UPDATES AND A LOOK AHEAD TO 2024

New Projects, New Royal City and More!

Greetings Farmhands.

It’s been a while since I updated this Substack. I apologize, the fall and winter have been even busier than usual as I raced to finish drawing FISHFLIES before the end of 2023, as well as trying to wrap up other projects so I can start new things in the new year…

FISHFLIES

I finished drawing the seventh and final issue of Fishflies three weeks ago. That book has been one of the more difficult projects of my career so far. Partially because of the ever-evolving story itself, which took on a life of its own, but mostly because of all the other things going on in my personal life over the last couple of years. It’s always bittersweet to finish a big project. A part of you is happy to move on to fresh ideas but another part of you will miss the world and the characters. All in all, I am really happy with how Fishflies turned out. It started as a modest 50-page graphic novel and grew into a 350+ page epic that took me three years to complete. Issue #4 will come out in January and the series will continue to be published every other month until its conclusion in July.

And for the first time I can announce that I had some special help with the series! Brilliant cartoonist SHAWN KURUNERU (@shawnkununerucomics) has come on board to draw a special, extended “origin issue” sequence in Issue #6. Much like how Matt Kindt helped me out on Sweet Tooth back in the day, Shawn jumped on to add his talents to this special issue. We jammed on this issue with me drawing the framing sequence and Shawn doing the origin of the Fishflies in Belle River. Some pages will even feature both of our art together.

I met Shawn in 2019 at the Baltimore Comicon and was really impressed with his work. Since then I’ve followed his self-published comics like Cave Grave and Alien Glove. I highly recommend you check out his stuff.

Here, for the first time, is a look at Shawn’s work on Fishflies #6!

WHAT’S NEXT?

So, what’s next after Fishflies? I’ve been teasing a return to my Image series, ROYAL CITY for a couple of years now. That project has been on hold as I tried to finish Fishflies. But now, I am finally getting back to it. Right now I have a new 6-issue Royal City series scripted and I’ve drawn the first two issues! It’s great to be back in the world of Royal City but you’ll have to wait a while longer until this new RC is published. Another, brand new project has developed that will take a lot of my time in 2024 and it’s one I can’t really even tease yet, but it will be a new monthly book that I’m both writing and drawing. For now let’s give it the codename of PROJECT PALM.

I’ll likely finish drawing issues 3 and 4 of the new Royal City in January and February as I prep Project Palm. From there I’ll bounce between drawing these two books through 2024 but it looks like Project Palm will actually be published first. The new Royal City is. a real labour of love, and I’ve decided not to rush it just for the sake of getting it done. I’d rather take my time and enjoy every panel of it. So, I hope you all can be patient too. And trust me “Project Palm” is going to scratch the itch for RC. It combined almost every kind of story I’ve drawn in the past into one huge new series. I really think it has the potential to be one of the best things I’ve ever done. I can’t wait to share more details about it, but I don’t think it will be announced until Summer.

For now, here is a sneak peak at the some of the first issue of new Royal City!!

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?!

A number of projects I’ve been working on over the last couple of years have wrapped up this year, or will be wrapping up soon. Little Monsters with Dustin Nguyen concluded this past year. Black Hammer: The End finally came out, and the first “cycle” of Bone Orchard Mythos books with Andrea Sorrentino will be wrapping up with the conclusion of Tenement and then the original graphic novel Starseed this coming year.

I suddenly find myself working on several all new projects for 2024-2025 and it’s been a refreshing and creatively exciting time. I can’t give many details yet, as these new books will likely not be released until later in 2024 or even early 2025, but I can say that, in addition to Project Palm, I am writing two new ongoing series and I genuinely think people are going to be surprised by them.

Things were starting to feel very stale this past year and I knew I needed to switch things up. So, these new books will be monthly, ongoing books that will be a departure from the types of comics I’ve been doing for the past few years.

And, in addition to these new projects, PHANTOM ROAD with Gabriel Walta will continue at Image. Speaking of which, check out the latest cover by Gabriel!

So, that’s all the news for now. Hop you all have a safe and happy holidays. And I’ll be back in 2024!

-Jeff