LOTS OF NEWS, UPDATES, PREVIEWS!

Black Hammer, Royal City, Essex County, Fishflies, Little Monsters and MORE!

Hey Everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to update this newsletter. If you’ve been following here, or on my social media, you know I was busy shooting the Essex County TV show these past few months. We wrapped principal photography at the end of September, and since then I’ve been back in the city, moving into a brand new studio, and getting back into all my comics work in full force.

We’ve begun post-production on Essex, and that will take up a bunch of my time over the next few months, leading up to the show’s March broadcast date here in Canada. I have received many inquiries about how you can watch Essex County outside of Canada. I can’t answer that yet, but there will be an international release as well. As soon as I am able, I will announce those details here. (This newsletter is now FREE to everyone, and moving forward, it will be the hub for any news and announcements of my various projects.)

Working on Essex County was both exhausting and exciting. Definitely a once a lifetime experience to bring this book, which was so personal and important to me, to life with an amazing cast and crew. Having said that, the time away has definitely made me appreciate how lucky I am to be able to make comics every day, and I’ve come back to my studio with renewed excitement and energy for the medium I love.

So, what am I working on now?

FISHFLIES AND NEW ROYAL CITY

FISHFLIES is the project that I am currently both writing and drawing. Many early chapters of Fishflies are available to read for FREE in the archives of this newsletter, but now I am prepping the book to be published in print in 2023. Right now it looks like the series will launch in MAY from Image comics, and it will be published monthly.

I anticipate finishing drawing the final issue if Fishflies in March or April, and then I will dive right into drawing the NEW ROYAL CITY! I’ll give myself a nice buffer to work on the new Royal City before publishing, so I would guess that the book won’t be published until 2024.

In addition to what I am writing and drawing, I continue to collaborate with a number of great artists on other books. Some updates on those projects…

THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS

Of course THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS books will continue through 2023. As announced earlier this week the next two projects after ten Thousand Black Feathers are now in progress… TENEMENT will be up first, and I am scripting the first issues right now. That book will be a 6-issue series and will be followed with STARSEED, a book that takes the whole mythology into completely new territory.

LITTLE MONSTERS

Little Monsters continues monthly from Image. For those who have not read it yet, I often describe the book as “Lord of The Flies with child vampires”. There are certainly horror elements to the book, but it is really a character study about innocence and aging, and I love working on the book with Dustin Nguyen, who is doing incredible work every month.

Here, for the first time anywhere, is a look at Dustin’s covers for issue 10!

BLACK HAMMER!

Lots of exciting news coming form The Black Hammer Universe in 2023. In addition to some major Film/TV news, the next major chapter in the Black Hammer comics will be published in MARCH with BLACK HAMMER: THE END, which is the culmination of all the Black Hammer books so far, and features EVERY character from EVERY series.

BH: THE END will be illustrated by Malachi Ward and it will launch in March 2023.

So is BLACK HAMMER: THE END really the end? Well…maybe not. I can’t leave these characters and this world behind. Not completely.

After THE END I will continue to explore the universe in new comics projects in 2024 and beyond. Among these will be THE LAST DAYS OF BLACK HAMMER, an original graphic novel I wrote that was beautifully illustrated by Stefano Simeone. It was originally serialized here on this Substack, and now it is coming to print in September 2023 as a stand-alone graphic novel from Dark Horse.

After that, I have two new Black Hammer books in progress… The long-awaited MADAME DRAGONFLY series, illustrated by my Black Hammer co-creator Dean Ormston, will finally be published in 2024. And, in addition to this, I am working on a new series that will be illustrated by one of my favourite artists…the legendary TEDDY KRISTENSEN! You’ll have to wait for more details on that project until later next year.

For now, here is a look at a couple variant covers to BLACK HAMMER: THE END by Wilfredo Torres and David Rubin…

NEW STUFF!

Beyond The Bone Orchard, Little Monsters and Black Hammer I am also working on THREE other creator-owned books with three amazing artists…

MYSTERY PROJECT WITH GABRIEL WALTA!

The first of these new book to be published will be illustrated by the incredible GABRIEL H. WALTA. Gabriel and I worked together previously on the sci-fi book Senteint for TKO, and on Barbalien: Red Planet for Dark Horse. He is also well-known for his amazing work with Tom King on The Vision for Marvel.

This new book with Gabriel will be an ongoing series from Image, and it will launch in MARCH 2023. We will officially announce the book, and reveal its title and some artwork soon. But for now, here is an inked page from Issue #3 by Gabriel!

In addition to this project, I am also working in a big new Image series with my Last Days of Black Hammer collaborator, Stefano Simeone, and another with…well, I can’t reveal who the other is with just yet.

RANDOM OTHER STUFF

A few other bits of business….

SWAMP THING: GREEN HELL is not dead…just gestating. Series artists Doug Mahnke needed to take some time off this past year due to personal/family stuff, but he is back in action and producing new pages at a torrid pace. Issue 2 and 3 of this DC Black Label book will be published in 2023, and will act as a coda to my Animal Man run, as well as telling a complete Swamp Thing story. Here are a couple of beautiful pages inked by Doug!

SUBSTACK INCENTIVES

The Fishflies Ashcans that were promised to the first 150 paid subscribers to this Substack when it launched in 2020 have now been printed, signed and and will be shipped before the end of the year! The 5 pieces of Fishflies original artwork have also been selected and will be sent out to the winners as well. Promise. Thanks for your patience.

THIS NEWSLETTER!

As I mentioned, this newsletter will be the hub for any news and announcements about my books. It’s now FREE for everyone to subscribe to. So if you know anyone who may be interested please pass on the link.

Thanks everyone!

-Jeff