To Infinity and Beyond (+ an Adults-Only Giveaway!)
WEB-WEAVING
Keeping it short and sweet (by my standards) this week with the announcement of the SPIDER-BOY ANNUAL, which is, yes, part eight of the INFINITY WATCH crossover but can also be enjoyed as a standalone Bailey Briggs story.
I was surprised by how much I took to the kid upon his recent introduction and was stoked to get asked to write this after including him in a guest spot on Spider-Woman too. Carlos Nieto joins me on art and has been tearing up the issue, which calls for a ton of Coney Island chaos as Spider-Boy, Multitude, and Prince of Power find themselves with three tickets to a certain criminal circus… Check it out in September for infinite (or at least twenty pages of) fun.
And speaking of Spider-stories—I knew I was forgetting something last newsletter. I recently had the pleasure of writing a two-part SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC story that intercut an adventure in the 616 with Peter Parker and an adventure on Earth-71490 with Cooper Coen, the winsome, witty Web-Weaver. It’s always a privilege to return to Web-Weaver, and it’s a special joy to write anything Pete, so telling this tale, which weaves the two together around two very different iterations of the villain Grizzly, was a lot of fun. Julian Shaw drew the Pete portions and Lorenzo Susi lent his talents to Cooper’s side of the story, including the hunky new design for Grizzly-71490. Check it out in the Marvel Unlimited app in issues #37 and #38.
And before we leave Spider-space, tomorrow is the release date of SPIDER-WOMAN #8 as well as the 2nd printing of SPIDER-WOMAN #7, which sold out thanks to the debut of THE ASSEMBLY, our brand-new kids pulled from the New Champions variant cover lineup. (Extra fun—the 2nd Printing cover is by Paco Medina, who designed Cadet Marvel in the first place!) Jess has her hands full uncovering the truth behind these whippersnappers, and the conspiracy just gets more intense from here. Make sure you snag both to get in on the ground floor—I hope these kids might have a bright future ahead of them…if they survive.
It’s also been fun to play Jess against a younger cast, especially since she’s still dealing with the fallout of everything that happened with her own son in the first arc. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, SPIDER-WOMAN BY STEVE FOXE Vol. 1: GANG WAR hits shelves July 3rd, just in time for you to catch up before our second arc’s finale!
MUTANT MAYHEM
Over in X-territory, X-MEN: HEIR OF APOCALYPSE #1 dropped last week, kicking off Apocalypse’s search for his heir. I mean, hey, it’s in the title. I’m still blown away by how good Netho Diaz, JP Mayer, and Alex Sinclair look together on this book. Just pure blockbuster storytelling and I feel lucky they invited me along for the ride. I had a lot of fun crafting this one with my editorial collaborators, and getting to dig into our massive cast. We’ve got three more issues coming your way, hitting every other week on an accelerated schedule. The finale has some of my favorite sequences I’ve ever done for Marvel and feels like a very fitting end to my X-work.
Speaking of ends to my X-work—X-MEN ’97 #4 concludes our official prequel mini-series next week. It was a real head-trip to play in the sandbox of the show that set me on my life path, not just as someone currently writing comics, but as a voracious reader, period. I can trace it all back to X-Men: The Animated Series. Very grateful to have been asked to write this, and grateful we got Salva Espin back on art, this time with the great Matt Milla to really nail the animated look and tone.
And speaking of animated look and tone—this baby’s been selling out left and right, I guess, and the reprints have some ridiculously fun covers. Check out the 3rd printing to issue #2! I’m pretty nostalgia-proof but you show me VHS covers and I melt.
MINORS, PRUDES, AND MY MOM, STOP READING
June is Pride Month, and I also happen to have recently, finally, organized my office. And that included getting all of my comp copies sorted. Some publishers send creators a couple of copies of finished books just to keep as a memento. Others send dozens, with the expectation that creators will attend conventions and sell them for a profit. And since my public-appearance idol is Thomas Pynchon, the likelihood of me offloading most of my comps is slim to none. particularly CHEAT(ER) CODE, my very first graphic novel.
CHEAT(ER) CODE, for those not familiar, is a (very) NSFW erotica OGN about a young man whose partner cheats on him, and who goes on a journey of self-discovery via getting zapped into his video game console, where he meets and “gets to know” some of the video game icons he’s played with over the years. The universal experience I have had when meeting people who’ve read it is that they underestimate me when I say VERY NSFW. We were part of One Press’s venture into full-blown erotica and nothing is held back here—there’s no soft-focus blurring and cutaways. The action’s all on the page, baby.
Which is one reason my collaborator Daryl Toh and I used slight pen names for the publication—S.A. Foxe and DAZ, so no parent clicking my name from one of the kids books I’ve written can order it by mistake and have a hissy fit. But I’ve never hidden the fact that I wrote it and am proud of how it turned out—it’s a fun, sexy, silly story about video games, breakups, and being a gay nerd.
ANYWAY, I mention it because I still have a couple DOZEN copies that I do not need and do not see any way of getting rid of. So if you’ve read this far, are over the age of 18, and live in the continental United States, I will mail you an autographed copy if you email me proof of a donation to any LGBTQ+ charity besides the Human Rights Campaign made during June 2024 totaling at least $20. That’s the price of the book on Amazon, so you’re getting the book at cover price and giving to charity—win/win. I encourage you to look up local charities in your area that can use the money more than big national orgs (which is why I’m auto-disqualifying the HRC).
And tell your erotica-loving friends if they want in on this, too. Please, I have so many comps. I can’t exactly leave these at my local free libraries.
xoxo