Lightly-blurred to hide the full creator roster, which we’ll be unveiling throughout the full prelaunch window. But in short, this book is a new 48-page sci-fi/adventure comic written by me with art by the great Nick Cagnetti (who is currently hard at work on Archie!) + five other top tier artists.

While this book is a follow-up to my 2024 title, Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1, it also stands entirely on its own! There’s continuations of stories from the first volumes for returning readers, but new readers can jump right in and have a blast too.

Here’s the synopsis:

During a strange high school event, four teenagers rediscover the mysterious Comics Bookcase! And the oddball storyteller insists on taking them to new worlds … filled with weirdo superheroes, sci-fi action, and much more!

I’m incredibly excited about this comic, which I think is another big step forward for me as a writer. And all my collaborators have done absolutely outstanding work here.

If you’re curious, the prelaunch page has five completed pages from the book, and you can find it here!

More on that in the weeks to come, for sure…

And now, this month’s commission!

The Art

One of the great things about making crowdfunded comics is it pushes you to spend more time on platforms like Kickstarter, where creators are doing fantastic, truly independent work.

During my last campaign — the one for Macabre Valley — I was alongside cartoonist Dan Membiela, and we’ve become friendly / kept in touch online.

Well, when I was looking for artists to draw our characters (the ones that appear in this new book as well as in the last one) Dan was kind enough to enthusiastically reach out.

And he’s got a fantastic piece featuring an ape soldier from the Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1 story: Apes v. Sharks: The Omega Brain IV!

Check it out…

Just great stuff. Be sure to follow Dan on social media here!

What’s Next?

Essentially, a whole lot of promoting this new project!

We’re going to launch in September, and to make sure that campaign is successful, it’s going to take about two full months of time/promo to get people signed up for the prelaunch page. That way we have a BIG day one, we fund most (or, dare I say it, all) of our goal in a matter of hours, and the momentum carries through to a very successful campaign, as it did for Death Vol. 1 as well as last year’s Macabre Valley.

So, in the weeks between now and September, I’ll be back here as well as on my social media feeds revealing creator credits, story summaries, new preview pages, and much more, trying to get all the eyes on this new book that I can.

While this book is not as intensely personal as Macabre Valley #1 was, it’s loaded with satire about our current day (especially tech and morals) as well as my preferred absurdist comics sensibilities.

And I hope you’ll all come along for the ride!

That’s it for the newsletter this month! See you back here in soon for more news about Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2!

Cheers, be well, and please forgive any and all typos above!

-Zack Q.