Welcome, dear readers, to another month of geeky revelry amidst holiday festivities. Despite the many hardships that I’m sure most people faced this year, I hope everyone was still able to have a happy (and healthy) holiday this past December. Let’s hope 2022 is a better year.

But before we turn the page and look to the future, let’s recap December 2021 the Comic Maven way, with everything from a new webcomic announcement to an article that compares Iron Man to Mickey Mouse. Because anything is possible at the Comic Maven’s Archives!

Interviews

Kickstart the Week(end) with Producing the End of the World ANTHOLOGY

The one and only “Kickstart the Week(end)” interview from December was the apt dystopian anthology Producing the End of the World. This project is the final creative endeavor from the crew at Soda and Telepaths—shout out to that website for being an awesome hub of pop culture. The feature included an interview with founder and editor Anthony Pollock, who discussed the importance of this type of anthology during our current climate as well as which apocalyptic stories within the collection he would prefer to live in and which one would be the worst option.

Unfortunately, the funding for the Kickstarter was unsuccessful despite it raising over $16,000. However, Anthony was able to look on the bright side and list the positives from his campaign on social media, which I think is important to keep in mind when you don’t reach your Kickstarter goal:

Soda and Telepaths🥤 @SodaTelepaths

A couple of positive takeaways from our @producingtheend anthology not meetings it’s goal: 1. We have a bunch of stories that we can repackage into smaller sized comic issues in a future campaign with a more manageable goal 2. The campaign made more than most other campaigns

Soda and Telepaths🥤 @SodaTelepaths

3. I’ve (hopefully) contributed in a small way to raising the profile of the creators involved 4. I now have a list of people to market to. In the beginning I had no idea how this would go or if anyone would support it at all.

Soda and Telepaths🥤 @SodaTelepaths

5. The positive feedback I’ve been receiving from everyone kind enough to reach out has been amazing!!

I highly recommend subscribing to his Substack as well!

What I’m Editing

Tapas Media

Adding to the romance-related webcomics I’m currently editing (Thirst, Comedown Machine, Chinatop), Flawless has been something I’ve been editing behind the scenes for a while now. Launching in December, I’ve only contributed some proofreading to the early episodes as well as uploading and scheduling the series. But you’ll see my name pop up in the credits as an assistant editor and then editor in future episodes! Keep an eye out and enjoy Tapas’ webcomic adaptation of a novel taking place in a science-fiction setting where the population has been divided into two species: ordinary humans and “Perfects”.

J-Novel

The fourth volume of Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower was recently released on Amazon and the fifth volume is currently releasing on J-Novel. This fantasy with a historical setting continues the love triangle set up by previous volumes and introduces some supernatural elements. It’s been an honor to edit the English version of this light novel series by Miri Mikawa, which is also the first light novel series I’ve ever edited (and hopefully not the last!).

Scout Comics

This month marked the return of Impossible Jones in her second issue with the stellar creative team of Karl Kesel (Harley Quinn) and David Hahn (Batman '66). Now available in comic book shops!

Three issues that I edited for Scout also appeared in the December 2021 Previewsworld Catalog, which means they’ll be releasing sometimes in February 2022 (although the paper shortages have left comic book release dates a bit scattered), including:

By the Horns Volume 1: Collecting the first 8 issues of the series that has reviewers gushing, I was able to go back and lend my editing eye to every issue for the very first time within this collection. Markisan Naso and Jason Muhr have done a wonderful job creating a living, breathing fantasy world with emotional moments that will feel like major punches to the gut.
Impossible Jones #4: The finale of the first story arc for Our heroic thief finds herself up against the might of the powerful Homewrecker!
White Ash Season 2 #2: A series you may not have known I was part of, I began editing White Ash as of Season 2. I have great respect for Charlie Stickney and his work—he’s one of the many people at Scout Comics who have made the experience working there so wonderful.

What I’m Covering

Screen Rant

Another six of my comic book news stories were published on Screen Rant in December. I’ve highlighted some of my favorite news stories below:

Iron Man's Transformation Into a God is Based on a Mickey Mouse Cartoon: Fun little piece of trivia to share with your friends—Tony Stark recently transformed into a god, and the writer talked about how his transformation is based on a Mickey Mouse cartoon.
Hellboy Creator Launches New Comic Radio Spaceman From Dark Horse: I’ve admired Mignola’s work since writing a news story about his Quarantine Anthology. If you’re trying to find positives during the pandemic, it has certainly inspired some very creative people to explore new ideas.
Child's Play Writer Creating Paranormal Thriller Comic Slumber: Slumber is an Image Comics series from the Child's Play reboot writer Tyler Burton Smith and artist Vanessa Cardinali. It looks like a real trip down Nightmare on Elm Street.

Look forward to more in 2022!

I’m very thankful for the numerous opportunities I’ve had in 2021, and I hope to share my favorite moments from throughout that year in an extra update this month. But as a send-off to the year, December was filled with plenty of new projects—both ones that I could announce and ones that I’ll be able to share this year.

Thank you for reading this newsletter. Please share any suggestions you may have to make it an even better reading experience in the comments below. Plus subscribe so we can keep in touch for 2022!

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