the store…will likely be disappointed. New orders will ship next Friday which means you will probably receive it close to, but not before, the release date.
Any of you paid subscribers still trying to get an invite to Bluesky? It’s pretty nice over there. I mean today there was a vibrant argument about socks and why they’re the worse and nobody even threatened to kill me or called me a fat feminist cunt. Pretty nice change of pace from old musky over there.
ANYWAY. I have three invite codes and I’m giving them away to the first three subscribers that ask nicely for one in the comment section. ;D Get thee to the comments section!
UPDATE: All three codes (actually, four code! Thanks again Unlimited Rice Pudding!) have been claimed. I’ll try to give more away when I have them!
I don’t know if this belongs in “HOUSEKEEPING” so much as “VERY RANDOM UPDATES” but I don’t have a banner for the latter so here goes.
I actually wasn’t going to post this today but when I looked up the old post where I talked about it so that I could link to it — it was one year — LITERALLY TO THE DAY — which is wild. So now I feel obligated.
Anyway, remember exactly a year ago I talked about a little idle mobile game I was playing called CATS & SOUP? I talked about how amazing the animation style (and animation) was and how cute it was, but said I probably wouldn’t keep playing.
Well.
Here’s how it started:
Annnnd here’s how it’s going:
Yeah. I didn’t quit. I got WAY into it. lol
I mean look… I have a FUCKING DJ BOOTH:
Yeah. So I love it. I wrote more about it in the original post linked above, and I WILL accept questions in the comments. But it’s basically adorable and makes me very happy and I honestly spend lots of time wishing CATS & SOUP would call me up and ask me to write Jeff-style comics about my cats who have a whole fucking COMMUNITY I have built in my mind/the game. I mean, we’ve got a MAYOR for Christ’s sake.
Realizing now I could have put this under “CATS.”
Kelly, you idiot.
A young Monarch, being adorbs and MAYBE giving the evil eye? He doesn’t like the cut of your jib today, that’s for sure.
Man, I feel 100 years old with that joke. Does anyone even know what a JIB is anymore? Honestly? The definition is more hardcore than I expected. WE SHOULD BRING THIS BACK.
All right, everyone. We’re at the paywall for the guys playing the X-Men War game. I hope you all have a great or restive weekend— what’s left of it! <3
~Kelly