Before we get started, I wanted to quickly remind you that I will be at Printer’s Row Lit Fest in Downtown Chicago on September 12th and 13th from 10-6pm, so come on down and buy some books! Cowards!

On to the Rambling…

Maybe it’s nostalgia talking, but I miss the days when one could entreat upon a wealthy Baron or Duke to simply give you an apartment, stipend, and material supplies. Sure, you’d have to make art that transparently flatters their ego, but at least you know your audience and everyone is aware of the ego that you have to flatter!

Can you imagine modern billionaires patronizing the arts? Actually, you don’t have to, they were called NFTs and thank God they’ve died, been reanimated, and were once again obliterated by a man with a blue shirt and chainsaw for a hand. So maybe it’s best that we aren’t copy/pasting the old model of funding artists, but that does put artists in a bit of a lurch—on the one hand, yeah, it’s a lot easier to make art than ever before…but on the other, who exactly am I meant to be making art for? And critically, will those people pay me to do so?

There’s an urge I need to address before I go any further, one that even my brain chaffs against as I make these arguments, and it goes something like this: “No one owes you money for making art. That’s not real work and you aren’t providing anything of value for anyone.” It’s a very emotionally appealing argument for anyone that’s worked manual labor as well as anyone that’s grown up under the shadow of having your self worth determined by a dollar amount.

But it isn’t true, is it? The United States has been a superpower for the past hundred years, but the thing that’s made us inescapable to most of the world, as much or moreso than our worldwide military presence, is our culture. Our fashion, our movies, our music are the most dominant in the world, our art is absolutely ubiquitous, the background noise of everyone’s lives almost anywhere in the world. And yet, we treat it as completely worthless, a given, something that you use up and throw away with no added value to your life.

So, let’s resist the urge to say that artists don’t deserve anything when, in reality, your life—everyone’s life—would be unbearable without art. If you don’t believe me, go a month without listening to any music, watching any movies or TV shows, reading any stories, enjoying anything for its aesthetic value and tell me if you think that’s a life worth living.

With all that in mind, I’ve reached a point where I have to ask some serious questions every time I sit down to write a story. Questions like, “Is this going to be appealing to enough people to be worth writing?”

“Are enough people willing to pay money for something like this to justify a slot in my publication schedule?”

“How many ‘for fun’ projects can I afford to write?”

And a funny thing has happened ever since I started asking myself these questions: My output has plummeted. Not just with the for fun stuff, but the stuff I know will be a hit too. When the pretext of every artistic decision becomes a business decision, when what’s right for the story becomes a secondary consideration to “will I be able to afford groceries”, it kills the creative process stone dead.

Now, obviously, this is partially a me problem and one that I need to work to overcome, at least in the not being able to make stuff department. But, it does raise some interesting questions about the state of art in the modern world. I keep hearing people say that a lot of modern art sucks, that’s it all lowest common denominator, safe, unchallenging, bland, other synonyms—and there maybe some truth to that. But with the incentives artists have, the lack of institutional support and devaluation of the thing they produce—to the point that there’s an expectation they offer their art entirely for free—how could they possibly produce anything else?

There’s basically two options you have to capture an audience as a storyteller, 1) Be so good at one thing in particular that the people who love that niche all go to you for it, or 2) Make art that appeals to everyone (which kind of means no one) to get as many people reading as humanly possible.

The first option is very risky because, well, you have to be the best to make it happen. It’s also boring, at least from my perspective—not that specializing has to be boring, but often as a writer that means I can only write horror, or high fantasy, or whatever and anything else goes against “the brand.”

So most people write for the second, as broad as possible, and that’s boring in the other direction. Fiction that leans too hard on tropes and trends, stuff that’s digestable, but utterly forgettable. It’s a hideous Catch-22 and it’s often weaponized against the independent artist trying to make a living on the internet, as if we’re choosing to be bland and if you financially punish artists, they’ll have no choice but to be innovative.

But a starving artist doesn’t make interesting art, he just stops making art.

Making art better means giving artists and storytellers incentives to be experimental, which means having the freedom to get it wrong, go on tangents, try stuff that ultimately doesn’t work without fear of becoming unhoused or needing to skip groceries for the week.

I don’t know if that can be solved on an individual basis, like I don’t think that you, as a consumer of art, really have the power to personally change those modes. It needs to be institutional, supported from the top down. We have a Secretary of Agriculture, why don’t we have a Secretary of the Arts? Our corn subsidy budget is $3.2 billion, that’s money that goes to farmers growing corn (most of which is grown for cattle and ethanol, not for human consumption) to ensure that if they have a bad year due to drought, low yield or a drop in the price of corn, they don’t go bankrupt and can keep grown corn. Meanwhile, our funding for ALL OF THE ARTS is being cut from $209 million to just $29 million next year.

Bottom line: If you want better art, vote for people who give a shit about making better art.

In the meantime, maybe consider contributing to a few Patreons, or following an artist or writer you know you like and supporting them through a project you might not personally vibe with (again, people need the financial space to follow bad ideas in order to get to good ideas).

Personally, I’ll be starting up Kickstarters soon and might be launching a Patreon later in the year. If you have the space for it, I’d appreciate the support. But again, this isn’t a thing you can solve personally unless you’re a literal billionaire, so don’t beat yourself up too much, just be aware that the reason your art sucks is because we (meaning artists as a collective) can’t risk making art that gets to be good.

But it doesn’t have to be like this.

Until next time,

Wells Thompson

Hope you’re doing well! I had a lovely weekend vacation in Tennessee (I was there for a wedding, but may as well make the most of it) and it’s done a lot to help me reset. Still not sure I’m ready to get back to the grind, but I’ve been writing a bit more and reaching out to some comic creators to do more stuff in the real world, where people live (gross, I know). Either way, let’s get to it!

What We’re Working On!

Just going to do a quick summary since, you know, on break.

We’re making good progress on Love is Simple and By Appointment Only and Dahlia has been working hard through her injury on Evelyn the Unconquered.

We’re working with our printer for Descent into Dread and Dalton and I have started scripting on the second arc of Frankenstein the Unconquered, which we’ll be naming something different, but that’s an announcement for later ;)

And we’ll be debuting some more modern affirmation enamel pin designs soon! Looking forward to announcing that soon.

Convention Schedule

September 12-13 - Printer’s Row Lit Fest (Chicago, IL) - Beautiful, historic downtown Chicago and books as far as the eye can see. And hey, I’ll be there too! It’s a gorgeous outdoor festival with all sorts of authors, local book stores, publishers, and street food. Definitely recommend checking it out!

October 9-11 - Windy Con (Chicago, IL) - This is a small sci-fi con at Rosemont (where Fan Expo is) that I really like. It’s fun and quaint with a lively fan base that I did really well at last year. You should stop on by!

November 13-15 - Grand Rapids Comic Con (Grand Rapids, MI) - For the last two years, this was my best show ever. Can it compete with C2E2? Probably not, but I bet it’ll be a strong 2nd! It’s a fantastic show with some of the coolest talent and Artist Alley vendors I’ve ever seen and Grand Rapids itself is dope as hell. Really love this show and I can’t wait to see you there!

What We’re Reading

(Dalton’s Pick) They say you can never really go home again, and, yeah, there’s definitely some truth to that. It’s been so long since I’ve had anything to contribute to this newsletter that some of you new subscribers probably don’t even know who the other half of this team is! That’s okay, though, I’m more than happy to trade a bit of notoriety (or lack thereof) for the time I’ve gotten with my new family.

Being a dad is the absolute most stressful and chaotic and beautiful thing that has ever happened to me, but that’s meant a lot of what I love doing had to be put away for a little while. I couldn’t just read comics or play video games or watch TV like I used to (screen time for baby and all that). But what’s really hit me hard was the fact that I haven’t been able to consistently sit at my desk for any significant amount of time and create something new. And guys, that sucks.

I’ve been so sleep deprived and on edge for the past year that my mind has barely had time to wander and get lost in creating anything of value for myself (heck, even the shower thoughts have vanished). I’ve begun to feel really disconnected from what I used to love. Sure, I’d try to make it out to the comic shop every Wednesday, but comics haven’t excited me in a long time. I’ve just been…removed. And it’s started to feel like getting back in the saddle is nearly impossible. How do you move that damned X-Wing when it’s been sitting in the swamp for so long, y’know?

But there’s been two things that have slowly but surely been rekindling those dying logs in this mixed metaphor of a campfire. Firstly, I randomly decided to start reading Jed McKay’s X-Men run due to first-rate baddie Magik being on the team. And secondly (but more importantly), I’ve been playing Street Fighter 6.

Look, the internet hasn’t been kind to this new era of X-Men and I get it. It’s repetitive, kind of hollow, and more than creatively bankrupt in its attempt to cash in on the 90’s nostalgia brought on by X-Men ‘97. But I can’t help but feel a sense of energy I’ve been missing from the superhero comics I normally consume. My taste in comics has grown so much over the decades that I think I’ve forgotten what it was like to just be a kid reading a silly soap opera about cartoon characters with laser beams coming out of their eyes. Like, is it dumb? Yeah. Is it deep? Nah. Is it cool, though? I mean, yeah, sometimes.

Where the real fire was lit, however, was in Street Fighter 6. This game continues to break records for fighting games, so I won’t go into why it’s so great here. What’s relevant to the conversation is that I care about it at all. I’ve written previously about getting into the Marvel vs. Capcom collection that came out, but I had no idea that I would fall so damned hard for Street Fighter. Guys, I’m bad at this game. Legendarily so. And yet, somehow, I haven’t quit. I keep getting my ass kicked and I keep getting up. That’s usually not who I am. I usually pivot when I meet challenges. I’ve always been the “if it doesn’t come easy, why bother” kind of guy.

But here I am, fighting for my life in ranked and demanding better of myself! And after a summer of small, half-hour sessions here and there, I’ve managed to hit gold rank. A far cry from the coveted Master rank, but it’s only a matter of time. I’ve proved to myself that I can do hard things. That I actually have a bit of a competitive nature underneath all the snark I’ve built up over the decades. I’ve proved that I’m still a little bit human.

Between X-Men and Street Fighter, I’ve been rediscovering a childhood joy I didn’t realize I had been missing. I always talk about making sure comics are dumb and fun, but that’s always been in a critical kind of light, a historical bit of superiority built upon studying Jack Kirby comics and a dismissal of serious stories about men in tights. I’ve forgotten what it can be like to just let go and enjoy a dumb comic book again. To challenge myself and discover what I’m capable of.

I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to sit at my desk and create full blown comics again. Life has a nasty way of making you realize how few hours there are to get anything done. But this fire I’ve felt inside of me is inspiring. And I’ve just recently dived back into a few scripts for upcoming Frankenstein stories and I felt that spark again. I can do hard things. I can find joy in childish pursuits. I can be creative. All while still being a good husband and father.

Discovering that balance after all this time is freeing. Which means you’ll be seeing more of me from here on out.

You’ve been warned.

Cocktail of the Month

In need of a vacation? Bring the damn beach too you (since it’s raining too much to go for real)! This is one of my favorite cocktails for how it mixes tangy, sweet, funky, and sour flavors in a package that’s fun to make if you do it properly. Let’s talk about the Mai Tai!

Recipe:

• 1oz Light Rum (Bicardi works great)

• 1/2oz Dark Rum (I like Plantation)

• 3/4oz Lime Juice

• 3/4oz Dry Curacao

• 3/4oz Orgeat Syrup

Shake vigorously and serve over crushed ice. If you have a wooden mallet and Lewis bag, I encourage you to crush the ice cubes yourself for a fun tactile experience!

Let’s get this out of the way first, Mai Tais don’t have orange juice in them. If your bartender tries to serve you a Mai Tai with orange juice, execute them on the spot. The sweetness should come from the Orgeat, which is an almond syrup that plays with the Curacao (an orange licor) in a really unique way that cannot be replicated with orange juice no matter how fresh.

This cocktail is wonderful, one of a kind, and really brings out the best of summer. I encourage you to find a bartender that knows how to make it and become very good friends with them if you’re unwilling to work through the process yourself. Enjoy!

Adventures in Cat Snake Ownership?

I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now, but last year at Capital City Comic Con was probably the turning point. There’s a Michigan Reptile Rescue that sets up a booth there and has a variety of geckos, turtles, and, to the point, snakes set up for adoption.

Here’s some Wells lore for you: I’ve always had cats and I love them dearly, but when I was younger I also had dogs, hedgehogs, turtles, a chinchilla, and a huge variety of other animals around the house. It was probably not a good idea, but it’s how I lived for the formative years of my life.

You know what I’ve never had though? A snake. So after a year of plotting out the logistics and convincing my wife the idea isn’t totally insane, I have an announcement to make (drumroll please).

Meet Caraxes! He’s a Mexican Black Kingsnake (no, he’s not venomous, no, he won’t get big enough to eat me or the cats) and I love his stupid face!

He’s roughly six months old at this point and, while he’s growing pretty quickly, he’s still fairly small at about 15 inches long. I decided on this species based on a variety of factors: 1) He’s easy! It’s pretty hard to mess up the conditions he needs to thrive and as long as I’m not overfeeding him (unlike a ball python, he will not refuse a meal), he’ll live for a couple of decades no problem. 2) He’s charismatic! I see him doing stupid stuff constantly and, while he’s not attached to me like a dog, he has no problem with me holding him or being around his enclosure.

3) He’s beautiful! I mean, just look at him. Jet black with a beautiful iridescence on his belly and curious little face. 4) He’s a sweet little baby! Kingsnakes are generally known for being nippy and food motivated and, while MBKs are certainly food motivated, they tend to be a lot more chill and less likely to mistake your hand for a mouse than your average California King.

I’m really excited to have him around and I can’t wait until he grows big enough to wrap around my arm rather than my palm. Don’t worry, this newsletter will still primarily be focusing on the cats, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to introduce the newest addition to our household!

That’s all for today!

Wells Thompson

I’ve been going nonstop for as long as I can remember and, it’s really, REALLY caught up with me. Partially that’s been out of fear of missing the momentum—you have to capitalize on when things are good and ride the wave whenever possible in this profession. Unfortunately, things aren’t always good, as I’m sure you’ve all been feeling. No one has any money, publishers are barely holding on, and interest on Kickstarter has visibly wained for everyone (and when that’s your primary source of income, yikes!). So, instead of grinding myself into dust…

What We’re Working On!

Nothing! At least, nothing publically. I’m doing something I probably should have done before now and officially taking a break. Not permenantly, just long enough to catch my breath and get in a position where I actually want to make comics again.

Don’t worry, I still plan on continuing work on The Scorpion and the Queen, Love is Simple, and a few other projects that are in the pipeline, and I’m not abandoning any projects that still need to be fulfilled. But, at the moment, I am not actively working on a Kickstarter campaign in any stage of prelaunch, nor am I pressuring myself to get anything made right now.

There’s a couple of reasons for this, the first being that I don’t like having to ask people that are struggling for their money and attention. I’ve had a number of long time fans reach out to me and apologize that they can’t support the single issues right now, that money is tight and they want to be there, but it’s just not feasible. If that’s you, never apologize for taking care of yourself first. The economy will eventually get better and my comics will be there when it does.

Second, I have been putting myself second for a long time, and it’s taking its toll. I abandoned my workout schedule, I’ve been eating like crap, and I’ve utterly failed to manage my stress during any part of this year. When I made the decision to take a break, I felt something shift in my chest and I realized how necessary it was to go through with it. Telling stories is everything to me, but it’s not worth losing my health over—physical or mental.

I’ll keep updating the newsletter, but don’t expect any news about new comics for at least a few months. I just need some time to develop good habits and be a human again. Cool? Thanks.

Convention Schedule

September 12-13 - Printer’s Row Lit Fest (Chicago, IL) - Beautiful, historic downtown Chicago and books as far as the eye can see. And hey, I’ll be there too! It’s a gorgeous outdoor festival with all sorts of authors, local book stores, publishers, and street food. Definitely recommend checking it out!

November 13-15 - Grand Rapids Comic Con (Grand Rapids, MI) - For the last two years, this was my best show ever. Can it compete with C2E2? Probably not, but I bet it’ll be a strong 2nd! It’s a fantastic show with some of the coolest talent and Artist Alley vendors I’ve ever seen and Grand Rapids itself is dope as hell. Really love this show and I can’t wait to see you there!

What We’re Reading

(Wells’s Pick) If you’ve been here a while, you know I’m a horror game enthusiast. Actually, just a horror enthusiast, but I also love video games, so I often have a lot to say about horror games, and today I’d like to talk briefly about Amnesia: The Bunker. An immersive sim set in the trenches of World War I, this game throws you into a cold, hostile, dirty world of warfare and terror from the jump. It’s tense, it’s chaotic, you do not feel safe at any point, and even through you have a gun, you are never given any sense of power or control over the world around you.

And then, after all of that is established, you learn that a monster has eaten through your French comrades and you need to escape the titular bunker. It’s a surprisingly sophisticated experience given how short and compact the actual game is, but rather than gush for several paragraphs about the various systems and gamplay decisions that make this a unique vision of horror, I want to briefly discuss how this game discusses its subject matter without ever bringing it up directly.

There’s a sequence that, by the game’s own lack of direction, might happen very early or very late in your playthrough, but is required at some point to progress as you gather essential items to aid you in escaping the maze of tunnels and traps that you and a very large, angry monster are trapped in together. Regardless of when it comes, you’ve been trapped in the Bunker long enough to want out independent of any directly stated objective the game gives you and, in attempting to find a way, you’ve likely come across several grates that require a wrench to open.

You learn that the foreman who has the wrench has fled to the Pillbox, a structure in a bunker that serves as a sniper’s nest, peaking out above ground to survey No Man’s Land. When you finally reach the Pillbox (a harrowing journey in itself), you discover two things: 1) The foreman is dead. This isn’t surprising since everyone you’ve seen so far has been dead, but the real shock is that he isn’t mauled or burned, but shot through the eye. Before you can process this, you realize that 2) you could escape through the Pillbox if you crawl through the viewing window. Racing to try and force your character through the window, you think you may have found a loophole—then you hear a distinct crack somewhere in the distance.

If you survive the sniper shot, it will be just barely. Either way, in that moment, you will remember where you are and the true horror the game has to offer comes into sharp focus. There is no safety. Even if you can escape the undeniable terror of the Beast crawling through the Bunker, there will be nowhere to run. There is a war going on around you that is every bit as senseless and cruel as what you’ve experienced inside, and though you must press on, you know then that Henri’s fate is sealed.

As much as I love games like Spec Ops: The Line and novels like Slaughterhouse-Five, media that confronts the horrors of war directly, there’s a sense of futility in attempting to recreate that horror 1-to-1. Even in the Prologue of Vonnegut’s novel, he notes a conversation with an aquainance asking him “Why don’t you write anti-glacier novels instead?” for all the good that writing an anti-war novel will do.

What I appreciate about Amnesia: The Bunker, beyond its gameplay and atmosphere, is the degree to which it is able to make an anti-war statement not by commenting directly on the war, but by equating the feeling of being a soldier to being trapped, hunted and desperate with your friends and allies dead or dying around you, trying to fight off a monster that simply cannot be stopped. It’s an excellent example of how to approach storytelling thematically without sacrificing subtly or craft and, in doing so, allows you to experience a kind of horror that is visceral and haunting because it was you that discovered it.

It’s very much the kind of horror story I hope I get to write one day.

Cocktail of the Month

You know what? Let’s talk about a quick recipe that isn’t actually a cocktail, but that I feel you could probably use in these sweltering summer months. My wife taught me how to do this when I started gardening during the pandemic and it’s become an invaluable part of how I deal with yardwork and other such unpleasantness during this time. Let’s make some mint tea!

Recipe:

• 10 - 15 branches full of leaves of a mint plant

• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of sugar

• Hot water

Pick the leaves and wash them in cold water while your hot water boils. When the water is ready, mix in the sugar until it dissolves, then add your mint leaves. Allow it to steep for 10-15 minutes, then remove most of the leaves. Let the tea cool and then move it to the fridge in a pitcher and enjoy over the course of the next week!

WARNING: If you’re thinking of planting mint to make this, DO NOT plant the mint in the ground—it’s highly invasive and will take over any space you put it in. Plant it in a hanging planter annually or a barrel for best results year over year.

I alternate using spearmint and chocolate mint from my garden since you need quite a bit of the plant to make the tea as potent as it should be, but both varieties create a wonderful little drink that will refresh and delight. And if you need it to be alcoholic, add rum or gin and thank me later!

Adventures in Cat Ownership!

We started fostering again! It’s been a long while, but it was time to bomb our house with kitten smell and love up some fosters waiting for a forever home! We start our journey with the delightfully named Pita and Hummus!

Pita, the boy, is a rat bastard that views any vertically oriented object as a direct challenge to be climbed and overcome. He’s an absolute sweetheart that purrs like an engine and wants nothing more than to be the center of your universe.

Hummus, meanwhile, is a dignified sort of lady that, somehow, by magic, finds a way to be ALWAYS WET! I don’t know how she does it. True, we were keeping her in the bathroom, but the foscets were securely off and there was no leak (we checked. A lot). Yet time and time again, we’d pick her up and, yup, that’s a wet foot. Now I have to find a towel, which she will use as an opportunity to escape into the house!

These two were so sweet and a wonderful reintroduction to the world of fostering. They’re being put out at the Catcade in Chicago sometime this month and they WILL get snatched up, so if you’re looking for a pair of truly wonderful kittens, don’t delay!

That’s all for now, talk soon!

Wells Thompson

This last month has, transparently, not been easy. I’ve been fighting (and losing) a battle against Stripe, my creative output is basically nonexistant, and the last convention I did was crushingly disappointing. However, I’m currently working on a bunch of really cool projects and I still get to work with some amazing artists, so I’m trying to take it in stride as the economy erupts from underneath our collective feet and burnout hits an all time high. Fun!

What We’re Working On!

The campaign for the 5 anniversary special edition of Descent into Dread is still going for another week! We’re about 75% funded and I’m hoping to close that out before the last day of the campaign so we can get our collaborators some extra cash. For those not familiar, this book collects the first short comics that Dalton and I wrote when we started on the con circuit. We’ve come a long way since then and have updated the anthology accordingly, with updated lettering, new covers, and a brand new story to enjoy!

Preorder Descent into Dread Today!

We’ve been working on a new project in the Frankenstein the Unconquered universe centering around The Bride during her time in the Cold War. It’s a super fun crack at the spy thriller genre with an odd ball cast of characters and some of the coolest fight scenes we’ve ever written! We’ll be showing off more details as they come, but for now, I thought you might want a peek at our first cover by the wonderful Eileen Widjaja!

We’ve been quietly working on more By Appointment Only for a full trade release sometime next year and the pages so far are incredible! Natalie Nardozza is bringing a really beautiful poise and warmth to the characters that I’m really enjoying. I think, of all the scripts I’ve written, this is my number one or two in terms of what I’m most proud of, so it makes me really happy to see progress being made on it.

Finally, I was recently on a podcast! I know that’s not huge news, but this isn’t the normal comic podcast circuit I’ve been on before—instead I was on a podcast called Femmes Reading Filth, which invited me on to talk about Star Trek fan fiction (it’s way more interesting than it sounds) after we met at C2E2 and they grabbed my book Smut. It was a really fun conversation and I’d encourage you all to take a listen! My episode is the most recent one (at time of writing) titled “Pon Farr.”

Listen to Femmes Reading Filth

Convention Schedule

July 10-12 - Capital City Comic Con (Lansing, MI) - One of my favorite shows every year, this is the one I recommend to everyone, newcomers and convention veterans alike! It’s got incredible talent without being overly crowded and plenty to do without being overstimulating. If you’ve ever wanted to buy some comics, get a commissioned drawing of your cat, and hold a Burmese Python around your shoulders all on the same day, this is the show for you!

September 12-13 - Printer’s Row Lit Fest (Chicago, IL) - Beautiful, historic downtown Chicago and books as far as the eye can see. And hey, I’ll be there too! It’s a gorgeous outdoor festival with all sorts of authors, local book stores, publishers, and street food. Definitely recommend checking it out!

We’ll have more shows later in the year and possibly some signings in between, but we’re slowing down a bit after a really busy Spring and early Summer!

What We’re Reading

(Wells’s Pick) It’s easy to get cynical in this field. There’s a lot of stuff in indie comics that is, cheritably, painfully mediocre. Worse, a lot of what winds up being super successful is so devoid of substance that you wind up questioning what it is you’re even doing here after reading it (or maybe that’s just me). On the other hand, you get a lot of people who are scrappy and rough around the edges that you want to support, but know that if you say anything too critical it won’t be taken well.

All that to say, very occasionally, you read something that comes from an independent writer that’s just great. No caviats, it’s just great all around, and it revitalizes your faith in the whole of the industry—surely, if this can be allowed to exist, then it’s not all broken. I’ve spoken before about Side Quest and The House of Lowther, both of which very much embody that spirit of “this is what storytelling is FOR!”, but I recently finished Ian Mondrick’s Tomb series and I’m overjoyed to say we have another banger on our hands.

The premise itself is fairly routine—four stories about the breaking of the seals of the four horseman of the apocalypse set in modern times. The execution, however, is so flawless that you forget any cliche that might otherwise have you rolling your eyes. Each story is radically different in tone, unified by a gorgeously painted art style and an overarching feeling of crushing dread. New characters are introduced and given fully realized archs in each story culminating in some of the most spectacular comic storytelling I’ve seen out of any publisher or writer in all my time doing this.

Frankly, it’s the kind of book I don’t want to give too many details on because you need to experience it for yourself. Buy it, read it, let it grip your soul and give you hope for the future of this medium. We live in an age of ultimate disposability, where the story you tell about yourself is far more important than the story you put on the page—it’s not a period that’s going to look good in the long run.

Tomb is everything I want out of a horror story, everything I want out of an indie comics, everything I want as a storyteller. It’s full of surprises, visceral moments, complex characters, excellent writing, and some of the best art you could ask for. There’s a lot that makes me worry about the age we’re living in, but this series is one of the few things that really gave me hope. When we get stories like this one that just work on every level, it’s important that we celebrate them and I hope you join me in doing just that.

Click here for Ian's website

Cocktail of the Month

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hit with so many days that are simultaneously hot and rainy that I’m starting to just accept that if I go outside I’m going to wind up wet—whether it’s from the rain or the sweat, my shirt is going to get sticky and awful. So, let’s make a cocktail that helps us relax in these odd summer days, and what more fitting cocktail than the Dark ’n’ Stormy!

Recipe:

• 2oz Dark Rum

• 1/2oz lime juice

• 4oz Ginger beer

Fill a Collins glass with cubed or crushed ice and build the drink directly in the glass. Ginger beer and lime juice first, then use a bar spoon to gently float the dark rum to create a distinct layer on top. Stir lightly, garnish with a lime wedge, and enjoy!

This riff on a Moscow mule is originally from Bermuda and embodies a sort of easy drinking vibe while creating a distinct visual experience in the glass. It’s a really cool, funky cocktail that goes great on beach or looking out a rainy window—anywhere you feel cozy! This is an easy one to make at home with a little practice, but any bartender should be able to make this for you with what they’ve got laying around!

Adventures in Cat Ownership

We’re getting fosters soon! Sorry I don’t have new pictures for you now, but we’ve been going through a process with the local shelter to make sure we’re reliable and we’ve passed their background check which means we’ll be getting brand new faces in the house!

So excited! But, that does leave us in a spot for this month, so let’s enjoy some old favorites. I’d like to introduce you to my favorite “I told you so” in all of fostering: Meet Toni and Sammy.

Toni came from a feral liter that we literally found on our front door. As in, we opened the front door and saw a mother and two kittens tearing apart a bird. With some coaxing and a couple of well placed traps, we got them inside, named them, spayed them, and got them adopted. Eventually, anyway. You see while the mother, Layla, and Toni’s sassy sister, Agatha were ready for adoption relatively quickly, Toni was a more difficult case.

Toni was spicy, reticent, wanted nothing to do with anyone, and reminded us constantly that she did not like us or anyone else. And I was in love with her. This is probably the closest I’ve ever come to folding and just adopting a foster myself, but I remained disciplined and worked to find a way to get her adopted. And then along came Sammy.

Sammy was a slightly older kitten that we took in from the shelter and it was obvious to me that Toni and Sammy immediately became a bonded pair. They were inseperable, they brought out the best in eachother, and it looked like Toni might just learn to tolerate people with Sammy by her side. Unfortunately, Sammy was scheduled to move to the adoption center and Toni wasn’t ready—and no one listened to me when I said they were bonded.

Skipping over a lot of details, both Toni and Sammy regressed A LOT. Sammy started hiding and lashing out at the staff of the adoption center, Toni became even more reticent, and it looked like there wasn’t any hope for either of them. Sammy was returned to us after being deemed a danger to the staff and the two were reintroduced in our bathroom. And like magic, they both returned to being delightful and everyone in the universe had to admit that I was correct: they were a bonded pair and separating them was tramatic.

Eventually they were adopted together by a patient family and I hear that Toni has come a long way from hissing behind the toilet to being a lap cat. When I think about how hard fostering is, I remember Toni and Sammy and how much of a difference fostering made to them, not just in getting them adopted, but in bringing them together and making sure they stayed together, and the work suddenly is worth it.

That’s all for this month!

Wells Thompson

Gonna start off with some housecleaning before we get into the meat of what I have to say. First of all, we’re a few days into our campaign for Descent into Dread and approaching the halfway mark in our funding goal. For reasons that will be explored later, we really appreciate any support you can give for this campaign, and all our books in general!

Preorder Descent into Dread!

This weekend I’m going to be at 3 Rivers Comic Con in Pittsburgh, PA, so if you’re in the area, please come and say hi! I love talking to fans and, while cons can be exhausting, they’re often the highlights of my year as far as comics goes.

Now, about Stripe…

Two weeks ago, I got an email that I didn’t think much of—Stripe, the payment processor behind Kickstarter and BackerKit, needed some information about my business. This didn’t concern me at time because I’ve done this dance before. When I was doing my campaigns for Smut, they reliably sent these emails and nothing came of it because, despite the name, it was obvious to any one that was actually paying attention that there was nothing wrong with the book from a ToS perspective.

That is not how this audit went down. Instead of following the very simple lines of logic that led them to believe nothing was wrong a year ago, they have opted to fully nuke my business account with no ability to appeal. As a result, much of my back end and ability to work with BackerKit has been shut down.

I’m not going to get into the myriad of ways this is bullshit—everyone knows Stripe’s policies are unevenly enforced, thinly veiled tools of censorship that empower a glorified credit card magnetic strip to shut down businesses based on vibes and unaccountable, faceless ghouls. Instead, I’d like to focus, just for now, on how this affects people on a human level.

I have been working for nearly six years to build up an online audience that depends entirely on a level of trust between me and my readership. If they don’t trust that I can deliver on my promises, I have nothing. For six years now, I have been working my ass off to prove that every time I say something will happen, I’m going to make it happen. Sometimes there are delays, sometimes things don’t go exactly according to plan—The Catskin and the Rose went a year and half over schedule due to problems with the artist, but that book eventually got done.

For the first time, I’m in a position where I may not get to follow up on my promises entirely because of an entity I never even wanted to work with. It’s a small thing, but there are people who will attempt to buy things or turn in their BackerKit surveys late that I will have no ability to follow up on. They are violating trust on my behalf.

And that sucks, but where trust has really been severed is between me and Kickstarter. This incident has not affected my ability to make campaigns and they didn’t do anything to block money from the campaign that they took issue with (no idea why, but I guess that’s a win), but my confidence that I can make good on my promises has been shattered. Everything is now filtered through the veil of “assuming Stripe doesn’t decide to fuck me over again on this.”

I cannot remember a time I didn’t want to write and tell stories, it’s been a part of me for as long as I’ve wanted anything. But right now, with these obstacles and violations put in front of me, I am for the first time having trouble even wanting to try. “What’s the point?” Has never once crossed my mind. Until now. Because if the only real source of funding that I have to make my comics gets cut out from under me by a pointless middle man who’s only job it is to charge credit cards and hand the money over to me FOR NO REASON and I have NO RECOURSE in the situation, that means I can’t promise my artists payment for their work or my readers a book at the end of the process.

I feel incredibly burnt out. Things were already pretty bad, gas is over $5/gallon where I live, the news is an endless parade of stress and idiotic decisions made by a government that seems desperate to speed the collapse and pick apart the carcass of the place we’re all forced to live. I can’t blame my readers for prioritizing getting groceries over buying my comics, but now I can’t even promise to the people that stick around that their investment in me is secure.

For weeks, I received emails from Stripe with the exact same format, same greeting, same clumsy citation of vague rules that didn’t do anything to explain what I had done to violate their terms of service, same insistance that I should find a payment processor that does support my kind of business (ignoring again that I didn’t choose to work with them, Kickstarter and BackerKit did). All these emails were signed, first name only, by different people. John, Raj, Zach, Devon. People that almost certainly didn’t exist.

For weeks, I argued with a faceless, nameless AI that I wasn’t actually violating their terms of service, until I was told (maybe by a real person?) that my case was final and there was nothing I could do to appeal. This whole process was designed to make me feel powerless. And it worked.

I don’t yet know what this fully means for my ability to make comics, in a financial business sense, but on a personal level, I have never felt more pessimistic about my ability to do this. Not because I did anything wrong or because people don’t want my books, but because there is no guarantee that my career won’t once again be upended by a soulless AI created by equally soulless corporate ghouls for completely inscrutable reasons.

I hope that soon I am inspired to write again, but there’s a weight on me right now that makes me worry that anything I create will be imbued with a bitterness and cynicism for the future that can only produce a kind of story I don’t want to tell. I wish I had a more hopeful message to end on, but here we are. Things suck, the future is broken, and I don’t know when or if it’ll get better.

Ironically, this comes at a time when my live events, conventions and signings and the like, have never been better. When it’s me and a real person talking about comics and stories, it’s obvious that what we’ve made over these last six years is special and connects with people. But online, where no one has a face and an AI can shut you down if it doesn’t like your keywords, things feel pretty bleak.

Talk soon, hopefully with a more optimistic attitude.

Wells Thompson

Hope everyone is doing okay, it feels like things are getting harder and harder all the time. I know several artists struggling with hand injuries, gas prices have me thankful I mostly take the train, and at no point in the last month have I looked at the news and thought “oh yeah, today’s gonna be great!” All that to say, the sun is out, comics are still wonderful, and Quelaag (my beloved) has been spending every night sleeping under the covers in my arms, so I’ll take the wins where I can get them. Let’s get to it!

What We’re Working On!

First thing’s first, Love is Simple has less than a week left on Kickstarter and I’m so happy that we’re fully funded! This project makes me so happy, you have no idea, and getting to share it with our fans is the only thing giving me hope in this messed up world we live in. If you haven’t checked it out, now would be the time to do so—we’re on the verge of giving out some free comics to our backers and unlocking some really cool stretch goals!

Preorder Love is Simple Today!

We’re also gearing up for our 6 year anniversary release of Descent into Dread! Why 6 year? Because we had a 5-year contract and we last year we were busy! This new edition comes with updated lettering on select stories (that really needed it), a digest sized option, new covers, and a brand new story drawn by Bianca Milanez! This is the debut of the prelaunch page and we’re super excited to be sharing it with you first!

Sign up for Prelaunch!

For fans of shiny objects, we’re also working on a new round of enamel pins for those that need your daily affirmations to be a little bit more interesting and relatable! If you missed the first two rounds, fret not, we’re bringing all of them to Kickstarter along with three brand new designs! I find it’s nice to have some low stakes, just for fun projects in between the new releases, so enjoy!

Finally, as a smaller for fun update, I’m working on a video game? My brother, Turner, has been doing nomad things for the past 15 years, but recently called me up with an idea for an auto-battler that had me laughing hysterically from the jump. Ever since, we’ve been talking about ideas, enemy types, possible events and a couple of days ago we made it official! I am now officially a story writer on Maid Cafe: Tactics! Not sure how proud of that I should be, but here we are. Sign up for beta testing or just to get news on when it releases.

Follow Maid Cafe: Tactics here!

Convention Schedule

May 22-24 - Cherry Captial Comic Con (Traverse City, MI) - Big shout out to Source Point Press for introducing me to the organizer of this show! This will be my first time going up to Northern Michigan (not the upper peninsula) and from what I hear it’s a fantastic show! Can’t wait to see some of you there!

June 6-7 - 3 Rivers Comic Con (Pittsburgh, PA) - I think this is my first time ever in Pennsylvania, evidenced by how many times it took me to spell the state correctly just now. Source Point got me into this show and I can’t wait to meet people out on the East Coast!

June 13-14 - Crusader Con (Valparaiso, IN) - This is a new show for me in Northwest Indiana! Every time I go to this reigon, the fans feel super energized and I have a great time, so I’m really looking forward to what more NWI has to offer!

July 10-12 - Capital City Comic Con (Lansing, MI) - One of my favorite shows every year, this is the one I recommend to everyone, newcomers and convention veterans alike! It’s got incredible talent without being overly crowded and plenty to do without being overstimulating. If you’ve ever wanted to buy some comics, get a commissioned drawing of your cat, and hold a Burmese Python around your shoulders all on the same day, this is the show for you!

What We’re Reading!

(Wells’s Pick) Last month, I had a really great time at Kalamazoo Comic Con, both for the sales and getting to meet various artists and vendors. One such guest was 90s comics superstar Margeaux Pepoy, who was both really sweet and, unfortunately, not having a great weekend herself. But, it gave me a chance to talk with her and pick up her book, which was a really fun look into a style of comics I personally never got into.

Simone and Ajax is an episodic comedic/adventure(?) comic about the titular characters, a woman and her pet(?) dinosaur that feels a little like the product of a bygone era. If you told me this came out in the 60s or 70s and I didn’t know better, I’d probably believe you. Some of that comes down to the writing which, as a lot of comedic writing tends to do, is showing its age, but really it’s because you don’t get this kind of comic strip-esque dynamic in independent comics anymore, at least not in this form.

Every line is either the set up or payoff for a joke, every panel involves some sight gag, and there is no empty space or slow characters moments. It is all 100% go—and there’s a real charm in that! I found myself quickly and extremely endeared to Simone’s wacky adventures and Ajax’s weary straight man tendencies even as none of it particularly surprised me. Truthfully, it feels like this was the pregenitor of the modern gag-a-day webcomic, a whirlwind of one-off jokes and sight gags that may not build to a character arc or overarching plot, but are nonetheless well paced, carefully constructed, and a joy to read.

It’s a style of writing I’ve never truly entertained, but sitting with it made me reconsider what I think of as “good writing” or what makes a story worth telling. It’s probably not something I’ll dive fully into myself, but I think it’s always worth remembering that you never have your craft 100% figured out and things can still surprise you in unexpected ways.

All of this to say, I recommend it, and not just because Margeaux regularly comes to my neighborhood and I’m not looking to catch hands! It’s fun, charming, and a delightful way to pass an afternoon.

Cocktail of the Month

Need to get turnt but also need to stay awake? Do it the classy way with a cocktail that mixes delicious alcohol with caffeine! That’s right, we need to talk about how to make this drink properly, because there are a lot of bars out there who think they can get away with flavored vodka and an espresso bean for a garnish. Not so, friends, let’s discuss the espresso martini!

Recipe:

• 2oz Vodka (any will do, but unflavored for the love of God!)

• 1 double shot of espresso

• 1/2oz syrup (ideally gum syrup or demurara for volume, but simple will do you fine)

• 1/4 oz chocolate liqueur (Licor 43 makes a great one, I use one from Curacao)

Shake agressively and double strain into a chilled diva glass. You should get a nice thick head of foam, feel free to garnish with espresso beans if you’re fancy.

This drink is often derided as basic with an overly extracted taste, and that reputation comes from bartenders that take shortcuts and don’t make the drink properly. If you’re using real espresso and especially if you have access to a nice thick gum syrup, the drink will have a full body, great balance of flavors, and do it’s job of keeping you up for a few hours past your bedtime! If you don’t want to make this at home, at least ask your bartender if they make it with real espresso before you order!

Adventures in Cat Ownership

Have you met my God-son, Artie, aka Artifur, aka Artemis, aka Thurt?

My friend Bovi and their wife Violet have this cat that I’ve babysat for a couple of times and who’s birthday is coming up soon (naturally, there will be a celebration and gathering celebrating him), so I figured now would be a good time to talk about this little weirdo.

My understanding is that Artie was originally someone else’s cat, someone that was rather irresponsible and feeding him garbage for fun, so eventually Bovi took claim of the little guy and they’ve been together ever since.

Artie is about to turn 10 years old, which is bordering on geratric for a cat, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at him. Not because he looks young, it’s just that he’s ALWAYS looked like a gremlin and sounds like he’s been smoking four packs a day since he could light his own cigarettes

But if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that Thurt is loved dearly, evidenced by the torrent of photos I received when I asked if I could feature him in this newsletter. Seriously, both Bovi and Violet insisted on giving me their own personalized selections and they were extensive! Love this little dude, can’t wait for his birthday party. What treat would you give him for turning 10? Sound off in the comments! Or don’t, I’m not your dad.

That’s all for now,

Wells Thompson

Before we get into it, let’s do some quick house cleaning:

• I’ll be at Alley Cat Comics this Saturday for Free Comic Book Day, so if you’re in the Chicago area, particularly Edgewater/Uptown/Wrigglyville, come say hi and get a book!

• We’re in the middle of our Kickstarter campaign for Love is Simple, our retelling of Greek Mythology from the Ringo winning team that brought you Smut. We’re 93% funded and we’d like to get that locked down, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, click here to do so!

• I’ll also be going live on Youtube/Twitch with Comix 4 All this Saturday at 7pm CST, here’s the link to that, if you want to ask a question or say hi, there will be a chat function that we’ll be paying attention to!

Okay, now onto the heavy stuff.

Today is my Birthday…

That’s an odd place to start, but it’ll make sense in a bit. In August of 2019, my then girlfriend (now wife) Brianna told me we were going on a trip, refusing all details. I couldn’t complain, I’d pulled the same trick on her in order to take her to a large cat sanctuary, realizing a dream she didn’t know she had in the process. Her trip for me was much shorter, she took me to our friend Vicki’s house, and in that house was a small, long haired orange kitten they’d pulled out from under a shed a few weeks earlier.

Earlier that year, we’d adopted an elderly long haired orange cat named Darcy, who tragically was already terminally ill. We took care of him for as long as we could and we were with him to say goodbye. That was one of the hardest days of my life.

Now I was face to face with a perfect little kitten with the same fur and color pattern as Darcy and I found myself saying “how dare you!” as I clutched the little cat to my heart and refused to give him up. He was about 4 months old, which made his birthday sometime at the end of April, the same as mine. We named him Cornifer and we took him home shortly after.

Raising a kitten is not always fun. We didn’t know this at the time, but that shed they pulled Cornifer from? COVERED in ringworm. He infected all of our other cats and ourselves with the fungus, which required several rounds of medication and sulphur lime baths (which smells like rotton eggs) to fully rid ourselves of. He was also, like all kittens and teenagers, a bit of a bastard, terrorizing everyone in the house and destroying anything he could put in his mouth.

He was also, and please understand that I say this with pure affection, dumber than a sack of hammers. He would frequently take his naps in the corner of my office on top of the internet router, which has a bright blue light that would shine directly into his eyelid. We attempted to move him many times, but he seemed to really like it.

He would get himself trapped in closets believing that he could find food in there that we were hiding and more than once he woke us up in the middle of the night because he saw something out the window and got scared. It was his reflection. Cornifer was a terminally unserious cat and we loved him to death for it. He brought a joy to our lives that was almost imperceptible until, suddenly, it wasn’t there anymore.

I won’t get into the details because, frankly, they aren’t anyone’s business. He appeared to be perfectly healthy, even to the vet who examined him only a month prior, but when he went in for dental surgery, the surgeon was worried about an atypical heartbeat and sent him home without putting him under for fear of something going wrong. We set up an appointment to check out his heart, but it was too late and he was gone just a few hours later. The timing is difficult to stomach, even now, but it was no one’s fault—not ours, not the vet’s, certainly not his. Just a cruel twist of fate, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Cornifer would have been 7 years old today as I turn 33. He was with us through two cross country moves, never met a soul he could be best friends with, and had the stinkiest breath of any cat I’ve ever fostered or owned (which he would often share with you by licking the inside of your nostril). I will never stop caring about animals or fostering and adopting cats, but this is the part of the adventure that isn’t fun to talk about, or experience.

There’s quote I think about all the time, written by C.S. Lewis reflecting on the death of his wife, “The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That’s the deal.” It’s a paralyzing thought, one that’s intensely vulnerable and raw to consider, but even moreso to experience. But I think it’s worth remembering that the alternative, to never love or experience that joy just to avoid the pain of loss, that isn’t a life worth living.

Cornifer brought us so much happiness and his absence is crushing, but if I knew then what I know now, I would make the same choices and love him just as much. I guess this was always in the path of having a segment in the newsletter about cat ownership. Here’s the honest truth, I don’t believe that lives are there for us to moralize or learn lessons from, but if there is something I can give to you by writing this, I hope it’s this:

You will have to say Goodbye to your pets at some point, don’t let that scare you from loving them every day.

I love you, baby boy. Every single day.

Wells Thompson

The time is finally here and our newest comic is now Live on Kickstarter!

We’re so excited to debut this funny, sexy comic that asks “What if the reason the Greeks had 7 words for love and we only have one is because Aphrodite had a massive existential crisis and made it everyone else’s problem?” Pressing stuff, I know, but someone had to set the record straight!

We’re already 75% funded with nearly 300 backers and we’d love to have you join those ranks!

Preorder Love is Simple #1 Today!

Love is Simple is a 5-part comic miniseries from the creative team behind the Ringo Award winning comic SMUT! This is our retelling of Greek Mythology as a supernatural erotic comedy, focusing on Aphrodite's identity crisis after she (totally accidentally) caused the Trojan War, her friendship with Persephone, and the relationship drama (and tons of sex) she causes by trying to force love to be less complicated. Think Lore Olympus meets Sex Criminals.

Click here to support the comic!

Thanks,

Wells Thompson

We’re in a moment of extreme contrasts right now—on the one hand, we’re experiencing more success than ever with our convention presence and we’re gearing up for a really exciting launch that could be our biggest ever! On the other, a bright light in our home suddenly went out. It’s too painful to talk about now, but later this month I’ll be making a full tribute to Cornifer, who passed unexpectedly on Tuesday. For now though, let’s talk comics.

What We’re Working On!

On Monday, we launch our Kickstarter campaign for Love is Simple, our retelling of Greek Mythology from the same team that brought you Smut! We’re almost 400 prelaunch followers strong which marks a huge milestone for what we’ve done in the past. I’ll be honest, I’m nervous about this one. We have so much fun making it and we know people will love it, but I can’t help but be a nervous wreck right before we launch a big campaign. If you want to help calm my nerves, I’d love it if you’d sign up for the Prelaunch <3

Click here to sign up!

As a reminder, we’re pushing for a Ringo nominations for The Catskin and the Rose. Here’s all the reasons you should do that:

1. The series is super fun.

2. Sarah Barra/Skylar Patridge deserve accolades for their incredible work.

3. Sword lesbians are the future we want to build as a society.

4. It would be so funny to beat out DC or whatever for Best Original Graphic Novel.

5. Iselda is feminine rage incarnate and I love her.

   Click here to nominate Catskin!

Finally, I’ll tease a project we’re working on that we plan to debut later this year. Do you like Frankenstein the Unconquered? If not, educate yourself! While we’re toiling away writing book two of that series, we’re also working on a spin-off featuring The Bride of Frankenstein herself! It will have a slightly different tone, instead of the Conan-era pulp that Frank pulls from, we’re taking inspiration from James Bond and other Cold War thrillers and spy flicks. It’s gonna be a blast, just you wait!

Convention Schedule:

April 29th - Comic Signing at Chicago Comics (Chicago, IL) - On the Wednesday before Free Comic Book Day, I’ll be at one of my favorite shops in this amazing city to sign books and meet fans! Come on in, it’ll be awesome!

May 2nd - Free Comic Book Day at Alley Cat Comics (Edgewater, IL) - One of my favorite comic shops in Chicago, I’ll be spending the day at Alley Cat signing comics and hopefully remembering to eat! If you’ve never been to Alley Cat, it’s one of the coolest physical stores I’ve ever seen and I highly recommend you come check it out!

May 22-24 - Cherry Captial Comic Con (Traverse City, MI) - Big shout out to Source Point Press for introducing me to the organizer of this show! This will be my first time going up to Northern Michigan (not the upper peninsula) and from what I hear it’s a fantastic show! Can’t wait to see some of you there!

June 6-7 - 3 Rivers Comic Con (Pittsburgh, PA) - I think this is my first time ever in Pennsylvania, evidenced by how many times it took me to spell the state correctly just now. Source Point got me into this show and I can’t wait to meet people out on the East Coast!

June 13-14 - Crusader Con (Valparaiso, IN) - This is a new show for me in Northwest Indiana! Every time I go to this reigon, the fans feel super energized and I have a great time, so I’m really looking forward to what more NWI has to offer!

July 10-12 - Capital City Comic Con (Lansing, MI) - One of my favorite shows every year, this is the one I recommend to everyone, newcomers and convention veterans alike! It’s got incredible talent without being overly crowded and plenty to do without being overstimulating. If you’ve ever wanted to buy some comics, get a commissioned drawing of your cat, and hold a Burmese Python around your shoulders all on the same day, this is the show for you!

What We’re Reading Now!

You know what, we’re breaking out the big guns. With Love is Simple just around the corner, let’s talk about one of the key series that inspired our heel turn into the world of NSFW comics, Tim Seeley’s Money Shot!

When a group of research scientists can’t find funding for their interstellar travel, they do the only thing they can—open up an OnlyFans with the promise of going to strange new worlds and banging whatever weird aliens they find!

The premise itself is cute and gets a chuckle, particularly from my wife who works in science and is hyper aware of the funding problems that affect her work regularly. But if it were just a cute premise, I don’t think I’d be talking about it five years later. The fact is, this series fires on all cylinders: As a comedy, not a single joke misses and even the crude humor is carefully constructed. As smut, it does not disappoint, using a deft hand to create genuinely earned moments of eroticism and excitement that avoid reading as a “porn plot,” one that only exists to get to the good stuff.

But really, it’s the degree to which you come to care about the characters that makes this series memorable. You go into Money Shot expecting it to make you laugh, maybe hoping it’ll get you flustered, but you don’t expect it’ll ever make you choke up. As many laughs as there are to be had, Seeley and Beattie (and later Patton Oswalt) never waste a sincere moment on a throw away joke and that discipline creates an unforgetable experience.

I’ll admit that it’s not perfect, but what is? There’s a plot thread in the second arc of the story involving a parody of the American President that, while not unfunny or off base, can be hard to stomach if, like me, the news is a constant stressor. I also think the first arc is just stronger than the rest of the story with the occasional one-off vignettes proving that the series as a whole might be stronger and more compelling as a Star Trek style episodic rather than a series that leans on overarching plots.

All of that is pretty minor criticism though, it’s still better than almost anything else on the shelves and holds a place of honor next to Sunstone and Sex Criminals as the best comics about sex ever written. Vault is selling the first two arcs bundled together for something like $10, so you really have no excuse, go read this book as soon as you get the chance!

Cocktail of the Month

Am I repeating myself too much? Very well, I will repeat myself. With Spring around the corner and the sun shining bright for the first time in what feels like eternity, I have no choice but to advocate for the best cocktail you can make at home with absolutely no training whatsoever. Let’s talk about the Aperol Spritz!

Recipe:

• 1oz Soda Water (approximate)

• 2oz Aprol

• 3-4oz Prossecco (approximate)

Build in a wine glass, soda water first (the carbination helps mix the drink since it travels up through the other ingredients) over ice. Optionally garnish with an orange slice. Enjoy!

The favorite drink of Italy, this light, sweet and bitter cocktail is perfect for chilling out on a porch or lounging in front of a TV. My dad got obsessed with these right around the time I turned 21 and we spent a lot of time talking out in the sun with one of these sweating in our hands, so obviously I have some nostalgia about it. It’s a pretty idiot proof drink as well, so whether you’re taking a crack at it at home or not sure what to order at your local bar, there’s a good shot this drink will turn out just fine! Try not to down nine in a row and you’ll have a good time with it too, promise!

Adventures in Cat Ownership

Losing your furry friends is the hardest part, but it is a part of this journey we call being a Cat Dad. As I said above, it’s just too fresh to talk about right now, but I promise I’ll share a million pictures of my beautiful boy Cornifer as soon as I’m in a place to do so.

That’s all for now,

Wells Thompson

This past weekend, we met a ton of new and old fans at C2E2 and had our best show ever and we’ve only got more good news! For those of you who have been keeping up with the newsletter for a little bit, you know that the Ringo winning team behind SMUT has been crafting a new project and we’re finally ready to make our grand reveal to the world!

Sign up for Prelaunch!

Love is Simple is our erotic retelling of Greek mythology which follows the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite as she goes through an identity crisis following her “little whoopsie” of accidentally causing the Trojan War. It’s a sexy, hilarious romp through your favorite Greek Myths (and some you might not have heard before) that recontextualizes a ton of well known figures and delivers on everything that made Smut special!

We’ll be offering 20% off a limited amount of reward tiers for the first 48 hours of the campaign, so be sure to sign up to be notified on launch so you can pick up your copy at a discount! We’ll be showing off sample pages and (uncensored) covers as the prelaunch grows, but for now, as a thank you for being signed up for the Newsletter, here’s an exclusive first look at our cover from the exceptional Skylar Patridge that Brianna described thusly: “It made me consider.”

We have a special feeling about this book and we want it to really explode, but it’s you guys that will be the backbone of the project and ensure that that success is possible! Let’s hit a truly absurd number of prelaunch followers and make a project Kickstarter can’t ignore!

Get Notified on Launch Here!

Wells Thompson

Sorry we had to cut the last newsletter short, life has been busy and, let’s be real, stressful and I just didn’t have the time to do everything I usually do for the newsletter proper. Here’s part 2!

What We’re Reading!

(Wells’s Pick) Sometimes you just need to dive back into a classic. Brian Lee O’Malley has been a huge source of inspiration, both stylistically and just as a catalyst for loving the comicbook art form. Every couple of years I go back through Scott Pilgrim and sponge up that chaotic nostalgia, mentally cataloging all the buttery smooth transitions and background jokes and hyping myself up to make something that even approaches how fun those books are.

Then there are times when I don’t feel so great about myself, when I need to experience the cosmic horror of adulthood and the desparation for second chances that comes with it. And brother, that’s when I read Seconds.

I don’t know if I’m built to do an objective review of this book, because I will inevitably break down into an incoherent mix of wonder and cathartic sadness if I sit and think about it for too long. Following a young chef trying to open her second restaurant and running into just about every financial and mental obstacle she can find in the process, the book uses a heaping dose of folkloric fantasy to make the idea of second chances incredibly literal.

Using mystical mushrooms (not those kind), a magical notepad, and the spirit of the house that her first restaurant was built in, Katie (that’s the protagonist) is able to undo mistakes and claw back the consequences of her shortsighted actions, only to create worse consequences down the line. It’s a fairly standard time travel-adjacent plot when you think about it, but the execution is spectacular and the real star of the show is the emotional throughline. And the art, obviously—the book is gorgeous, but for my purposes, it’s the emotional throughline.

It absolutely nails the feeling of getting older and being in the painful position of having enough experience to recognize your mistakes but not quite enough wisdom to stop making them. The desperation that comes from hindsight and the painful realization that you haven’t been able to appreciate what’s right in front of you. It’s a comic about getting older in a strange and often cruel world and what that feels like. And right now, I’m feeling it.

I know I’ve painted this book as feeling quite drab and heavy, but the brilliance of it is that these emotions creep up slowly, most of the book feels light and pleasant to read through and, in true O’Malley style, goes down quick enough that you barely notice until it’s too late and you’re balling your eyes out at three in the morning. It’s one of my favorite books ever and I can’t recommend it enough!

Cocktail of the Month

Went sober this month, we’ll be back in April ;)

Adventures in Cat Ownership

When you foster cats and keep a roster of five around permenantly, there’s a number of thing you’re used to hearing, like “oh my God, that’s SO many!” or “How do you resist keeping all the ones you foster?” The one you might not expect is “You guys convinced me to give it a try,” but it’s something Brianna and I have heard repeatedly during our tenure as cat owners and, I’m happy to report, it’s recently happened again!

Our friend and her roommate, who shall remain nameless per their requests, recently fell in love with and adopted an older calico girl and we are the chief recepients of the blame. We’re also the chief recepients of photos of her, so we figured we’d let you enjoy!

Her name is Bitty, though Brianna has taken to calling her “G-Money” for reasons I can only speculate on. She’s very fond of sleeping on my friend’s legs and my friend has not developed the battle-hardened ability to move her, so they often find themselves reading for long periods while Bitty snoozes and cuts off the circulation to my friend’s feet. She is adorable and we wish her the best in her new home!

A Couple of Reminders!

I’ll be at C2E2 this upcoming weekend at Artist Alley booth H-06, so please stop by and say hi (and buy a comic)!

We’re in the last 48 hours of our campaign for The Scorpion and the Queen #2 and we’d really like to knock out some stretch goals to get everyone some free comics!

Preorder The Scorpion and the Queen!

And finally, we just put out a call for our graphic novella from last year, The Catskin and the Rose, to be nominated for a Ringo Award! It’s an open call for nominations so everyone is allowed to voice their opinion, just click the link and submit The Catskin and the Rose for the following categories:

Nominate us for a Ringo!

That’s all for now! More news coming soon!

Wells Thompson

Does anyone remember a time where things we’re the worst? It feels like “things are rough right now” has been the sentiment for so long that it’s just normal. Well, for what it’s worth, things feel especially rough right now, but we’re doing what we can to keep our heads above water and keep doing what we do. Let’s dive in, shall we!

What We’re Working On!

Before we get directly into what we’re working on, we’ve got a big ask to make (it’s free, don’t worry)! The Ringo Awards just opened up for nominations and, as you may recall, last year we took a chance on our book Smut and, against all odds, took home Best Humor Comic for 2025! This year, we want to keep the magic going if we can and get our comic The Catskin and the Rose nominated in the catagories down below! This book was an incredible challenge to make, but doing so remains one of the most rewarding achievements of my professional career and I’d love for the team to get their due.

Nominate The Catskin and the Rose!

Speaking of The Catskin and the Rose, the sequel, The Scorpion and the Queen, is still on Kickstarter for another week! We’re fully funded and looking to get some stretch goals made, so if you haven’t picked up your copy, what are you waiting for? We’re already inking pages and want to get this book made and out the door as soon as possible and your support will help us do just that! Here’s a quick look at one of the new pages!

Preorder The Scorpion and the Queen!

Looking ahead, we’re hard at work building up Love is Simple, our new mythological erotic comedy for an April launch! Showing it off is going to be…tricky and require some creative censoring, but here’s a quick look at one of the cover sketches (obviously, the real cover will be cleaned up significantly!)

Convention Schedule!

March 20th - Graham Cracker Signing (Chicago, IL) - I’ll be at Graham Cracker comics in the loop for a signing of my book Frankenstein the Unconquered (among others) this Friday! Come say hi!

March 27-29 - Chicago Comics Entertainment Expo (Chicago, IL) - This is the big one! After years of applying, I finally got into C2E2! I guess “Ringo Winner” really was the resume booster I needed, huh? Hope to see everyone there!

April 10-12 - Kalamazoo Comic Con (Kalamazoo, MI) - Love this medium sized con in central Michigan, it’s an incredible turnout for such an intimate space and it’s run by the Grand Rapids folks, so you know it’s gonna be fantastic.

May 2nd - Free Comic Book Day at Alley Cat Comics (Edgewater, IL) - One of my favorite comic shops in Chicago, I’ll be spending the day at Alley Cat signing comics and hopefully remembering to eat! If you’ve never been to Alley Cat, it’s one of the coolest physical stores I’ve ever seen and I highly recommend you come check it out!

May 22-24 - Cherry Captial Comic Con (Traverse City, MI) - Big shout out to Source Point Press for introducing me to the organizer of this show! This will be my first time going up to Northern Michigan (not the upper peninsula) and from what I hear it’s a fantastic show! Can’t wait to see some of you there!

June 6-7 - 3 Rivers Comic Con (Pittsburgh, PA) - I think this is my first time ever in Pennsylvania, evidenced by how many times it took me to spell the state correctly just now. Source Point got me into this show and I can’t wait to meet people out on the East Coast!

June 13-14 - Crusader Con (Valparaiso, IN) - This is a new show for me in Northwest Indiana! Every time I go to this reigon, the fans feel super energized and I have a great time, so I’m really looking forward to what more NWI has to offer!

July 10-12 - Capital City Comic Con (Lansing, MI) - Again, central Michigan is great, and this has long been one of my favorite conventions to go to!

Normally, we’d have two or three more sections here, but we’re facing some difficulties at the moment, so the rest of the newsletter will be here in a couple of days! Sorry for the inconvenience!

Wells Thompson

Before we get started, I am under contractual obligation to remind you that we are running our first Kickstarter campaign of the year, The Scorpion and the Queen #2, and that we are fully funded and looking to unlock some stretch goals! If you’re into high energy fantasy/romance/adventure featuring swordfighting, Princess Bride-esque wit, and fun, ambitious queer characters, you should check this comic out, it’s right up your alley!

Preorder S&Q #2 Today!

So about that Resident Evil game…

There’s a well established pattern in Resident Evil games. The first game comes out and revolutionizes the whole video gaming industry, creating a massive wave of fans and critical acclaim all the while innovating new gameplay mechanics and creating the foundation for a fun (if very stupid) plotline. The second game iterates on the first, building on that game’s foundation, sometimes making it better, sometimes taking a step back, but either way it’s a bigger experience. Then third game comes along and messes everything up, either by losing the plot, being way to ambitious, hanging too much on its very stupid story, or just being kind of bad.

After that, Capcom typically has a little freak out and starts from scratch, building the next industry breaking masterpiece to repeat the cycle. This was true in Resident Evil 1 to 2 to Nemesis/Code Veronica, it reiterated in 4, 5, and 6, the latter of which is generally maligned as the worst in the series, and it continuing that well established pattern with 7 and 8.

I was worried/smuggly expected that the recently released Requiem would once again break off more than it could chew and be an unmitigated disaster. It certainly set itself up for failure, proudly mixing disparate gameplay styles. On the one hand the tense atmosphere of Resident Evil 2/7, where you creep around corners quietly wetting yourself as stalker enemies you can never hope to take down stomp just around the corner hoping to eat a Grace Sandwich. On the other, Resident Evil 4, where you roundhouse kick zombies while spouting one liners and get chased by a giant Napoleon statue because…Honestly, who cares? They even went so far as to bring back long time series protagonist Leon Kennedy, who is canonically pushing 50 and who’s knees you can only imagine are on the verge of exploding every time he falls more than 2 feet (and he does that A LOT).

These two styles of game don’t, historically, mix well. Which is why I was shocked to discover that Requiem absolutely RULES!

Hey Resident Evil, I have a job (kind of)! I can’t be spending all day every day replaying this game. And yet here I am, booting up the Insanity difficulty to get another hit of that dopamine. It is scary how well they managed to contextualize two opposing gameplay loops to create something complimentary, cathartic, and purely additictive. The tension of exploring narrow hallways and praying that you’re not going to get spotted followed by the release of walking through the same halls a few hours later dealing indescriminent death like you’re the Terminator and every zombie is Sarah Connor.

I guess if I had to justify this glazing, I would say something like you shouldn’t assume that just because something hasn’t been done well in the past that it can’t be done well with the right approach. That’s not an excuse to ignore warning signs and clear patterns, but I think it’s worth it not to allow yourself to be surprised every now and then. Anyway, I’ve got to stop writing now, I feel the itch to get back to playing Requiem…

See you in a few days!

Wells Thompson

Happy to announce that The Scorpion and the Queen #2 is back on Kickstarter and we’re already more than halfway funded! We’ve still got some early bird rewards left, but we wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to pick up a copy before the discounts disappeared. Whether you’re new to the series, picked up The Catskin and the Rose at a show but haven’t seen this new series yet, or are fully caught up, there’s something here for you!

Preorder Scorpion #2 Today!

The Scorpion and the Queen is a sapphic swordfighting romantic fantasy comic about Iselda and Camille, two women on the run from a vindictive royal family that are hunting them down after their duel to decide who would marry the Prince ended with the pair running away together, leaving the Prince humiliated. Now a mysterious assassin trails our heroines as they trek through the desert to find a new life together. Find out what happens next by preordering The Scorpion and the Queen #2 Today!

Can’t wait to see you on the backer list!

Wells Thompson

That time of the month again! Actually a few days late, but that’s the peril of being your own boss: Holding yourself accountable. We’ve got some awesome upcoming projects, new exclusive peeks at our works in progress, and at least one new announcement! Let’s get to it!

What We’re Working On!

The Scorpion and the Queen continues the adventure in its 2nd installment! We’re gearing up for our first Kickstarter campaign of the year with our sapphic swordplay romantic fantasy adventure and we’re PUMPED about it! We’ve already got 200 followers for the prelaunch page and we’d love to see you join those ranks, it helps us set up a great year and attract new people so we can continue to grow this series and spread the word about our favorite disaster sword lesbian couple.

Sign up for Prelaunch Today!

Need more to go on? How about a brand new page from issue 2!

Truly horrifying!

Speaking of horror, we’re also gearing up for the rerelease of our first book EVER! Descent into Dread is our black and white horror anthology based on the first ever stories that Dalton and I wrote as comics and now that we have the rights back from Caliber Comics, we’re going to be reprinting and revamping the book for a new wave of our fans! We’ve updated the lettering for several of the stories with our friend Justin Birch, created a new digest size for those of you who don’t like lugging around a huge tome of comics, there’s a brand new story drawn by Bianca Milanez, and we’ve got new covers by Kelly Williams and Heather Vaughan! I’m so happy we get to revisit this and make a book that matches our modern standards and I hope you’re excited for it as well! More news about this will be coming fairly soon!

Bianca’s been busy on our other project as well, and while I’m not quite ready to spill all the tea on Love is Simple, I can tell you that lots of work is being done and there’s at least one huge name that we’ve got on board for the book! For now, I’ll give you a few quick snippets of some pages that Bianca is working on, just in case you thought things couldn’t get as…intense as it did in Smut!

Other than that, we’ve got a slow roll of other comics coming later this year and I’ve been really thrilled to work on some short comics for a couple of artists I really like. I’ve spent so long convincing artists to go along with my wierd little books that it feels inherently suspicious when an artists asks me to do something with a character they drew, but I’m not complaining! No one’s getting paid for those projects, at least not right now, so they aren’t going to be a top priority for anyone involved, but I promise I’ll let you know when/if they becoming available to read!

Convention Schedule

February 21 - Milwaukee Mighty Con (Milwaukee, WI) - A one day show in the capital of Wisconsin, I’ve got to say that I love getting out to underserved cities! There’s always such a thirst for great independent work in places that aren’t spoiled for choice. Plus, Milwaukee has some of the best beer and fried food in the world, so you KNOW I’m gonna take advantage of that!

March 27-29 - Chicago Comics Entertainment Expo (Chicago, IL) - This is the big one! After years of applying, I finally got into C2E2! I guess “Ringo Winner” really was the resume booster I needed, huh? Hope to see everyone there!

April 10-12 - Kalamazoo Comic Con (Kalamazoo, MI) - Love this medium sized con in central Michigan, it’s an incredible turnout for such an intimate space and it’s run by the Grand Rapids folks, so you know it’s gonna be fantastic.

May 22-24 - Cherry Captial Comic Con (Traverse City, MI) - Big shout out to Source Point Press for introducing me to the organizer of this show! This will be my first time going up to Northern Michigan (not the upper peninsula) and from what I hear it’s a fantastic show! Can’t wait to see some of you there!

July 10-12 - Capital City Comic Con (Lansing, MI) - Again, central Michigan is great, and this has long been one of my favorite conventions to go to!

More shows coming in April, May, and June, don’t you worry!

What We’re Reading

(Wells’s Pick) Fun Fact, I was one of the first people to read Carmilla the Eternal (if Amy Chu is to be believed), as I picked up a copy at Balitmore Comic Con last year before the show opened, which was the first place she got the green light to sell the book before the release a week or two later. I didn’t review it back then because I had a bunch of stuff to review at the time and I was extremely hype surrounding the Ringos after our unexpected win. That said, I’ve always had positive, if somewhat mixed feelings about this series of graphic novels.

Now that it’s concluded, I would like to hone in on an aspect of the books that I unambiguously love, but first, a quick history lesson: Carmilla is widely regarded as one of the first proper vampire novels, and a direct influence on the much more famous Dracula. I first learned about it when doing research for my thesis on Vampire and Zombie folklore, but it was quickly apparent why the later eclipsed the former in popular culture.

Dracula, especially in modern discourse, has always been interpreted with something of a queer subtext in the opening between protagonist Jonathan Harker and the titular monster. There is no such subtext in Carmilla, it’s just text. The book, which predates The Portrait of Dorian Grey by 15 years, is unflinching in its depiction of lesbian relationships both healthy and toxic in nature with the titular vampire specifically targeting women and sleeping with them before drinking their blood.

As such, Carmilla has always been iconic queer literature, but very much shunned by the academic, heteronormative world until very recently. This aspect was very much carried over into Amy Chu and Soo Lee’s interpretation, but that’s sort of the baseline—if they’d neglected the queer elements, they wouldn’t really be adapting Carmilla, but writing fan fiction. What I love about Carmilla the First Vampire is that, while transplanting the story into a more modern context, it maintained the spirit of the original book by making the main character a complete bastard.

Athena, the protagonist of Chu and Lee’s book, is not an uncomplicated, noble protagonist, but a self-sabatoging, mean-spirited failure that repeatedly hurts the people around her and makes increasingly poor descisions as she gets entangled in Carmilla’s world. You get the sense that Carmilla isn’t even manipulating her to do this, just pointing out the wrong direction to head down and cheering encouragingly as Athena destroys her own life with gusto.

And yet, despite this, Athena is tragic, sympathetic, and earns the reader’s respect in a way that a worse written book would fumble. It’s a masterclass in proving that the notion of a “likeable protagonist” is overblown. You don’t need to like someone to empathize with them, you don’t need to like someone to find their journey interesting, and you don’t need to like a character to root for them.

There’s a lot of nitpicks I could make about the structure and pacing of the three books, but I can’t really find it in my heart to complain about a book when it synthesizes unembarrassed queer narratives with the notion that characters can be unlikable and still worthy of respect. So often you find writers handling their queer characters with kid gloves, afraid that if they show them in a negative light it will somehow speak poorly of the marginalized people they “represent.” But part of acceptance means seeing people as people even when they’re terrible.

Athena is a liar, cheater, chronic manipulator, and violent. She has a lot of legitimate faults and things that the narrative suggests she needs a lot of work to fix. She’s also a gay woman, and that is neither a flaw nor does it make her virtuous by default. The Carmilla Trilogy is great for a lot of reasons, but that’s the reason why I truly love the series. It’s available everywhere, give it a read!

Cocktail of the Month

I don’t know about you guys, but for the first time this winter I’ve been able to leave my house without feeling the depression creep into my bones and, frankly, I couldn’t be happier about that. Literally, that’s what seasonal depression does! So, I figured to celebrate the turn in the weather to something approaching acceptable living conditions, we could talk about a simple cocktail that, nonetheless, fills me with joy. It’s easy enough to make at home and a good litmas test to see if your bartender knows what the hell their talking about: The delightful and classic Tom Collins!

Recipe:

• 2oz London Dry Gin

• 1oz lemon juice

• 1/2oz simple syrup

• approx. 3oz soda water

Build it directly in a collins glass and maybe give it a light stir when finished. Pro tip, put the soda water in first and watch it naturally rise to the top and push the other ingredients to the bottom, mixing the drink with the power of physics! You can also, optionally, shake the first three ingredients and then add the soda water after (lame). Garnish with a lemon or lime wheel (or wedge, I’m not your dad) and maybe a cherry if you’re feeling fancy.

I don’t even have a lot of commentary on this drink, it’s just a straight up enjoyable classic that’s difficult to mess up but also somewhat indicative of a bartender’s experience. If they’re Googling the recipe behind the bar, they aren’t going to be messing this drink up, but maybe don’t trust them with anything more complicated! Enjoy responsibly, they’re addictive.

Adventures in Cat Ownership!

Sometimes there’s a big story that comes along with these updates. Sometimes Cornifer falls asleep in a funny way. This is the later.

What a boy. Two brain cells and one of them is on loan.

That’s all for now!

Wells Thompson

I have exciting news! We’re gearing up for our first comic campaign of the year! On February 23rd, we’re launching issue #2 of The Scorpion and the Queen, our sapphic fantasy romance series continuing on from our smash hit The Catskin and the Rose.

Really excited about the continuation of this series, it’s going to be a big focus for us this year to get most of it finished and I’d love to see you guys tag along. We’ve got gorgeous covers from artists like Fell Hound and Klarissa Du, beautiful stickers and enamel pins, and a wonderful deals for returning fans and new ones alike. I can’t wait to get started on these campaigns and I hope you’re as excited as I am!

Sign up for Prelaunch Today!

Talk soon!

Wells Thompson

I’ve had a bunch of comic conventions get approved over the last week or so, and I figured it was a good time to start up the hype machine! I hope I get to see you at one of these events, let’s get into it:

• January 31st - Love Can Be Scary Author Pop Up (Des Plaines, IL) - I’ve been invited to a small pop up in the Chicagoland area this weekend and I’m so excited to get into con season early this year! I’ll be displaying a whole bunch of books for the first time, so come hang out with me (entry is free).

• February 7th - Northwest Indiana Comic Con (Crown Point, IN) - Never been to this small one day con before, but the region has been good to me in the past, so I’m really pumped to get another show in there. If you’ve seen me at Lafayette, check this one out as well!

• February 21st - Alley Chats Mini-Con (Des Plaines, IL) - Another first time small con in my backyard, let’s go!

• March 27-29 - Chicago Comics Entertainment Expo (Chicago, IL) - This is the big one! After years of applying, I finally got into C2E2! I guess “Ringo Winner” really was the resume booster I needed, huh? Hope to see everyone there!

• April 10-12 - Kalamazoo Comic Con (Kalamazoo, MI) - Love this medium sized con in central Michigan, it’s an incredible turnout for such an intimate space and it’s run by the Grand Rapids folks, so you know it’s gonna be fantastic.

• July 10-12 - Capital City Comic Con (Lansing, MI) - Again, central Michigan is great, and this has long been one of my favorite conventions to go to!

I’m sure there will be some more that gets filled in, especially around May and June, but that’s what we’ve got for now! So happy to have a road map, can’t wait to see you all at a show sometime. Which one do you want to go to? Let me know in the comments.

Talk soon!

Wells Thompson

Happy first newsletter of the new year! Everything else has been…a lot to deal with, but at least we have this. In all seriousness, I don’t think people were made to process this level of constant stress, so if you’re feeling overwhelmed, yeah that’s normal. It’s definitely something I need to be reminded of every now and then. Either way, let’s talk about what we’ve been up to and enjoy some comics craft!

What We’re Working On:

Never a dull moment, if we’re not working on a book, we’re planning for the next one! The Scorpion and the Queen #1 got sent out at the end of last year and we’re hard at work on the next installment! This series is really something special and I love that I get to spend so much time with these characters telling this wild adventure story. It just feels cozy! For this issue, we’re bringing back an old friend for one of the covers, the patron saint of gay pain, Fell Hound!

Meanwhile, we’re still hyping up Frankenstein the Unconquered, which gets its big Direct Market debut in February! We’re also working on a bunch of stuff related to Frank that we’ll be announcing in the coming months, including some truly ridiculous nonsense that we’re cleaning up with a professional editor, so keep an eye out. Final order cutoff is January 19th, so if you want to pick up a copy GO TO YOUR LOCAL COMIC SHOP and tell them!!!

There’s a lot that right on the cusp of being ready to announce, but still needs a bit more time in the oven, unfortunately, but I can give you a cool update on our Puritan horror one shot, Echoes: It’s done! We’re in the final touches of design work and will be sending out digital copies to backers very soon. This book turned out so great with scenes that go way harder than I realized they would, seriously can’t wait to get it out into the world!

Preorder Echoes Here

Also, just as a reminder, if you ever find yourself needing a comic book (digital or physical) or some dope enamel pins, we have shop you can access anytime from my website. Or, if you’re impatient, I’ll drop the link below!

Check out the shop!

As for the writing, it’s a lot of starting and stopping, but I’ve got two big projects that I’m starting up. Will anyone get to read them before 2027? Probably not, but I’m doing my best not to let that discourage me. If I was constantly writing the thing that’s going live minutes before hitting the launch button, I would have a lot more problems with pacing and typos (kind of like with this newsletter), so even though the grind of writing a book and waiting years to see it in print can be tiring, it’s ultimately worth it.

What We’re Reading

Okay, I would like to talk for a second about the challenges of making this section and it’s probably not what you’re thinking. I started my comic career as a critic, it is not difficult for me to read and analyze a given work—however, many of the comics I read are from my peers, some of them friends and this presents a challenge when trying to give something a fair shake.

Bottom line, I read a bunch of comics this past month and none of them were particularly compelling, none gave me much positive to talk about, and while I don’t have a problem writing a negative review, it’s hard to remove the context of the position I’m writing from.

At best, I’m telling you to avoid a book someone I respect wrote, a book they no doubt put a lot of time and energy and money into producing and I am therefore a massive jerk. At worst, any negative critique I have of a project, particularly a crowdfunded project, could be interpreted as petty infighting, active sabatoge, or overly competitive kneecapping of people just like me who are also trying to make a living doing something incredibly difficult and vulnerable, which I would feel extremely gross about.

I wanted to bring a couple of projects I was very excited to read to your attention, but I don’t feel good about potentially humiliating a hard working writer or artist by slamming on negative critiques. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything, so this month this section is devoid of an actual review. That won’t always be the case, but I wanted you to know that I’m not avoiding writing these, I just think there’s negative value of someone in my position being overly critical of my peers. I am, first and foremost, a comic book writer, not a critic or journalist.

I could have reviewed a movie or game instead, but I wanted to take the opportunity to be honest with you, and I’m sorry if that turned out to be less entertaining. I guess that’s not super satisfying, so here’s a micro review for a game I liked:

Dredge is a strange hybrid of a cozy fishing/management sim combined with eldritch horrors that amazing don’t just flatly rip off H.P. Lovecraft. It’s got a really satisfying gameplay loop and mechanics that reinforce the theme of obsession, paranoia, and the dangers of discovery. It’s a fairly small game, but it never wears out its welcome and the atmosphere is top notch. 8/10, give it a try, it’s definitely worth your time.

Cocktail of the Month

Sometimes you want something that makes you feel fancy, aristocratic, important, like you might open a conversation with the phrase “we’re thinking about summering in the Hamptons this year.” Other times, it’s -20 degrees and you just want to feel anything at all. This is a drink for those times. The Carajillo is a dirt simple cocktail to make, so much so you (yes, you!) can do it yourself with basically no prior knowledge.

Recipe:

• 2oz Espresso

• 2oz Licor 43

Shake and strain over ice. That’s it. Garnish it if you feel fancy, but why bother?

This is barely a cocktail, which may seem like an odd choice to feature, but there’s a time and place for everything and this delightful espresso cocktail is basically happiness in a glass. The bitterness of the espresso perfectly balances out the vanilla sweetness of the Licor 43 and the foamy texture will make you feel warm and safe like you’re drinking hot chocolate at your grandparents house. It’s a wonderful Spanish drink that I can’t recommend enough in spite of (or maybe because) of its brain dead simplicity. Give it a try!

Adventures in Cat Ownership

Brianna and I own 5 cats. I lead with this because you’d expect that we don’t want any more—and you’d be correct! But that doesn’t mean we aren’t suckers that are susceptible to the lure of a bastard kitten and his eepy sibling. Case and point: Buddy and Peppermint.

See, what happened was, we were showing our friend around town and we decided to go to the cat lounge/arcade because, like, yeah! It rules. Then as soon as we get there, this little dude, jumps in my lap and just…

Turns out all his liter-mates are also up for adoption and the loudest of them, Buddy, sees the attention his brother Peppermint is getting and…

I mean, how do you not fall in love, right?

Now, relax, we didn’t wind up adopting them…but I’d be lying if I said we didn’t think about it.

Talk soon!

Wells Thompson

Before we get to the good stuff, I wanted to remind you that Frankenstein the Unconquered, Book One is in previews right now! That means that now is the time to ask your local comic shop to get a copy for your pull box. I’ve talked with quite a few people about how to motivate shops to carry a certain book and fans requesting it directly is always the #1 answer, so if you want this book out in the world, go ask for it!

On With the Show!

When a film or comic or musician really blows up in Pop Culture, I have a tendency to avoid it; not because I don’t think it will be good, but because I know I’ll have opinions and I don’t want to be the guy constantly bringing down the mood. Sometimes I come to regret this, as was the case with the Kendrick/Drake beef that turned out to not only change my entire perspective on Hip Hop as an art form but was a massive cultural inflection point with consequences that are very much still playing out. With KPOP Demon Hunters, an absolute darling of my peers and the fan art community, I think I made the right call.

Let me be clear, KPOP Demon Hunters is really good and I’m not about to “well actually” what may well be the best film from last year. It’s amazing, it nails everything it’s trying to achieve and does so with soul, wit, and a pure enthused love of the subject matter that’s impossible to fake. On top of all of that, the music absolutely slaps. It’s an achievement and it deserves the accolades. What follows is a me problem, and I am willing to accept this as a flaw on my behalf, but I do think it’s interesting to consider, so just be warned that I’m going to be a bit insufferable for a minute.

Last night, I watched KPOP Demon Hunters for the first time, and I’ll be honest, it frustrated me deeply. Not because it’s bad, but because it’s so close to perfect that the flaws are that much more noticable. This, for the record, is the philisophical use case of the Uncanny Valley, when something is so good it becomes wrong, not a discussion of the animation which is how it’s normally used. When I say that KPOP Demon Hunters is uncanny, it’s because things that would be unremarkable nitpicks in a worse movie feel significantly worse because of how close to ideal we get in this film.

As an example, Mira and Zoey are absurdly well characterized. They get to be funny, tragic, opinionated, display a wide spectrum of moods and emotions, and directly influence the stakes of the film—we care about what’s happening because we care about them. That’s great, that’s everything we can reasonably ask for in a story…BUT, it makes it feel super weird when you realize that they don’t do anything and have very little agency in the actual plot—they’re prop characters. REALLY good prop characters, but with the exception of Zoey’s idea to take Rumi to a new age doctor, they are purely reactive and only exist as an aide to Rumi’s story.

Even in the lowest emotional moment of the film (no spoilers), their reactions feel almost preordained, like it’s what had to happen to advance the plot and not the natural exploration of what they might think and feel in that moment. Don’t get me wrong, it works, but because they’re so well rounded and we come to know and understand them so much, I expected and wanted more from them when they finally had a moment to take the plot into their own hands. Instead, they dutifully pass the ball back to the star player and we don’t get a chance to be surprised by anything—the plot unfolds exactly the way you expect it to from the moment you learn Rumi’s secret.

This is the paradox of good craft, if you polish every moment to a mirror shine, any streaks left behind become obvious and glaring. They made a story about a band and characterized all three members so well that you expect all three characters to hold equal weight, but then they don’t and it’s just a single person’s story with very good supporting characters. That’s objectively better than the alternative, lackluster characters playing out a soulless plot you don’t care about, but if all that you got from this film was a few good songs, excellent animation, a dope action scene, and pretty good acting, the lack of agency in two of the main characters wouldn’t matter at all—it would be perfectly serviceable and no one would care.

I’m really glad people love this movie and if you’re one of them, I’m sure this is a very annoying review, but I do find it fascinating and frustrating at the same time that something can be this so well made that it effectively works against its own interests. Strangely, I think if it had been a little worse, I might not have cared this much, but I’m compelled to draw the lines around little things that shouldn’t matter because it feels wrong to leave them unexplored.

It’s also an instinct that, as a creator, I find terrifying. This has been an exploration of my own feelings watching this film through the lens of some academic sounding language and critical theory, but it’s also a deep anxiety I experience every time I put something out into the world. What did I miss? What should I have made better? What obvious thing will someone see and be frustrated by that I couldn’t in the moment? Hell, let’s get really raw, are my stories good enough to frustrate anyone? Or do they exist, like a lot of things do, in the nebulous realm of good enough. Enjoyable. Inoffensive.

At the end of the day, this film brought out some really strong feelings, positive and negative, which is enough. Hell, it’s what art is for, or at least one thing that it’s for. The fact that I find the experience somewhat uncanny is a me problem, and one I hope that I can overcome on a rewatch. I honestly can’t tell you how much of my unwillingness to let this go is an honest reaction or driven by something unconsious—envy, contrarianism, whatever—but I can say that this was worth the watch, and that I’m really glad I didn’t have to talk about this when it was all anyone wanted to talk about.

Talk soon!

Wells Thompson

We made it to the end of the year! It’s been a challenge and next year doesn’t look any easier, but weathering the storm is a lot easier with people in your corner, and I’m glad you all are in mine. I’ve been jumping back into writing more scripts and planning out next year, so let’s get to it!

What We’re Working On:

Our last Kickstarter campaign of the year ends on Wednesday and it’s been a wild ride! Smut Vol. 1 wraps up our most successful series ever and it’s going out with a bang! 20 new pages of interior art, three stretch goals unlocked (with a fourth on the way), and our largest ever outing for a collected trade. If this is a harbinger of what’s to come for next year, we’ll get to make some incredible books, and I’m very much looking forward to it!

Preorder Smut Vol. 1 Today!

Meanwhile, I’m awaiting a veritable avalanche of newly printed books coming to my house this week! By Appointement Only #1, The Scorpion and the Queen #1, and Frankenstein the Unconquered Book 1 will finally be here and I’ll be working nonstop to get them packed up and out the door to our backers! A bunch of people are about to get Christmas gifts from me and I really can’t wait to hear what you guys think about it. If you missed out on those books, the links above will give you the chance to grab a copy before they ship!

In the meantime, I’ve been finishing up the editing process on our next big project with the team behind Smut and I could not be more thrilled about it! Next year is gonna be huge, just wait! In the meantime, here’s a peak at one of the character designs for the new book. I’ll give you three guesses which Greek God this is supposed to be!

I’ve also started work on a new project that captured my attention a few months ago: An adaptation of the opera Carmen with a few tweaks that refocuses the story on the titular character as less of an unrepentant seductress leading men astray and more of a tragic figure trying to survive in a time and place that actively work to oppress her. I’m really excited about it, I’ve been doing so much research on Spain in 1939 (which is a change from the original time period, but again, small tweaks) and I think this is gonna turn out incredibly well! Details to come (eventually. Comics tend to run at a pace that makes glaciers look downright restless by comparison).

What We’re Reading:

(Wells’s Pick) Okay, I kept meaning to talk about this and then thinking it wasn’t worth it, but the thought hasn’t left me alone since I watched this film back in early October, so I guess we need to talk about Donnie Darko.

Now, assuming you were around for this film in during its period of cult fame, I know what you’re thinking: Really? Like, actually? Donnie Darko?! So let me explain. It started with my wife talking about how she used to deal with insufferable film bros in college and fixated on how one of them made Donnie Darko his whole personality. Being that I was an insufferable film bro in college, I asked if she had ever seen it, which she unsurprisingly hadn’t.

My opinion for the last ten years or so has been that Donnie Darko is the epitome of a kind of sophomoric, fake-deep storytelling that’s popular with young people who mistake its aesthetic sensibilities for a deep message, falling for the magic trick as it were. I thought this because that’s exactly how I reacted to the film the first time I saw it in high school. My opinions on it have evolved a lot over the many times I’ve seen it, so I thought it might be fun to revisit the film with fresh eyes next to someone who had never seen it, so we watched it together and…it surprised me.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a deeply flawed movie, still has more in the way of “makes you think” suggestive philosophical dialogue and creepy aesthetics than it does a concrete point to make, but with the benefit of ten more years of experience living and engaging with the world, I saw something in the film I never considered before.

At its heart, Donnie Darko isn’t a film about time travel, teenage angst, or mental health issues in the form of an imaginary creepy rabbit man. It does in fact, have something to say, but we’re going to need to take a small journey to get there, so bear with me a moment.

The first line of spoken dialogue in the film is around a dinner table. “I’m voting for Dukakis.” This line is taken as an afront to the parents and sparks an argument that sets the tone for the entire film. Dukakis, for those who are too young to know (it was, in fact, before my time), was the political opponent of George Bush, Sr., who wound up winning the presidency on the back of Ronald Reagan’s popularity.

Suddenly so much of the film snapped into focus. The subplot about a teacher being undermined by the PTA for teaching a contraversial short story and eventually fired, the barely conscious, sad wine mom lazing around opulent suburbs, the casual racism of Donnie and his friends, the cult-like thought leader that turns out to be a pedophile (which his most ardent fans deny is the case despite the evidence).

This is a film about conservatism.

More specifically, the way in which conservative politics rotted away people’s lives, shuffling them into the suburbs, leaving them spiritually hollow and isolated, opening them up to exploitation by heinous charletons. This world collapsing in on itself, these characters searching for meaning and unable to effectively communicate, they are not connected by a physics defying storm, but by a system built by people promising prosperity while delivering ruin.

It’s fitting, in this light, that Donnie Darko culminates in an act of gun violence. These are the consequences of a political ideology that strips people of their humanity and turns them into cogs in a machine built to make money for those who already have it.

While this theory of the case does fit nicely with my own view on politics, that’s not why it stuck with me. I’m sure there are people reading that disagree with my assessment and it’s not my aim to convince them that I’m right in this moment—what stuck with me is that I’ve never heard anyone talk about the film with this overtly political current. The themes are not subtle, as I stated earlier, politics are directly addressed in the first line of the film, it seems that it was created with the intent of being viewed through this lens. So why does no one talk about it?

Maybe this is reaching, but after years of ragebaiting losers shouting that every piece of media is “political” for featuring queer people or people of color or, hell, sometimes just women in general, we’ve overcorrected and trained ourselves to ignore the inherent political messaging of a lot of media. Or maybe Donnie Darko really was just ahead of its time and it was a conversation we weren’t in a position to have when it came out (it debuted in theaters on 9/11, we were not primed at the time to have a “conservatism is bad, actually” discussion).

What I can say for sure is that this story is a lot more interesting when you engage with it politically. Whether you agree or disagree, there’s a more substanative discussion to be had on that front than the more popular discussions of “was it all in his head” or “what the hell was that ending?” To extrapolate on Donnie Darko's own theme, when you let the people arguing in bad faith dictate the terms of discussion, you open yourself up to depriving yourself of the substance.

Is it the best movie of all time, secretly? No. God no. But I think we owe it a bit more than its reputation would suggest. So don’t let people trick you into thinking any piece of art is meaningless, it could just be that they don’t like what it says and don’t want you looking too closely.

Cocktail of the Month

I love a good Negroni, but it isn’t necessarily the first cocktail I would recommend to people who either aren’t familiar with Campari’s estringent nature or are new to cocktails in general. There is, however, a more welcoming alternative that’s perfect for the bitter cold we’re experiencing this December (at least here in Chicago). Well balanced, warm, and inviting, this prohibition era cocktail is a wonderful addition to anyone’s rotation, the Boulevardier!

Recipe:

• 1 1/2oz Bourbon

• 3/4oz Sweet Vermouth

• 3/4oz Campari

Stir and pour over ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

A nice, simple cocktail that anyone can make, this cocktail deviates from the Negroni in its proportions as well as the base spirit. While the equal parts works for the gin as a crisp appetizer of a drink, this winds up being a little sweeter and better to enjoy after the meal, in my own opinion. Named after a lifestyle magazine for expatriats in France, the Boulevardier reflects the type of person it was marketed toward: Americans about town looking to enjoy the culture of a world class city and digest the trauma of a world that had recently been at war and would be again very soon. Ask your bartender if this Lost Generation cocktail is right for you!

Adventures in Cat Ownership Parenthood!

Dalton and Alexis are officially parents! I’d show you photos, but they aren’t putting any pictures of their son on the internet for the time being, so take my word for it: Calvin Shannon is alive in this world and, from what I hear, already making a huge mess of things!

I’m giving Dalton plenty of time off to adjust to his new life as a father. That might be months or years, but I know that at the end of it, he’ll have a lot more stories to tell. Wish him luck in the meantime!

Don’t worry, here’s your cat tax:

That’s all for now, have a wonderful holiday season!

Wells Thompson