Dave's May 2023 newsletter

We're going back to monthly newsletters. Check out what's new!

Hey everyone, Dave here with my May 2023 newsletter.

Thanks for sticking with me during my move from Mailchimp to Substack, and while I try out some new features and more frequent newsletters to get a feel for what works best.

I’ve decided to go back to monthly newsletters and paid tier comic tutorials starting now, as I was getting a lot of unsubscribes with the more regular posts (apologies for the spam, folks!)

I’ll still publish posts and fun things on the blog between newsletters, but you’ll only get the email once a month.

Okay, let’s roll with this month’s newsletter!

1. I’m exhibiting at Glasgow Comic Con

This is always one of my most-anticipated shows of the convention year, and I’ll be there with copies of Killtopia #1-4, BPM: Beatdowns Per Minute #1, Ninja Baseball Spirits #1 and reprints of Bust #1-4, my first series from 2014.

Tickets are available through Eventbrite now. Check it out and hope to see some of you there!

2. Issue #1 of my next series is written!

I’ve teased this one before, but artist Laura Helsby (@illaurastrates) and I have been co-creating a brand new comic series that we’re going to be pitching around publishers when we’re ready. We figured we’d hail mary this one before going straight to Kickstarter, but we might still do that depending on how things work out.

Laura has designed all of the core cast, and they shared this very early initial concept of one character as a teaser:

Here’s what we can tell you about the series for now:

• It takes place in 1987

• The setting is a mid-western American town that’s fallen on hard times

• Metal and punk music are central to the plot, as are live gigs and jamming out as part of an aspiring band

• It also focuses on the emergence of the ‘Parental Advisory’ record warning labels and the ‘satanic panic’ hysteria that hit America through the ‘80s, where music, books, VHS tapes and more items were being burned and banned by parents and politicians - they thought they were corrupting their kids

• It was inspired by me and my friends turning 40 this year. 40 isn’t old at all, but the story started to take shape after chatting with friends about the past, things they wished they’d done different and how their life might have changed because of it

• We have a letterer and colourist in place too - they’re awesome!

• We’ll have more updates to share as we have them.

This one is quite a personal comic, as I used to be in metal bands back in the day as a kid, and at some point - perhaps naively - I figured we might make a career out of it. Unfortunately, we were an objectively crap band, but I think we all have these delusions as we’re growing up and finding out what we want to do and be when we grow up. All of this is central to the new series we’re working on.

Stay tuned for more!

3. New BPM #2 panel artwork

I mentioned in a previous update that BPM: Beatdowns Per Minute #2 shipping has been delayed - we’ll be keeping all our Kickstarter backers updated as pages are done, and once we know when we’ll be shipping. I’m hopeful it won’t be too far away, but Steve and I both had big projects slam our availability for a couple of months.

But, rest assured, we’re still working on the book, it’s looking awesome. We hope you dig the little panel teaser above, showing Ashby and Maya chasing a street ninja to reclaim some mysterious VHS tapes.

Also…

We already have a famed video game artist creating a new print for the third issue’s Kickstarter, when it drops. This person is based in Japan and worked in the games industry throughout the 16-bit era, and they’ve kindly agreed to create some new art for BPM #3/

Stay tuned for updates on this one.

That’s all for this update. Thanks for subscribing and see you next month!

-Dave