Dreaming the pandemic away?

If 2021 had any sort of theme as it relates to my publishing output, it’s been wrapping up projects that had origins in previous years (or previous decades), and my newest collection of comics is no different: Fever Dreams began life as a collaborative project back during the pandemic summer of 2020.

Unfortunately, the pandemic affected everyone’s creativity & productivity in different ways. I know I struggled quite a bit, and still seem to be suffering from lack of focus. My partner in that project had a hard time coming up with a body of work– or even sharing works in progress– and eventually we let that idea of a collaboration go. For better or for worse, I’m not one to easily let go of a project once I’ve got work done for it, and I decided to produce a collection of my pandemic- inspired dream comics. I’m glad I did, and hopefully this will help me put the pandemic behind me (at least creatively; given the news of yet another variant spreading across the world, I don’t think it will be behind me in real life for quite some time) and help me move on to more positive work in the future… 

Fever Dreams features dream comics with all your pandemic and dystopian “favorites”: face masks, murder hornets, shambling zombies, visits with friends far away & friends long gone, plus the end of the world a time or two. I’m really excited with how it turned out, and I enjoyed producing its more elaborate finished form, including color stock, color accents on the interior art, and a full-color dust jacket cover!  Turning those fevered dreams into comics reminded me of how much I used to enjoy doing two-page comic “singles” back in the 90s, so I included a couple of those that matched the tone of Fever Dreams, turning one into an actual promotional single that I used as a bag-stuffer during last month’s Crafts and Drafts event. (That event, by the way, was really encouraging, giving me the chance to once again see my work connect with people in a way I haven’t been able to in far too long.) I was pleased with how that single turned out, too, even if I didn’t do a blatant enough promotion of Fever Dreams on it. Another thing to work on for next time…

Fever Dreams is a 16-page black & yellow comic w/ color accents and full-color cover dustjacket; trim size 5.5 x 8.5″. You can get a copy by mail via my Square store for $8.00 postpaid in the US. You can also get a copy by becoming one of my Patreon patrons during the rest of 2021 at the Correspondent or Art Lover level (plus, joining (at any level) gives you immediate access to other online bonus comics, including a full-color Human Spring adventure)!

[January 2023 UPDATE: I’ve closed my Patreon page.]

Release The Dragon!

It’s past time to share the news about the release of my latest comic, one my collaborator and I have been working on for quite a while: The Dragon Templar!

 It is the depths of the Middle Ages, the era of the Crusades… A time of expansion for both populations and empires, the Universal Church is committed to laying claim to the Holy Land… The legendary Knights Templar are Rome’s agents on the ground protecting traveling pilgrims and battling the Saracens, all the while harboring in their midst a power they can’t fully understand…

Writer Brad Starnes and I talk a bit about the genesis of this medieval adventure tale in the book itself, but I want to share here how excited I am to be working on this project in tandem with another creator. Even if it can draw the process out a bit, having someone else involved in this project’s creation has helped push us both, and the creative give-and-take adds a level of excitement that I don’t get when writing and drawing stories on my own. We plot out the story ideas together, then I draw it, giving storytelling notes in the margins that Brad then works into his script (what comic nerds call “the Marvel Method”). I’m really happy with how well this worked in our first issue, and Brad did a great job, raising the bar above what I could accomplish on my own! While I’d hoped we would have a second story ready to go before we released the first issue, we’d waited long enough and decided to release the first story into the wild to see what response it garners! Since I wanted to play up the Monster Market release of Monster Melee in October, I’m finally able to shift my focus to this project, one I’m thrilled to finally get into print and into the hands of readers! In the future, I guess I need to do a better job of scheduling my releases so they each get their moment to shine. Always something to improve upon, I guess…

The Dragon Templar #1 is a 12-page black & white standard sized comic on ivory stock w/ full-color cover; ask for it at your comic shop of choice (our list of retail partners is kept up-to-date on the Dragon Templar website), or get a copy by mail via my Square store for $5.00 postpaid in the US. You can also get a copy by becoming one of my Patreon patrons during the rest of 2021 at the Correspondent or Art Lover level (plus, joining (at any level) gives you immediate access to other online bonus comics, including a full-color Human Spring adventure)!

My plan, by the way, is to release a print alongside each issue of The Dragon Templar. Until I get my act together and figure out how I want to ship oversize prints, tho, you’ll need to get them from me at one of my in-person events. Like Crafts and Drafts, coming this November 13th to Crosstown Concourse…

[February 2022 UPDATE: Brad and I were featured guests on Lin Workman’s “Drawing Funny” podcast. It was a really good interview & you can listen to it here.]
[May 2022 UPDATE: a digital version of this issue is available from my Gumroad store!]
[November 2022 UPDATE: Print and digital version of this issue are available from IndyPlanet.com; please note that the IndyPlanet edition is printed on white paper.]
[January 2023 UPDATE: I’ve closed my Patreon page.]