#016: From The Ashes

Life after burnout

Long time, no see!

I’m sure that’s not the first time I’ve started a newsletter like that, and I’ve come to accept that it won’t be the last. I’ve been radio silent for weeks because, for most of August, my focus was almost exclusively on keeping up my with art duties on Iron & Frost and trying to make up for all the sleep I lost from that wild working schedule I was keeping while the kids were off school! Notifications would build up on my phone and I couldn’t face replying to them most days, the newsletter felt like too much work to maintain, and I was always tired; basically, if it didn’t involve Tony Stark or my family, it wasn’t something I felt fit to deal with. I eventually realised I was completely burned out and accepted I had to let everything that wasn’t vitally important fall to the wayside and focus on getting back to normal.

Thankfully I’m coming out the other side of it and I’ve been eager to get back to the newsletter and updating you guys on everything, so let’s get to it!

SECRET COMIC BOOK PITCH

I can’t really talk much about this (mostly because I don’t want to jinx it haha) but I’m asking you to send all your good vibes and well wishes this way so that a pitch I’me submitting to Marvel might get accepted: it’s a story I’ve been mulling over for a while and when I ran it past a writer friend recently, they gave me some great pointers that really helped knock the thing into shape; we’ve since worked together on a formal pitch to Marvel and, if successful, I’d be co-writing it with said friend, and drawing. Everything about it is a dream situation, so keep your fingers crossed for me and hopefully I’ll be able to tell you all about it when I’m writing to say the book has been greenlit 🤞

IRON & FROST #2

By the time you read this I should be inking the last page of this beast of an issue and if I can wrap it up early today I’ll have turned the issue in ahead of deadline, which would be very helpful for…

COMMISSIONS

A new commission dropped in my list this past weekend (based on my Iron & Frost character designs, which I’ll share with you in another post next week) but there’s been a Blade of the Immortal piece on my list for a while, so once I turn in Iron & Frost #2, I’ll be working on that and shipping everything (including all my Iron & Frost inked pages) to my good buddy Geoff next week. The latest commission I got will be done after I wrap Iron & Frost #3 and will ship to Geoff along with those pages.

IRON & FROST #1: OCTOBER 15th

I’ve seen the colours for this issue and they look amazing: Yen Nitro joined us on this project and he’s so talkented - how he’s rendered Emma in her diamond form in particular is just beautiful. I can’t wait for you to see it!

IRON & FROST #1 SIGNING - COMIC BOOK GUYS STORE, BELFAST (Date TBC)

The lads at Comic Book Guys in Belfast are arranging an in-store signing for Iron & Frost #1 featuring both myself and cover artist Ryan Brown. I can’t wait because, not only do I love doing signings at Comic Book Guys, but this will be my first joint signing and I’m really looking forward to hanging out Ryan Brown for the evening. I’ll confirm the date when I have the details from the aforementioned comic boom guys.

IRON & FROST # 2 - NOVEMBER 12th

Check out this glimpse of some of my character designs for the series: I’ve shared the design sheets on my socials but I’ll do a dedicated Iron & Frost issue of the newsletter soon!

Well, I’ve plenty to be getting back to so I must dash! Thanks for sticking it out with me, and keep your fingers crossed for that pitch!

All the best!

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