11: Happy New Year

Or how many resolutions can I make and break?

Happy New Year, o’ alert ones! I haven’t sent out an alert since mid-November, I think, which is far too long to go without chatting with you. So my apologies for that. I’ll try to be better through 2023. I guess we could call that my first resolution, yeah?

This’ll be a quick one. Mostly I just want to talk about 2022 a little bit and how it looks to be going down as my most prolific year in comics to date. Now, when I say comics, I’m mostly talking about my work at Webtoon, where the title I wrote some time back, Skullgirls, is currently being released.

And that got me thinking. I wrote all of Skullgirls well before 2022, so while it debuted this past November, does it actually count as a 2022 thing? I mean, don’t get me wrong… even if it doesn’t, the work I’ve been doing on my Webtoon Original - MoonRise - more than fills the quota for 2022 being my most prolific year in comics. Between mid-April and December 31st Cem and I finished 17 episodes and have portions of the first 25 in some form of development or other.

That’s quite a bit more than I’ve probably ever written in a calendar year, and that’s not even counting some of the other work I’ve done like my progress on moving the Loophole Comics library over to Global Comix, writing a final issue of Adamant and working on the next issue of Lesser Evils.

And while it’s still early days, 2023 very well could be bringing a couple of other exciting collaborations between me and some very talented artists. I’m doing some slow burn development on another potential pitch to Webtoon that I’m very excited about, and I’m also talking with another artist about an anthology submission that, if all goes well and we dig working with one another, may lead to future pitches or projects down the line. Both of these artists are amazing and I very much hope I get to share their work with you really soon.

Quickies

-Webtoon Rec. C’mon now! What else can it be but Skullgirls!

Episode 8 (technically the 9th episode, since there’s an Episode 0) dropped this past Friday, so Episodes 0-8 are available to read for free right this second! Click the image above to pop on over to Webtoon to see what’s going on with Parasoul, Peacock and the rest as they try to keep the city of New Meridian in one piece.

-Thank Yous. Speaking of Skullgirls, at the time of this writing the series has garnered over 1.2 million views, 132k subscribes and 94k likes! So thank YOU to everyone reading this who checked it out, read it, liked it, subscribed, etc. Also big thanks to pasteldot and wiirdo, the artists bringing the Skullgirls webtoon to life. They’re an amazing team, are clearly passionate about Skullgirls and also do a webcomic of their own called Skulldudes that features some of the background characters, weapons and items within the Skullgirls universe that don’t get as much love or screen time in the game, as well as videos and short comics featuring the main cast. It is bonkers and hilarious in all the best ways. I’d also like to thank my editor, Ethan Leblanc, who also gave me the opportunity to pitch MoonRise, and of course major thanks to the team over at Hidden Variable who provided me with more content about the Skullgirls franchise than I could have ever asked for, as well as Charley Price, who gave me the chance to try out for the job in the first place, and the literally invaluable lore expert, Jesse Busch, who really, really knows his stuff and was always there to keep me on track.

Whew! I feel like I won an award or something. Anybody I missed? I love you, pooks!

-Weight. 282.6. Honestly, not terrible considering all the eating I’ve done over the holidays since last we spoke. Another of my resolutions is to try and eat healthier (if not Paleo, then Paleo-adjacent) and exercise throughout 2023. I’m not off to a great start, but, uh… it’s how you finish, right?!?

Okay, I think that’s about it for 2022. I’ve had a lot of fun visiting family and braving the recent insane bouts of weather we’ve experienced in the Bay Area, but I’ll save those for my next alert, which I promise won’t be months away. ‘Til then!