Hey guys, it's Scott.
It is Monday, December 16th, and this is our 200th newsletter! Two hundred, my God, I can't believe it. When we started this, we weren't sure how long we could keep it going. We didn't know if you guys would show up. We didn't know if it would grow, shrink, if anyone would have as much fun as we were making it. But the fact that you guys have stuck with us this long, almost four years, and grown it to something so big, it really means everything. I love having this connection with you guys, this space with you guys away from social media where I can talk a little bit more long form about things, where we can interact more, whether it's through the class or the Black Jackett tier, or just in the comments or your emails. You can always email us, let us know how you're feeling about stuff (at bestjackettpress@gmail.com). I just can't thank you enough. I will do this as long as you will stick with me. I love having this this way to communicate with you guys about everything we're excited about, worried about, everything.
So this week we have four huge things happening at Best Jackett. First, Absolute Batman #3 is out on Wednesday. Nick Dragotta on art and Frank Martin on colors and Clayton Cowles on letters. It's the core team. Everything gets ramped up. You'll learn a lot more about Black Mask and we have Selina Kyle appearing for the very first time in the book. Really, really excited to see what you guys think. I love this issue.
And then also, By a Thread. The first trade is out from Dark Horse. So By a Thread is a series that my son wrote with me.
It was his idea, and we've been working on it together for a couple years now, and I'm so, so proud of him. It's a sci-fi epic about a bunch of kids who become friends in a post-apocalyptic environment where this strange material, this kind of carbon-based sludge has come up from deep in the Earth's mantle and covered the entire planet.
And everybody survives living on these things called Needles. And the material itself is mysterious. No one knows if it's alien or man-made. And it starts creating necrotic monsters out of itself. And these kids band together and decide they need to try and find someplace that they can live. And diamond is the only material that resist the corrosive qualities of this stuff. And so they believe that there might be kind of a diamond mountain because in real life, the earth's mantle has these kind of diamond inverted mountain ranges. And because the crust now is all this strange toxic liquid, they think something might've bubbled up and created a safe haven somewhere. So anyway, it's co-created with the incredible Valeria Favoccia, Whitney Cogar on colors. I am so, so proud of the whole team on this book. I hope you'll check it out. It's out from Dark Horse this Wednesday also. And we're doing a season two.
Can't wait for you guys to see it. So we have those books out. That's the first thing. Second thing, we're going to do our class and it's going to be free. Comic Writing 101. It should be 103 by now because it's the third year, really the fourth year we've been doing it. But we're going to do a class on single issue stories. I'm really, really thrilled to do this subject. One shots or single issue stories are usually the first gig that you get when you're breaking into comics. So it's kind of a crucial craft element to understand. We're going to look at a bunch of different things (available in this Dropbox folder). We're going to talk about how to pack everything in your story into just 20-22 pages. Different methods that writers use for that. Sometimes they compress, sometimes they just pick a moment, sometimes they fit an entire three act structure by using an elliptical structure where they focus on a moment in the middle and everything else is in backstory. So we'll look at a bunch of different ways of doing it. You'll also have in there my very first comic ever published, which was a one shot single issue story about the Human Torch:
And it should be a lot of fun. So that's going to be Wednesday night, this Wednesday, the 18th, same day those comics are released at 9:30pm EST.
Right before that, and this is the third big thing, I'm going to be doing a Christmas signing here at a local shop called Red Shirt Comics in Port Jefferson, NY, 7pm.
And it's not going to be super long because I got to get back and teach. So please, please show up. It's a great little store in a wonderful little town. Also, I just wanted to say my buddies, James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson from The Deviant, are signing at my LCS, which is not far away from this shop that I just mentioned, Red Shirt, over in Smithtown, NY right before my signing so they're signing at 5 to 7pm at 4th World Comics.
That's James and Josh with The Deviant and then I'm signing at seven so you could do both you could go see James, get stuff signed, say hi. I might try and drop by. Come over here to Port Jefferson, come to Red Shirt at seven and have like a total fucking comic book signing extravaganza so it should be a lot a lot a lot of fun.
And thing number four, on Wednesday, same big day. So this Wednesday, new comic book day, we're going to reopen the Black Jackett tier like I mentioned in my last newsletter. Black Jackett tier is for people that want to meet once a month with me, possibly show me work or talk about anything you want. And again, it makes a great gift for anybody as does an annual subscription to the middle tier, to just Our Best Jackett paid subscription, which is only $7 a month (or $75 a year) and gets you the class and all that stuff. So anyone wants to learn about writing comics or just enjoys our work, put it in their stocking. Not to be too crass. But I love doing all this stuff and I hope you guys will keep it going. So that's the fourth big thing. We're reopening the Black Jacket tier on Wednesday. I hope you'll join us for all four for Absolute Batman and By a Thread out Wednesday for the class Wednesday night on single issues live at 9:30pm. And right before that, for my signing at Red Shirt Comics at 7pm., And also, I hope you'll swing by even earlier to James's signing over at 4th World Comics. And then I hope you'll join our Black Jackett Club on Wednesday also and be a part of the whole year going forward in 2025. And then our next newsletter next week, I'm going to be doing a craft topic. It'll be fun. And first, we'll post our class for everybody to see. And again, the class is free this time. So just drop by. Anybody that subscribes to this newsletter will get a link on Wednesday for the Zoom. You just come by and check it out. Thanks, guys. Bye!
S
P.S. Tyler here! Last week I asked the paid member Discord (another perk of the higher tiers!) which comics from the last year were their favorites. Below you’ll find a totally unbiased, comprehensive list.
The Our Best Jackett Community’s Best of 2024:
Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin
Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman & Jordie Bellaire
Attaboy by Tony McMillen
Avengers Academy by Anthony Oliveira, Carola Borelli, Carlos Lopez, Bailie Rosenlund & Kike J. Díaz
Batman/Dylan Dog by Roberto Recchioni, Gigi Cavenago, Werther Dell'Edera & Giovanna Niro
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
Birds of Prey by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero
FML by Kelly Sue Deconnick and David López
Fantastic Four by Ryan North and various
Green Arrow by Chris Condon, Montos & Adriano Lucas
Green Lantern: War Journal by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Montos & Adriano Lucas
Grommets by Rick Remender, Brian Posehn, Brett Parson & Moreno DiNisio
Helen of Wyndhorn by Tom King, Bilquis Evely & Mat Lopes
Incredible Hulk by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, Danny Earls & Matt Wilson
Into the Unbeing by Zac Thompson and Hayden Sherman
It's Jeff by Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru
JSA by Jeff Lemire, Diego Olortegui & Luis Guerrero
Minor Arcana by Jeff Lemire
Moon Knight by Jed MacKay, Alessandro Cappuccio & Rachelle Rosenberg
Octopolis: Holdfast by S. S. Julian
Shock Shop by Cullen Bunn and Danny Luckert
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Jason Aaron and various
The Power Fantasy by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard
The Question: All Along the Watchtower by Alex Segura, Cian Tormey & Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Transformers by Daniel Warren Johnson, Jorge Corona & Mike Spicer
Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto & Matt Wilson
Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko
Ultimates by Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri & Federico Blee
Void Rivals by Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici & Mat Lopes
Where The Body Was by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips & Jacob Phillips
Wonder Woman by Tom King, Daniel Sampere & Tomeu Morey
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