It is Thursday, April 9th. And I just wanted to say thank you guys so much for all of the response and support and excitement and curiosity over Absolute Batman #20.

We finally revealed the true cover behind the R just the other day and it shows our concept of Robin, all five Robins.

We’ll not say who, because we want you guys to see in the issues. But they’re in their mechs, their Jaegers, their suits, as they prepare to fight Batman. So their story is really special to us. We’ve been waiting to get here for a long time. Obviously, we introduced Dick Grayson earlier in the series.

The rest of the cast of the Robin crew is all coming in, and they all have really particular stories. We really gave a lot of thought to each character and we just hope you love the story. It’s very hard not to spoil anything here, but that’s all coming up. You’ll learn a lot about it in #19 and you’ll learn a lot more in #20 and 21.

Then in #22, you’ll get a really special issue by me and Werther Dell’Edera about Harley’s backstory and how she came to be leader of the Red Hood Gang as the story is moving forward. All this happens while the Robins are also hunting Batman in Gotham. So it has some really big forward-moving moments. It’s got a giant twist at the end that will definitely get you guys talking but it also will really give a good sense, I think, of the backgrounds of the different Robins and of Harley and explain a lot about why she is who she is. Can’t wait for you guys to see that, it really plays to Werther’s strengths and he’s amazing to work with. I’m a huge fan of Something is Killing the Children, obviously, and we’ve been friends a long time so I’m very excited at the chance of finally getting to work together. So yes, #19 it comes out next week.

It kicks off this really big arc called ‘The Straw Man’ about Scarecrow and the Robins and Deathstroke and Harley and it’s just a huge arc for us. And #20, again, introduces the Robins. #21 continues with the Robins and Scarecrow and such, but it also really features Two-Face and Penguin in a big way. They’re on the cover of #21, so you’ll get to see their designs.

And Penguin has an elevated design from what you’ve seen so far. Nick has tweaked it to make him even more, I think, glorious in all of his bravado to try and make up for him being so broken. He’s got different guns and canes and rings and all kinds of stuff. I love it to death. And I love the response to the Absolute Two-Face design, to see so many of you doing fan art and all of it. It means the world. We really appreciate it.

So that’s #21. Like I said, #22 is the Harley issue and then #23 is Clayface. Then things go completely crazy between #24 and 25. #25 is our big finale for this arc. It’s a seven-issue arc, and it happens in October right around New York Comic Con. So it’ll be really big, and then the series moves on from there. Can’t wait. Again, so, so grateful for all the support.

And yeah, I just wanted to talk for a minute about how special it is to get to do this book. I said it online, but it really feels like you guys are making it with us. It feels like such a collective story. I don’t know how to really articulate it, except to see all of the fan art, to see all of the questions, the arguments about what’s going to happen. Criticism, praise, all of it. Just the fact that it’s in conversation with you guys so much makes it feel really special. It makes it feel like we’re making it as a team, you guys and us. And as much as we’re going to take it in the direction we have planned to, regardless of whatever suggestions or whatever you guys want or don’t want, it still feels like your book as much as ours and it’s a great feeling that Nick and I talk about a lot. We wake up so thankful to go to work on this thing every day.

Anyway, I just wanted to say again, Robin to me is not only a point of view character, like a character that allows you to see Batman through this very different lens, but they allow you to imagine yourself walking into Gotham City. So I just want you to know, for anyone that’s worried that we’re just going to make the Robins villainous. They’re not just villainous, and they have a real reason for doing what they do. They’re really rich characters and they’ve each got their own story, but there also is kind of a collective story about why they are where they are at this moment. So I really can’t wait for you to see it. And I just wanted to say getting to write Dick Grayson again, it’s so great. Dick was the first character I got to write for DC in any real consistent way when I got to do Detective Comics.

He’ll always have an incredibly special place in my heart because as I was very frightened and excited to be writing a Batman book, Dick was very excited and scared to be Batman. So he was this incredible introduction to Gotham because even though he wasn’t Robin, he still felt like a Robin getting to be Batman to me. And that’s how I felt, like somebody who had just walked in and was getting to see all of this stuff for the first time, getting to inhabit it for the first time. And so to get to write him again, even though it’s a different version of him, is a real thrill. I’ll always have that soft spot for him. Again, keep the fan art coming. I hope you guys really love the issue next week. Let us know what you think!

And FOC (Final Order Cut-Off) for #20 is a week from Monday. After issue #19 comes out on Wednesday, you’re going to start seeing right all the different covers that retailers and other artists for DC have done for issue #20. We wanted the cover that Nick did to be hidden because we didn’t want the images of the Robins out there so early that it spoiled everything, even before we solicited or before FOC for #19. As much as we probably would have sold more and all that stuff if we had put it out super early, we’re just trying to create a rhythm where we don’t feel like we’re bombarding you with spoilers. But this was the latest we could withhold the images of the Robins and still allow retailers to really go out there and have a chance to sell their books. So you’re going to see a flood of images of covers that are amazing. I’ve seen a ton of them. They’re great. All coming on Wednesday, so just six days. Keep your eyes open. Some of your favorite artists are doing them. Interpretations of the Robins and Absolute Batman. Really hope you’ll dial in and order whatever you love. We’re really excited to see your guys’ response to all of these as well.

So let us know what you think! And again, a lot, a lot, a lot of images of the Robins and Absolute Batman are coming next week for you guys to order. But order quick because FOC is the Monday after that. So this coming Wednesday, you’ll see all the covers. That Monday, order’s closed. So small window, get ready. And thank you guys again!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Friday, March 20th. God, I almost skipped two months there. And I am working today, but I am headed down to Orlando for MegaCon tonight. Jock and Greg and Sean Murphy and a bunch of other friends are going to be there. I’m going to be signing pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday. The crowds at the con are said to be big. The lines I can imagine will be very long. So what I just recommend is if you want to come see me, go very, very early. Like the minute the con opens, just run over to my booth. I’ll be there first thing.

And again, not to shill for it, but just as a cheat code, if you want to sign up for the paid subscription here at a Best Jackett, I try and do a 10-minute thing at the beginning of every signing where people who are paid subscribers get a chance to come get their stuff signed before the line actually begins. So for $7/month (or $75/year), it probably is a good option given how crowded it is down there. Jock is there already and told me even yesterday it was crowded.

Subscribe now

Anyway, really quick, Monday is the last day to order Absolute Batman #19. This is the beginning of our biggest arc yet.

It’s seven issues as opposed to six, so it’s literally our biggest. And it also has super major stuff happening in it. #19 is one of my favorite issues we’ve ever done and Nick agrees. I think it’s some of our best work in the way that it typifies everything we love about the series. It has all the elements that I think make it something we love working on. It’s got big over-the-top action, a lot of horror and violence, but it’s also got a lot of heart. It’s one of the more emotional issues that I’ve written for the series. So I’m really excited for you guys to check it out. It’s even got a little bit of humor here and there, hopefully.

But yes, Monday is the last day to order it from your store. What that means is order it today. Some stores might not even be taking orders on Monday. But order it because every issue so far has basically sold out. What ordering it means is they’ll reserve a copy for you at your store so it can’t sell out for you. This one has the maximum amount of retailer variant covers. That means covers that are ordered by stores for their own shop with artists that they choose, not variant covers produced by DC. So we try and keep those really low. We try not to do a lot of variant covers on our own and just let you guys decide if you want to do variants, but this one has a really shocking number of them. So I was extremely excited to hear that there’s that much interest and demand. But at the same time, I was really surprised that an eldritch horror monster as opposed to a sexy, tight-bearing superhero got that honor. But I’m glad for Scarecrow. He deserves it.

One quick thing also, I wanted to talk about this subject I keep getting asked about, which is how do you redo villains? So I thought maybe I’d do a class on it if you guys like the idea. But I’ll give you like a super quick two-minute example with Scarecrow because he’s coming up. So Scarecrow, I’ve never gotten a chance to write. I’ve always wanted to do it. He’s about fear. That’s the core elements. You go to the DNA of a character when you’re going to reinvent them or you’re going to write them for yourself. And I would argue I had a good conversation with Matt Fraction when we were out in LA at the DC Summit together, just chatting about how fun it is to take these characters, whether it’s in the mainline or it’s in Absolute, and make them your own. When I was on mainline Batman, I always tried to do that too with Greg Capullo. We always try to reinvent them as much as we could. Joker as this character who was sort of a Joker card who would reform himself into Batman’s greatest fear constantly. Riddler into someone who believed his job was to make the world smarter, or at least that was the facade he put forward over his own egotistical desire to prove he was the smartest. And so on and so forth.

With Scarecrow though, I think one of the hard things over the years was what is fear today? What am I afraid of? How do you encompass that in a way that feels broad enough and also acute enough to speak to this moment for you? And it really was when we were forming a series that it came to me where I was reading a couple different books about the moment. I was reading a book called Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobson. I also read a book called Bunker: Building for the End Times by Bradley Garrett, which is really good about super rich people building bunkers. And another one more recently called If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky. And it’s all of these pervasive fears. What you realize is that you’re expected to go through your day while also knowing that all these giant seismic terrors are happening all around you, whether it’s war or genocide or climate disaster or economic collapse coming or political turmoil or the possibility of pandemics.

But all these things that you’re aware of, you’re not in a tribe anymore on the grasslands or in a small town or any of it. Over the years we’re subjected to this massive flood of information constantly. So you’re aware of all of this. And the feeling it creates, I was trying to articulate it for myself, but it’s anxiety. It’s a feeling of dread. So one of the books I was reading was talking about dread as a modern concept because being afraid of something is being afraid of something acute. Dread is the pervasive feeling that something bad is going to happen and you don’t know what. And the thing that really creates dread today, for me, is a lack of certainty, a lack of knowing.

So what Scarecrow is to me, he’s a straw man, right? Which is another term for someone who’s blamed, for someone who can be pushed over, all of that stuff, and yet is really scary, who walks out of the field and scares things away. Why are the crows afraid of the scarecrow? Not because they think he’s a person, because crows aren’t really afraid of people, but because they don’t know what he is. And so he’s the one that gets you lost in the corn maze, right? He’s the one that makes you feel like “if I only had a brain.” He’s the one that shows you all the things that you thought were true or not true. Things that you hoped weren’t true, might be true. And so that, to me, alongside his violent and murderous tendencies, make him so potent and so fun to write. He’s sort of like a country gentleman who just sort of walks around barefoot with this face and a hat and his crows and in this little brown suit. And he comes out of the fields and you don’t know what he’s going to do. Is he someone who is wearing a mask? Is he not? Is he an operative of the Joker? Is he just a simpleton? He’s terrifying in that way. And I love writing him.

So that’s kind of the process through which I try to travel when I make a new take on a classic villain. What are they about? What does it mean to me? How do I employ that or weaponize that in the book as strongly as possible? But I’d be happy to do a class if you guys want to see and I can walk through some of the stuff that we’ve done and some of the things that I’ve thought about over the years. Anyway, reminder—order Absolute Batman #19, don’t sleep on it. Thank you so much for coming to the class. And if you’re anywhere near Orlando, come by and say hi! Talk to you guys soon and thanks again for everything.

S

It is Monday, March 16th. Really quick, first, Wednesday we are going to be doing a class. It’s going to be about doing big comic events and the special guest will be . Really excited about it. It will be talking a lot about what it takes to do a big comic event, not just on the page, but also outside on the coordination it takes, the triangulation with the market all kinds of stuff, so it should be great. Josh is not only a dear friend but a beating heart of comics. He’s a superstar but also someone who’s one of the smartest people i know about the business so I’m really excited to have him on.

That’ll probably be about 9:00pm EST. We’ll send out an invite Wednesday, but tell your friends. It should be fun. All you have to do is be a paid member of Best Jackett. It’s $7/month or $75/year. Along with that, you get access to every single class we’ve ever done. There’s probably 30+ at this point.

They’re all in a video archive on everything from building convincing characters to how to write a pitch letter for your independent, creator-owned comic. So I hope you’ll join and it should be a lot of fun.

Subscribe now

Forgive me and my terrible voice. I’m a little beaten up. I was just down in La Mole in Mexico City with Jock and Greg Capullo and Frank Martin, the amazing colorist on Absolute Batman. And it was such a blast, man. I got to say, it’s my second time at La Mole and I just love it.

Mexico City is amazing. It’s so exciting and rich and vibrant and the fans there are just so passionate and generous. I mean, it was just wild. I signed like, all day, every day and I can’t say enough good things about that convention. So I can’t wait to go back. And huge thanks to everybody there for a great time.

I’m off to MegaCon this coming weekend and then WonderCon the next weekend. And then I’m off cons for a while. This month is nuts. So yeah, if you’re going down to Orlando, I’ll be there with a whole bunch of other great creators, including Jock and Greg Capullo and Joshua Williamson next week. So I hope you’ll check it out. And again, if you do join up with the Best Jackett paid subscriptions you get to jump my line at the beginning. I do a 10ish minute line just for people in the paid tier so it’s worth it just for that honestly because the lines these days have been kind of nuts, so I hope you’ll join up.

Also, really quick, I just wanted to say thank you guys. The incredible support for Absolute Batman is just overwhelming to me and Nick. We really believe that our best issues are coming. I mean, I think #19 stands with our very best.

It’s the beginning of our Scarecrow arc. It also deals with the concept of Robin. It’s got Deathstroke in it. It’s got new vehicles. It’s got big upsets. And that’s pretty much like, all in the first issue. But it continues to get bigger and wilder as we go. It’s also a deeply, deeply emotional arc for Bruce and his friends. So I really hope you’ll check it out. The Final Order Cut-Off got bumped a week, so it’s a week from today. So you still have time to order, but the orders are pretty nuts. I guess they reached the maximum amount of retailer variants they can do for a book like this, just for the system to be able to handle it at DC. So we expect some pretty big sellout numbers. We’re really thrilled. The last issue was over 300,000, which again is just, I mean, beyond mind boggling to me and Nick that that’s the level at which you’re buying this book up. It means the world to both of us. And the only thing we can say is that our thank you to you is to just devote every bit of energy we have to making it the best we can. And we are really having a blast. I mean, Nick said it best that it’s like, “good morning, Nick!” “Good night, Scott.” Like, we’re on the phone all the time working on this thing and we just love it. I mean, it’s such a fun gig. So I can’t thank you enough. That’s it. Just a quick newsletter. I’ll do a longer one towards the end of the week. But again, we have class Wednesday, so I hope you’ll check it out. And yeah, see you soon!

S

Subscribe now

Share

P.S. Josh Williamson’s Wolf Man miniseries Blood of the Wolf Man is finally announced!

I cannot wait for this to come out, I read the first few scripts and there’s so much love for the source material in there. Josh is a dyed-in-the-wool Universal Monsters horror fan, and he takes this book in some awesome, bloody directions. Seriously, do not miss this one, I think it’s something really special. It’s got art by his Rogues artist Leomacs with colors by Pip Martin and Skybound is putting it out starting this June. Go pre-order it ASAP!!

It is Wednesday, March 4th. It has been forever since I have done one of these and I am so sorry. I’m going to get back on track, but I’ve been traveling for the last three weeks pretty much and I am old. I have forgotten how much jet lag takes its toll on my body at this age. So I have just been trying to sleep off the trip. But really quick housekeeping. Today is a huge day for us at DC. We have, of course, DC K.O. #5.

I’m so proud of the team on this one. Josh and Javi and Xermanico and Wes Craig and Alejandro and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and Paul Kaminski obviously editing it. And it just has been such a blast. It’s such a personal one to us, as bombastic and epic widescreen fisticuffs as it’s been. And I’ll get into that in a minute, but it’s out today. We’re really, really excited about it. I hope you like it. It launches a bunch of stuff for Next Level, it sets up those books. And it’s a sort of thesis statement on where we are right now as a company. So anyway, there’s that. Also, all of the Absolute books have been reprinted. That’s out today. So you should be able to go to your shop and dig into the Absolute universe really easily. Really, really grateful for the support on that, obviously.

And check out Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez’s Batman #7, man. It was great. I loved it. What they have planned for the Joker is like nothing I’ve seen, which is the biggest compliment I can give. But it’s also like a new direction that I think people are going to really be blown away by. Check that out.

So going back, it’s been a crazy few weeks. First, my kids had spring break. So we went to Hawaii with our neighbors and rented a house for a few days. My grandfather used to live in Hawaii. So we go there a lot to the big island in an area that we really love. And it was fantastic.

And then after that, we came to LA, me and Jeanie and the two younger boys, Emmett and Quinn. And we went to Disneyland and we went to a Lakers game and got to see LeBron play, which was awesome. My 14-year-old Emmett is just a huge basketball fan. So he was over the moon.

And they went home after getting stuck there for a few days because of the snow. but I went to DC and met with a bunch of amazing creators and editorial over a few days and it was just fantastic.

But it was funny, my family couldn’t get home so they were staying in the hotel room next to me while I was at this work thing. And I felt tremendous cognitive dissonance of being in total work mode and then coming back and having Quinn be like “will you read me Dog Man?” And I was like “yes, of course I will.” But a lot of whiplash psychologically. They did a lot of the Warner Brothers studio lot tour. But they made it home safe. The summit was great. And then I stayed around to sign comic books for retailers on the West Coast and also to meet with Amazon about Wytches, which is getting closer and closer. I can’t tell you how excited I am about that show. We should have some kind of announcement in the near future about the actual release date. It’s really right upon us. I can’t wait for you guys to see what we’ve made. And that was it.

But the whole thing, if there was a theme to the trip, it was really interesting to me. It kind of tied back to what we were trying to say with K.O. For me, that series was like an out of control, unhinged fight comic. It was meant to celebrate the Saturday morning cartoon joy of comics and the lunacy that we can bring to it sometimes. It was meant to be fun in really difficult times, but it also beneath all of that candy coating was a message that we really felt strongly about. It was really simple and chaotic. I think we often want somebody to just take the reins and take the reins in the way that we think will be the best. Because it’s been so hard to get any sense of traction collectively to fix these huge problems. And I think you see that right now. There’s a real desire to be like, “well, we just need one leader. We just need one person who will do everything.” And Superman could be that person.

There’s a real criticism to be leveled at Superman for not fixing everything. Why doesn’t he just fix the world? And he’s given the opportunity here and really tempted by it. But ultimately, what I love about Superman is that he knows that that wouldn’t be fixing things. That wouldn’t be heroism. That would be authoritarianism. Even if it was benevolent, it’s not who he is and it’s not what these characters exist to do. They don’t exist to save us. They save us, but it’s always by example, trying to teach us how to save ourselves, how to be better. To me, I’ve said it before, but Superman, the power of that character is that he is this godlike figure who is inspired by us, who sees the best in us, and acts out of inspiration from the goodness of Lois and his parents. And so that’s the myth of him. That’s the power of him. Wonder Woman is different. I feel like Wonder Woman tries to lead us towards our better angels by example. And I feel like Batman doesn’t really give a shit. I’m about what he’s teaching us, I think. He’s more about like, “this is my code.” Batman is about trauma to me. Batman is like a lesson for us to say there’s nothing you can’t overcome personally to be the hero you want to be and make the world better. But I don’t think he necessarily thinks as much about his impact on other people following in his footsteps as the other two.

But anyway, the point is, K.O. is largely about the idea that any one hand that tries to steer things is the wrong hand. It has to be all of our hands, as frustrating and difficult as that is. Josh and I are consultants at DC as well, and we’ve had a really great time being able to be a part of these conversations about the direction for the company based on this big meta story we’re telling with Darkseid. And this was part two and part three is coming next year. But the beauty of the company right now, the beauty, I think, of what DC is doing, the mission statement really is to try and bring in creators and see what they’re excited about and see if we have a place for that book based on what we have so far. And there also are a lot more books coming or a real good handful of books that we’re very excited about that I think also will be additive in all kinds of cool ways to the line. Either way, the point is that the feeling right now is that it’s collective. It’s a constellation.

At the summit. we were all just talking to each other, creators and editors, about things that we would tell ourselves 10 years ago about comics, things that we felt we wish we knew back then that we’ve learned. And there’s a sense of sharing and openness that’s exciting to me because some of the stuff I heard from some of the people like Denys Cowan and Matt Fraction and Greg Rucka and new people like Che Grayson, it was just inspiring. There’s a spirit of we’re in it together. We’re trying together to make the things that we put out more exciting to you, more resonant, and that we’re trying to have a better approach to all of it. And I’m really grateful to be a small part of that, or just somebody among a lot of people trying to do that at DC right now. K.O. is definitely a celebration of that. And I think that spirit really spoke to my experience out there on the West Coast and Burbank. Also, Next Level titles like Deathstroke, Batwoman, characters that historically have not been our highest sellers, sold like highest sellers. The goal is to create a really healthy and robust line with a real variety of characters and creators. Again, I know we have work to do there, but we’re proud of the stuff that we have coming out. Again, it seems like you guys are excited. So really, really thrilled. I really can’t wait for you to see what we have.

On another personal note, we’re going to do a class. I got to get back to the teaching. So I’m going to try and do one next week with . I am going up to get my older son this week for his spring break from Boston. So this week’s a little rough and I’m still recovering. But next week, probably Thursday if that works for people, say in the comments if that’s a good night. We usually do them then like 9:30pm EST. We’ll do one, me and Josh, if that’s OK. I think it’ll be really good. But anyway, I hope you guys are doing really well in these insane times. Thank you so much for the support on everything. We can’t tell you how happy it makes us to see you enjoying the stuff that we’re putting out. Again, we’re always here for it. If there are things you think we could be doing better, if there are things you’re excited about, let us know. Thanks, guys!

S

It is Wednesday, January 28th, new comic book day. And a huge one. We have four Absolute titles out. Absolute Batman #16, which is the first time Wonder Woman appears in Absolute Batman.

He appeared in Absolute Wonder Woman last month. And this is the second part of our crossover. Really, really excited about it. And Absolute Wonder …

Read more

It is Wednesday, January 14th and I’m in a very weird headspace. Forgive me, I haven’t been around very much. I was even going to post that I’m sorry to all the people I haven’t gotten back to in the last couple weeks, but we’re actually taking our oldest son Jack to college this evening. He starts halfway through, he took a gap semester. He’s going to school up in Boston, so the car is packed to do some work today and then when Jeannie gets home from work we’re going to drive him up. So I’m really trying hard to wrap my head around how this is real life but here we are. So, so proud of him. So excited, nervous, everything. It’ll be hard without him here, but I’m really, really thrilled.

Anyway, work! First, we have D.C. KO #3 out today.

This is our big tag team match. It’s me and Javi Fernández and and Xermanico and Alejandro Sánchez on colors and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on lettering. It’s just so much fun to make this book. I really, really am overwhelmed with gratitude that you guys are checking it out in such big numbers. I’m so happy that it seems like you guys are liking what Josh and I are doing story-wise. And again, just a huge thank you. We really, really appreciate it.

Also, we have the FOCs coming up soon for Final Order Cut-Off for Absolute Batman #17.

This is the start of a two-part story with really huge reveals. We even redacted the covers so that we didn’t give away spoilers. This two-parter is me and Eric Canete and Frank Martin on colors, who does all of the issues with Nick. It introduces Absolute Poison Ivy in all her glory. And again, it’s a really key piece of Bruce’s story. It changes things a lot for the arc after it, which starts at #19 and features Scarecrow. The cover for that’s coming really soon. That arc that runs from #19 to 25 is going to completely transform our series. We’re really, really excited about it. We’ve been building to the material in it. I’m trying really hard not to spoil anything because people have been telling me they really, they want me to try and curb spoiling stuff. So I’m doing my best, but it makes it so boring when I’m telling you what’s coming because there’s just no meat on the bone. But even so, I swear to you, you will see by the end of issue #19 how big we are going with this. Not even by the end, by halfway through something massive happens that changes the trajectory of the series. And by the end, something really huge happens that I think will get you guys super excited.

So these next three months on Absolute Batman just get really, really more and more, I think, intense. And not just in kind of an over-the-top, brutal action way. I mean, emotionally intense, where Bruce’s world really gets turned upside down and he really has to define himself as Batman in all kinds of new ways, so I’m really excited for you to see. It features all the characters that you love. It has all the friends. It has Harley. It has Deathstroke coming in in a big way. All kinds of stuff. Barbara Gordon plays a big role. So check it out. And more villains that you don’t expect hidden in the wings. So Monday’s Final Order Cut-Off also for the Work-in-Progress edition, they’re these big, beautiful, oversized black and white editions, of Dark Nights Metal. So I hope you order that. I love what they do with these editions and I’d love to keep them going.

Moving on. So I wanted to talk for a moment about the last post I did because I did an expected to get as much traction as it did, but it kind of made the rounds right before New Year’s.

And I wanted to just kind of clarify a couple things because people were asking, I got a lot of questions from people about how you meet the market. The post I did was kind of about the state of affairs, like the way I see the comic market right now and how competitive it is, but the bright spots, the danger zones and just learning as a creator to try and gauge the market when you’re about to put out a book. And I just wanted to make it really clear because the questions I got were like, “well, how do you meet the market in terms of chasing these trends?” And that’s absolutely not what I was saying. You should never try and chase trends. By the time you get there, they’re over. But what is really important and what I was trying to say is that as a creator, I think it’s crucial to understand the market that you’re about to jump into. So it doesn’t mean changing your book. It doesn’t mean trying to adjust your whole plan in a way that makes you feel queasy about your own creative integrity. It doesn’t mean changing what you were doing to try and make a quick buck. What it’s about for me is really making sure you’re aligned.

And what I mean by that is that I had a lot of friends or some friends I feel like that were disappointed in the way that their creator-owned books did in the last couple of years because they had expected them to do more like they had done in 2016, 2017, even in 2020. And so what I was trying to argue or at least suggest was trying to take measures to avoid that misalignment. It’s that misalignment of expectation and reality that can be really devastating. And I’ve been there, believe me, so I know. But in this position right now at DC, as a consultant and having a different job than I used to, I have kind of two jobs, right? So I have my DC corporate job and then I have my writing job. I have access to more sales data than I had before. I’m in contact with a lot more retailers and distributors and stuff than I used to be. And so I just have a wider funnel of information coming in about what things are selling and what things are not. And again, it’s not to try and meet those trends or try and chase things, but it is to be aware of the things that are underperforming or overperforming. just so you can brace yourself or be realistic about how something is going to do.

So anyway, it kind of goes back to this lesson that we did in our class, Comic Writing 101. And we will be doing a class really soon. It’s just been a chaos tornado here with getting ready to take Jack up to college and a birthday, all this kind of stuff. It’s been nuts. So we will do a class with Joshua Williamson next week. I’ll post more about it really soon. I think it’ll be really fun. But I did a class a while ago about triangulation.

So it’s kind of a corny term, but James Tynion IV and I used it just privately with each other. It’s just the best word we came up with for ourselves. But it came from this saying that comic folks that we worked for had, this old kind of motto, that you had to be two of three things together to survive in comics. You had to be good, fast, or nice. So you were one of those things, you wasn’t enough. If you were two of those things, you could make it through. And I have my argument with those things. I don’t think you can be nice and fast but not good. Either way, that was the saying. But we always thought of it as you need a fourth thing, or there’s a fourth of leg of the stool. And that was this thing called triangulation. For me, triangulation is an awareness of of the market. It’s an awareness of the context in which you’re producing this book. And it means a lot of different things. It means looking at, if you’re on a licensed character like Batman, how Batman is perceived at that moment, what stories are being told about him, how fans feel about him. how fans feel about you as a writer or as a creator at that moment, what retailers feel about you, how your sales are. It’s knowing all of this stuff so that you don’t change the story you’re telling, but that you go in with open eyes. And if there are small things you can do to help adjust and give your book the best chance possible, you can do those.

So for example, triangulation on that level is like, if I’m coming in and I’m doing a story on Batman that I know is going to upset people, like when we did the Jim Gordon becoming Batman story, then I understand that they’re going to reject it, but I love it. I’m going to do it anyway. Because again, I’m not changing it to meet the market. But what I am going to do is acknowledge at the beginning of the story in some way that I see that it is stupid as an idea. It’s ridiculous, but let’s have fun. Give it a chance. And so You know, I had a little opening scene where Jim is doing an interview and he says something about how he’s going to be Batman, how he’s proud. And then when the camera’s off, he’s like, and this is the dumbest idea in the history of Gotham City. Where’s my damn Batmobile?

And so the acknowledgement is just like, I see your concerns. I know how you feel. We’re going to do it anyway and give it a chance. And some people give it a chance, some people don’t. But that’s the tiniest version of triangulation. It just means being aware of the environment your story’s coming out in. And if you care to, trying to give it the best chance of succeeding possible. There’s all kinds of levers you can pull in other ways. There’s the variant cover market. There’s going out and meeting the retailers that you think will like the book that you’re doing and particularly sell the kind of thing that you’re doing, whether it’s horror, whether it’s political, whether it’s just big bombastic space opera. It’s you going to those stores and talking to those people and being like, “can I do a signing here?” There’s obviously the online community stuff. There’s the right outlets to go to talk to, the ones that have the biggest reach or ones that don’t have any reach, but that are really passionate about the kind of thing you’re doing. All of that is business sense and your interaction with the company you work for, the way that you present yourself, like all this stuff.

My biggest advice about it other than being as open to information as you can be, is to be as sincere as possible. If you were doing a book that is small, is a niche book, that’s great. Do it and say, “this book is really personal to me and I hope more people will pick it up than I expect, but this is the market for this book and I’m going right for that market. I’m going for those people.” If I do a book that’s part prose, then I’m going to bookstores, you know, and I’m not expecting it or trying to make it sell like Batman. I’m not trying to do five variant covers for it. I’m trying to just give it to the people that I hope will love it. I offset the cost of that book by going to extra conventions or by doing something else.

And so, again, it’s never about changing the core thing that you’re doing, but it’s about sincerity with both the approach to your book creatively and also sincerity about approaching the market and being like the market six years ago, seven years ago, 10 years ago was wildly different. And I know I’ve said this before, but I think it’s just crucial. There were so many different elements in comics, even six years ago that were creating avenues for all kinds of books that really are not there anymore. There was so much investment from streaming in small companies. There was the hope that things would get optioned and that intellectual property IP or content would get picked up. There was all of this COVID money after 2020 where people were monetizing their kid hobbies again. You saw it with Pokémon, you saw it with baseball cards, you see it with comics. So there was a whole thing about first appearances of new characters would generate 50,000 sales. So you could figure out a way to do that and still at the same time do a series that was what you wanted it to be. There was venture capital money. So there were companies coming in making comics in all kinds of new ways online and newsletters.

And none of this stuff is stuff I’m saying is bad. But what I’m saying is there were all these different ways of producing different kinds of books. And having the market be more varied and responsive so that you had different levers to pull to get a book to survive in different ways. And a lot of those levers are gone now, or at least much smaller. And what you just have is a really competitive, direct market. So that’s what I was saying, is that if you’re doing a book that doesn’t have something that feels like it’s urgent, it doesn’t feel like this audience, which is a great audience right now, is going to be excited by it. And again, what I think they’re responding most passionately to are things that feel a little risky, things that feel a little daring, things that feel a little theirs. That can be recombining elements that are familiar, like you’re doing over in the Energon Universe. It can be big swings and completely new takes on mythologies the way Ultimate X-Men is. It can be bringing in exciting and unconventional kinds of art for traditional characters and the way that Transformers was doing. It can also be doing things like we’re doing at the Absolute Universe, where we’re burning the characters down and building them up in new ways and trying to use artists and writers that have really different takes than you’re used to.

But my point is that these things are overperforming in the market right now. Things that make people feel like comics is doing things that they haven’t seen before and things that are beginnings that feel like theirs, this kind of alpha energy to it that’s beginning. Again, if what you’re doing is not that in some way, it doesn’t mean that it can’t take off and sell huge and be a surprise hit. It doesn’t mean that you should change what you’re doing. It just means adjusting to look at the market and see there are still places where these books that aren’t in that zone can do well, but they’re just less avenues than there were six or seven years ago. So that’s all I was trying to say. There are ways of taking a book that is a longer form story, a slow burn that doesn’t have some of the elements of traditional monthly comic book storytelling. Maybe it doesn’t have big cliffhangers because there’s a reason you chose not to. Maybe it doesn’t have big action or this or that and that’s fine. But it’s trying to find sincerely and honestly how that book fits in and then meeting the people that can help your book do well in that and being realistic about those expectations. That’s what I meant.

So I hope that’s really helpful. I posted something about the way we’re going to try and handle spoilers on Absolute Batman.

And that’s a triangulation. That’s us trying to figure out with retailers, and there’s a lot of different ideas right now. So we’re still figuring it out. But I posted something about how we’re going to try and redact more covers going up. And we are going to redact some, but we also understand from retailers the need to make sure that things are put out way in advance so retailers can get ready and sell them without being surprised at the last minute. So it’s a dance, but that is a triangulation. It’s trying to listen to fans who are against spoilers. We don’t want spoilers and retailers who say spoilers sell books and figuring out a way that we feel comfortable with it, honestly, where we feel like we’re doing the best story, we’re not changing anything for market demand. But at the same time, we’re trying to make it the most fun and the most exciting for people and the most sellable.

Again, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a business sense if you’re trying to do it in a way that’s about being honest about the book you’re doing. Where it gets tricky is when you try and oversell something that isn’t that thing, or you aren’t using any leverage and you just expect the market to just kind of meet your book when you don’t do any effort. You expect the market to just embrace it which, again, sometimes that happens and that’s great. But if it doesn’t, it’s time to look in the mirror and be like, “there’s more I could have done for this book.” So that’s really all it is. There’s a ton of really great variety out there right now. I think the thing that’s exciting is that people are really responding to, like I said, books that are taking a big swing and you see that with the creator-owned market, you see it with the licensed market, the Big Two and Energon and IDW and a bunch of other places. So for me, it’s a greatly exciting (if frighteningly competitive) market. And that’s all I was trying to say with it. So I hope that makes sense. Please, any more questions, anything you want to ask, go for it. I love this kind of discussion. And yeah, I hope you guys have a great, great week and we’ll reconvene later!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Wednesday, December 31st, the last day of 2025. And I wanted to do a really quick post just talking about some of the things I really loved in the comic world this year, giving a tiny bit of advice, and really, above all, just giving thanks. I mean, I can’t get over what a crazy year this has been. We were just starting the Absolute Universe at the beginning of this year and I never, never expected it to find so much support and enthusiasm and energy from you guys. I did a signing at Midtown Comics recently, and I’ve signed there 15, probably 20 times over the last 15 years. It’s the store that was closest to my dad’s work. Used to work a couple blocks away from Midtown Comics Downtown. And throughout most of my time on Batman, I loved going there and signing and seeing a lot of the same faces over and over again. Probably 60 or 70% of the people over the last five years are people that I had seen before. And then going this last time and signing there, it was the first time in 10 to 15 years that it must have been 80% new faces, just completely new. And they had gotten there really early.

I knew something was up when the tickets were gone like, hours before the signing, but it was young people, people from all walks of life, people who were rediscovering comics, and not just because of Absolute Batman, but because of a lot of the things happening in comics right now. The Absolute line, but also the Ultimate line, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot over at IDW, the Energon Universe, of course, and a lot of great books in the Image sphere too like Exquisite Corpses, things that are big tent books bringing in a lot of people. And I can’t thank you guys enough. I mean, this ride on Absolute Batman is, again, nothing I expected. I thought it would be a book that sold in the mid-list. That was my hope, was that we’d at least be sustainable for 30 issues or so, because I love the premise and the story Nick and I are telling so much, and I love working with him and Frank. We’ve become really close.

But now to have it be like a load bearing book at DC, or a book that generates excitement and money for them in a way that allows us more creative latitude on other books, the things that it’s engendered for Next Level—I can’t wait for you to see these books. I mean, all of them are really creator forward. They’re real big swings, Lobo and Deathstroke. They’re big over the top epic books. Batwoman, real, real great swing by Greg Rucka and Dani. Zatanna really levels Zatanna up. Firestorm and Shadow of the Bat. I mean, there are just so many good ones. There really are. Legion of Superheroes and Jonah Hex and there’s just a ton coming that we can’t wait for you to see. And they’re all passion projects. And a lot of that is born out of you guys supporting things that are riskier, that are different, that hopefully feel yours. And it’s the best time I’ve ever had in superhero comics. I’m so, so grateful to you guys and so proud of what we’re able to do right now at DC. So first, let me start this end of year thing by just saying thank you.

Then I wanted to also thank everybody that signed up for Best Jackett. I mean, I can’t get over how many people are in the free newsletter bit, this bit, and then the paid bit that gives you access to our class, Comic Writing 101, which is going to start up again in just a couple of weeks. I’m going to get on there. We’re going to have a big chat about everything coming and how you build a shared universe, all kinds of stuff. I’m sorry we could only leave the Black Jackett Club founder’s tier open for like, two minutes, but I appreciate everybody that signed up quickly and wrote to us afterwards and so on. But what a good year for comics, right? I mean, I know it’s a tough year. This is the thing, I really want to balance the way I talk about this year with advice for creators and my enthusiasm and excitement over some of the things happening and some of the books being put out. There were so many great books. I mean, my list is probably an obvious one to most people, but the books that we’re doing at DC, obviously I can’t say enough good things about Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Martian Manhunter. And I think what Josh is doing on Superman is out of control fantastic. There’s a ton. And the books coming out at Vertigo soon, that whole line is just terrific. I can’t wait for you guys to see that.

But some of the books across the aisle, I mean, Ultimates by Dennis Camp, Ultimate Spider-Man has been amazing. I really love, again, the Energon Universe (G.I. Joe, Transformers, everything being done over there). And Robert’s plans are unbelievable. I mean, Skinbreaker is also great as a side note. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles under was fantastic, and now under Gene Luen Yang and Freddie Williams II is going to be great. I’ve seen what’s coming and it’s absolutely worth checking out. And in the Image and creator-owned spaces, there have been some fantastic books this year. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: The Rite of Spring, The Power Fantasy, again, one of my favorite, favorite books. Above all, I’ve loved Assorted Crisis Events. I think that book is just going to change the game in so many ways. The issue coming out next, issue eight, is one of my favorite issues in many, many years. Also, Drome by Jesse Lonergan, who also did the great book Man’s Best Friend with Pornsak Pichetshote. They’re blowing up. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, Exquisite Corpses is a fantastic, over-the-top horror book from and the great people at . It introduces you to some fantastic new creators also, as the book is almost a round robin of writing. It’s just terrific. And again, if you love horror, this is the book. So go pick it up.

And then again, I just wanted to give some advice because I got asked a lot by creators this year about what I thought of the market. I was asked to read a lot of different creator-owned books. I read a ton of pitches for DC, obviously, for Next Level, for other things like that. And I wanted to give like, my best guess or my best interpretation of what the market is right now, especially as advice to creators. So the thing I’m excited about with this market is is that it feels like there are fans out there that are desperately hungry, whether they’re new, whether they’re returning, whether they’ve been there all along, for things that feel transgressive and dangerous and risky and their own. Above all, their own. They want to feel like they’re getting on the ground floor of something that is only happening here, doesn’t feel like it’s connected to some giant ecosystem of TV, movies, of a million different things.

Like I said before in another post, it feels like the MCU and Star Wars and a lot of other franchises took what we normally do in comics with multiple stories, multiple series tying together and did that over the course of the last 15 years in all kinds of macro and micro ways. And it feels like there’s a cynicism right now about things that feel like they’re part of a larger ecosystem in that way that aren’t being built right off the ground now, starting in a way that’s organic and strange and new and dangerous and weird. And that’s why the Ultimate Universe and the Absolute Universe feel different. And that’s really exciting. There’s new fans that are hungry. There’s a whole discussion on social media, on TikTok and other platforms that don’t normally engage with comics quite as dramatically as they have this year. There’s a real energy and I see it in the stores. I see it at conventions all around the world.

This last year has been one of the most shocking, invigorating, energizing, inspiring times for me in my whole career, if not the most. because it is the validation, honestly, of a thesis that I think a lot of us have had over the years. When you take a risk and you try something that makes comics feel special and exciting and not safe, not going back to the things that we’ve done before, not trying to sort of give everybody just comfort food, people show up. And you can give them big, safe comfort food also. In a lot of ways that’s fun to do both at the same time. We can give you something that speaks to stories that you’ve loved in the past and repackage those or do classic kinds of stuff while also giving you brand new stuff.

But I would just say that for a long time in economic anxiety moments like it is now, the inclination of corporate bosses was to go backwards or to try and recapture what we did before and try and recapture fans that we had lost by trying to do the types of stories they had already read and liked. And I always had trouble with that. And my feeling is that to recapture those fans, you do something exciting and new. But I don’t think there’s a problem with doing something exciting and new in the format of classic, epic in-continuity storytelling. That’s what we’re trying to do with a lot of the continuing series at DC, like Batman right now. Batman is new and fun with Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez. But it isn’t trying to change the mold of what it’s doing. It gets to a point with that story that you’re going to see things that you’ve never seen before. But it’s in the classic style, the same way Detective Comics is, right? And that’s awesome. So you can do both. But anyway, my point is, it’s a really fascinating and thrilling market. But it is a tough market also. Books are underperforming all across the spectrum, too.

And I think the thing that I would say to creators that bring me their books, whether it’s a DC pitch, whether it’s a creator-owned book, is that you have got to meet the market where it is right now. I read so many books coming out from creator-owned spaces that feel like this is a book that could have launched at Boom in 2012 or at Vertigo in 2009 or 2015. It doesn’t feel like it’s urgent or it doesn’t feel like it’s about this moment or that it was a book you had to write right now. It feels like a passion project that you’ve had in the back of your head for a long time. And here’s the thing, 100%, I love those books and I think they should exist and you should publish them. But what I’m seeing from a lot of creators is the bewilderment as to why those books aren’t doing as well as they used to do in some way. And what I’m trying to say is that it’s a really particular moment in the market right now. And what I would say to you is you have to meet it if you’re looking for competitive sales, not if you’re looking to sell 10,000 copies, which again, I have done books like that. I love doing books like that. I love doing books that are personal to me that I’ve had in my head a long time, even if they are about the moment in my own way and they’re all about something urgent, that I understand are not designed for the market to sell right now. That’s a big part of being a creator is experimenting and doing books that maybe you know are not going to fit, but that are just your passion project.

But what creators keep asking me is like, “why isn’t my book selling” or “why isn’t this right for this moment?” And a lot of the time what I’d say to them back is just like, “is this your biggest swing? Is this the thing that feels like you’re speaking to fans and saying, this book has to exist right now?” For better or worse, like, the Absolute Universe, what I’m so excited about with them is that they all feel really urgent. You know, you might not like their politics, but they are designed to make these superheroes feel immediate and exciting and bigger than life but in a moment that speaks to the hardships and the things that people are facing right now. They’re meant to be even more heroic and inspiring as underdogs. And I think that’s true of what was happening in the Ultimate Universe as well. I think Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s Ultimate Spider-Man speaks to what a lot of people are feeling as struggling young families right now. And that’s great.

So my point is just like, Transformers feels urgent. It has art that feels urgent. Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Corona and these guys that like, aren’t safe artists and mashing that together with G.I. Joe is cool and exciting and it’s never been done. So why not? And The Last Ronin and these books are they’re trying things that haven’t been tried. And that’s what I’m saying is that there are too many creators that pitch something that feels like it could have existed 15 years ago and then expect that thing to compete in a tough market right now. And what I’m saying is not “don’t do those books.” Do those books. But you can’t then turn around and say, “why isn’t this book selling like Nightwing?” That’s what I hear too much.

And that’s my honest advice going into 2026 for creators. Make your biggest swing if you want a book that’s going to be competitive, not if you’re doing a book that’s personal to you. When I did Book of Evil or AD: After Death or some of the IDW books I did, those were not designed as books that were going to sell big. Or Barnstormers, luckily, surprisingly, when it won the award, that took off. But those books were about things that I thought were really pertinent at that moment. So they were trying to meet the moment in terms of what they were about. But I understood that they weren’t going to meet a market that was tough with half-prose books or books that were historical and painted. And I don’t expect them to sell that way. And that’s why I tried to make extra money at conventions or took an extra teaching job in the early years to do Severed.

And that awareness of the market is key going into this year for aspiring freighters. Only in that talking to Deniz Camp when he was doing Assorted Crisis Events, it was like, he just cares about making enough money on that book that his artists and his team is paid for. And everything else on that book is whatever happens happens. And he doesn’t care if he makes any money. When I was starting out and when I was coming up and we were broke, that was the spirit with American Vampire. That was the spirit with like, a lot with Wytches, early on in that stuff too. And I love that. But sometimes you can’t do that. And you have to be like, you want your book to sell and you need it to sell. And what I’m saying is if that’s where you are, you’ve got to look at the market and be like, “what’s my biggest swing right now? What’s my biggest tent book? What is the thing that I can do that says this hasn’t been done? It has to exist. It’s dangerous. It’s urgent.” That’s the market right now.

So that’s my biggest advice to creators out there is like, don’t turn around and blame the market. Don’t blame the books that are doing well. Take a look and think like, this market is scary, but it’s thrilling. It is tough and competitive, but it’s also corrective to a lot of years of inflated sales because of streaming, because of variant covers, because of all kinds of things like COVID money, TV interests, corporate support, all kinds of stuff that is going away. And that means it’s a tougher market. It’s corrective and it’s competitive and it’s scary. And I wish that every creator-owned book sold 100,000 copies. But in this market, you’re lucky if you sell 20,000 to 30,000. Very lucky. That’s what you’re facing. But that also is exhilarating in its own way. As hard as it is, it’s exhilarating because it means it’s a market where books are overperforming when they take a big swing. You’ve got a hungry, excited comic book audience.

Do the thing that keeps you up at night if you want something that’s going to swim high in a competitive market like this, or do something that’s the book you’ve had in your head a long time and you know is quieter or whatever it is, but understand that that book in this particular market is probably going to be a tough sell. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it and you shouldn’t absolutely have it find its audience, but that’s all I’m saying. So ultimately, that’s my best advice going in. It’s a thrilling moment. It’s a scary moment. It’s an inspiring moment. And I can’t wait to see what people come up with in ‘26. Thanks you guys!

S

Give a gift subscription

Subscribe now

Share

And I just wanted to do a super quick video reminding you of three things. Sorry, it’s a snow day here. First, Monday is the Final Order Cut-Off for Absolute Batman #16.

This is our guest star issue of Absolute Wonder Woman. It’s a two-part crossover, but each one is standalone. You can read them both or you could read them separately. Kelly and Hayden’s issue is fantastic. Absolute Wonder Woman #15 comes out really soon.

Ours is Absolute Batman #16. Really, really proud of it. So Final Order Cut-Off Monday along with Absolute Batman 10th printing of #1 which I cannot wrap my head around, but thank you.

And the new printing of the Absolute Batman Annual by Daniel Warren Johnson and James Harren and Meredith McLaren. So excited to see you guys sold that out.

Two, we’re going to be reopening the Black Jackett Club, which is the top tier of Our Best Jackett, where you get to meet with me individually once a month and show me work. I have no business doing this anymore, but I love it. I won’t give it up. We haven’t opened it in a couple of years, so I know there have been a lot of requests for it and we can’t really put it off any longer. So we’re going to do it Friday at noon Eastern for just a very short time because we can really barely handle any more at all. So if you really want to do it, just be ready to sign up at noon (and for all current Black Jackett members, info on the 2026 meeting slots and sending books through the mail to be signed will be going out early next week).

And also I wanted to remind people, as a third thing, that an annual subscription to Our Best Jackett (totally self-interested, but I love teaching) is only $75 for the whole year. And that includes our class, Comic Writing 101, which has over 30 classes, interviews with people like Greg Capullo, Mark Waid, Kelly Thompson, the whole pantheon of comic stars, but also does really intense craft and business subjects about what it’s like to write comics.

So again, for just $75, we should really raise the price, but we do not want to do it. You can get it. So thank you guys so much. And yeah, appreciate it!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Monday, November 24th. Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! I know we were going to do a class this week, but we had a better option. First of all, a lot of people emailed us and said they weren’t going to be around because it is the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. So we didn’t want you guys to miss out on the live class, even though you get all of the classes recorded in our archive afterwards so you can watch them whenever you want. Even our first one is there so we have like, 30+ classes or so if you want to sign up for our Best Jackett paid tier and get Comic Writing 101.

Subscribe now

But also, I was talking to Ryan Stegman who’s a good friend and also just one of the best artists working in comics and he was talking about the importance of creating big moments in books and series as well. So we thought we’d have him on for a talk, so we will do it the first week of December, that is Wednesday, December 3rd. So it’ll be an extra special class, I always love having guests and Ryan is incredibly smart. He’s got one of the highest artists IQs in terms of like, visual storytelling of anyone I know. He’s really funny and incredibly kind. So I’m excited to have him on.

Also, huge week for us book-wise. It doesn’t get any bigger than this. We’ve got Absolute Batman #14, the finale to our Abomination arc. It’s a big showdown between Bruce and Bane. I really hope you like it. We put everything we have into this one. It’s late because we added pages and violence and emotional moments and all of this stuff, like, we kept throwing in more and more. I’m really proud of it and Nick just went to town and Frank’s colors are unbelievable and Clayton’s letters are great. So can’t wait for you guys to see this one!

And we also have DC K.O. #2. So I can’t wait for you guys to see this one either. It’s with the great Javi Fernández on art and Alejandro Sánchez on colors. Again, each issue is going to have a section by and Xermanico as well. We’ve plotted the whole book together, so we’re really thrilled about this issue. It’s even more bonkers than the first one. The first one kind of set everything up, but this one’s where we really get to fight. So it has some of my favorite moments so far with Joker going to town, Vixen going to town, and Clark going to town. Clark has a great moment. Lex is just vicious in it. I really hope you enjoy it!

And things only get crazier from here. So the more you support this event, the more leverage it gives us to try new things on the other side. We already are lining up our Next Level books. Like you know, we have Lobo coming with Skottie Young and Jorge Corona. We’ve got Batwoman with the legend Greg Rucka and Dani. We have other titles you’ve seen and creators that we haven’t announced yet, but you’re going to hear about them very, very soon. Deathstroke and Demon and Shadow of the Bat. All kinds of cool stuff coming.

So I just wanted to put in a nice word for this teachers conference I was at in Denver. It was really moving. So it was the National Teachers of English Conference, NTCE. Hope I got that right. They asked DC if I would go and then DC signed me up and I went and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Was it just sort of a a quick meet and greet thing where I was going to go on stage and do a quick Q&A, or did they really care about getting comics in schools? I love meeting with teachers. I love being a teacher, but I just wasn’t sure how big a part of the program it was. And it turns out it was an opening thing, it was the keynote. But even more than that, it was really packed.

The amount of teachers that came up afterwards after this Q&A and the questions that were posed during the Q&A really spoke to the passion that teachers have out there for bringing comics into the classroom and especially at a time like this when there’s more crackdown on what they’re allowed to teach and that aperture is being forced closed. I think more and more comics offers an avenue that’s just so expansive. I mean, there’s a comic for everyone. There’s comics about everything from politics, memoir. I mean, there’s like, Swallow Me Whole or Fun Home for memoirs. There’s comics like March that are political. There’s just beautiful literary comics, Daytripper to Pride of Baghdad, all kinds of fun stuff out there. And then there’s big superhero comics and horror comics. And so my point to them in these answers to some of their questions was three ways of thinking about getting students into comics are:

1. There’s a comic for everybody. That’s first and foremost. There’s nothing that you can’t find out there in our world.

2. It’s a really welcoming and great space, honestly, in my opinion. Finding other people that like the same stuff as you by going to the comic store or finding it online, you find your people that way. That’s especially true when you’re more isolated or you don’t know other people that like the same things as you, especially when you’re growing up. You can’t underestimate how key that can be. It was for me.

3. At core, I think it really helps students learn about collaboration because it’s such a collaborative medium in all kinds of ways, right? As a writer, you’re sharing the thing you care about in your script with readers, but then more importantly, you’re sharing them with the artist. You’re hoping that artist is sharing their vulnerability with you on the page. You’re building something with a team.

And then the community, I think, respects that third principle so much too. There’s a sense of shared passion, of shared collective love of this medium. I think it contains all of that stuff. So collaboration, sharing, interconnectivity, all of that is core to comics. And I think it’s a great principle and ideal quality to teach in young people especially so, but just the passion they showed and the energy that was there for comics it was off the charts. I just loved it, and very, very grateful to them for bringing me out. And I really want to keep it up with them. And I’d be happy to do it again. So thank you, teachers. I’m very grateful for you.

Again, big week for us. I’ll circle back right after Thanksgiving, but I hope you guys have a terrific, terrific Thanksgiving. We’re really grateful and thankful to you for keeping everything going at such incredible levels this year at DC, but also here. I’m really grateful for this community that you guys have helped me build with you and the connections I’ve formed with you guys here. So again, I’m really, really grateful. It’s a good time to be reminded of that. So thanks again!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Wednesday, November 12th, and I just wanted to make a quick adjustment, quick course correction. I forgot that my amazing assistant, Tyler, is going to the incredible convention Thought Bubble tomorrow, Thursday, over in England. So tonight is off the table for a class. We will reschedule it for two weeks from now, right before Thanksgiving, because that’s when we have both DC K.O. #2 and Absolute Batman #14 coming out alongside a bunch of key reprints.

So we’ll do it November 26th, the night before Thanksgiving. I don’t know if you guys will be crazy busy with family stuff. I hope you are in a good way. But if you want to come in and talk comic books with me and momentism in comics, I’ll be there.

So tonight at 9:15pm, instead, what I’ll do is a 45-minute AMA, a Q&A, open to everybody that’s part of Best Jackett, free, paid, everything. So come ask me whatever you want in the comments of this post, on the Discord server, or during the livestream. Questions about craft or the industry are especially helpful as opposed to continuity stuff. But either way, I’ll answer anything you want. And I love doing these, so it’s my chance to get to talk to you and say thanks. Looking forward to it! Again, here’s the link to join TONIGHT AT 9:15pm EST:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81255559547

And yeah, hope everything’s good with you. Happy new comic book day and I apologize for the chaos, but we’ll get back to teaching really soon. It’ll be fun, I’m excited for the class. This one, what I’m going to do is I’m going to do a few classes in a row that are all about elements in monthly comics that I think are really important that are coming back strongly now, but that are also sometimes forgotten in an era of streaming. So I mentioned a bunch of them in the class that I did about six things for your checklist if you’re doing monthly superhero comics or monthly comics in general a few months back:

But I want to kind of dissect them more because I rushed through them. So this one is momentism. It’s about creating a big moment in your comic. I’m also going to do one that’s about giving big character moments. Like, what is a big character moment? Because there are different kinds. They each announce a different thing about your project and your series to a reader. Cliffhangers, all that kind of stuff. But what I’m going to do with this one is talk about big moments. So I hope you’ll come check it out. We’ll do it in two weeks, and apologies again for the confusion. But come by and ask me whatever you want tonight. Bye!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Friday, November 7th, and before we get started, just quick bits of housekeeping. This coming Monday is the very last day to order Absolute Batman #15. It’s our big Joker issue with Alfred going into what the Joker of the Absolute Universe is all about. Really scary stuff, I’m really excited for you guys to see it. Jock just knocked it out of the park, and Frank’s colors are unbelievable. Clayton’s letters are great, so I hope you’ll check it out. We’re really, really excited.

I am so sorry that I’ve been out of touch. The holiday schedule in comics is crazy. What it is is to get everything in for January, the printer closes early before Christmas. And so everything that’s usually due later in the month is due very quickly. And so between family trip to Florida, and then I took a weekend up in Buffalo to visit my sister and her husband to go see a Buffalo Bills game with our two older boys. And a small health scare I had, full disclosure, because everyone should always get checked out for this stuff. I had some chest pains and that triggered going to the hospital and getting a whole barrage of tests over the course of a week and a half. But it turns out it was just muscular. It was just like a pulled muscle in my chest. So all clear, you guys are stuck with me for longer but between all of that I just haven’t had two seconds to do a post or do a class and I’ve really been intending to.

So we’re going to do a class next week on Wednesday. I’m planning on doing it about momentism. Momentism is making sure that your comic has a really big moment in it that people are going to go talk about for the month that they have to wait for the next issue. It’s different than a cliffhanger, and I’ll explain why in class, but there are different kinds of moments also that you can create. Some are character driven and emotional. Some are sensational and shocking. Some are quiet. Some are inversions. So we’ll talk about different techniques you can use. And I’ll remind you as to why I think this is so important as one of the kind of five things to keep in mind when you’re doing comics these days so that you can kind of meet the market where it is. So the five fundamental things to keep in mind when you’re doing monthly comics. But it should be a lot of fun. So we’ll try and do it our normal time. Wednesday night, 9:30pm EST. I’ll see if I can get a special guest. I’m not sure yet. I’ll look at some comics historically and the last couple of weeks that have come out that show great examples, I think, of creating a moment that’s going to send you to go want to talk to your friends all month about this crazy comic you just read.

All right, guys. So Wednesday night. Thank you so much. Really hope you have a great weekend. Hope you had a great Halloween. And thank you. I can’t get over how much support you guys are showing for all the stuff we’re doing. And really, it makes us so grateful. I know I always say it, but it’s the truth. Best fans in the world. So all right. Next week, Monday, order Absolute Batman #14. Wednesday, come to class!

Subscribe now

Share

It is Tuesday, October 21st, and it’s been forever since I did a post. I’m so sorry. But it’s been wild over here and crazy. We had New York Comic Con, which will be the big subject of this post. And we announced a bunch of stuff for DC that I really want to unpack for you guys a little bit here, give you a bit more about than we could talk about at the convention. And most of all, just say thank you. The convention was unbelievable.

So many of you guys from Best Jacket and the Black Jacket Club came up to say hello. To get to meet you face to face was really special and I honestly am just super grateful that so many of you guys came up and introduced yourselves. It was terrific to see that community in real life.

But the con was amazing. I honestly never expected Absolute to take off the way it has. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s so apparent when we go to these conventions and the energy from you guys is just off the charts. I’m not just saying that. I promise it’s just a different vibe even than when I was on Batman. With Batman, it was electric and energizing and the lines were always really big. But there’s also just a different vibe with this one where there’s just so many of you that read Batman have come back, but also there’s a lot of young people. There’s people that are making TikToks and all kinds of stuff that I, as an old man, am unfamiliar with. But there’s a really great young excitement about it, which is surprising and shocking and also just really inspiring. So I can’t thank you guys enough. I haven’t even processed it yet and how to experience it. I know Nick hasn’t either. I was looking at his line that was around the corner and it was unbelievable. And everybody on the Absolute books and at DC in general was feeling great about stuff. So thank you. Thank you.

And I promise Absolute is not only not going anywhere, but expanding. As we announced, we’ve got Absolute Catwoman coming with Che Grayson and Bengal.

And we’ve got Absolute Green Arrow, which is just a brutal book, which I can’t wait for you guys to see from Pornsak Pichetshote and Rafa Albuquerque, which is again, two dear friends but also fantastic creators. So we’re only building this world out. We’re going to be doing meeting of the superheroes later this year. We did Absolute Evil, which we were so glad you guys enjoyed last month. So yeah, we’re just building out and there are absolutely no plans of ending it. I just want to make this very clear because we keep getting asked about it in light of the Ultimate Universe ending. And to reiterate, I applaud the Ultimate Universe. I love reading the Ultimate Universe books. I think what Jonathan and everybody over there has built with it is fantastic. I’m glad they get to end it their way. At the same time, I’m really sad to see it ending. I wish it wasn’t. But again, whatever the plan was there is very different from the plan here. We are contracted, me and Nick, through more than 35 issues at this point, which would take us another 2+ years down the line. So please don’t worry that there’s any end in sight. There’s not. We’re just expanding and building and trying to keep it streamlined so you can read all the books as well. It’s not going to explode into like, 20 books either.

But other announcements we made, we talked about DC Next Level. So what is DC Next Level? I just wanted to be really clear. So for a long time now, for the last eight to nine months, we’ve been building a line of books that’s focused on some fan favorite characters. Everybody from Deathstroke to The Demon to Zatanna, characters that don’t often get quite the brightest spotlight that’s taken up by Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman, but characters that fans love and we love. And so we wanted to kind of do with them what we tried to do with characters in Absolute, where we give careers a lot of leeway to come in and not reinvent them because these books, unlike Absolute, are in continuity, but give them as much latitude as we could within that context. So you can come in, as long as you’re not breaking continuity and we want you to make an incredibly user-friendly book that doesn’t rely on anyone knowing anything about these characters whatsoever, and make people fall in love with these characters on your terms.

And the biggest thing about these books is that they’re really creator forward. That’s this ether that we’ve adopted at DC since All In that we’ve been getting more and more, I think, aggressive about. And editorial has been wonderfully supportive as well. But it’s a really simple idea. It’s the idea that instead of going to creators and saying, “we have this slot and we need you to fill it,” or “we have this pitch that we made up and we need you to execute it,” we go to creators that we love and say, “what character do you have a story for? What’s your passion project?” That’s what we did with Absolute and we want to replicate that in the main line while still being in continuity and a little bit closer to model.

So here we went to Skottie Young and Deniz Camp and James Harren and Jeff Lemire and Mariko Tamaki, all these different creators, a lot of whom aren’t even announced yet.

This was just the first set of announcements and books. But we said to them, “what do you want to do at DC?” And I’ll tell you this, Skottie Young was one of the first to sign up to do Lobo with Jorge Corona. And his pitch is fucking amazing. It’s just exactly the Lobo book you want. He’s the perfect creator for it. He’s got an unbelievable enthusiasm for the character and he wants to make everybody fall in love with Lobo the way he loves Lobo.

I don’t think we announced who’s on The Demon yet, but for me, The Demon was a similar project. I went to somebody I love and was like, “look, I think you’re fantastic. What do you want to do?” And they wanted to do a horror book. And then they started talking about The Demon and the pitch was unbelievable. We just built it out together where their pitch was essentially a book that allows you to walk right in knowing nothing about The Demon and and just be completely enveloped by this awesome mythology about a guy who’s cursed with this alternate demonic presence inside of him, Etrigan the Demon, that comes out when he doesn’t want it to and fights other demons and it’s just awesome. It’s a straight up horror book.

Similarly, Deathstroke, you’re going to find out who’s on that book really soon. The pitch for Deathstroke was from a creator who said, “I really want to do Deathstroke and I really want to make Deathstroke just straight up badass assassin. I wanted to decouple him from all of the other superheroes and this and do something that shows the world of assassins inside of DC in this really dark and fun and brutal way.” We were like, “you know what? That sounds great. We don’t have a crime book like that.” So we were really trying to give you things you don’t have, but let creators lead to charge.

And so all of these books, Shadow of the Bat, I can’t wait for you to see the team on that, they’re all ones that I’m super excited about and all of DC is super excited about. Some of them are really wild swings. There’s some characters that have never sold before that we’re really going to try and do special stuff with. Some of them are really big commercial swings where we’re pretty confident they’re going to be hits. But we wanted to make every single book something that feels like the creators just love what they’re doing and there’s a palpable energy. So that’s really what Next Level is. It’s a curated line of books within the main line that is in continuity, but feels particularly accessible to new readers, feels creator forward, has number ones, reintroduces these characters in big ways, and just excites and brings the fun.

And so that’s really where we’re headed with DC K.O. And thank you guys so much for the amazing response on this one. It outsold our expectations. The response from you guys in terms of excitement was terrific. I really appreciate it. Javi really appreciates it. We got to celebrate it at New York Comic Con, but we’re really, really grateful. And again, I love doing these events. It’s a big meditation on why these superheroes matter, especially in tough times. It’s a story about Superman that I’m really proud of. But it’s also this big knockdown drag out fight that we want to use to get people excited about DC, get people into stores, get people supporting retailers. And the reason is because the more of you that get excited about DC, the more we’re hoping you’ll also give Next Level a try. All of this builds to Next Level. The idea is you do a big tent event. And I said at the convention, we don’t want to do an event unless it has three reasons to exist.

1. It’s a great story, and we really believe we have something super fun and resonant with K.O.

2. It’s a statement of purpose. It restates our priorities at DC, and right now I think this event does that. It talks about how we’re essentially a company that wants to be inclusive and bring everybody into stores. It’s big, fun, over-the-top, bombastic Saturday morning cartoons on steroids, but it also has a heart.

3. It has utility, that it leaves the line better on the other side than it came in.

And that to me is crucial. I never want to do an event that’s just a cash grab and a big story that doesn’t have something on the other side. Sometimes when we did Metal, it was a big statement of purpose and we only had a little bit of room on the other side to build stuff because the line was different then. It moved at a different pace. There was a lot of churn and different things. We were always able to build stuff on the other side of those events. But we didn’t have the whole line to play with because there were all these kind of competing strands. But now the idea that we can kind of end this and coherently build an initiative like Next Level, where we have a big handful of books, between 8 to 12 books, that we’re building as we’re replacing some of the books that maybe aren’t working quite as well sales-wise, even if we love them, is just really thrilling. So we’re very, very excited for it. I hope you guys or feel as excited as we do. The response was great throughout the weekend, but we just want to keep it rolling.

I’m going to be talking a lot about these books as they come because the first one is launched in March, which is solicited really soon. So I think it’s like within a month or two, you’re going to start hearing about the first couple of books coming out in March and we’re going to try and do about two books a month. So you’ll have a couple new books every month and K.O. will hit the DCU with a really fun burst of creativity. And so you’ll have a lot of jumping on points throughout books that you’re already enjoying in that way. So it’s really used in a way to strengthen the line, brush up the line, add to the line. We’re being additive and not subtractive. I’m really grateful to DC that all these places that are like, “comics are dying..” or YouTube channels that are like, “sales disaster...” I mean, again, don’t listen to that stuff. DC has already had a banner year where we overperformed early in the year budgetarily, which was wonderful to hear because of Absolute and Hush 2 and a bunch of others like Batman #1. We’ve had a fantastic year. And so what I’m really grateful for is that Jim and Anne and Marie and people at DC are reinvesting in the books themselves and the creators and trying to really build an even better line on this side of K.O.

So K.O. is a big part of this larger vision for DC, which is that we do events that are fun and bring people in and mean something to us, but then strengthen the line by adding books. We winnow out books that, even if we love them, just aren’t sustainable in a certain way sales-wise. We try and find new things for creators or we try and adjust books that haven’t been working quite as well. We’re doing that with some books in March too where we’re adjusting them just in terms of story. and I consult with creators to try and encourage them and see what their ideas they have for books, start to talk to them really constructively about maybe what is causing a book not to sell as well as it could while still allowing them some wide lane of creative integrity on the book. It’s all a big constructive conversation and we’re really proud of where we are right now at DC and we just want to get better.

So that’s kind of everything DC Next Level. We got to celebrate at the con at the last minute. Jock and I decided to just have a party and invite friends. We always do stuff at the last minute and we’re very sloppy about it, but we were really happy to get to see everybody. So a big thank you to all our creator friends that came and hung out with us and just hosted at the beginning of the con to say welcome and how much we really love all of you guys and being a part of this community.

So it was a great convention. I can’t thank you guys enough. I’m really excited about everything coming. Absolute Batman Annual comes out next week with Daniel Warren Johnson and James Harren and Meredith McClaren. Really, really proud of this one. Again, they wrote and drew their own stories. Nick and I are not in it, but we’re just so thrilled and honored that they came and did their takes on Absolute Bruce and his world.

Really thrilled for you to see it. Can’t wait. Thank you for the support for everything and I’m just excited to keep all this rolling. And we will do a class soon. I’m going away with my family this weekend. So I need a bit of time to put one together. But I’m excited to try planning one starting next week. Take care, you guys. Bye!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Friday, October 3rd. We are one week away from New York Comic Con. I can’t believe it. The leaves are changing, the spooky season is here, and we have an insane week coming up. So, on October 8th, Wednesday, we have two massive comic books coming out. First and foremost, DC K.O. #1. The first issue of our big fall event, the first of five. This is our knockdown drag-out fight with all the heroes, some of your favorite characters all across the DCU, in what’s essentially a universal cage match to find out who is going to be the champion to take on Darkseid. So it is balls to the wall fun. I’m really, really thrilled at how it came out. Javi Fernández is just a beast. He’s the artist on it. It’s written in part with Joshua Williamson and Xermanico on those pages from Josh. That’ll be consistent throughout the whole series. But it’s like Saturday morning cartoons on steroids, but it also has a big heart. It’s a story that has a lot to do with what these characters stand for, especially in tough times. And I really love it. So I can’t wait for you to see it.

And also we have Absolute Batman #13. This is a huge one for us. There’s a big secret surprise in it that we haven’t told anybody. We didn’t let it let it out like we normally do. So Catwoman is featured in this one. That’s no secret. And I love her relationship with Bruce, it’s been a blast to write. Can’t wait for you to see Nick and Frank’s incredible work with her. There’s a moment in it I hope you really enjoy that we’ve been waiting to do for a while. So yes, that’s Wednesday.

And we’re going to do a class soon. I just haven’t been able to get my shit together, honestly, between the start of school, traveling down to a convention in La Mole in Mexico City, which was amazing. I loved it down there. The people were fantastic. The organizers were great, fans were terrific. It was great.

I got to spend some time with buddy Ryan Stegman and his great wife Erin, so it was it was a really fantastic time. But with NYCC coming, it’s just been a complete crunch and I feel like I’d be doing a disservice to do a class before that. But as soon as the convention’s over, we’re going to do a class. I already know what it’s going to be. I’m really excited to do it. But just give me a week to finish off all the crazy work I have before it. We’ve got Wytches going. We’re still in production finishing the animatics for the first season. It’s going great. I’m really, really excited about it and can’t wait for you to see it.

And if you’re going to NYCC, I’ll do another post about this but please come say hello. I’ll be there pretty much all of Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Some of Thursday, but mostly the last three days.

It’s really first come, first serve. I’ll try to do as much signing as I can at my booth. You got to get there way before the signing time. New York is a beat and if you want to get in there, you just got to line up, honestly. I’m really sorry. Or if you’re a paid subscriber and you do the $7/month (or $75/year) membership or you’re in the Black Jacket Club, which we do have a breakfast on Sunday for those founder’s tier members, then you can skip the line at the beginning of each signing. So be there at the very beginning and we’ll have a moment when people who are in Best Jacket with us here get to come up before. And it’s definitely worth it, I would say, for seven bucks to skip those lines that happened in New York. So you can still sign up now. So Tyler, the best assistant, will put the link right here.

Subscribe now

And one quick thing I wanted to talk about, it was so interesting going down to Mexico City and seeing the excitement for the Absolute characters and just thinking about Marvel’s plans with the Ultimate Universe and other things coming in all kinds of ways throughout comics. And I’ve said this before, but I really feel like comics is the place where these characters, these heroes that we love, are renewed and made fresh again over the years, like it’s where the DNA is. It’s where they live and breathe and where they can be evolved and be transformed and still stay true to core. And some of the greatest canonical stories were really upsetting when they came out, like Dark Knight Returns or Year One or Kingdom Come or Kraven’s Last Hunt. Just all these things that were so seminal were upsetting because it really took the characters to places that they’d never been before. And then those things become canon and then wind up becoming the basis of the televisual and cinematic universes, right? Like, so much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes from the original Ultimate Universe, not even the main universe.

But anyway, the point I’m trying to make is just that I’ve thought a lot about it. And I think back when I started in comics and just before that, like in the era when Geoff Johns was one of the head voices at DC. But even before that, it felt like what we had up on the movies and television world of superheroes was that the movies could come in and do some wild take. You could do Tim Burton Batman, or you could do Sam Raimi Spider-Man or Richard Donner Superman. But the comics had this huge interconnected tapestry of story, this whole ecosystem of story where you could fall down this rabbit hole if you loved Wolverine and go from X-Men to Wolverine to X-Force to Wolverine and the X-Men to all these different things. And it was this incredibly exploratory and experiential thing. And over the last 15 years, we watched these incredible cinematic and televisual universes be built around these characters at Marvel, Star Wars, DC, all these different companies. And they were building these massive ecosystems of story and really doing the thing that was only being done in comics, where suddenly you had a trilogy of new movies from Star Wars, plus other ones like Solo and Rogue One and not only video games but whole TV shows like Andor and Mandalorian that built on them and similarly, obviously, the Marvel Universe being the biggest example of that.

And so you had these giant webs of story and it was great, and it is great, but things go in cycles and it kind of feels like viewers and readers are used to that now, in a way. Like, they’re very used to these big systems of story and they’re almost skeptical of them. I feel like some of the stuff that we’ve seen work best in the past, spinoff series from major events, Things that are built to fill in areas of the DCU that we had created a space for in a bigger story, those books used to do really well. And now it feels like they struggle a bit more. It’s more of a challenge just because readers are getting more cynical, I think, about things that feel like they’re built to be part of systems of story. Not because there’s anything wrong with that, but just because it feels like they’re used to it and they see it as something that corporations are also desperate for in film and TV, how to keep these massive universes going. And so to see the excitement around these things reborn, right? The Absolute Universe, the Energon Universe, the Ultimate Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles right now.

To have readers be so excited to see surprising new takes, it’s made me almost rethink some of the possibility and the role of what we can do in superhero comics, where it almost feels like we’ve switched places a bit with movies and TV for the moment. Doesn’t mean that it always stays this way, but it feels like TV and movies is the place where they’ve created this giant interconnected system of story and narrative where they’re kind of beholden to it right now. You can’t suddenly pivot and reinvent Captain America or Iron Man because those characters literally have rides at theme parks and you have billions of dollars invested in those versions of those characters and TV shows based on them and all kinds of stuff. And so it’s much harder to suddenly swerve and do something new. But in comics, we’re super nimble. We can just start a new universe or we could just reboot a universe. Not that we should, but we can just move and do those things. And so it’s interesting to me, I guess just as a creator right now, how much excitement and how much enthusiasm there is from readers and sales on these books that are taking new swings that are unpredictable with these characters.

And it’s making me think that comics almost has a responsibility to try those things a lot. It doesn’t mean that in any way the main universe, the interconnected story we’ve been telling for 80 years, or any of that stuff is any less valuable or any less important or should in any way be diminished or abandoned. It just means that I think you can put a lot of weight and also creative power behind this other endeavor at the same time, not as kind of a throwaway or a spinoff, but as a major responsibility that we do more often. We do as a consistent thing for now where people really are looking to us to make these characters as exciting as they can be, as resonant as they can be. And that can happen in the main universe too. It does happen all the time. But I think that we also have this other lane that we sometimes think of as throwaway or you just do it for a little while, but it’s actually like a huge part of what comics has to offer that nothing else can do right now. The same way it felt like what movies and TV could do that nothing else could do before—take the characters in these huge, crazy swings or that they could do in a way that was huge and impactful. And now it feels like most movies and TV are trying to fit into that same system they’ve built. So we can do that.

Anyway, you get the idea. But it just got me thinking and very appreciative going to Mexico City and having been away with Nick Dragotta in Italy and seeing all over the world how excited people are for these wild personal takes on these characters that mean so much to us and clearly to so many people out there. Thank you. I can’t wait for you to see what’s coming up in Absolute Batman. Obviously, I spoke about #13. #14 is our big finale with Bane. It’s got some big surprises and hyper, hyper violence. And then #15 is the Joker issue with Jock. Can’t wait for you to see that. It’s really special to us.

#16 is our Wonder Woman crossover. Kelly Thompson is doing the first part. We’re doing the second. And just to be clear, we’re not going to do something where you have to read Absolute Wonder Woman and there’s a cliffhanger and then you read Absolute Batman. We just felt that that put too much on readers. So the way we’re doing it is almost like two one-shots, one leading into the other. But if you read them both, it’s a fuller story. But you could read them separately too.

So the idea is like it won’t force you if you’re only reading one series to read the other. But as most people are reading both based on sales, it feels like you can read both and get an even richer picture, but both are standalone. So in Kelly’s, Wonder Woman comes to Gotham. And in ours, Batman goes to Gateway City and has a crazy adventure that we’re really excited about. Changes the tone for an issue. So that’s #16.

#17 begins an arc. I can’t wait for where we’re going to bring in some characters, to spoil a little bit. #17 is a standalone issue. It’s a prelude, almost, to the arc that begins right after that. It brings in a big villain people are waiting for. #18 starts to bring in Scarecrow and other villains, but it’s all done in service to this larger Joker story that we’ve been doing. So I can’t wait for you guys to see it. And really, really grateful. That’s it. I can’t wait to say thank you at New York and really appreciate it. Thanks, guys!

S

Subscribe now

Share

P.S. Important announcement, there’s just over a day left to support the fifth issue of The Cloakroom! This is a labor of love from my students Jerry and Veronica, and continues the great work done in the Eisner-nominated Tales from the Cloakroom. It’s a great project that deserves your attention and funds! Help them reach their goal by going to the campaign and pledging at any of the tiers.

Hey guys, it's Scott.

It is Wednesday, September 10th, new comic book day, and it's a really big one for us. We have Absolute Batman #12 out now. It's me and Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles, the core team, and it's a huge one for us, this issue. It's a really brutal one.

It was easily the hardest to write so far. I won't give anything away, but I'll just say that I love these characters dearly and I love writing this friend group the most of pretty much anything I've ever gotten to write in superheroes. It's personal to me. I'm drawing a lot on my own experience growing up in New York City and still being close to a bunch of friends that I made when I was very young. So yeah, this one hurts. But that's the goal of this series is to really break Bruce down, to build him up to be even tougher than you can possibly imagine. It's what we did with Court of Owls. It's what we did with Death of the Family and Metal and everything in the main universe. So we're doing it over here.

And part of the conceit of the series is Bruce looks so big and intimidating at first. We want you to feel like nothing could really topple him. That first arc, The Zoo, is meant to make you feel that he's this triumphant, indomitable character, this force of nature, because the secret of that arc is that the main character really is Alfred. Alfred comes to town jaded, skeptical, weary. And he sees this kind of blazing young beast, essentially. He sees Bruce refusing to believe that one person can't change everything. And it sparked something in Alfred that he didn't know was still there, some kind of hope and optimism and determination and will. And so that's really the core of that first arc is to get you to believe in Batman too and to get excited about him and then to really delve into him in the second arc. To show all of the things that he's really going to struggle with that Alfred warned him saying, “look, if you keep going this way, they're going to come for you and you don't know what you're up against.” Because in this universe, the villains have a lot more than you'd expect.”

So anyway, yeah, this one's brutal, the next issue, issue #13, begins Bruce's revenge tour, which I'm really excited about. As you know, Catwoman is on the cover, so she plays a really big part in the issue, Selina Kyle. But there's also a really big surprise in the issue that we're not going to spoil, but we'll definitely get people talking.

It's the introduction of a character that I really don't think people see coming, hopefully, but that you'll all be really thrilled to see. It's our take, and we've thought a lot about it. So I can't wait for you to see. It'll be a big one as well and it's a big action issue. It's got our first romance scene, one of the first I've ever really written, I think. I wrote one in Superheavy for Bruce. with that arc when he wasn't really Batman. But when he's been Batman, I've had a hard time writing romance for him because he's so focused on the mission (my version of him at least). But here we really, we really go for it, so I'm very excited for you to get to see it. We had to get censored a little bit for it already. So yes, that's a big issue. And I wanted to really quickly also address some of the discussion online about the coloring of Selina Kyle.

First though, I just want to say thank you. We got the numbers on DC K.O. #1 and they're amazing. I really don't know what to say except thank you. I mean, you guys keep showing up and supporting the stuff we're doing at DC and it just makes us want to take bigger swings and really improve the line, make better books. And what I can tell you about DC K.O. is that it's made with a lot of love by the team for old school, big Saturday morning cartoon (but adult-rated) event. And it's got a big heart, but it's also got a lot of fists and it's going to be fun. It also has some stuff I'm really glad didn't get spoiled in issue #1. So expect there to be a lot of discussion when that issue comes out in October. One of the things about an event for me is its utility. It is a big, fun celebration of what we're all about at any given time. An event has to say, “this is what we stand for at this moment as a company and as creators and editors, as people in comics, and this is what we're trying to say and it's got to have a message.” But it also is about what it creates on the other side. And so this one creates a lot. We're going to announce in New York a lot of the stuff we're doing in the spring, when it ends, rolling out of it. It's going to create a lot of new books, a lot of excitement, bringing in some new talent, giving some talent that exists, bigger jobs, switching people around, all kinds of fun stuff. So expect a lot of announcing in New York. But the event is the conduit to that. So I hope you'll check it out.

But going back to the discussion about Selena. So just to be clear, Selena is a woman of color. Her background is explored in both Absolute Batman and coming up in some special stuff. So I don't want to get too deep into it here. But yes, she's not white. What happened was the way that Frank colors her, she's usually seen in the past in the book because she hasn't appeared as an adult in the present, which is the exciting stuff about the issues coming up. We've only seen her back when they were kids. And so back when they're kids, he uses a more muted color palette because if you look, it's kind of sepia tone just to distinguish this is the past.

We don't do a lot of ‘then’ and ‘now’ caps. We're trying to keep as many caps out of the book as possible when it comes to those kinds of location qualifiers and all that stuff. And so anyway, the point is when he gave the color that he uses generally to give Selena her skin tone to the other artists doing the covers, it was just DC handing over that skin tone, which is the right thing to do. But because of the muted palette in the past, it wound up looking very pale against sort of modern coloring or coloring that reflects present day.

So as you saw with Artgerm, he used the right coloring. It just against the black costume and with the background such as it is, it winds up looking quite pale. So it was just a miscommunication.

The artists are certainly not at fault. Nobody was trying to do anything to change anything in the book. It was just one of those things where this color that looks a certain way in the book here looks differently there. And she has been colored darker at times, like when you see her and Bruce as young adults. But that's because it was supposed to be sunset. It was supposed to be a certain kind of coloration in the room at that time, too. So that's why she looks, in some panels, very, very clear that she is non-white and then in other panels, I think it's still clear, but her skin tone doesn't look quite as dark. So anyway, bottom line, huge apologies. Totally put it on me, my fault. I should have taken a closer look, but I'm really glad DC moved really quickly to correct it. They caught it early before the discussion was even happening, approached the artist, and and just gave them her background so that they could color appropriately. And we're really, really proud of the covers coming out. We have some fantastic ones and I'm really thankful to all the artists involved. And I appreciate you guys calling it out. We want you to keep us honest. So thank you.

So a big issue today, and thank you for DC K.O., too. Really appreciate it. We're going to do a class soon as well. We're going to have somebody on that I really can't wait to talk to. I know you guys really like when you have guests, so we're going to do that. It'll be a publishing-specific conversation that has to do more with the business of comics. Again, we haven't done one of those in a while and you guys have been asking. One question also I've been getting asked because I wanted to just do a quick craft thing is if I could give any advice to somebody starting out, what would it be? This is for someone who's like, just putting out their first comics right now. If there's one thing I'd remember it, it sounds crass, but I would remember the price point. I know that sounds vague, but let me get more specific.

Comics are really expensive, right? If you do a 12-issue arc, which a lot of people do these days and it's just very, very long (over a year for one story) and it's a different market than it was 10 years ago, you're asking people to pay $60 for that series over the course of the year. That's half the price or almost the price of a Netflix subscription or a Prime subscription for one comic. That's just for one series. So with Netflix or whatever, if you're talking about $15 a month and you're asking somebody to pay a third of that for a 20 page comic, that's a huge amount. And so what I'd say is when things are tough, like right now, it should remind you how special this medium is in the way that you get to make them wait a month in between. So you've got to cliffhang it. You get to make them wait a month so you want to remind them every single issue why this character is awesome, and remind them who the character is, and remind them what's going on. And you want to do something that makes them go, “what the fuck?” and makes them run out and want to talk to their friends.

But I promise we're really, really trying to think of that in Absolute Batman. And it's stuff that I've forgotten at times over the years, too. So I'm not trying to throw shade or poke any one book or anything that you're reading right now. I just think that part of it is a cultural thing where we consume, like I've said, so much storytelling through streaming and streaming just has a completely different set of priorities. In fact, I'd argue that they're almost antithetical to comics where you get your subscription, you have access to like all of the episodes. So you don't have to buy each one for the most part, most streaming services and all that. And you don't have to wait. You can binge. And all of that goes against everything we need to do in comics.

So I would say if you're starting out, remember the price point. What that means is you give them more than they paid for every single issue. Whatever that is for you, that might mean more conversation, more emotion. It might mean more action. It might mean more violence. All of the stuff that your series is about, whatever it's about, whatever it means to you, more of those things in that series. And you can even imagine it first because you want people to be like, “God, I got more for my money, this issue. Wow, I can't wait to go back to that series. I have to go talk to my friends about that. And I can't wait to buy it again and spend way more money than I should have to on a comic.” So that's kind of what I'd say. I'm going to keep banging that drum because it's part of my job right now at DC is to ring that bell and be like, “hey, look, let's look at these series. Is this arc just too long? Is this stuff where the sales are starting to sag? Because you're not giving them like hooks. You're not reminding them who the character is. They don't have an awesome moment every issue.”

And again, it's not like a formula you need to follow and be like, “oh, it's paint by numbers” at all. You do it your way. And sometimes I break away from that stuff deliberately to make sure an issue feels different in texture. We’re always thinking of that stuff too. Like I said, this issue is brutal. It is not a fun issue. Next issue is a fun issue, and the issue after that, where he really fights Bane, is fucking nuts. You’re going to be cheering. And it’s a bloodthirsty, fun issue where he fights Bane for real. And then we got Joker after that, which is insane. I just saw the cover, the designs. You're going to see them really soon because those covers get released. I mean, that goes really, really hard. It's the most straight-up horror issue I've written for the series by far with Jock drawing it. And then we go the other way. #16 is the Wonder Woman crossover, which is great. We go to Gateway City.

And #17 through 19 is Scarecrow. I'm spoiling everything, but Joker is in town as the handsome, rich Bruce Wayne socialite-type and he is making a campaign against Batman. And in doing so, we break Bruce down again after he's triumphant in the one before. So that's the fun is, how do you keep them on their toes? How do you keep making this series something they can't turn away from? Never get cozy, never get comfortable as a creator. How do you make them come back for more and make them want to wait and make them want to go to the store and tell their friends and make them want to be part of the culture too?

Like, I'm like a big Yankees fan, right? I got into it through our 14 year-old. Back when he was nine or eight, he just started to fall in love with baseball cards. And that led to going to Cooperstown and that led to starting to go to baseball games and that led to falling in love with the whole thing. And now we're huge baseball fans. Now he's into basketball and football and we love all this stuff. And I was a total arts and crafts nerd, I didn't know anything about sports. But I love it, and part of the fun of the culture is the community. I go to the bar here where there's most Yankee fans and we talk about “God damn it, Boone. Why are you keeping Volpe in there when you should have Caballero?” “Why are you benching Stanton when Stanton is hot as fire right now?” “Why can't Judge be a little more fiery about it?” It's the community, the neighborhood, all that stuff. And so you want to get people excited to go out there and talk about the comics with each other and that means delivering an issue that gives you more than you could possibly hope for each one.

Anyway, a couple other housekeeping things. Like I said, keep your eye out for a class coming soon. We'll do that. We got New York Comic Con coming up in a month, almost exactly, from right now. We'll have issue #13 out right there. We'll have DC K.O. #1 out there. I will be there in a big way. We're going to announce a lot of stuff. I'm going to be on a lot of DC panels. It'll be a lot of fun. If you're in the Black Jackett club, we're going to do a breakfast on Sunday. I'm sorry, a lot of people are asking if we can open that up again, but we still can't. It's just too full, but maybe sometime soon, hopefully.

We also have Absolute Evil coming, which I can't wait for you guys to see. It’s out that NYCC week as well by Al Ewing and Cammo. It's great, with all the villains getting together for the first time in the Absolute Universe.

Then we're going to be announcing soon, so I guess I'm spoiling it, but we have an Ark M Special, Absolute Arkham. It's me and Frank Tieri writing it. And it's Josh Hixson of The Deviant and just an unbelievable artist. And it's straight up horror, but it gives like a real surprise about Ark M. A couple of big surprises. So I can't wait for you to see that. Anyway, hope you're doing great. Hope all's

going well. Back to school, back to the grind. And yeah, thanks again, guys!

Subscribe now

Share

It is Wednesday, September 3rd. We are in the midst of back to school nuttiness over at our house. But we are also in the final days before DC K.O. #1 goes to print. So it is double craziness when it comes to work. And so I just wanted to do a really quick post reminding you of three big things:

First, the last day to order K.O. #1 is Monday. If you don't order it by Monday and it sells out, which it will very likely do because it's got big surprises, twists and turns (we're going to be announcing stuff spinning out of it the week that it comes out), you won't be able to get it. That happens with a lot of the Absolute books. I'm just really, really strongly encouraging you to order from your local store now before Monday so you have a copy reserved for yourself before final orders close Monday. That's FOC Monday the 8th.

Second, if you are a retailer or you know a retailer and you want them to get in on this and see everything in issue #1, we are so excited and proud of this beginning to our big fall event, DC K.O. We're going to be selling and spoiling pretty much the whole issue with retailers and answering all kinds of questions, giving teases of things coming up later, reviewing stuff. We're going to just sort of go crazy on it. But this is the retailer call that we're doing tomorrow, Thursday, September 4th in the afternoon with any retailer that signed up through D.C. There'll probably be quite a few hundred there. So if you want to get in on it as a retailer, just email D.C. It's included here, the email address by the greatest assistant, Tyler, and come join us and have some fun. It's going to be a real party tomorrow. Can't wait.

Third, and I, the architects of K.O., are going to do a livestream tomorrow night. Not exactly sure what time yet. We're still figuring it out, but it'll probably be somewhere around 9:30 or 10:00pm EST because we have kids. Got to get them up to bed. But it'll be your chance to come in, ask us anything you want, and we'll be talking to each other about the event. We'll probably spoil a couple things if you want, or tease things at least. If you don't like spoilers, we'll try and avoid them. But anyway, this week is all about K.O. We're really excited. I hope you'll join us for some of this fun stuff in order now. There's some awesome covers, variant covers. Ty will put some in here.

We just can't wait to have this giant party with you for this event. It's a big, fun, knockdown, drag out storyline. And what it does is it really sets the tone for all the stuff we want to do in 2026. It's over the top, and again, you buy into this and it's going to affect the whole line and it launches a bunch of really cool stuff on the other side so it's the beginning of all of our spring initiative stuff. So we're really really thrilled to have you be a part.

Also, don't miss today—Batman #1 by pal Matt Fraction and brother Jorge Jiménez. It marks the start of a brand new era for Batman. They have some incredible plans. I'm really, really excited just as a fan and I can't wait for you guys to see what they have cooked up. You don't get a Batman #1 very often in history and today's one of those special days.

So go out and check it out among all the other great comics coming out, there are too many to name here. I don't want to overtax Tyler on a busy week. So thank you guys. Happy start of fall. Happy back to school. Let's get KO'd!

Subscribe now

Share

P.S. Monday is also Final Order Cut-Off day for Good Devils Don’t Play Fair with Evil, an awesome one-shot by my Absolute Batman partner Nick Dragotta and the great writer/editor David Brothers (he actually edited me on the first Wytches series)! It’s a collection of three short stories they’ve done over the years collected in one oversized issue. If you want to see how Nick developed the art style he uses in Absolute Batman, this is the comic to buy. Really cool book that I encourage everyone reading this to pre-order! The graphic below has the info on how to do that:

It is Wednesday, August 27th, my God. So, just a really quick post. I wasn't sure if we could pull it together, but we are pulling it together. It's going to be fun. We're going to do a class tomorrow night. It's about collaborating with artists, and it's with the one and only brother Greg Capullo. It'll be live at 9.30pm EST on Thursday night, and again, if you can't make it, if you're busy, we'll post it in our archives afterwards so if you're a paid subscriber (it's only $7/month or $75/year, by the way) you can watch it at any time. But Greg and I always have a blast, he hasn't been here in years:

So it was long overdue. He just did an amazing variant cover for us for DC K.O., his first DC cover in a while, and I'm so so excited to get to talk to him. I mean we talk all the time but it’ll be a ton of fun to get to talk to him in front of you guys about what makes a good collaboration between a writer and an artist in comics. So please check it out! I'll be posting about it, but I want to show them a great time.

And also, Final Order Cut-Off for K.O. #1 is a week earlier than I thought. It's totally my bad. I thought it was the 15th of September, but because of the blind bag program that DC is doing and because of the acetate covers, which are awesome, it's actually September 8th. So it's a week from Monday.

So I'll be in full court press mode next week going around doing interviews and all kinds of stuff trying to tell you about all the fun we're going to have at this crazy event. So I really hope you'll check it out. Please, please order now if you're going to order it from your store. There's a lot of big surprises in that first issue. I would not be surprised if it sells out because of some twists and turns. Again, let's have some fun. Rock out. Do a knockdown, drag out, out of control event this fall. And the event also is going to engender some awesome stuff at DC. Some really cool new books, some really cool story within the main line, all kinds of really good stuff. So it's meant to be a thank you to you guys and a kind of energy drink for DC Comics going into spring when it ends. So I can't wait for you guys to check it out. All right, so class tomorrow. Final Order Cut-Off for DC K.O. #1 a week from Monday. And yeah, man, let's have a good time. Bye!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Tuesday, August 19th, and I know it's been a while, but it's been a crazy, crazy couple weeks. So I thought I'd do a post and catch everybody up on everything coming soon and what's been going on on this side of the fence and everything. So first, quick bit of groundskeeping. We have Absolute Batman #11, drawn by the incredible Clay Mann, written by me, but with a lot of help from Nick Dragotta, out this week.

It is out tomorrow, Wednesday. It's a special issue. It's a self-contained one, although it pushes the plot forward in a really big way for our Abomination arc. But it gives the origin of Bane, and it was a really hard issue to write, but a really gratifying one where we really tried to keep the aspects of Bane's origin that we loved, but transform him into something that felt resonant for the kinds of things we're trying to do in Absolute Batman and has a lot of personal pathos in it. And Clay and I tried to work in a new way, both of us. I did a lot of prose for it. Clay changed up his style in a huge way where the only kind of beautiful people, because he draws beautiful people so well, in the issue are watching war. And there’s, without spoiling anything, a really dark undercurrent to their presence in the story. So it gives you a lot of Easter eggs. It pushes the story forward in a really big way. And it also does a deep dive into some of the themes of both the arc and the series as a whole. So I hope you love it as much as we do.

Also, I wanted to talk a little bit about K.O. because we're about a month away from the Final Order Cut-Off for issue #1. So if you missed the announcement, DC K.O., it stands for King Omega, although that's not announced yet. Darkseid has become a King Omega in the DC universe right now, or the King Omega, which is the entire totality of Omega energy over in the Absolute Universe. And he's coming over to attack. And so what the heroes have to do is figure out a way to beat him. And so this is going to be our five-issue big DC All In Saga event for this year. It runs from October to March. It's written by me with help from and it is drawn by the incredible Javi Fernandez and we also have Xermanico on it. I'm incredibly excited can't wait for you guys to see it. I just think it looks amazing and again i so so proud of the the visual team on this book.

So what is it about? It's essentially about these heroes realizing that there's no way to stop Darkseid. He's coming and he's become something far more insidious than he's ever been before. He's still Darkseid, he's still all about control and absorbing everything so that it is of him, so that he is the only ruler, the only mind that can dictate everything to all reality. But he almost exists outside of space and time, he's become so incredibly powerful. I was talking to Deniz Camp and part of the fun of the series at this point is that Darkseid is omnipresent. So it's almost like all the kinds of fears that you have that make you want to cede control to somebody else, that make you want to give up and feel like, “I'm going to stop trying.” That's Darkseid in every atom and every cell.

Anyway, so the heroes realize that the only way to stop Darkseid is to become as powerful as him. And Omega energy in the DC mythology is essentially the energy of conquest. It's the energy of destruction, of ending things, of controlling things. Omega obviously is alphabetically the end. So it's the idea of the final absorption into things. And so what they have to do is gather as much Omega energy as possible and drive it into one person so that that one person can become a celestial being as powerful as Darkseid. And at the core of the earth, a heart of apocalypse is already forming. This is the device that Darkseid uses in the Absolute Universe, which you learn in issue one, to gather all of the Omega energy unto himself and become the only god, the only celestial being. And so they decide that if they can go get this thing or get close to it and use it to funnel all Omega energy into one of them, then they can become as powerful as Darkseid and take him down and restore things to the way they're supposed to be. Because Darkseid's already taken over all of the future.

So the event, as they get towards the heart of Apokolips, it tries to defend itself and creates a tournament, five levels, to see who is worthy of it. And so the only way to become worthy is to defeat other champions, to take down all of the other heroes, anyone else that's in this competition, and to do it in a way that shows no compassion, no mercy. Because if you start to help each other, if you start to try and be soft, then it won't create enough Omega energy and you won't be worthy. So it is a knockdown, drag out, fun battle royale to see who will be the standing champion at the end of the DC universe to be able to defeat Darkseid and bring everything back the way it's supposed to be.

So it's almost like the first time that we've gotten to do a big fight event. Marvel's done them a bunch. You have Avengers vs. X-Men, Secret Wars, Civil War. But I realized, like, we haven't actually done almost any of them. So for us, this is our knock-down, drag-out fight. But it's done in a way that isn't meant to be grim. It doesn't really hit them against each other in a way that has fault lines over deep issues. It is supposed to be something that you can enjoy. It has a very personal message, which I think will become apparent as you get closer to the end. So it's not just some kind of big escapist bubblegum thing. It's very much about what I think these superheroes are meant to stand for and represent to us, especially in difficult times. But it is coded in 10 layers of bloody candy fun. Out of control, violent candy fun. No edgelord bullshit. It is PG-13 in its own way. We'll have some red band issues, but overall, it is really supposed to get you that kid joy of Saturday morning cartoons on steroids. Who will win? That fun. Get you into stores.

There'll be a bracket with the 32 contestants that you can winnow down and take guesses and we'll have rewards for stores. to guess right or come closest. We'll have all kinds of incentives. We're going to even have a voting thing at New York that'll be a lot of fun that we'll announce soon that'll allow you to participate. So we want it to be something like All In that drives you into stores, that gets you going there for fun, that gets you talking with your friends, that makes you enjoy the month wait in between. We're going to have special months where we have tie-ins and all kinds of cool stuff that's already planned, but I don't want to get ahead of myself and announce stuff that I'm not supposed to yet.

But Knightfight, you have Batman versus the Batman versions of all of the former or a lot of the former Robins to see who would be better. It's almost like Batman's journey through Hell. It's amazing. It's written by Josh Williamson with a little help by me and obviously the incredible Dan Mora on art. We have Fight Month coming in December where you're going to have matches between some of the great contestants, the champions. And again, that's going to be a blast. I'm writing one of those. It's just meant to be pure comic book joy with a lot of heart. As you get deeper in, you'll see it's a personal Superman story about what I think about Superman and why he's such a great character. So I can't wait for you to see it. I know I've been talking about it a lot, but we're really excited about it.

It's very small, also. I'm not a big believer in events that go on for 12 issues. I'm sure we'll do one someday. But I know right now your wallets are tight. We want to keep it modular. We don't want you to have to interrupt a lot of your other series. You don't have to read anything but the main series if you don't want. But we will have some tie-ins in Teen Titans and in Flash. Superman is also building a lot of the architecture right now if you want to check it out. So you can check all of that stuff out if you want to get the full picture. But if you want to just read five issues in and out, you can do that too. And again, It's not going to kind of interrupt books that you're really enjoying.

But the big goal of something like KO for me, just to give you a behind the scenes peek, is A, to keep the great saga going of Darkseid, you know, to keep the big story that you guys are invested in going strong. So it's part two of, essentially, three. If All In was part one, this is part two.

We want the story of DC Comics over these years to be powerful and impactful and moving and resonant and all of those things. To tell a great story. But in addition to that, events for me are also a utility. The value of it in part, beyond the story itself, is what it gives you on the other side. What it says about who we are right now as a company, but also what it gleans on the other side. What it adds, what it does, how it affects the line. And this one has some great, great effects. Come the end of it in spring, we're all about being additive. We're going to make some announcements about the Absolute line, about adding some stuff which I'm very excited about. We're gonna have some books that we're bringing into DC that I think are going to get you very, very excited. We're about brushing up the line itself in all kinds of fun ways, but we know how much you're enjoying the book.

So again, it really is an opportunity for us to just strengthen DC. And so we're going to tell you some stuff as the event gets started about what's coming on the other side that I think is going to make you very, very happy because you'll be able to see the kind of aerial view that we're taking right now about planning and responding to you guys. Things that are working, things we want to add to. Creators that you're excited about, we really want to go in on. We still want to take some risks and bring in people and new voices and artists and writers that you might not expect. So we're going to be doing a bunch of that. Again, we want to give some new voices a chance as well. So we're going to be doing some of that. But that's what K.O. is for me. It's both this big event that's, again, knock-down, drag-out fun. It says what we believe about these characters in general, but also Superman. And it's going to give you a lot of really great stuff on the other side. It's going to affect the line in an incredibly positive way, in my opinion. And I'm very, very proud to be a part of that. I'm loving being in DC right now for all those reasons.

So, quick personal stuff. I think today the theme is back to school, right? So back to school, my kids, our oldest goes to college this year. He starts in the winter. He starts second semester, the program he's in, in Boston. It's a special program that we're very excited he got into and it begins in January. So he's still around for a bit, but he's soaking up time with all of his friends and his girlfriend and all of that stuff. Our 14 year-old is about to start high school. He's excited and nervous about that. Quinn, our six year-old, is about to start first grade. And so we're trying to soak up a lot of time, which is why I apologize if you've written me emails. I've been a little hard to catch the last few weeks. I'm trying to soak up the summer with my family.

We went to Ireland. That was a blast. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here, but a few years ago, Jeanie and I bought some property over there. Her family is from Ireland originally and we love it so much, we decided we would try and invest a little bit. So we bought a property and we're working on a house over there, not to move out of the States or anything like that, but just to have a place that we can use as a base to show the kids more of the world and just because we love it. So we went there and visited that, which was a blast because it's actually coming along. And we just drove around. I love driving in Ireland. I feel like I'm the only person that loves the super-narrow hair-raising roads and driving on the other side of the road itself. But it was a blast. And we went and saw Dingle Peninsula. We went to Dublin. We went to Cary, places that we've been before, but Emmett and Quinn obviously have never been overseas, so it was a blast for them.

I came back, I went to Boston, got to hang out with the great Greg Capullo and a couple friends.

And then I went down to Tulsa really briefly for one day to sign at a terrific store, Impulse Creations. They're a big supporter of everything we're doing at DC, and they also are a big supporter of Skybound and Marvel. Great people, great store.

And now I am home. I'm going nowhere for a very long time is the hope. And I just want to be here, watch the Yankees, desperately try and get into the playoffs with my kids.

And again, just soak up, soak up as much time as I can. A couple other things I wanted to mention. We have our Joker issue coming up. I really appreciated you guys responding so positively online to my little tease of just the script. But Jock and I are working hard on that alongside Nick. I can't wait for you to see the Joker design. I genuinely am trying to write this Joker and believe he is like the scariest version that I've been able to do. He's pitch-black dark and he's something that really haunts my imagination in this form. And he's physically fucking terrifying as well. But on the surface, he's handsome and rich. He's very much like Bruce Wayne in the main universe. So I can't wait for you to see that.

I got to take my kids to see Weapons. That was really fun. I thought that was a fantastic horror movie. I was very fascinated. I'm happy to talk about it with anyone that wants to. I had some things. I loved it. And I also had some fascination with how it switches gears halfway through. And being almost like Barbarian in the way that it's like two movies kind of put together in one somehow works, but at the same time sort of abandons one thing for another thing.

Oh, a really big thing, back to school class. We're supposed to do class this week, but I want to wait one week because the person that I was going to have on wasn't feeling well and I'd really love to be able to do a class with him because I feel like you guys will really enjoy it. So I think we'll be able to do it next week instead. We'll promote it. We'll have a lot of fun. Anyway, if there's anything I'm forgetting, I apologize. But I just want to say thanks again. It's been an incredible summer getting to see so many of you at San Diego and Boston and at various stores. And the people that came up to me, even in Ireland, came up and said hello. I got recognized by some comic fans in Dublin in front of my family, which was really fun because it made me look cool in front of my kids. But again, I can't thank you guys enough for a great summer. And I promise you, going back to school means going back to work. It means graduating, which we're going to try and do at DC and just level everything up. And that's the goal. So thank you guys again. Talk to you soon. Bye!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It's been a while. It is Friday, August 15th, the day before the anniversary of Elvis's death. It is Elvis Week. You should listen to some Elvis—The Sun Sessions, Back in Memphis, some great albums out there. I'll make a playlist for Tyler (check out our post from three years ago for a great selection):

But a bit of quick housekeeping. I'm going to do a longer post on Monday, talk about our trip to Ireland, talk about a bunch of things like some movies I saw, comics I'm loving, a lot built up that I want to talk about because I feel like I've been really inspired by a lot of stuff I've been exposed to recently. But this one is more of a housekeeping post. First and foremost, we're going to do a class next week on either Wednesday or Thursday! I’ll come up with a post over the weekend to let you know. We're going to have a special guest right now. We're still figuring it out. The person that I'm really hoping to do it with has been sick from a convention. So we're not sure if they can make it. No big deal if they can't, we'll figure something out. But announcement coming soon. So plan on having class next week!

So we also have a bunch of exciting stuff either coming out this coming week or having its Final Order Cut-Off (FOC) this week. So first, Absolute Batman #11, the origin of Absolute Bane by me and Clay Mann.

Clay changed up his style entirely for this issue. I can't tell you how excited I am about it. It really crystallizes everything that we've been trying to express about who our Bane is and it's got a cliffhanger that pushes the story forward in a major way. So we really hope you enjoy it. Again, I can't tell you how great I am to Clay, to Ivan Plascencia for colors, (Eisner Award-winning) Clayton Cowles for letters, all of it. It's an issue I'm really proud of. And before I forget, this Monday is FOC for the next issue (#12) from me and Nick Dragotta! Really great covers for that one.

Also FOC-ing on Monday is The Department of Truth #0, which has a backup by me and Josh Hickson all about Elvis. Perfect for Elvis week. It's all about one of the Department of Truth agents, Huck, who chases down strange fictions like Bigfoot, going to Graceland in the 1970s because Elvis has become something really phenomenal, terrifying, and wondrous. So I hope you'll check it out. It's a real personal story, but it's also big and bombastic and has spies and Russian intrigue and conspiracy theories and all kinds of stuff. So you have to order that Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday. But do it before that. Do it Sunday because some things have FOC on Sunday.

Also, Undiscovered Country #32 comes out next week on Wednesday. Can't wait for you to read it. We're nearing the end of this epic saga about a twisted America closed off from the rest of the world. Really excited for you guys to see this one!

And I also wanted to give a shout to a book that I think is fantastic. It's by pal Stephanie Phillips and Marc Laming. It's called Endeavour. It's from DSTLRY, and it's like an incredibly action-packed, tension-filled, Lord of the Flies-style story on a cruise ship. You don't want to miss it. It FOCs Monday, so please, please pre-order it. Again, a great book by great creators.

Anyway, if you're anywhere near Tulsa tomorrow, Saturday the 16th, I'll be signing books at Impulse Creations in Tulsa itself. I'm flying in and out on the same day because I'm a lunatic, but I really wanted to support a great store for being so enthusiastic about everything we're doing at DC. Sorry, Quinn's banging on the door. Hey, honey. Again, if you're anywhere near there, come by. I'd love to say hello.

And I think that's about it for this one. So yes, I'll do a bigger post on Monday. We'll have class during the week. Check out Absolute Batman. And yeah, just can't wait for you guys to see everything we're cooking up. And I can't thank you enough, man. Everything's been great. And I'll fill you in on our life and everything going on early next week. Bye!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Tuesday, July 22nd, two days before San Diego Comic-Con. The Beast, the big one. I will be there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm taking a very late flight tomorrow night to try and spend as much time with my family and get as much work done as I can before I go. But I'm really, really excited to see you. If you're in the Black Jacket Club, we have our breakfast on us to treat you and say thank you. If you're in the Best Jacket Club at the $7/month tier please come by any signing at the very beginning. The first 10 minutes I reserve for you guys to come up before the line starts to come get anything signed. You can still sign up right now, for $7/month or $75/year believe me it would be worth it to skip the lines at San Diego or Boston or any of the cons I do and you get access to all of our classes that we've done and are going to do.

Subscribe now

But besides San Diego, a little bit of housekeeping. We had so much happen in the last couple of weeks. First, thank you guys so much for the enthusiastic and kind response to the announcement of DC K.O.

I'll give you a little a little bit more information here. But DC K.O. is our big knockdown drag out cosmic tournament. It starts in October. It's what we've been building to since we did All In. Our Darkseid saga has three big stages. Again, this is all probably more than I should say, but I feel like we're among friends here, right? But All In is the beginning where Darkseid begins to transform into something much more dangerous. This is the midpoint, the heroes’ first encounter with this new thing Darkseid has become. And it's their attempt to find a way to beat him, to become something as big and as powerful as him.

And so this tournament is a way to do that, to literally beat Darkseid at his own game. And so it's, again, going to be like a battle royale between all the superheroes and some surprise characters along the way. It's meant to be big, bombastic, epic fun. We really want you to feel excited to go to your comic book stores. We're going to do a “who will win?” kind of competition. We're going to have all kinds of incentives. We're announcing a bunch of stuff at San Diego. We're revealing a bunch of stuff at San Diego. We've got great art, great creators, great characters.

It goes back to that old school feeling of Secret Wars, that sort of big brawl, but done in a really, really new way. So it's a fresh take on that. It was really me and Josh talking and being like, what is a good middle stage for this story where heroes realize they're not going to be able to fight Darkseid the way that they have in the past? And we kept thinking about how Marvel has done all of these fight events from Secret Wars to Avengers vs. X-Men and on and on. But we never really done one, ever. Like we've talked about it. We talked about Trinity War being a battle between Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. And I once talked about ‘Batman versus DCU’ or ‘Batman versus Justice League’ back when Geoff Johns was on Justice League and I was doing Batman. So we had plans but we just never brought it together. And so it was like, let's do it. Let's have fun. But let's do it in a way that isn't grim. Let's do it in a way that isn't heavy it doesn't take a lot of time to set up. It's not a schism between the heroes over deep, deep issues. That's not the way this is. It's literally designed as a kind of tournament that they realize will empower one of them to be able to destroy Darkseid and the only way to do this is to go in it with absolutely no holds barred. And so it's fun. Again, it's like a bolt of lightning to the DCU.

It's going to affect a ton of stuff on the other side in all kinds of positive way, I promise. It's designed to just brush up the books and also give some really cool new story prompts to books that want them, all done in conjunction with creators. It's going to be a blast, but I really can't wait for you to see what Josh and I have been building. This is Josh Williamson and me. We came up with the story together. He's writing the backups, I'm writing the main. It's a really collaborative effort with the incredible Javi Fernandez on art, and it's going to be fun.

So I can't wait for you to see it. Thank you again for immediately getting what we were going for. That was my big concern was that we'd have to re-message it a lot because sometimes when we were doing Metal or Death Metal, it took a while for fans to understand what we were going for. And to be perfectly frank, I think some of that is reflective of the chaotic nature of the company in those times, that we had a lot of different things running at one that contradicted each other, all of which could have been great like Doomsday Clock or Infinite Frontier or this or that. But there were different storylines happening concurrently whereas now we’re sort of more cohesive editorially and and creatively with this single vision, not my vision but a collective vision of what the company is about, what the characters are about, how we want creators to feel on their books, the kinds of risks we want to take, and our relationship to you guys. So we feel really good about it, really excited and can't wait for you to see it.

Also I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you so much for the incredible response to Absolute Batman #10. This issue for us was the Rubicon. This was the one that I remember telling Nick, like, if they follow us down this rabbit hole, they'll follow us anywhere. And it's my favorite issue so far. It brings together all the elements that the series is about. Bruce's indomitable will, his viciousness, his demonic resistance to anyone trying to control him or push him down, and his idealism. But also the body horror, the zaniness, the comedy, the big ambition, everything is there in this issue. And I know that it was a really tough issue to do.

Once I saw it, I was like, this just represents kind of everything we're going for. And the fact that you guys showed up and made it our highest selling issue other than number one and maybe number two, because I'm not sure, but it's been going up which is amazing. But the fact that you sold it at such high numbers and seemed to respond to it so enthusiastically just made Nick and me so enthusiastic about everything we have planned. We've got Catwoman coming. We've got Joker coming. All kinds of goodness coming up in the series. It only gets bigger and crazier from here. So thank you so much.

Now, San Diego, a brief word. I'm posting my schedule. There really isn't a bad time to come up and say hello. The one thing I'd say if you want a general rule is anytime at the con is great. Once you see people outside of the con, if you see them out at the restaurant with their friends, if you see them at the bar or at dinner or whatever it is, I think most creators are happy to have you come up and say hi. I'm certainly happy for you to come up and say hi. Just be a little bit more generous with waiting for a good moment because we get really excited about the idea of going to these conventions to say thank you to you. That's the main reason, to get to announce stuff, to get to share our enthusiasm for the projects we're working on, but it's also a place where we get to hang out with each other and we haven't seen each other in a long time. For example, I’m seeing Jock at this convention. I haven't seen him in months and months and We're working on the Wytches animated show together. We're working on the Joker issue together. And I just can't wait to see him. There's a bunch of people like that for me and for everybody. So, you know, just be aware that we don't get a lot of time outside of convention spaces to see each other. So just enjoy, be happy, come up, be friendly. Can't wait to see you.

Just be aware that creators are under a lot of pressure there too. Usually we have a lot of things that we're doing behind the scenes that aren't listed on our schedules. I have meetings with groups of retailers with marketing, with editorial, like, all kinds of stuff. So as does everybody else. So I'm saying a lot of the time we have more obligations than you're aware of. So it is a big work weekend for us. So just be gentle is my point, but I'm sure all of us can't wait to see you guys. So come out, have a blast. I'm sorry I didn't do one of these earlier. I wanted to do a whole one on Superman and how much I enjoyed it. And also about comments about Batman that I got really into. I just didn't have time. So when I get back, I'll try and do one. I'll try and post a lot of stuff for as much as I can from San Diego here in this space. So I hope you'll check it out and I hope you have a great week!

S

Subscribe now

Share

It is Monday, June 30th, and I am back from Philly with my family. We had a great time down there, but before we start, just one bit of housekeeping. We are going to be doing a class this week! It's a little bit of short notice, but I'm really excited about the subject. It's about building arcs, building story arcs in your comic. Six issue arcs, 12 issue arcs, 18 issue arcs, three issue arcs. So it's a really key class. We're going to do it for free because it's sort of short notice. So anybody signed up to this newsletter, you'll get a link so you can go check it out. It'll be Wednesday night at 9:30pm EST live. You can chat with us, you can ask questions, you can join in, you can follow along. Or if you can't make it at that time, if you're a paid member, you'll be able to get the class in our archive of 30+ classes that we've done.

But if you want to just check out what Comic Writing 101 is, I would say come by and take a look. We have a lot of fun and I'm really excited about this one. So 9:30pm EST on Wednesday night, July 2nd!

Subscribe now

But Philly was awesome. I was there for ALA, the American Library Association's big festival. All the big publishers were there, from graphic novel publishers to novel, nonfiction, sci-fi, horror, everything. It's like Book Expo, which I used to go to in New York. It's at a different city every year, and this year it was in Philly. I brought my whole family, the three kids and Jeanie, and it was a lot of fun. We saw the Please Touch Museum, which was a big kids museum where you run around and you get to mess around with all kinds of interesting machines and gear and stuff. There's mazes and all kinds of fun tactile stuff for little kids.

And we went to the Mütter Museum, which is fascinating and completely stunning and morbid, but also inspiring. It's a museum that was founded in the 1800s. It was actually like, a physician's museum founded by a doctor in Philly with different medical specimens. And it was originally just for doctors and now it's open to the public. But they've got everything from like skull collections to strange abnormalities to really interesting exhibits, like one on Einstein's brain and the difference between it and a more conventional brain. So it was unbelievably cool.

We saw the Liberty Bell. We ate Philly cheesesteaks. We went to the Philly team store, which was fun. But yeah, ALA was great. I got to see a lot of friends from the book world, but DC was wonderful. The lines were incredible for the first trade, volume one of Absolute Batman. I was there to promote that for DC. It comes out in August and we had early galleys of it there along with the early galley volume one of Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman.

They look fantastic, they’ll be coming out in hardcover and softcover simultaneously, so you can take your pick. But they look great and they’ve got extras in them, some of the designs and all that kind of stuff. Really excited about that.

And then I did a signing on Sunday at Brave New Worlds Comics, a fantastic local shop. They're on all kinds of social media. I would highly recommend you guys follow them. It was a terrific signing.

I'm sorry we had to cap the line. I had to run out of there just to make it back to New York for Quinn's bedtime. But it was a great, great trip down there. So I really, really appreciate it.

Yeah, so class on Wednesday. I really hope you'll come by. And thank you guys again for all the support on everything. We're really excited. We have some huge announcements coming between now and San Diego, and then at San Diego we're going to have a ton of stuff. And I'm also at Denver this coming weekend. That's the other thing. I'm at Denver Comic Con with brother Greg Capullo.

I'm just there Saturday and Sunday. I'm flying in Saturday morning, out Sunday night. So it's a really quick trip. If you want to come get something signed by me, just line up really early. I'm going to just do open line. But the last couple of cons, they've had to cap these things pretty early. But I hope to see you there! I’m coming out there, me and Greg, we’ll have a blast. And yeah, thank you guys again!

S

Give a gift subscription

Subscribe now

Share