ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS...

JSA, MINOR ARCANA and More

Greetings Farmhands

As summer rolls on, and SDCC approaches, I thought it would be the right time to announce a few things…

JSA

First off, I did an AMA over at The League of Comic Geeks last week and revealed that Issue #24 would mark the end of my run as writer of JSA for DC Comics.

Despite what what a few articles have said, I did not “quit” the book. Quitting implies leaving before something is finished, or leaving on bad terms, and neither is the case here. It was always my plan to do two full years on JSA and then assess where my workload was at. And, DC and my editors, were all very aware of this plan long ago.

It was a dream come true for me to write JSA. They are probably my favourite DC characters and I tried to do right by them. I loved working with Diego Orletugui, Gavin Guidry, and the whole creative team over the last two years and hope we added a nice chapter to the JSA’s long legacy.

Issue 22 will be the end of the “Search For The Spectre” arc and then I’ll finish off my run with a special two-part “Times Past” story set in the 1950’s that tells of a Secret Society, a hidden mission by some key JSA members during the Cold War. These two issues will be drawn my the incomparable TEDDY KRISTIANSEN, who illustrates Black Hammer: Spiral City (for which he was just nominated for an Eisner!) and is also illustrating our forthcoming Mr. Oblivion series if graphic novels for Harper Collins.

I am not sure yet what DC’s plans are for the JSA beyond my run.

MINOR ARCANA

And, it seems like the right time to also announce that Issue #24 will be the finale of Minor Arcana as well. I’ve been working in Minor Arcana for over three years now, and ,as I got deeper into the series, it felt like the story was headed to a natural conclusion and #24 was the right time to end things and to give the series a satisfying ending.

I can see myself returning to the world for more stories in the future, but will likely do those a mini-series. Working on Minor Arcana over the last few years taught me that my days of writing and drawing an ongoing monthly comic, and also trying to juggle all my other writing work, was just too much to handle. I turned 50 this year, and don’t have the same energy I did back in the Sweet Tooth days.

So, for the foreseeable future the projects I write and draw will likely be graphic novels and mini-series, things that are more contained and that I can take my time with and not be under such crushing monthly deadlines all the time.

Issue #20 Cover

People have also asked about the Minor Arcana Tarot Deck. This is still happening and I will let you know more details when I can.

Issue #19 Tarot Cover

All in all, I am very proud of Minor Arcana and the complete series will end up being collected into 2 deluxe hardcover, slipcased editions from BOOM!

SO, NOW WHAT?!

You’re probably thinking to yourself, Jeff you have so much free time now! You’re only writing 8 projects instead of 10! Stop being so goddamn lazy.

Okay, okay. I get it. I need to pick up the slack.

Well, I still have 4 issues of Minor Arcana to write and draw (just finished up Issue #20 with Letizia Cardonici’s help). And I’m also now writing CROWBOUND full time (First issue now available for pre-order!!).

Image will have an exclusive convention preview edition of Crowbound #1 available at SDCC with Dustin and I doing a couple signings. I’ll post my SDCC schedule soon.

And here’s Dustin’s CROWBOUND #3 cover!

I’m also writing the next Black Hammer series (to be announced at SDCC) and we’ll also be doing a Black Hammer #1 Facsimile Edition. I did a special variant for this, homaging my co-creator Dean Ormston’s original cover..

And I’m still going strong on ABSOLUTE FLASH with no plans to leave that series. I just finished writing Issue 20 and currently have that book plotted well into its third year.

Check out Nick Robles cover for #20, with the best look yet at Absolute Atom…

Absolute Firestorm, Absolute Abra Kadabra, Absolute Hunter Zolomon and another MAJOR DC CHARACTER will all debut in the coming arcs.

And THE FURY OF FIRESTORM is now 9-issues! Here’s the cover for #7 by Rafael DeLatorre…

NEW ROYAL CITY

And then there’s the long-promised, then cancelled, the re-promised, then re-cancelled new ROYAL CITY series.

Well, I can now say with 100% confidence that the new Royal City IS happening.

No, I mean FOR REAL this time. Cross my heart.

I wanted to wait until I had the whole thing drawn before making any more promises, but I now have the entire series drawn and lettered, and it has been scheduled to come out from Image Comics in the Fall of 2027.

There will be lots more about this new RC series, and the strange up and down process of creating it, in the future. But for now, here’s a spread from issue #5 that I really like…

AND MORE NEW STUFF!!

And then there are also the 5 graphic novels I am writing for Harper Collins’ Harper Alley imprint. Three of those are the aforementioned MR. OBLIVION series with Teddy Kristiansen, and then there is a book with Charlie Adlard (Walking Dead) which is unlike anything Charlie or I have done before, and another book with Jesse Lonergan (Drome).

All these books are 200+ pages and the first released will be MR. OBLIVION BOOK 1: Incantations in the Summer of 2027. The others will be published in regular intervals between 2027-2029.

So, lots of new stuff coming!

Talk soon.

Jeff