Newsletter #1: Our Mission Statement

WHAT IS BEST JACKETT?

To put it simply, Best Jackett is my own creative studio and it’s where I’m going to be working for the foreseeable future. It’s an engine for all the creator-owned books I’m writing for myself, and for books I’m helping produce by friends and up-and-coming creators. It's a treehouse where we’ll be making our new and crazy ideas into books for you, and I'm inviting you in here to join us!

And Best Jackett Press is already up and running; right now, I have ten books of my own coming out soon with some terrific co-creators that I’m sure you are already fans of — but wait until you see what we are cooking up.  (And no, that wasn’t a typo — TEN NEW PROJECTS — all launching within a year in multiple formats! Needless to say, BJP has been in the works for a few years now…) But I also have a bunch of projects that’ll I’ll be announcing in the months to come — some by me and some by other exciting new writers and artists, and ALL of our news, ALL of our announcements, EVERYTHING will be HERE FIRST!  

So, by subscribing to this newsletter, you'll find out about anything and everything BJP first, from new projects to exclusive deals and merchandise, variants, classes, ALL of it!

And while Best Jackett Press is something of a “studio” — an imprint essentially where I'll be making books with a lot of great folks across multiple platforms and publishers — it’s much more than that to me. It's also a mission statement. “Jackett” is a portmanteau of my sons’ names, Jack and Emmett (Quinn came along too late, but I will get a Q in somehow one day!) and I named it after them because to me, “putting on your best jacket” means trying to be your best self, for yourself, for those you care about, and for everyone out there. Best Jackett Press is about challenging myself to be better on every level, creatively always — I want these books to be the best I've ever done — but also as a member of the greater “Comics” community. My big hope is that this is the start of something special between me, my partners, and all of you! 

WHY HERE?

Best Jackett Press is about reconnecting with creator-owned work, but more than that it’s about reconnecting with you, the fans. You great people have given me my dream job, and with Best Jackett Press, I want to say “thanks” by letting you behind the curtain a LOT more. I want you to be able to see the books we're making as we make them, and I want to be able to share my excitement with you directly. For the last decade, whenever I wanted to connect with you about my work or the work of others or comics craft or a book I was reading or really anything on my mind, I’ve had to either go through official channels or social media and the truth is, I’m just ready for something new and better. 

So, from now on, THIS newsletter is where I’m going to put almost all my posts about everything from teaching and craft lessons, to teases about the books coming, to thoughts on things I'm reading, to interviews with creators, even the personal, like what’s going on with me and my family. Bottom line, you’re going to get a lot more from me here, but more in all the good ways. And above all, it will be a place where you can connect with me and communicate to create a dialogue about all things COMICS.

WHY NOW? 

To get personal, after a decade in superhero comics, I just felt it was time to rededicate myself to creator-owned work, to push myself to take risks, make different work, and be a more active member of the community all around. But I also think this is a very special moment in comics in general, a real inflection point. When I was a kid, comic culture was still a niche thing. Yes, the industry had huge moments, but the whole “geek sphere” was still a bit of a sphere. Now, though, after decades of awesome superhero movies, TV shows, and comic initiatives to broaden the readership, domestic popularization of manga, anime, D&D... geek culture is ubiquitous; everyone has their own geek loves, and with comics, more readers than ever are aware of the form as this broad, rich, varied landscape. And, more than this, there's been a seismic shift in the way we all consume pop culture. There's no real center anymore, or if there is, it's much more fluid and fleeting; with streaming, with digital, Kickstarters, etc, we’re more free than ever to find our OWN new favorite things. 

Take my kids, for example, 14 and 10 years old right now. Both love superheroes from comics, movies, video games — they're aware of the tentpole stuff and like it — but both also take a special joy in finding artifacts new and old to share with their friends. They'll rediscover Robotech or Gargoyles or read Hellboy and all their friends will, too. But they also love finding new things from right now like Something Is Killing the Children or Steven Universe. Basically, rather than accepting what's handed to them through big central channels of pop culture, they revel in discovering things they can call their own, from the past, from the present, from every corner of geek culture. 

What I'm saying is, we're in a moment where there's this excitement, this hunger for new original content and series. Yes, we all love the big stuff, the franchises, but now more than ever, we also want to discover worlds we can explore on our own. So there's this demand, this amazing desire for new, crazy cool stuff. Stuff that's ours, that pushes buttons, makes us think, feel, upsets us, and inspires us. These are insane times, challenging and scary times, and we need stories that explore our deepest fears and our greatest hopes. 

Now, for me, it would have been easy to stay in superheroes, but after so long, it felt like that would be playing it safe, and failing to meet the moment. I have so many ideas bottled up, so many things I've wanted to write or help get made, and so a couple years ago I made myself a promise that when Death Metal was done at DC, no matter what was offered, I'd go my own way for a while and see what I could do. Ultimately, I don't know if I'm reading the moment right — I suspect I am, but I can't worry about it. 

So why now? Because my hope — or, rather, my dream — is that we're at one of those rare, special moments, when all of us want new things so badly. We want to read them, and we want to make them. 

So let's make some amazing new things together. Right here, right now… please join us!

Stay tuned,
S