Halloween Hangover
To be clear, I don’t actually drink—I just got food poisoning right after Halloween, which ended my spooky month on a particularly queasy note. Still, I wanted to fire off a newsletter before the election tomorrow, as I have a strong feeling that, whatever the outcome, pretty much nothing else is going to break through the noise as soon as polls open in the morning.
NEW YORK COMIC-CON
Hey, this happened a couple of weekends ago, didn’t it? If I’m honest, I dreaded going—I’m not one for crowds or getting out there in public too often—but it was easily the best time I’ve ever had at NYCC in the dozen or so times I’ve attended the show. Most of that credit is due to Tiny Onion, as we had a large booth at the head of Artists Alley and had a killer weekend hosting signings, slinging merch, and entertaining talent who had come in from all over the world. It was the first time I met Martin Simmonds (The Department of Truth) and Fernando Blanco (W0RLDTR33) in person after editing them for years, which was surreal. I’m very grateful to be one of the lil’ alliums in that garden bed, and I’m excited for folks to see what else we’re growing in the years ahead.
Speaking of talent, though—one of the hands-down coolest parts of the show was getting to meet so many of my Marvel collaborators in person. Ivan Fiorelli (New Champions, Timeslide), Carola Borelli (Spider-Woman), Carlos Nieto (Spider-Boy Annual), Peter V. Nguyen (Alien: Paradiso, Dead X-Men), Lorenzo Susi (Spider-Man Unlimited), and Lynne Yoshii (X-Men: Blood Hunt—Psylocke, Dead X-Men) were all in attendance, and getting to say hi and thank them for the hard work they put into bringing my words to the page was beyond awesome. It was particularly exciting to talk to Ivan in person about everything we’re planning to bring to New Champions in the issues ahead to define these brand-new Marvel characters for a whole new generation of readers.
SPOOKY, SCARY
I never grew up in a trick-or-treating neighborhood, so I was unreasonably excited to experience our first Halloween in the new house, which is in a pretty classically walkable area. We had a couple hundred kids come through before we had to dip to see Halloween (’78) on the big screen, and it definitely brought my horror-loving heart joy. We also have one of those 12-foot skeletons, which was a surprisingly big hit with the littlest kids, especially. One toddler dressed as Mike Wazowski sat down beneath it and did not want to leave.
But while we’re talking spooky, scary things, I’d be remiss not to continue plugging BEASTLY BUDDIES, my Marvel Unlimited series with Armand Bodnar and KJ Diaz. Issue #3 is out now, and we continue every Friday on the Unlimited app. Here’s a fun interview I did with Marvel.com when the series kicked off, in case you missed it.
The combo of humor and horror has been right up my lane, and Armand and KJ just keep topping themselves on the art front. If you’ve got the Unlimited app, please give us a scroll to let Marvel know you want to see more of Ted and Jack’s hijinks. If you don’t, who knows when you’ll next see Manphibian!
CLONE BROS.
And over on the print side of things, last week saw the release of CHASM: CURSE OF KAINE #3, our penultimate issue. I loved writing Ben, Kaine, and Janine (and Druig, that nasty old man) over these four issues, and hope to return to these characters again one day. Kaine, especially, ended up becoming a personal favorite of mine.
Which is why I was touched when I came back to the Tiny Onion booth during Comic Con to find two young men waiting for me with a copy of #1 to sign. Now, I didn’t do any signings at the TO booth—I was there in my capacity as an editor—but a few folks did drop by to talk to me about my writing, which I was happy to do when we weren’t busy. But these guys were Kaine super-fans, and were incredibly enthusiastic about seeing the Scarlet Spider back on shelves.
Since I don’t do a lot of shows and I’m not on social media anymore, I don’t have a lot of interactions like this. But these two were just so positive and kind and just grateful to have Kaine up and about and doing things—it really made my day. So if you’re reading this, Kaine fans, kudos to you—hope you enjoy the concluding issues.
STILL PRETTY SICK
And that’s about all I can churn out this week. I’m still feeling pretty sick from the food poisoning, unfortunately—not to mention bracing myself for America’s latest game of “Will! We! Implode?!” Everyone who can, get out there and vote, and then for your own sanity, log off and read something escapist. I suggest anything with “Foxe” on the credits.
xoxo