So this is it! The first Exner Alert on Substack. Hopefully I set everything up correctly and my subscribers are receiving this in their inbox of choice. For everybody reading, either through email or on Substack itself… hey there! I’m Mike Exner III and I write comic books.
Not for a living though. At least, not yet. Don’t get me wrong, that is the goal, and I’m working at it, bit by bit, but I’m not there as of yet. Still, I soldier on unabated, and until I’m a household name I figured it’d probably be a good idea to start up one of these Substack newsletters/blogs/whatever-the-crap so I could let the people get to know me a little better.
So let’s get into it!
What I’ve Done
If you’re here because you’re a fan of my work then it’s probably because of…
Adamant, the webcomic I wrote for about a half-decade with some remarkably talented artists.
(seriously, click all those links, you won’t regret it)
Adamant is sort of a patchwork love letter to superhero comics with shades of Invincible and Samurai Jack, both of which I’m a big fan of, so if you like either of those then you’ll probably like Adamant.
Did I mention that Adamant is free to read at the Adamant website? Or, it would be, if the Adamant website hadn’t suffered a catastrophic web error recently…
Oh! I also published the series digitally (6 issues total) through my own publishing house - Loophole Comics. (a website that is still up and running, remarkably)
At one time the series was available to purchase through Comixology, buuuuut once they were snapped up by Amazon that availability sort of withered on the vine. So I guess that’s out too!
I apparently have the capability to re-publish the issues on Amazon, or so they tell me, but the process for doing that was a bit over my head so I never actually got around to doing it. Smart, no?
But y’know what, to compensate for my absolute lack of technical wizardry, each issue of Adamant will soon be available to read for FREE through this Substack! That’s nice, yeah? For now, you can read the first issue of Adamant by clicking the cover image below.
Adamant ended its run with #6 back in 2020. (a theme, as you’ll soon see)
So… yeah, I wrote Adamant, big whoop… what else have I scribbled? I’m glad you asked, o’ alert ones! I’ve self-published a few other gems through Loophole Comics as well.
Good Samaritan is a superhero satire one-shot written by me with art by Erik Korsgaard and letters by Micah Myers, probably my favorite guy in comics. Here’s what that’s about…
The Nobleman is the greatest, most powerful superhero in the world, who safeguards the citizens of Seaside City from all manner of terrifying threats, from supervillain powerhouses to alien invasions! And all he wants in return is a little respect and appreciation. That's not too much to ask, is it? Seriously, guys... it might not be the best idea to take the guy who can move planets for granted.
You can read it for free by clicking the cover image above.
I know what you’re thinking… two superhero projects? Who do I think I am, Marvel? Mirkvel? Uh, Mikevel? And I get it, I do. If you’re going to write superhero comics you really need them to stand out, and honestly I’m not sure Adamant or Good Samaritan did that quite enough. So the next comic I put out avoided the problem altogether!
Lesser Evils is a horror anthology series written by me, with art by various (and awesome!) artists, colorists and letterers.
Each issue contains 3 or 4 short comic stories of the horrifying persuasion. I put out 2 issues of Lesser Evils in 2020 (the first of which you can read up above!) and had planned to release a 3rd before the year was through but it never came to be. There’s still a possibility Lesser Evils #3 will come out at some point this year if I can muster up the energy for it, as I’ve got about half the stories for the 3rd issue already finished and ready to go. So if you like horror comics, stay tuned!
Villain Takes All is, um… not a superhero story, per se, because it’s about supervillains. See, so it’s bad super people instead of good ones. Yep.
Villain Takes All, or VTA for short, is basically the story of a young supervillain named Amp that enters into a competition held by the biggest, baddest supervillain in the world who is looking for a new member of his organization. The only problem is that everybody that’s joined the competition is a nastier, more experienced villain than Amp, annnnnd the competition is to the death. (always read the fine print)
It was a planned 4-issue miniseries I started with artist Kendall Goode(also good), the artist of that fine looking cover up above you can click to read VTA #1. Unfortunately Kendall decided to leave the series after the first issue and it sort of fizzled after that. I did write the entire thing, and even put out a 2nd issue with artist Silvano Beltramo, who did one heck of a job filling in for Kendall, but that’s likely as far as it’s ever going to go. There’s still an outside shot I finish it up at some point down the line, but I’ve mostly moved on.
I’ve also had work published in various comics anthologies. Here’re those:
Once Upon a Time Machine - My first work for a major comics publisher! This anthology came together by way of the Digital Webbing forums, where I cut my teeth as a comics writer and met many of the creators I’ve collaborated with over the years. The general idea was to put a futuristic spin on classic fairy tales, fables and tall tales. I chose Rikki Tikki Tavi, one of my absolute favorite short stories, despite some of the problematic themes, and it was pretty well received in reviews of the collection (check out the reviews on Amazon if you don’t believe me). Once the book was finished Dark Horse picked it up for publication and even put out a Volume 2 years later. You can get those HERE and HERE.
Out of the Blue - I’ve had stories published in 2 volumes of the Out of the Blue anthologies put out by Stache Publishing.
Out of the Blue: A Collection of Strange Stories included my short story Three Sons, which you can read in the collection itself, or in Lesser Evils #2
Out of the Blue: A Collection of Campfire Tales snagged my short story The Chase, which you can find in the anthology, or Lesser Evils #1
Kayfabe - I’ve also had stories appear in 3 volumes of the Kayfabe anthology, which is a set of self-published anthologies from Micah Myers about, you guessed it, professional wrestling!
Kayfabe Vol. 1 has my short story Glopkicked starring Thunderbolt Holt which was also the runner-up in the comic shorts category of the first inaugural (and now sadly defunct) Ghost City Comics Competition. So you know it was good!
Kayfabe Vol. 2 accepted my short comic Slow Burn about a young woman’s struggles in the professional wrestling industry and her efforts to overcome them and why.
Kayfabe Vol. 3 featured the return of Thunderbolt Holt in another amusing tale we actually ended up pitching around and even landed at a fairly major publisher! But then the pandemic hit and it all sort of fizzled from there, unfortunately.
And that’s really about it for my comics-creating career to this point. It’s actually been a while since I’ve had any of my work appear in an anthology or since I self-published anything of my own, and, well… the reason for that brings me to our next section.
What I’ve Got Cooking
Mmmmm… cooking. Wait, no, it’s actually the byproduct of cooking that’s pleasurable, isn’t it? I mean, cooking isn’t terrible in and of itself, but I think we can all agree that eating is the superior experience, can’t we?
But hey, cooking ain’t bad! And I’m genuinely cooking these days. Back in like mid-2019 I was hired to write 26 scripts for a comic series based on a popular mobile fighting game. I can’t say much more than that due to NDAs and what not. They’d find me and kill me!
However, due to the previously mentioned (and still somehow ongoing) pandemic the work I was hired to do wasn’t finished until May of 2021! A little under 2 years to write 26 scripts worth of material isn’t ideal production, I know, but I did manage to finish the job for which I was paid. Now I’m eagerly awaiting the day when the words I put to page (or Google docs, same thing) are transformed into art on a screen that’s visible to the general public at large.
You can do the math. It’s now July of 2022 and that comic still hasn’t seen the light of day, but I’m under good authority that things are progressing and it’s altogether possible the project will debut before the end of the year. At that point I can actually talk about it by title and everything!
In the meantime though, I’ve been working on another project for that same publisher, having impressed the powers-that-be enough to pitch some of my own ideas to them. And wouldn’t you know it, they liked one of them enough to greenlight it!
The series was accepted last December, we (the artist and I) signed contracts this past April and have been working on it ever since. At this point we’re tentatively scheduled to debut in October, although that’s subject to change depending on our productivity. In other words, the quicker or slower we get things done, the more the timetable could move up or down.
Still! This is big news, o’ alert ones. In 2019 I was paid for the first time ever to write comics, and in 2022 I’m being paid to write my own comics. Pretty sweet, no?
More on that soon. Hopefully very soon.
What To Expect
Good question, that. Look, like CM Punk is a Paul Heyman guy, I’m a comics guy, so what I’ll be doing here mostly is talking about comics. My own, primarily, including the process of making them, when and where they’re available, etc., but I’ll also be talking up the comics of other creators I enjoy. There’s a lot of great comics out there, both print and web, so expect to be introduced to new creators and titles that are flat out awesome now and again.
Other than that? TV, movies and pro wrestling are my jams, so I’ll probably briefly review shows I like or movies I watch or the big events in the WWE or AEW (which I’m quite enamored with). I’ll likely also mention or comment on the occasional sports or current events topics that catch my eye.
But yeah, I’m a comics guy. So if you are too, we’ll get along fine. If not, well… you’re getting some free comics out of the deal, so why not take me out for a test drive and see how I handle. I’m not a luxury model or anything, but I bet you’ll enjoy the ride.