Chest-Bursting with Pride
I’m uniquely ashamed I didn’t get a newsletter out the door last week. Not because I hold myself to any sort of regularity—I’ve accepted these just happen when they happen. But because last Wednesday was the release of ALIEN: BLACK, WHITE & BLOOD #3, which contains a five-page story set in the world of my absolute favorite film of all time. In my defense, I spent most of last week with stomach issues so bad I felt like I had something gestating inside of me, but still—how could I not mark this bucket-list achievement!
I don’t know exactly what my first exposure to Alien might have been—it’s all a bit of a jumble. I know I saw the original quartet of movies pretty young, and saw Resurrection either in theaters or very soon after it went to DVD, so I would have been no older than eight or nine. I also had every single one of the toys that filled shelves as a kid, with Xenomorphs inspired by mantises, rhinos, bulls, and other animals hybrids. Before I left NYC, my entire bedroom was was covered in posters dedicated just to Jonesy, the ship’s cat. So when I caught wind that a good friend of mine had been invited to contribute to this anthology, I shamelessly rushed to email Sarah Brunstad, the project’s editor. I don’t recommend doing this in most instances, but I am grateful she had already thought of me for this (probably because of the four or five times I had already shamelessly mentioned my love of Alien and Predator).
My story in the issue is called “Lucky,” which will make sense when you read it, but it’s also very much how I feel having written it. This joins my contribution to Skybound’s Eisner-nominated Creepshow anthology and my X-work broadly (but that first X-Men ’92 series in particular) on the shelf as “whoa, I can’t believe I got to do that” trophies. I worked with Tommaso Bianchi on art and Mattia Iancono on color touches for this short outing and I couldn’t be happier with the result. My love for Jonesy inspired my contribution here. I hope I’ll get to do more in this world someday, but if this is my only brush with Alien, I will still consider myself immensely lucky.
And speaking of those “can’t believe I got to do that” projects—this week saw X-MEN ’97 #2 hit shelves, with this glorious Wolverine versus Sabretooth cover! Logan and Creed are two characters I didn’t get to ever really touch in their 616 forms, so I relished getting my claws into their animated counterparts. This issue finds the villains from the end of #1 making their moves, culminating in the long-awaited return of a character I never thought I’d get to write! It's been surreal having so many non-comic-reading friends FLIPPING out over the Disney+ TV show, which is a good sign to me that X-Men '97 is really connecting with an audience.
Finally, completing my April 10th appearances, I pop up in EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE #3 for the latest Web-Weaver story! I was thrilled to be asked back for another Cooper Coen adventure, and even more thrilled to be joined by my original collaborator, Kei Zama. While I’m forever grateful to Kris Anka for designing Web-Weaver’s iconic suit, Kei’s basically Cooper’s co-parent at this point, having designed Cooper’s out-of-costume look, Silk, and several villains, including the Earth-71490 take on…the Vulturion! This story fleshes out Cooper’s relationship with his roommate, this guy readers might have heard of named Peter Parker. Obscure, deep-cut character, no worries if you’re not familiar. And who knows, maybe Kei and I will get to do more Web-Weaver again in the near future…
Out next week is DEAD X-MEN #4, the concluding issue of our reality-jumping outing for the X-team-that-wasn’t-but-now-got-to-be. I’m very proud of the work everyone did on this series, and of sticking the landing of our EIGHT different artists. No one new pops in this issue—we tie back around with David Baldeon from #3 (doing an INSANE spread), Vincenzo from #1, and Bernard Chang, who’s been with us every issue, doing his longest stint yet. Everything comes to a head before we hand our plot threads back to Kieron for Rise of the Powers of X and X-Men Forever. I’m very grateful for everything Kieron did to make Dead X-Men fit into the puzzle while letting us have our fun. These five X-Men (and Rachel!!) were an immense joy to write and I’m glad they’re part of the end of the X-road for me.
And if any Dazzler fans have been wondering if we were going to talk about that—this is the issue. I’m not promising a deep dive, but it comes up. Thank me or hate me, but we did it.
Oh! I never get to talk about variant covers, as I don’t often see them unless friends who are more online than I am send them to me—but check out this Jubilee variant from Jung-Geun Yoon! That’s my lil’ sparkler.
Also on stands next week: SPIDER-WOMAN #6, as Jess goes west…and Ig Guara joins the team! As I said in the last newsletter, it’s very bittersweet to bid goodbye to Carola. But Ig has been absolutely demolishing his pages so far, and I can’t wait for readers to check out this upcoming arc. Emotionally drained by the events of Gang War and the fallout of what happened with her son, Jess has hopped on her motorcycle and set out on a cross-country journey. But nothing goes simply for Jessica Drew…
This one’s pure action, and I got to pull in one of my favorite relatively new Marvel U. faces for the issue. She’s a Star in the making, I swear. Check out not just our slick main cover by Leinil Francis Yu (I just saw a cover by him for an unannounced project, in fact...), but also Todd Nuack’s variant cover, which teases a big focus of our arc to come—the debut of some of the NEW CHAMPIONS! These kids were created as part of a variant-cover month, and now some of them are making their way into the 616 themselves. But there is MUCH more to them than meets the eye… Don’t miss out on meeting this brand-new cast of heroes for the first time in the second arc of Spider-Woman!
Over in X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic land, Steve Orlando, Phillip Sevy, Nick Roche, Yen Nitro, and I currently have Sunspot laying siege to Gideon’s stronghold because yes, it is always the early ‘90s somewhere. This was a special gift to Phil, who is a massive ‘90s-head and eats up all the RADICAL stuff we throw at him. He had a suggestion for a nice touch during this fight that I especially loved—it’s how this past week’s chapter ends. And I hope you all caught Nick Roche’s genuinely NUTS mecha-work on our recent Wiz-Kid and Trinary-focused chapters. We wrote that just to take advantage of Nick’s background on robo-comics and BOY did he deliver. We’re doing lettering proofs on the very final chapters of this now and it’s sad to see it end, but it’s pretty satisfying to reach the conclusion of a 25-chapter story this dense and planned out, all executed by two incredibly talented artists, one colorist (plus one fill-in due to a scheduling mishap—thanks, Fer!), and some other guy named Steve. A very unique experience to remember.
One last thing before I bounce—I just got the advance reader copies of SPIDER-MAN: STORIES FROM THE SPIDER-VERSE, the prose anthology I’m in featuring ten short stories of different spider-heroes by ten different authors. Mine is, of course, the winsome, witty Web-Weaver. I’m really proud of this one and hope there’s more prose in my future. I love comics, but it’s nice to flex the ol’ word-only muscles, too. The full hardcover will be out in October, and preorders always help immensely, so thwip over to your preferred retailer and place yours now!
xoxo