If you’ve read this newsletter at all in the past 90 days, I’m sure you already know about the book.

But for those of you who don’t, here’s the relevant info - Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2 - Reign of the Comics Bookcase is a sci-fi comics romp through six unique, fantastical worlds.

What this means is it’s a brand-new 48-page comic, featuring five new stories written by me, with a framing device that runs through them and ties them all together.

Illustrating those stories is an absolute muderers’ row of fantastic comics artists:

• Nick Cagnetti (Archie, Pink Lemonade) 

• John P. Golden (Adventure Time) 

• Luke Horsman (2000AD) 

• Jeremy Hyler (Veefriends)

• Jim Lavery (Medal of Honor)

• Ryan Lee (Rick and Morty, Mountainhead)!

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, we’ve got variant covers by Fell Hound (S.I.R.) and Jesse Lonergan (Drome)!

If you read Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1, some of the characters in the book will seem familiar. But they’re all engaged in new adventures that standalone pretty well for newcomers.

Speaking of newcomers, they can also purchase Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1 through this campaign, giving them all 88 pages of these madcap short comics.

For me personally, Death of Comics Bookcase is the first place I showcase my ideas and team with new collaborators. It’s such a creatively free comic to work on, one that I think incentivizes going bigger and bolder than any other publication I’ve written for.

I also just think it’s an entertaining read start to finish. One of my favorite qualities of comics as a medium is how quickly stories can pivot from massively absurd to deep and substantial, and I’ve really tried to lean into that with this book.

So! If you’re able to support, please consider doing so via the Kickstarter campaign HERE!

It ends at noon Eastern on Thursday, 10/15.

Item No. 1: The Art

This month’s character commission is by one of my best pals in all of comics, Harrison Stewart!

I’ve known Harrison FOREVER, first as a comics writer, teaming with his brother, and now more recently as the artist of killer realistic-leaning portrait style art of figures ranging from Frankenstein to Edgar Allen Poe.

Harrison is also a very generous early reader of basically all my scripts (including those from Death of Comics Bookcase 2!), and could really make a future as a comics editor, if he wants it.

Anyway, all this is to say when I had to find some poor soul to draw my new character, Shark Twain, I turned to him … and he crushed it.

Check out his work below…

Shark Twain is, obviously, Mark Twain … if he was an anthropomorphic shark, and he appears in my comic Apes v. Sharks, the second chapter of which is in Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2.

I know what you’re thinking, and yes he does sometimes go by the alias Hucklebery Fin.

Harrison’s piece makes me laugh so hard. I’m glad he was game, and I’m even more thrilled at how it turned out.

Item No. 2: NYCC 2026 Recap

I’ll be straightforward with you — I’m not a fan of the gigantic comics events like San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, the latter of which I attended this weekend.

There are many many things about them I enjoy, chief among them getting to congregate with good friends as well as creators I admire and respect. So much of our time in comics is spent working at home alone, or (ugh) trying to get attention for our work via posting from our phones. The big shows are such a nice reminder that we are all real people — albeit spread across the country — who love the same niche medium. There’s true community in that.

But! To experience that, you also have to spend so much time in crowded spaces lit by fluorescent lights surrounded by slow-moving crowds seemingly bent on coughing on you. This is especially true of New York Comic Con, which is held in a much tighter (or at least that’s how it feels) space than San Diego. Plus, when you leave the show — BAM! — you’re in New York City, which as you may be aware is also quite crowded.

Comics is not a creative outlet for the feint, and so I think it’s almost too on the nose that the biggest community event of the year is also one of the most logistically unpleasant. But this is the lot we’ve chosen!

And for the most part, I really enjoyed myself this year. I’ve been going to DC Comics promotional panels at these shows for 8 years now, and the way they organize and host these is a nice microcosm of how the publisher has grown and gotten to the strongest place it has been in many many years. The Black Label panel in particular was a highlight this year, especially the one-shot they announced about O.M.A.C., written by Ho Che Anderson with art by Denys Cowan.

The other announcement from a DC panel that I enjoyed was for Absolute Justice, which is a new five-issue miniseries set in the company’s absurdly popular Absolute Universe. I like those comics as much as the next person, but really thrilled me about this was that the artist on the book is Juan Ferreyra, one of my favorite in all of comics.

Juan has an incredible eye for visual storytelling, and he regularly makes fearless use of his panel layouts and two-page spreads, doing so in bold ways I almost never see in Big 2 comics. I’m just so thrilled he’s getting a marquee title and massive spotlight.

Finally, the last panel at the show I really enjoyed was about John Cusack, you know of High Fidelity and Gross Pointe Blank fame, both of which are favorite movies of mine. Cusack has a deeply weird new graphic novel out, which he originally wrote as a movie, but that’s kind of beside the point for me.

I wanted to go hear him talk, because of how much his films have meant to me. It’s hard to understate how cool High Fidelity was to me when it came out. It was set in Chicago, and featured a guy living for his love of art, specifically art that crossed over a bit with pop culture. I loved it, and it’s not a stretch to say it’s changed my life.

Do I think his character now is admirable? Not even lose. So, it’s also been fun to have my perspective on that change as I’ve rewatched in my 20s, 30s, and most recently past 40 (gulp!).

That’s it for my brief dispatch from the show! In conclusion, here I am on the subway, going between the convention center and my home in Brooklyn, proudly wearing mid-con bags beneath my eyes.

Item No. 3: Big announcement next month

I am so sorry to end on a tease, but it’s been a hectic few weeks and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking … and some of it has resulted in a big announcement to first be made in this space next month.

I will say that it’s related to my comics journalism, and it’s not that I’m quitting comics journalism all together. But there are some changes on the horizon for 2027, which I think will be lightly bittersweet but ultimately very exciting … so stay tuned!

What’s Next?

Aside from me just announcing an announcement? Well, now that the campaign is over, I’ll be returning to the usual monthly newsletter format, where there’s less promo and much more substance in these pieces. So three cheers for that!

Finally … did I mention you can back Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2 now? I did. Okay, well better hurry up then because time is running out!

That’s it for this month’s newsletter. Cheers, be well, and please forgive any and all typos above!

-Zack Q.