Don't Call It a Comeback: Me, DSTLRY, The Expanse, Cover Reveals, and More
Hello!
How are you!? Been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that. Things have been, shall we say, up and down the last couple of years, and keeping up with a newsletter was apparently impossible. Never mind that there wasn't all that much work to tell you about.
But! I've been on a steady if difficult climb back to "up" in recent months, and as a result there's a few things to talk about.
Chief amongst them is signing on to be one of the Founding Creators at DSTLRY, a new digital and print publisher formed by Chip Mosher and David Steinberger, two ex-Comixology folk who have taken everything they learned from Comixology before Amazon trashed it and put it into this new company. The Founding Creator lineup is one I'm very proud to be part of: joining me are Mirka Andolfo, Brian Azzarello, Marc Bernardin, Elsa Charretier, Becky Cloonan, Lee Garbett, Jock, Joëlle Jones, Tula Lotay, Junko Mizuno, Stephanie Phillips, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Ram V. That's a whole bunch of talent!
DSTLRY's first release, on August 30th, is a collection of 11 short stories by every founder and more besides called THE DEVIL'S CUT. While every short can be read as a self-contained story, 8 of them are peeks into the worlds of the first full series those creators are producing for the publisher. More info on that here: https://www.cbr.com/dstlry-devils-cut-launch-eight-new-series/
I've read all the stories from the collection and everyone is bring their A game.
My story? It's not intended to be a taster of my first series, though that's not to say I might not return to the characters here, as I very quickly grew attached to them. I can best describe it as a sci-fi romance. Here's a page from it:
Letters come from Aditya Bidikar, who I am overjoyed to finally work with. I'm a huge fan of his considered approach to lettering and love what he did here.
Every Founding Artist has also produced a variant wraparound cover for the book, utilising designer extraordinaire Emma Price's DSTLRY logo. 8 have been revealed before this week (see them in the CBR link above), and today mine can be shown for the first time! So here it is:
As should be clear, it ties into the short we have in the book. And yes, it took me a while.
As I said, this book hits stores on 8/30, and FOC is this coming Sunday 7/2 with Lunar, and Monday 7/3 with Diamond (DSTLRY have distribution deals with both). If you want my cover, which is listed as Cover H, speak to your retailer. It's "open order", which means if you want it, you can get it.
Reviews so far have been great. And AIPT's Chris Coplan had this to say about my story:
Be it Jamie McKelvie’s narration (he’s an artist with a true poet’s soul) or his visuals (so much depth and history baked into this gorgeous world), I simply yearn for what actually will come next.
So, that's nice, isn't it? But what else has been going on? And what's happening with The Killing Horizon?
Frankly, the combination of ADHD, severe burnout and a pandemic did not do great things for my productivity. It took me by surprise (I mean, the pandemic took most of us by surprise, but the personal bits did too). I knew I was exhausted by the end of WicDiv, but thought a couple of months off would see me right. Only... the months continued to pass and it wasn't improving. I am extremely grateful that WicDiv made enough money for us that I could get by for a while, at least.
After two long and very expensive years of trying various ADHD medications (it's been over 3 years since my GP referred me for NHS assessment and treatment and I'm still waiting thanks to the ongoing destruction of the NHS by the Tories, so I had to go private), we've reached the unfortunate conclusion that the majority have no effect on me, and one barely does anything even at the maximum dose. From what I can tell, this is connected to my hypermobility - there's evidence that being hypermobile decreases the effectiveness of drugs. Which explains a lot, but also sucks! And while "pills don't teach skills", coming to terms with the fact that I have to tackle this without the help meds can provide was tough. It's all a work in progress, but added to my trouble in working.
I'm getting there now, but you only have to look at what I've released since WicDiv (a Captain Marvel short, writing Captain Carter, drawing Catwoman: One Bad Day, a handful of covers and character designs) to see that it's been slow going. I'm still working my way through commissions I've owed for as long (sorry if that's you, and thank you for your patience).
Earlier this year I got to the point where I could begin revisiting The Killing Horizon and start working on it again. But when I went to open the folder for the project on my computer, it wasn't there. Somehow when I upgraded my PC a couple of years ago to work on some art for the upcoming Marvels movie, I backed up/dropboxed and transferred everything I needed for work EXCEPT that. I can only think that Scrivener's slightly obtuse file-saving method stored it on my C drive, rather than the D drive where all my other files were/are.
However it happened, all my writing, all my extensive research, all my notes - gone. It was quite demoralising, to put it lightly.
I don't mean to write this all out as some sob story, but I did want to let people know why things have been kind of quiet for me the last few years.
I've started piecing it all back together but it's taking a while. So it's still coming, it's still going to be at Image, and I am excited about it again. My first DSTLRY project will come before it, but it's on its way.
I'm also doing covers for the Kickstarter exclusive issues of The Expanse: Dragon's Tooth, a 12 issue series from Boom by Andy Diggle and various artists, which continues where Season 6 of the TV show left off. As a huge fan of the show, I was delighted to be involved. Unfortunately I was told that I couldn't just do 12 drawings of the best character Drummer, so I've done some of other characters as well. Here's the first 3:
Alright! I think that's it for now. I'll be back with more news as it happens. Thanks for reading!
J