Somewhere beyond linear time and 3-dimensional space lies the Akashic Library, its moldering shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What terrifying truths shall ye uncover here today? Read on, traveler, and see . . .

As I may have mentioned before, 2026 is The Year of Fuzzball & Scuzzball. What does that mean? It means that, after a 10 year hiatus, I am releasing two Fuzzball & Scuzzball comic books into the world.

The first was Fuzzball & Scuzzball: The Saga of Ricky Imes, which I already talked about but you can still order. In addition to including every appearance of the fan-favorite character Ricky Imes from the F&S web comic, I also drew 8 new pages and a cover, so it’s worth checking out even if you’ve read those stories online.

The second F&S release is coming in November. It’s an all-new comic called Fuzzball & Scuzzball: Book Club.

This is a black & white comic, in a delightful small size (4.15” x 6.8”), a full 24 pages long. It’s artisanally crafted; every mark on these pages was made by my hand!

I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m willing to show you the first three pages. And only those!

Oh my goodness, what will happen next? The answer is: hilarity and tomfoolery.

I ended the Fuzzball & Scuzzball web comic in 2016—this is the first new F&S story in a decade! Dang! I worked diligently on it through July and finished drawing it early in August. I recently got all the production stuff done and ordered it from the printer; the copies should be here any day now, in plenty of time for SPACE 2 in Columbus on November 14. If you’re in the area, come on by!

JUST WHO ARE FUZZBALL & SCUZZBALL, ANYWAY?
Fuzzball & Scuzzball (originally spelled “Skuzzball”) were created by my friend Dale when we were in 5th grade, many many years ago. The original F&S comic book has been lost to history, but this one-page strip from another comic survives:

That was the duo’s last appearance until I revived them six years later, in our senior year of high school. I reimagined them as bickering brothers who run a detective agency in the urban hell of Happy City, New Jersey.

Here’s the first two panels of that ancient comic:

Wow that’s so crude! Would it have killed me to throw in some solid blacks, or vary the line weight at all? Though I guess I was drawing the whole thing on copy paper with a ballpoint pen.

Despite the crudeness, from the first page I drew I had a clear sense of who Fuzzball and Scuzzball were; they’ve lived in my head ever since. Won’t you invite them to come live in yours?

A BIT MORE ABOUT THAT RICKY IMES THING
From the beginning I knew that Fuzzball dreamed of being a classical, Miss Marple-type detective, and Scuzzball wanted to be a hardboiled, Sam Spade-type detective. This becomes relevant in “Book Club,” as you can see above, with Scuzzball going on his Raymond Chandler-esque rant. But we also get to see Scuzzball’s hardboiled proclivities in the story “Happy City Nights,” included in The Saga of Ricky Imes.

Here’s a sample:

Want to know what happens next? Then get you a copy of The Saga of Ricky Imes!

OH, AND WHAT WAS THAT YOU SAID ABOUT SPACE 2?
Thanks for asking. Earlier this year I exhibited at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in Hilliard (just outside Columbus). That one went well enough that there’s going to be a second one this year, SPACE 2, at the same venue.

The show will be Saturday, November 14, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM at The Makoy, on 5462 Center Street, Hilliard, Ohio.

I’ll be at Table F15, as shown here:

DRAWINGS THAT AREN’T COMICS
My Etsy shop has art you can buy! Good ol’ fashioned original art, finely crafted by hand. All proceeds from art sales go to help Palestinian children, and if you don’t want to buy the art, you can just donate directly.

THANKS FOR TRYING THIS NEWSLETTER!
I appreciate you. Did you know that you can subscribe and it get it sent to you each month, ABSOLUTELY FREE? What a bargain!

BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST TIME
A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd, and Jim Kay
Jack Kirby’s Heroes and Villains: Black Magic Edition, Jack Kirby and various
Call Me Ishmael, Charles Olson
Batman by Neal Adams: Absolute Edition 1967-1970, Neal Adams, Bob Haney, Denny O’Neil, and various

I preordered Batman by Neal Adams: Absolute Edition months ago and have been eagerly awaiting it that whole time; I’d never heard of Charles Olson’s Call Me Ishmael, but found it in a cool bookstore in Urbana, Illinois and bought it on a whim. I read both of over the weekend, and enjoyed them both.

Call Me Ishmael is a short book about Moby-Dick written in 1947, when literary criticism could be full of wild assertions and poetic language:

Makes me want to reread Moby-Dick! Oh, that reminds me—a new printing just came out of Matt Kish’s Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page. Buy it!

The Neal Adams book, meanwhile, reprints all the Batman comics the great Neal Adams drew from 1967-1970. If you don’t know who Neal Adams is, just trust me that he changed the way Batman looked, and made him way cooler.

The best Neal Adams Batman comics are those written by Denny O’Neal and unfortunately we only get a few of those here, at the very end. The next volume, though, will be a treasure trove of O’Neal/Adams. Can’t wait!

Do I already own reprints of most of the stories in this book? Yes, yes I do. But this has the original coloring, which I’ve wanted ever since Neal insisted on recoloring the stories in the earlier hardcover collections of his Batman. And it’s on matte paper, so it looks better than the too-shiny glossy paper in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold omnibuses. The coloring is still brighter than I’d like, but overall I’m happy with this presentation of the material.

TV SHOWS I’VE WATCHED SINCE LAST TIME
Lanterns
Ride Or Die
The Gentlemen season 2
The Great British Baking Show collection 14
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3

(The following contains spoilers for the final episode of Lanterns season 1 and the final episode of The Gentlemen season 2. You have been warned!)

The Gentlemen is a show about criminals, unsavory characters who do terrible things. It’s big fun to watch, it’s just not too preoccupied with what you might call “moral lessons.” AND YET, this crime show recognizes the real world truth about torture. Our main character Eddie does unspeakable things to a captured mercenary to get information, and that mercenary lies and says whatever he thinks Eddie wants to hear. Again, this show is not prone to moralizing, that’s just widely known to be the way things work: you don’t get reliable information through torture.

Meanwhile, in season finale of the show Lanterns, based on the DC Comics superhero Green Lantern, our hero John Stewart is in the final stages of his origin story. When he faces a momentary impediment he does not hesitate to waterboard someone for information and, hurray! He immediately learns just what he needs to know. John goes on to become a Green Lantern, a champion of the oppressed and a beacon of hope for the people of Earth. Torture works! I assume this message comes from co-showrunner Tom King, formerly of the CIA, who served in Afghanistan and has a bottomless love for superheroes committing war crimes.

MOVIES I’VE WATCHED SINCE LAST TIME
The Legend of Billie Jean
Teen Witch
Peggy Sue Got Married

Something I learned: the movie The Legend of Billie Jean has nothing to do with the song “Billie Jean,” but the movie Peggy Sue Got Married does prominently feature the song “Peggy Sue.”

Peggy Sue Got Married is a wild movie. It’s like, what if Back to the Future didn’t have a sense of urgency? You’re stuck in the past but just hang out, maybe try to enjoy yourself. To be fair it’s different because, unlike Marty McFly, Peggy Sue is going back to her own past, so everything has personal meaning to her. Marty’s just a tourist. Peggy’s got a lot of regrets to work through, and if there’s one thing I relate to, it’s regret.

One I thing I don’t regret, though, is getting this newsletter done. And now I have!

October’s almost done. To all those who celebrate, have a safe and happy Halloween. See you in November.

Your Pal,
Leighton