Spring update
Where I talk about Growing Up Enchanted, Invasion, the Diamond news, and present more pages from Muse's Motel
It’s been a busy 2025 so far. Outside comics anyway. So I apologize for the long gap between newsletter updates. There hasn’t been a ton of news to share but I have some now, along with some time to actually share it, so let’s get to it.
Growing Up Enchanted Book 2 ready to go
I reviewed the Markosia proofs to Growing Up Enchanted Book 2 last week. And they’re approved and ready to go! This volume will be in colour and in hardback like the last reissued volume was. I can’t wait to get a physical copy in my hands. Release date should be sometime in June or July but will confirm when I get the actual date.
Cover is below (along with part of the back cover)…and also, I should note that this volume will include an unproduced script of a short story Alex and I were planning to do as a follow up to book 2. I had originally planned 4 to 6 books to tell Olianna’s full story and this ghost story short was the introductory return that would get us back to telling the rest of her story. We never did get there so I thought why not include the script for those interested in seeing something new in Olianna’s world.
Invasion has invaded book shops…
Another Marcello Bondi offering edited by me and published by Markosia was just released a couple of weeks back. Here’s the teaser:
1492…That was the year Christopher Columbus discovered America.
But what would have happened if the explorer had never returned and, instead of him, it had been the Aztecs who arrived in Europe in the 16th Century with a highly organized military fleet?
Invasion: The Lion and the Snake is by Luca Barbieri & Marcello Bondi and illustrated by Gino Vercelli.
Diamonds turning to coal?
The Diamond Distribution bankruptcy news earlier this year rocked the comics industry, at least on the side of smaller presses and independent comic publishers still reliant on Diamond shipping their books to comic stores. This doesn’t affect Marvel or DC or any of the huge comic and book publishers. They have long since moved to other distributors and some focus much more on book stores and libraries than comic shops. Still, hate to see this instability for the smaller press and creatives/readers connected or dependent on these companies. I know this bankruptcy has affected companies like Dominion Jack publisher, AP, who are focusing on their own books now rather than creator-owned series they supported until more clarity comes from the impacts of this news. Hopefully, the just-announced Alliance Entertainment purchase of Diamond will stabilize that market going forward.
For me, while I continue to focus on pitching kids book publishers or other mid-market comic publishers, this does pose a challenge for finding homes for superhero books like Dominion Jack. Marvel and DC have that market covered and no one else is interested in diving in, unless it’s crowd-funded. So I will be looking at news from Alliance to see where they go from here after their purchase and how that affects the plans of some of these Diamond-dependent comic companies.
Muse’s Motel: Pages 20 - 23
And we end this newsletter with the continuation of story pages from Muse’s Motel and its first issue. Including page 18-19 to remind everyone where we left off…
Until next time…
😉