2024 Recap
Free Comic Book Day 2024 @ Silver Moon Comics, Salem, MA
Happy New Year
Thank you once again for joining me in my end of year recap. It feels like it wasn’t long ago at all when I was sitting down to start my 2023 recap
and here we are.
What happened to the year?
2024 was busy.
The dust finally settled from alot of the internal familial strife from the year before and I stepped into what was now the new normal. Art wise I pushed myself harder than ever before with the completion of a major graphic novel, the completion of another oversized annual, a complete redrawing of an existing story/annual, commissions, art covers and so much more. Professionally my day job became increasingly stressful and challenging. I took on additional responsibility, new clients, new technicians and a whole new different set of problems. 2024 was not easy on my mental health, it has been a really long and challenging year but I am still here.
I am thankful for all of the support from shows this year; new friends and fans of the books, returning commission clients and for the trust I have built. Thanks for being here and for reading my update, now onto focusing on active projects and some updates for the coming 2025 year.
Legends of Lys – My main comic title continued to make steady progress throughout 2024. Sibling Rivalry is now out in the world and in print. It was a long arduous process to correct some page misalignments once I submitted my files to Comix Wellspring. Once I received the physical books I found a that there was a misprint on the last page so I needed to go back and correct this once more. In the end I had to create an additional new page to offset all of the double page spreads in Sibling Rivalry (there are several).
Throughout 2024 I also completed all of the art on Legends Annual 3 and have lettered the first 7 pages which can now be read on the website here
Current Status: Volume 3 is available for purchase here, Annual 3 is being released on the site for free.
Fenrir & The Wrath Of The Witch Queen: The sister book to Legends of Lys is back! I recently dove back into the world of Fenrir to start the next chapter of my favorite wolf guy. In October I finished the art on the first issue of the next set and I’m really happy with it. The story is centered around Vyl which has been long teased throughout Legends. I wont say anymore for now but look for an update on this sometime the end of 2025.
Current Status: Volume 2 In Progress, Volume 1trade paperback is available here. Fenrir can also be seen in the new Legends of Lys Annual 3 here on the website!
The Expeditions Of Atlas Clarke: Atlas is still offline, will his Daddy, Cory, return to boot the resident android back online for another adventure? Only time will tell.
Current Status: Completed. Trade paperback is available here
Legends Of Lys: War Of The Storms - the fourth volume of legends is still in preproduction. This year I really focused on Volume 3, Annual 3 and Fenrir. War of the storms will be epic and just as a tease, Annual 3 leads right into it!
Current Status: Pre-Production; Character designs in progress and outlines in progress.
Other Projects
The Ten Rings: The novel continues, not a lot of progress made in 2024. Given how busy a lot of my comic work was this year along with shows and commissions I didn’t dedicate a lot of time to this.
Current status: Paused; I’m currently working on the 2nd part to the book. I’ve completed part 1 and its interludes and have parts 2 and 3 outlined.
The Elks– A comic I’ve had in development for some time. Originally this was a project about Punk and Hardcore bands in Massachusetts during the early 2000’s. This has evolved into a Horror comic, its still based around Punk/Hardcore bands in the early 2000’s in Massachusetts but I’m still figuring out the overall story and art feel.
Current status: Pre-production
Tendonitus Vol. 1 – Art book that I have been teasing for a few years showing behind the scenes look and sketches of projects is getting some traction. I’ve seen some examples of how others do this and I think it could be really cool with the amount of material/sketches that I do have. I think this will be one of my winter projects to chip away at.
Current Status: Pre production
Cosmonaut: A resurrected project from years past that I am fine tuning and really only keeping the name. This will be my next foray into comic sci fi starring Halbert, a character from Ten Rings that I have interest in exploring. I’ve really only done some character designs for this and some outlines.
Current Status: Paused.
Hypershock: I did not make any new progress with Hypershock in 2024.
Current Status: Paused.
Haverhill Public Library Con, 2024.
I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of the wonderful hosts of 2024 for having me at conventions, in store appearances and craft fairs. My list of events was much bigger than the last few years and I had a blast. Here are all the appearances I made in 2024!
Shows from 2023
3/9 - IC3 (Indie Comics Creator Con)
5/4 - Free Comic Book Day/ Silvermoon In Store
5/11 - Haverhill Public Library Con
5/19 - Fall River Comic & Toy Palooza
6/8 - Boston Kids Comic Fest
6/22 - Northboro Comics & Cards
7/13-7/14 - Monstah Expo
8/3 - Punk Rock Flea Market
8/25 - Grimoire Spooky Market
9/21 - Halloween Haunts & Hops
10/26 - Silvermoon In Store
12/17 - Wicked Good Aht Mahket
2024 taught me even more about vending events; I started to identify some red flags with how these events are promoted and organized which has informed my decision making for 2025. Along with organizational struggles, seating and layout of the room struggles, logistics and finding entrances to venues, cost was another. Average vending pricing is constantly moving, and moving high. With the fallout from the election this year, prices to participate in these events at an all time high and the return on investing in these events completely random, I am needing to be more conservative with events I participate in 2025.
I see next year as largely an under the hood working on books and materials year. There are shows I participated in that were fun and that I plan on returning to. So far in 2025 I am participating in the HPL Con again (Haverhill Public Library Con). This was a smaller convention, based in a Library in Haverhill and has an inspiring following. I had a great time at this event and hope to see more Libraries joining in on this too. As always I will return to Silver Moon as long as they will have me! I love Leslie and Chris and thank them so much for their support this year.
In terms of any physical releases for next year, this I’m not sure. Originally I had planned a collected trade paperback of all of Talos Tales; this would collect the 3 Legends Annuals that star Talos and other supporting cast. Along with this I had planned a prequel story of sorts for the trade which I still plan to do. Cost of printing is a huge factor for me right now.
If you are still with me, thank you for reading and for all of the support.
Be kind to one another, happy new year
B!
