More on that below as well.

But first, I have a brand-new commission to unveil!

Item No. 1: The Art

This month’s character commission is by Sean Peacock (Instagram), a rising star artist if ever there was one. Sean has done great work for IDW Publishing of late, including a Twilight Zone comic, an excellent macabre-tinged romance comic, and a fun one-shot that combines Godzilla with Romeo and Juliet.

Sean is incredibly talented and a super nice guy, and so he was top of my list for an artist to do one of our Comics Bookcase characters during our campaign … and, thankfully, he was game!

I sent him the early art from Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2, and gave him free reign of any character, and he choose …

And what a great piece! I absolutely love Sean’s take on the character, and how he leaned into the online-ness inherent to the character with his background here.

Classic superhero comic fans might even recognized this as an homage to this Nick Fury cover by Jim Steranko.

An extra layer of coolness here is that the framing device for Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2 is itself an homage to classic comics.

I’m just really thrilled with everything about this, so much so that I’ve made it a part of the ongoing Kickstarter campaign, which is a nice transition to Item 2.

Item No. 2: Our First Stretch Goal

The big news from the past week was that the Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2 campaign funded. That means we will have money for a print run and for shipping costs.

All money now will go to helping me recoup my production costs (pay my credit cards!) and, hopefully, have some money leftover to start production on my next comic.

So, if you haven’t pledged yet, now is the time.

>>BACK DEATH OF COMICS BOOKCASE, VOL. 2 HERE<<

As I type this, we are just a scant 7 new backers and $262 from unlocking our first stretch goal, which would mean that all physical backers of the book get a postcard-sized mini-print of Sean’s Responsibili-Teen print!

Pretty cool. Plus, I am really getting desperate for some new backers here, and a few pledges today would stave off the “what am I doing with my life?!” thing that starts to set in during a difficult crowdfunder.

Item No. 3: Two prose recs for 2026

With everything going on, I haven’t read as many books this year as I would have liked, but I read two fantastic books this summer, one novel and one work of non-fiction.

The non-fiction book is the new true crime page-turned London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe.

The core of this thing is a pretty traditional true crime piece about the death of a young man who fell from a balcony in a ritzy part of London, plummeting into the River Thames. And that’s all pretty standard.

Was there foul play? Maybe. Was there more to it? Almost certainly. Can we ever truly know what happened? Not exactly.

But Keefe does such a great and thorough job reporting the story — and drawing thematic connections to ongoing changes in our societies — that it reads like something much more. It reads like an examination of young men and their relationship to wealth in 2026, seeing unchecked riches splashed all over the Internet as well as the streets of our great cities, ultimately asking the question, who is culpable for THAT?

I couldn’t put it down, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since finishing.

Meanwhile, the novel I read recently that I really loved is Transcription by Ben Lerner.

The book starts with what feels like a relatively simple, straightforward concept. A writer is on his way to do an in-depth interview with his famous, aging mentor, when his phone falls in the sink and breaks, becoming totally non-functional.

This is the first half of the book, and it’s compelling enough, using a well-written, excellently-paced narrative to emphasize how reliant we all are on our phones.

But then in the second half of the book, it becomes something much more surprising and deeper, examining what technology is doing to our relationships and our kids, and just humans overall, with a great deal of artistry and subtly.

It’s a subtle book, but a stunning and thoughtful one, and probably my favorite novel of the year.

So, that’s what I’m reading! Now on to watching.

Item No. 4: 5 Good TV Shows for 2026

With my dog’s illness, I’ve watched a lot of TV of late, all of it first airing in 2026, and I’ve got five quick recs for you, trying to go past obvious stuff like Widow’s Bay.

Here they are….

Bait S1 (Prime): I knew Riz Ahmed was a great actor, but he’s also a fantastic writer. The concept of this show is that he’s a fictionalized version of himself, trying to get a gig as the next James Bond. There are complex questions about race and Britain, mixed with some of the best absurd sitcom setups I’ve seen in years. This is the show of the year for me, so far.

The Comeback S3 (HBO): We have got a new season of Lisa Kudrow’s The Comeback about once a decade, and this decade’s is the best yet, tackling AI head-on and coming out the other side with a great, poingant set of ocassionally-bleak episodes.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins S1 (Peacock): Do you miss the rapid-fire clever joke machine that was 30 Rock? Well then, this show is a must watch. It even stars Tracy Morgan.

Industry S4 (HBO): I was pretty lukewarm on this show for the first two seasons. It seemed like another circular show about bad people making moral compromises to get ahead. And it’s partially that, but in its past two seasons, it’s become a complex takedown of the way wealth and cheating has come to dominate the world. This past season is maybe the best TV I’ve seen all year.

King of the Hill S15 (Hulu): Sometimes when a show comes back after a long while off, it doesn’t feel like itself. King of the Hill, however, is as good as it’s ever been. The show even made some much-needed tweaks to characters. I just love the dry sensability of this show, which is arguably perfect for 2026 and the absurdities of life these days.

Item No. 5: New Press Coverage for Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2

Finally, I had a great conversation this week with my friend Gianni Palumbo on his Biff! Bam! Pow! Podcast.

Giannia is a smart reader and a great guy, and he really keys in to what this book is trying to do and why.

Give it a listen here!

What’s Next?

Hopefully it will be me returning with another newsletter next Sunday to let you all know we’ve hit our first stretch goal with an incredible surge in unexpected funding! Did I mention you can back Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2 now? I did. Okay then…

That’s it for this month’s newsletter. We’ll have a few more abbreviated promo newsletters during the campaign, before getting back to normal in October. So, thanks for bearing with me!

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

-Zack Q.