Hello, friends and well-wishers! It feels like an eternity since I wrote to you proper. I celebrated my 39th birthday, and I got to tell all of the Marvel folk who knew me at age 22 that I was one year away from 40. Man, that was fun.

Work-wise, not a lot went down apart from the usual hustle-and-flow. I don’t think anything new of mine was announced, but maybe a bombshell or two will be dropped at NYCC. My Showdown collaborator Dave Wielgosz interviewed me for his newsletter, which went up a couple of weeks ago (give him a follow!). I discussed lettering (of course), trends, Tadd Galusha, my favorite artists to work with, and the ones I’d like to work with who I haven’t worked with yet. I hope my wish to collaborate with Zoe Thorogood or Mike Maihack^* is manifested.

I acquired a few material goods that I wanted to bring to Show and Tell.^** First, me and my fiancée visited the Rochester Book and Paper Fair (formerly the Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair), which I’d never been to before. I expected a lot of pre-1950s leatherbound hardcovers with failing spines (of which there were plenty), but I was surprised to find quite a few comics! One table had a tub full of Modesty Blaise, and another was selling well-loved Silver Age titles. There were a lot of Gold Keys, Where Monsters Dwells, and things with covers by Joe Kubert (including an issue of Rima the Jungle Girl drawn by the magnificent Nestor Dedondo, which I regret passing over). Instead, I came home with some Love & Rockets issues. I paid $40 for all of them. I have no idea if that was a good deal.

I also found this beauty at a local Barnes & Noble.

See, back in MY day, there was this OTHER Fifth Element art book that was expensive and hard to find! And…well, I have that one, too. But this one has more art, and I only paid $54 for it instead of $100+! And it’s worth having both!

Part of what made the other book so legendary was its inclusion of concept art by Jean Claude Mezieres and Jean “Moebius” Giraud—two giants of Euro comics (in fact, there’s a neat little documentary on YouTube about their work on the film). There is less Moebius in this newer one (in fact, I think he only gets a passing mention), but there’s plenty of Mezieres, and lots of Helene “Daughter of Moebius” Giraud and her work. She helped dream up that weird puppet pal who lives inside of Zorg’s desk, so props to her.

Here are some highlights:

Can’t recommend it enough.

^*While I was writing this, a video interview with Mike went live where he shared his lettering process—fully proving that he doesn’t need me, and I may even get in his way. Whatever, I’ll keep dreaming.

^**In writing this, I just remembered that I brought one of these to Show and Tell in the third grade. Maybe that’s when I was branded a geek for life.

Sound Effect of the Month:

Recommendations:

• Comic: Fax From Sarajevo. Joe Kubert’s 100th birthday was on September 18th, and in tribute, I’m recommending my favorite work of his. There’s no question that Joe’s most famous work is Sgt. Rock, the revered infantry war comic (which really is as great as everyone says it is), and Fax is the flip-side of that coin—the true story of a civilian family trying to survive in a warzone. Nowhere does it shy away from the horrors of war—especially when genocide is its driver. Would recommend to anyone with even a sliver of a beating heart, but maybe just once. Like Grave of the Fireflies.

• Non-comic: Frankie Rose. It’s October now, and I feel obligated to recommend something spooky. Behold Frankie Rose, the third-witchiest artist in my record collection (behind Stevie Nicks and Robert Smith). Dreampop is the dominant genre in her work, but there’s a lot of darkwave and post-punk in there too. And maybe a little Ani DiFranco. If you dropped Ani into a bioluminescent cave and she had to go up an octave, I guess it’d sound like this. I like all of her albums, but Interstellar is my favorite. The new one is good too.

Stuff with my name in it (October 2026):

10/07:

• Batman #14

• Black Canary: Ignite TP (2026 printing)

• The Demon #1

10/14:

• Captain Britain 50th Anniversary Special #1

• DNX #3

• Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories - Liliana #1

• Venom #1

• X-Men #39

• You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive #1

10/21:

• DIE: Loaded #10

• Six of Us #2

• Star Trek: The Last Starship #12

• Uncanny X-Men #37

• Wonder Woman #38

• X-Men: Age of Krakoa by Kieron Gillen Omnibus HC

10/28:

• The Amazing Venom #2

• Batman: Bad Seeds - Sunrise #1

• Knull: Coming to the Light TP

• Marvel’s Mastering the Art of Comics (as an interviewee!)

• Predator vs. Planet of the Apes #4

• Showdown #5

• X-Men #40

And finally, the cat photo:

And that’s that. Have a safe and prosperous Halloween, everyone!