Want to see the cover of The After Death Book Two?

Some quick housecleaning to start us off. Every now and then my newsletter distributor will glitch and use the same subject line or newsletter heading from the previous newsletter. It's a little thing, but it drives me crazy and I can imagine it might drive some of you crazy or at least be a little confusing. Apologies. I'm...not really sure how to fix it. And there's really no pattern as to when it might happen so I'm just stuck with, oh well.

Okay, okay, let's get to the real reason everyone's here: Book Two's Cover REVEAL!

Notes: I'm very happy with the way this cover turned out although it did come with a few growing pains. My first draft had much less "flair" on the walls and when I showed it to my wife and editor Rhea she was pretty emphatic that it needed so much more. And although I hate being wrong and I hate taking criticism and everything I do is perfect the first time always, I took it back to the drawing board-literally-and erased most of what I had penciled and added and then added some more. As usual the results were much better than what I had originally drawn out resulting in my pouting like the man-child that I am for days until I finally had to suck it up and ink the thing meaning there definitely was no turning back. The moral of the story is always listen to your wives because they're pretty much right all the time. I mean, just look at this cover.

This cover is also a sort of kick-start (no pun intended) to prepping for the launch of the actual Kickstarter for Book Two. I'm in talks with a few printers at the moment as well as planning out pledge levels and crunching numbers to make sure I can get the funding I need to get book two made! I'm hoping to be able to launch on the July 1st, but I'll have a better idea of the time frame after I get some actual numbers in front of me. If not the 1st, it'll definitely be sometime in July, hopefully early July. Trust me, I'll let everyone know!

This week marks the end of week two of Summerween: my month-long lead up to June 22nd, marking the official day of Summerween and the beginning of summer proper! I do think the official first day of summer happens on June 20th this year, June 22nd being when Gravity Falls celebrates Summerween, so I'm sticking with it. For those who don't know I'm celebrating the holiday over on Patreon with a graphic novel book club, a Spotify playlist, illustrations along with IRL adventures. This week we finished reading Lumberjanes Vol. 1 which I wrote up a review of here. Even though the party's over on Patreon, all things Summerween themed are free. Nothing's behind a paywall or requires a subscription. So, feel free to join us at anytime and soak up all the Summerween vibes.

I did a little bit of creative writing (it's been ages) to accompany the illustration below. It's a quick read.

Even more thoughts on social media

I feel like so many of my conversations these day revolve around not only social media but just living a life that always seems to be connected to the internet in some way, shape, or form. What felt like a new and exciting way of life is growing old, irksome and I find myself wondering about ways to unplug. In a conversation with Rhea, she had said sometimes she just wants to completely disappear from life online. I often feel the same. But as soon as that thought comes to mind I then wonder how many people would even know of The After Death if it wasn't for Instagram and the power that social media had. It's an unsettling spot to be in, but I think a lot of creatives are finding themselves exactly where I'm at. I also wish I was smarter than I am, and could be a thought leader when it comes to examining this problem from the outside in order to find workarounds or alternative ways to reach people, to share art and talk comics. All of this, swimming around in my brain all the time, leads me to this...

What's Making Me Happy This Week

• What's making me happy this week is this Substack I discovered all about navigating the messy waters of digital life/real life and not trying to find a balance but a better way forward. The Substack is called Social Media Escape Club and it's head up by Seth Werkheiser. I have yet to do a deep dive into his substack, or to really get into the ideas he's presenting, but just reading this initial write-up about Instagram, social media, and finding a better way got me to immediately subscribe to his newsletter. Check out the article for yourself here. Here's a few quotes to get you started:

"Social media told us that we’d reach all these people, and for a moment in time, this was true. Every casino has to pay out, or else no one would visit and play. The possibility that we might win keeps us coming back.

But when the casinos puts multiple obstacles in your way before you even get into the building, it’s time to find another game to play."

"There’s no one app, service, or medium that will save us all, but we can make this work together (because we’ve been doing it long before the techbros showed up)."

• Sharon McMahon has recently launched a Substack as well called the Preamble. Not that I get into politics at all here in this newsletter, but when it does come to political and adjacent news, I don't trust anyone on the internet...except Sharon. And I've really been digging her newsletter. It gives me hope that we're not all heading towards a self-inflicted apocalypse before, you know, the zombies are able to show up and make it a proper end-of-the-world scenario the way it should be.

Speaking of the end of the world, you have reached the end of this newsletter. As always, thanks for being here, thanks for reading, I appreciate everyone who still clicks on that email notification and takes a little time to stay connected with me. I hope everyone has a great week next week and I'll be back here again next weekend. Talk then! 

~b

If you enjoy this newsletter and want to help support it and my artwork consider hitting one of those buttons below. They're all free to peruse but becoming a member on Patreon or a paid Substack subscriber are the best ways to help me pay some bills. If you don't want a long term commitment, consider checking out my Etsy shop. Or, lastly, follow me over on Instagram. Thanks for reading!