Update on August comics and Beyond...

Hello friends,

This is a post to check in with all physical and digital Monthly Minicomic Club members, to let you all know I've been putting together a comic for August, and that you can most likely expect to see them go into the mail during the week of the 25th.

I am not totally ready yet to make the public "here's the comic of the month!" post for non-members, as I am still circling around what exactly this new self-published effort is going to be.

I have long had the (possibly insane??) desire to re-write and re-draw my 2008 graphic memoir "Freddie & Me", which was my first official published work. The book I put out into the world, close to two decades ago (!!!) is extremely personal and meaningful to me, maybe not the most meaningful book I've made (I think my 2026 effort is the one where I finally figured out who I am as a cartoonist -- so excited for you all to finally see it...), but absolutely Top 3. It's long, messy, shaggy, self-indulgent, and ambitious. I love it. But, I've always wished a more polished and aggressively edited edition of it existed, especially now as I've been making books for younger readers. I think there's a version of Freddie & Me that's about half the length, tightly edited, full color, and intended for a YA audience.

My book agent has agreed with me that this would make a fine and worthy project, but the nature of publishing is such that I doubt that I'd ever have the opportunity to make it happen through traditional methods, unless suddenly I became a writer one day with a lot more heat on him than I currently have.

The other thing I have been hoping to do in the near future is a crowdfunding project. A large part of me would like to Kickstart a nicely curated collection of all the different cartoon essays and diary comics I've been making the past few years. Another part of me would like to do this new version of Freddie & Me. Both projects are ones that would mean a great deal to me personally, but wouldn't necessarily have the mass-appeal needed for me to make them happen any other way.

I'm still putting the finishing touches on my new graphic novel (something I've been thinking I've been doing for about six months now, but I swear, it's almost there...) and once it's done, I am thinking maybe I could launch my crowdfund. I'm not 100% sure about it, but leaning in that direction.

Anyway, this is a long rambly way of saying, the August comic will feature a rewritten and reimagined piece of what could be a new edition of F&M. I'm kind of thinking of it as a bit of a proof of concept kind of a thing.

I will have more details to share about what I'm putting together soon, but again, I just wanted to check in to let you know something is in the works. I look forward to posting further updates.

Thanks as always for the support! I really appreciate it and do not take it for granted.

Your pal,

Mike