New Releases, What I'm Reading, and More
A recap on Fearless from Scholastic, Barnstormers! from Insight Kids, and Batman One Million from DC Comics. Also, books I've been reading and upcoming projects!
Brand-New Fall Reads
Hey friends! It’s been a busy couple of months. Aside from starting the Substack, I’ve had a bunch of books come out this year. I’ve been working my butt off writing, editing, and pitching over the last few years. I can’t describe how happy it makes me to see books hit the stands and for people to enjoy them.
So if you’re looking for something new to read this fall, give some of these books we worked on a shot!
Fearless
I can still remember when Zach Wilcox and I came up with this book. I had just gotten out of the gym and was grabbing a snack at Meijer when the image of a girl riding her bike popped into my head. I didn’t know much, but I knew she was wearing a Kamen Rider-inspired outfit and that she was riding to get her friend back.
I called Zach that night and paced around the grocery store like a mad man as I explained every detail I thought of. Years later, the book is on stands and I’m getting messages from parents that kids are reading the book two or three times a week.
We set out to tell a deep and personal story about the difficulties of growing up and how things change. I’m just happy to know that other people are connecting with it.
Barnstormers! (Re-Release)
Barnstormers! was the book that turned everything around for me. It was the first time I felt like I was writing a comic that 100% said something personal about me and my experiences with the world. Just like Fearless eventually would, that resonated with people. Now it’s being released in bookstores and comic book shops nationwide.
This book went from a pitch to a Kickstarter, to an indie book, and finally, a published YA graphic novel. Renny Castellani and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
I also have to mention all of the people who helped bring this book together. Shawn Lee, Gale Galligan, Jim Towe, and Jon Alderink helped pitch in to make the final book that’s on stands now. I hope that someone who reads it for the first time feels that same thrill I did when I first saw SWAT Kats, TaleSpin, and The Real Ghostbusters.
Batman One Million
The reception to our story “The Batman With No Name” in Batman: Urban Legends #7 has been amazing. We’re so glad that people love our new take on the Batman of the 853rd century. Baldemar Rivas was a pleasure to work with, and I hope we get to do another story soon.
Are You Afraid of The Darkseid?
This one hasn’t been released yet, but I’m very excited for people to see what Max Dunbar and I cooked up with our Harley Quinn and Darkseid team-up story. Anyone who read the most recent issue of Batman: Urban Legends knows how talented Max is, but some of the stuff he does in this Halloween special will knock your socks off.
Make sure to order your copy from your local comic book store!
H.G. Wells’ The Red Room
Inaki Azpiazu and I are working on an adaptation of an old ghost story by H.G. Wells. I know most people think of science fiction when they hear Wells’ name, but I discovered this gothic ghost story a couple of years ago and I fell in love with it. I thought it would be fun to adapt into a more modern setting, expand the main character, and team up with my buddy Inaki to give it a bold black, white, and red look.
We’re done with 90/120 pages of the book, and we’ll have more details on releasing it soon!
What I’m Reading
I’m over 518 volumes of comics, manga, and novels this year. Over this past weekend, I decided to jump back to some comics I haven’t read in almost a decade, as well as some that I missed. I also read a great new horror novel by one of my favorite working authors.
The Ultimates
I discovered the Ultimate universe like everyone did, through Ultimate Spider-Man. After I devoured as many trades of Ultimate Spidey as I could, I started reading the other books in the Ultimate universe. The Ultimates was actually one of my first Avengers stories, believe it or not. I had always been more of a DC guy, so when I did my first big Marvel deep dive I also read just about all of the comics in the Ultimates line.
Revisiting The Ultimates now, I can see why it was such a big deal. The whole thing feels very epic in scope and is a completely different take on the Marvel characters. Sometimes it’s downright brutal, and some things the characters do and say are pretty dated, but it’s interesting to take a look back at this alternate reality.
I love alternate universe stories, and the Ultimate universe is the most expansive of the alternate Marvel realities. It’s interesting to go back and see what people did with established characters in a universe that has fundamentally different rules than our standard 616 Marvel Universe.
Chase
I only heard of this comic recently, but I’m really enjoying it. It’s about an agent in the DEO of the DC Universe that investigates Metahuman cases. It’s got the right blend of Gotham Central and The X-Files that makes me wish there were more books like this set in superhero universes.
I’m only a few issues in, but I plan on reading the whole 9-issue series before the week is over.
The Final Girl Support Group
I’ve been a big fan of Grady Hendrix for years. I recently read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and I absolutely loved it. When I saw that this book was coming out, I knew I’d be one of the first in line to devour it. And I really enjoyed this one, too.
Not as much as My Best Friend’s Exorcism or Southern Book Club, but I still had a great time with it. I think the only thing that stopped it from being a great book was a personal reason, which was the fact that I had read Stephen Graham Jones’ book The Last Final Girl shortly before this one.
Both books play on the tropes of horror movie slashers and women fighting back against killers. I just think that Jones’ book had some better scenes/visuals, while I do feel like I got to know the characters better in Hendrix’s take on the genre.
Either way, both are good, and you should check out The Final Girl Support Group if you’re a fan of slasher movies and horror.
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