THE END OF FISHFLIES IS NEAR AND NEW PROJECTS ANNOUNCED SOON!

Fishflies 6 is out and 3 new books coming in 2024.

NEW BOOKS!

Hope you are all doing well. I’ve been busy this past month working on my new series for BOOM! that will be announced in June! I cannot wait to share artwork and details on this new project, it has totally taken over my creative life these past months and I am putting everything into it. I’ll be writing, drawing and fully painting every issue myself as well as doing 2 different covers for each issue. As of today I have two issues completely finished and lettered and have started drawing the third. It will be an ongoing book with a 40-issue run currently planned.

Speaking of new books, excited to announce that I will have 3 new projects for DC Comics in the coming year! I believe these will all be announced at San Diego Comicon in July (which I will be attending, more details on that soon). Been having a total blast writing some dream books back at DC and it’s been a great balance with the BOOM! project.

So, that’s all I can say on the new books for now, but I wanted to do some housekeeping on current projects…

BLACK HAMMER

Black Hammer: The End finished last month and we’ll be taking a break until 2025 when a new direction for the Black Hammer Universe will launch, written by me and illustrated by the great TEDDY KRISTIANSEN!

PHANTOM ROAD AND BONE ORCHARD

Speaking of hiatuses… both Phantom Road and The Bone Orchard books will both be going on indefinite hiatus. Various scheduling issues have combined to slow these projects down for the time being. In the case of Phantom Road, the 3rd arc is written, but Gabriel will need some extra time to catch up. So we are taking a bit of a break until he can do that.

And, for Bone Orchard, what Andrea and I planned as the first “cycle” of Bone Orchard books ended with Tenement and we both needed a break. As much as I’ve enjoyed doing the books, I personally just feel totally burnt out on the horror genre right now. And Andrea wants to explore some other projects as well, so we don’t have a definite plan for the future of Bone Orchard yet. But when we do, I’ll be sure to let you know.

FISHFLIES

And last, but not least, the penultimate issue of FISHFLIES is out today and it features beautiful artwork by Shawn Kuruneru, with me drawing the rating sequences. Shawn may be new to many of you, is I thought I would let him hijack this newsletter and share some more about himself and his work…take it away Shawn….

Hey everyone!

First off, a huge thank you to Jeff for bringing me on board!

I had the pleasure of drawing the flash back story in issue six of Fishflies. 

I’m here to show you a preview of my pages, cover and some process stuff. 

A little about me. 

I started making and self publishing comics in 2018 while living in Brooklyn, New York. I wrote stories because I wanted to draw comics. I was inspired by people like Mike Mignola, Naoki Urasawa, Gipi and Jeff Lemire. I’ve read every comic Jeff has published. He has had a big influence on my comic making ie. storytelling, characters, art, work ethic. I met Jeff at the Baltimore Comic Con in 2019 and since then he has changed my life! 

My first professional comic work was in 2022 thanks to Jeff. I drew an eight page story in Colonel Weird and Little Andromeda, written by the amazing Tate Brombal (Barbalien Red Planet, Behold Behemoth) and coloured by the best colourist in comics Jordie Bellaire. I was already a fan of Black Hammer so I was thrilled to be invited to draw something in the universe. Here's my favorite spread from that story.

In 2023 Jeff asked if I would be interested in drawing the flashback story in his newest comic Fishflies. I was honoured to get this opportunity. I really like drawing people, (facial expressions, emotions) natural environments (rocks, trees, clouds ) and Jeff’s story had exactly that and more. The human drama escalates into a scene of carnage—it’s atmospheric, heart wrenching, and monstrous. Here’s a preview of the pages I worked on. I made the drawings with black ink and blue watercolour on paper. Once the pages were scanned Jeff added the paper texture and green colour that you'll see in the printed comic.

And this is my first variant cover ever! I drew it traditionally with ink on paper then added the color digitally.  

I’ve always had a DIY approach to art and that’s part of what I love about comics—with a pen and paper I can make a comic, put it out into the world and exciting things happen (like working with Jeff!). Here are some of my self published comics.