A Week in Writing #623 - Report From the Front: San Diego Comic-Con 2026

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

As promised, this is coming to you a day late. We did arrive back yesterday from San Diego Comic-Con, but I wasn't really at my best to tell you everything or really anything.

While I did attend several panels, at least one a day, several of them didn't live up to their titles nor did they really apply to what I'm trying to do. You go into them, hoping to be inspired by the muses, but many tines you only come away with the bios of the muses instead.

The first one I attended was:

How to Get Press Coverage - July 22
Moderator: Rik Offenberger
Alexander Raymon
Francis Sky
Ed Catto
Chris Squire
Todd Spear

I've been to this panel for several years, but it doesn't hurt to get a refresher every year.

A press release for an issue needs to include a cover, what it is about, and when is it coming out. But you need to sell the story of how you got there.

They also dealt with getting your book in retail stores, so in that case you're first marketing to the retailer and then marketing to the consumer. (Note: The how you do that is not addressed.)

They also suggested a way to get publicity is to do an event for charity or a public library and try to get the local press interested in it. If you can get news coverage, like your local network affiliate, you can use that clip in other ways down the line.

It was also said that when you table at a comic convention, you need to show passion for your product. One way to do that is to stand up at the table the whole time. That way you can engage with people.

Build Your Own World and Intellectual Property - July 23

Moderator: Lorran Garrison

Britton Payne

Tara Harrison Avery

Mark Nazal

Quinn McGowan

John Jennings

This, I'm sorry to say, was the least useful of the panels. Again, it wasn't a how-to discussion but rather the personalities and whom they were trying to represent with their creations. There are a lot of niche markets in comic books and the panel represented those. I was hoping to learn how to build a world rather than knowing what others had built.

Pitching Animation in 2026: What Buyers Want Now - July 24

Moderator: Sam Goff

Malia Dawkins-Jennings

Patrick Stou

Bill Drasta

David Trumble

John Rauschelbach 

Since Sam Goff is a talent manager, it should come as no surprise that the panelists were her clients.

They did emphasis that if you're not in the animation business, you're going to need at least one of the following to get into to pitch:

An agent

An Entertainment Attorney

Manager

This was a fast-paced panel using slides that they informed us we should take photos of, so it was hard to do that and take notes, so I'm going to show photos. Apologies for being over to the side of the screen and for the woman's hairdo being in some of the photos, but I hope these will help.

These are the slides from one pitch deck presented:

There will be two distinct pitchdecks. One that you will use for the demo and one to leave behind. They're similar, but the leave behind one should include contact information.

Also, while the presenters were good, they never said if any of the projects they presented were picked up.

The Future of Kickstarter Comics - July 25

Moderator: Chris Hacker

Sean Edgar

Jeff Smith

Eric Powell

John Layman

Rob Guillory

Natalie Andrewson

A bit of a misnomer, as this was not the future of comics on Kickstarter, but rather a panel of established artists and creators discussing their next projects or how they've used Kickstarter in the past. Sean Edgar is noteworthy as he is the new director of comics and collectibles at Kickstarter. Very entertaining but not very informative on what is happening next on the platform.

The Dos and Don'ts to Kickstart Your First Comic - July 26 

Moderator: Barbra Dillon

Shannon Bailey

Ash Troub

Kat Calamia and Phil Falco

Sean Edgar

Even though I have done two successful Kickstarters, I'm no expert, so I was hoping to learn here. However, these are not first-timers at this and since Shannon and Ash represent major brands, Todd McFarlane and Boom!, respectively, they aren't coming at this proces as unknowns. Kat and Phil are very savy at Kickstarters, doing, at their own admission, 2 to 3 a month, however, they have also garnered a niche market with LGBTQ works.

To be transparent, we have had Kat on our podcast, backed one of their Kickstarters and even hired her to advise on our second one with Arthmeric. Still, I'm a little off put by their constant Kickstarters, which all, to their credit, seem to be very successful. I'm just not into Kickstarters as a way of life.

Still, their advise would mean slightly more than the others, since they are in the same field as Powers Squared., indie comics. They were high on women-led stories and horror, two things our book is not about.

General advice:

Don't Over Promise and Under Deliver

Simplify Your Page

Use Graphics to Know What They're Getting

Have Preview Pages and Covers

Make Sure Your Thumbnail is Good (You can also change it during the Kickstarter)

Add a video to your Kickstarter, 1-2 minutes. (According to Edgar, Kickstarters do better with one)

Add a pre-launch page 2 weeks to a month ahead. The length of time varies, but you don't want to have one for six months, as it will go stale.

Don't start one around Christmas or January.

According to Edgar, October is "On Fire"

Launch early in the week: Monday or Tuesday, and early in the morning, but not midnight

You can add add-ons and stretch goals as the project moves forward.

On the personal side, we were able to meet our fourth colorist in person for the first time ever. Ninakupenda Gaillard was an Eisner Award nominee for Best Coloring for Chickenpox written by Remy Lai (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers). We're very proud to have been her starting point in professional coloring.

Powers Squared creators, Trevor, Paul and David Hankins meet Eisner-nominated
and former Powers Squared colorist Nina Gaillard at SDCC 2026.

Speaking of Powers Squared colorists, our current and longtime one, Julia Canon, took over our podcast for the week, and on Friday did a two+ hours presentation on her techniques. You can watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days, listen to it here or watch it on our YouTube channel any time after Wednesday at 2:30 pm. Many thanks to her. 

Speaking of On the Air with Powers Squared, we tried to line up some new guests while in San Diego, but until they're confirmed, we won't divulge names. No reason to needlessly get your or our hopes up.

Oddly enough, while SDCC didn't grant us a table, we did manage to sell two trades, thanks to the San Diego Comic Fest table in the mezzanine. At the News Coverage panel, a representative from the Comic Fest asked if anyone had books they wanted to present. I had taken our four trades (3 Powers Squared and 1 The Blade of Miracles) with me and let them use them. When I went back up to take a photo, two of them were gone, even though it wasn't supposed to be a sales opportunity.

There were four trades on the table when I left, but only two when I returned.

On a personal note, I walked over the five days, including Preview Night, 82,537 steps (36.88 miles) and burned 18,255 calories.

Work continued without us on the new issue of Powers Squared, as our artist submitted two new pages (19 and 20) for review.

I also did some writing on a possible script for our spinoff story, Billy and Raven. It needs more work, but I got it from concept to 20 pages.

Even though we were out of town, there was a new Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, John Wick: Chapter 4 written by Paul, continuing our summertime look at the franchise. No new review from me this week.

This next week, I need to work on the newsletter and questions for our next guest on the podcast.

That about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #622 - Prepping for SDCC

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

San Diego Comic-Con is next week and there are a lot of preparations that have to be made before going; planning out panels, exclusives and the like. I will admit I'm not a big participant in the prep for the event, as my wife and two sons really have their pulses on what's going on. I do appreciate their efforts. I chime in with what panels I'd like to attend, but I'm not really big on autographs or exclusives. There are several panels I'd like to attend, but I also want to walk the floor, and, dare I say it, attend Hall H for the first time in 20 cons.

With the panels I attend, I'll be sure to write something up here next week, though, please be kind, that might not appear until Monday. You are forewarned.

A point of interest, is that our fourth colorist on Powers Squared, Nina Gaillard, will be at SDCC and is nominated for an Eisner Award. We hope to actually meet her for the first time in person and we, of course, hope she wins.

I took it on myself to do a better job cataloging the podcasts. Several are gone and some remain only in audio format, but I've finished cataloging all available 492 podcasts and videos, including our most recent one, OAPS #360 - "SDCC 2026 Prep + Unboxing", sort of keeping with the theme of Con prep mentioned above. If you watch our raw podcasts on Twitch, a couple of weeks ago, we attempted to unbox SRCC 70th Anniversary t-shirts, only to find that we received the wrong order. That was rectified, but we had other reasons for waiting, which I won't get into here. However, the t-shirts were correct and we talked about the new trades, one each for Powers Squared and for The Blade of Miracles. You can still watch it on twitch.tv for the next few days, listen to it here (where you can also find the other platforms it's on), or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel after 2:30 pm on Wednesday.

Julia Canon, our colorist turned artist turned colorist, will be hosting the podcast in our absence, but again there will be delays in getting the video to audio, which will have to wait for our return next week. Catch her on our twitch channel next Friday at 6 pm.

I think I'm finally done with Blackmail, though I won't be doing anything with it until Fall. I've learned that many agents take the Summer off or very slowly, so I won't start the query drudge until then.

I also worked on a couple of outlines for possible stories for Billy and Raven, characters we spun out last year into their own book this year, "Life on the Road".

No new review from my this week, sorry to say. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Today, we published Trevor's review for Descendants: Wicked Wonderland.

Next week, I'll have to start working on the next newsletter, and work on questions for our next guest on the podcast, creator Demi Naito, who will be on August 7.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #621 - Probably Not Tabling at SDCC

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

San Diego Comic-Con is a little over a week away, and even though I have tried to be ready to come off the waitlist to table at the show a second year, I'm really doubting, at this point, that we're going to get the call. I do feel a bit of disappointment at not being chosen, but I hear that it happens to everyone. It's just I'd like to know what we could do to increase our profile and get selected outright rather than playing the waiting game.

We're still going and leaving on Tuesday, even though we're not setting up. Last year, we had a good time prior to Preview Night and wanted to give it another go. Besides, hotel rooms are relatively cheap on Tuesday night before nearly doubling the next day. That all said, in two weeks, there will most likely be a delay in this blog post. I do plan to attend various panels and will report on them, like I always do.

Work continues on issue #30 of Powers Squared, "Aroma Therapy" with the artist working on the last few pages of the issue. That issue should come out next year. I also set up a page on our website for Issue #28, "Agnes Wreckage, Part 1" which we're hoping to drop in August. It's very blank at the moment, with more to come.

I've written two reviews this week. On Wednesday, we went to a Fathom screening of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. Even though I've reviewed the film once, seeing it on a big screen with an audience not made up of film students was a new experience and brought a different appreciation for the film. I also just finished one for Young and Innocent, a 1937 Hitchcock film, which I saw on the little screen at home. As always, not sure when those will see the light of day.

However, my review of Moana was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. However, this was the 1926 "documentary", not the latest Disney live-action/animated remake of an animated film. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's for Deltarune Chapter 5.

I don't know how you felt about PlayStation's recent announcement that in 2028, they would no longer be producing physical discs for their videogames, but that didn't sit well with us, so our Friday On the Air with Powers Squared podcast was "The Benefits of Physical Media." You can watch it for the next few days on our Twitch channel, listen to it now here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT and watch it on our YouTube channel.

Still working on the ending for Blackmail. I did take a swing but I wasn't happy with it. I'll work more on it this coming week.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #620 - Happy 5th!

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing and that you had a happy and safe 4th.

With the 250th birthday of America upon us, we decided to spend our podcast on Friday talking with Lucas Scheffel, a comic book creator from Australia, who also happens to have a Master's Degree in American History. Lucas was making his 12th appearance on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. We covered a lot of topics and it's always fun to have him on. You can watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days, listen to it now, or watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PDT.

The big goal for the week was the newsletter, which we finished and sent this morning. We may not have all the subscribers we'd like but we try to be consistent. The newsletter covers all things Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles. I've given up asking you to join the mailing list, so you're left on the outside regarding The Hound Dogs' Howl.

Work continues on the next issue of Powers Squared. The first eight are colored and lettered and the next six have been drawn with work on pages 15 and 16 this week. But the issue won't be coming out until next year.

No word from SDCC about tabling. I did reach out to them and ask if I could find out where we were on the waitlist. They did answer back but, of course, didn't answer my question in the least: "Thank you for reaching out and letting us know you'll be able to take any last minute openings. If we have something for you, we'll contact you." Do they work for agents, as that sounds like a form letter, I may be reading it wrong, but I'm not confident at this point. Still, I feel like I have to be ready. I've reached out to our printer about getting books ready, but we're not getting the proofs until Monday, so a big order, just in case. Got to cover my bases.

No new review from me this week. Things sort of got away from us this weekend. Saturday night we were cooking out and making smores, so a movie wasn't really in the cards, though we sort of had A Hard Day's Night on; what's more patriotic than that? The Wednesday Game Day review on Trophy Unlocked, was Paul's review of 007 First Light. The Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of John Wick: Chapter 2. And we had a surprise Sunday morning review of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, also written by Trevor.

I did get a chance to work on Blackmail and I'm sort of happy to say I'm almost done; two more chapters to go. I'm at 88,612 words. I'll be finishing it this week. Sorry to see it end in a way.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #619 - Feeling Good for a Change

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

I had a very nice surprise on Saturday, which I'd like to share. A little over a year ago, we left six copies of our then two trades with Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood. We were supposed to go back in six months to see how things went. As they say, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans, going back seemed to be put off and off and off. When I ran into Ryan, the owner, at WonderCon this spring, I apologized but he seemed to take it in stride. But we finally planned on going and that became one of the things we did on Saturday; wrote it on the calendar and everything.

To be honest, I expected to come away with 12 copies of the books, but to my surprise, they had sold 4 of each and kept the other four to sell them as well. I know there are books out there by indie publishers that sell that many in an afternoon at a con, but for me and Powers Squared, this was a big deal. So, I left the shop feeling good with more money in my pocket than I had going in.

While we're on the subject of Powers Squared, our artist is now working on page 15 of the next issue and the colorist has finished the first 8 pages, so things are coming togther.

Still waiting to hear if we're going to be called off the bench again for San Diego Comic Con. I'm not getting a good feeling about that, so we might not be tabling there this year. We are, and pardon me if I've mentioned this before, going to be Guests at L.A. Comic Con in October, so things aren't so bad, I guess.

I did work some on Blackmail this past week, but it's been a little slower than I expected. I've rewritten bits and pieces of the story leading up to the third act, so to speak, of the story. The word count is now at 88,460, as I've been taking away as much as I've been adding. I'm not going to promise a date when I'll be done, as there will be other things, no doubt that will come up, or have to be done this next week.

Our podcast this week, "OAPS #357 - DesignerCon 2026 (Pasadena)", was recapping our recent experience at DesignerCon last weekend. You never waste an experience when you do a podcast. You can watch now on our twitch channel for the next few days, listen to it here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel.

Next Friday will be somewhat momentous, as it will be the eve of the United States' 250th anniversary. We're not a political podcast, but wanted to not let such a memorable anniversary go by without comment, so we've invited Lucas Scheffel (Angry Fred, Gary the Gorilla, Ned Kelly: First Blood) to be our guest, as he was an American History major in college.

I did write a review today for Supergirl, which we watched in a theater this morning. I think you'll have to wait until tomorrow to know what I thought about it. Otherwise, Trophy Unlocked is starting a summer of John Wick reviews, beginning with Trevor's review of the first film, John Wick. There will be other reviews, but we had a backlog of those films, so stayed tuned.

This coming week, will be more about the monthly newsletter than anything else. The Hound Dogs' Howl comes out once a month on the first Sunday of the month, so if you want to get your own copy, sign up. It's FREE!

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #618 - Tell Me If This Has Happened to You

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And Happy Father's Day!

We were going to do a very different podcast than we ended up doing. The idea was to talk about the 70th anniversary of San Romero Community College, the fake college where Powers Squared is based. The plan was to do an unboxing of the t-shirts I had ordered to celebrate, and, hopefully encourage someone to buy when they went online. Instead, we ended up talking about Toy Story 5 as well as the entire franchise.

The pivot came when we unboxed the shirts and discovered we got the wrong ones. Instead of the 70th anniversary shirts, we got the regular shirts. To complete the tale, I had also ordered one for the artist who designed them and she received hers earlier than we were going to do the podcast. She said they looked good, so I thought we were good to go. Turns out, I had inadvertantly ordered her the old t-shirt and she was tired when she looked at it, and didn't notice the error. The supplier is supposed to make good on ours, so hopefully that'll come quickly. And, yes, I ordered the artist the correct one this time. My guess is someone completed her order and then just continued with ours not noticing they were different items.

If you're interested, you can listen to the podcast here, and/or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared).

Speaking of Toy Story 5, I wrote the review, which came out today on Trophy Unlocked. This was a culmination of Toy Story related reviews, including the Wednesday Game Day review of Toy Story 3 (Game) by Trevor, and his second opinion review of Toy Story 4, which was the Saturday Morning Review on the blog.

I did mention last week that I was going to Designer-Con, known as D-Con on Saturday in Pasadena. It was my first time to attend. Even though we had weekend passes, it was pretty easy to do it all in one afternoon. It's more like LightBox than say Comic-Con. A lot of creatives showing their wares. We were able to make contact with someone we would like to have on the podcast, and see artists we were familiar with, but overall, we had a good time. No panels to attend, but still a lot of walking.

Work continues on the next issues of Powers Squared, though we sort of working on the same page for a week now. I think it'll get sorted out, but it really comes down to consistency of how a room looks now to how it's looked in previous issues.

I did work, and I'm still working on Blackmail. I'm still going through the last few chapters, currently making minor changes. It's currently 88,467 words, if you're still counting.

This coming week, we're planning to go to Golden Apple and pick up the trades that didn't sell. We were supposed to go back about six months ago, but Saturdays are hard to plan, so we're planning to go next Saturday. Hopefully, some sold, but otherwise, we can reuse them.

Still no word about SDCC, but I'm still trying to get ready in case it happens. We're hopefully, readying possible trades of both Powers Squared  and The Blade of Miracles. We got proofs back yesterday and made some minor changes, so hopefully, they'll look better.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back her next week.

A Week in Writing #617 - So, I Lied

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

I know I said last week that I would be working on Blackmail this week, but I didn't. Instead, I continued to work on the new story, untitled at this juncture. It's been a combination of editing what I had previously written as well as some new bits to tie it together. I do plan to get back to Blackmail, but this one sort of drew me in. In this one, he's hired to find a girl that supposedly ran away from home the summer before her senior year at high school. The twist is that it was 15 years ago. Also, at this point, J.D., my main character, is now a father by his wife, so I get to mix that into the story as well. At this stage, I'm 17,771 words in, compared to the 20,546 words I had on the first draft and there is only one more chapter from the previous version, then I will get back to Blackmail and finish that up.

Our podcast this week was our 24th Comic Book Club. This time it was my choice, usually I let my turn pass but I had become aware of what was supposed to be one of the first graphic novels, It Rhymes with Lust written by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller (under the pseudonym "Drake Waller"), with art by Matt Baker and inks by Ray Osrin. Besides the three of us, Rachel Wells and Julia Canon were also there to give their opinions. The book dates from 1950, and is influenced by film noir. You can watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days but there may be audio issues. You're better off listening to it here or waiting until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel.

I'm sort of working for a review of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929), though sometimes watching a movie on Saturday night can be a dicey endeavor. And, yes, I dozed during the watching, so I'm rewatching those parts I missed. Being more awake has made me enjoy it more, but I won't be starting a review until I've seen it all. Trophy Unlocked isn't dependent on me for reviews and there were three this past week, starting with Tuesday's review of The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, written by Paul. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's review of River City Girls 2; and the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's of Toy Story 3: it is his blog after all.

Waiting for a second proof of the third Trade for Powers Squared and a first for Trevor's for The Blade of Miracles. Trying to get ready in case we're called off the bench for San Diego Comic-Con. We were last year, so you never know. I just don't want to be caught flat-footed again. We managed to scramble to get everything ready with three weeks notice but the stars sort of aligned for some of that to happen, and I don't want to count on that coming together again.

Work continues on issue #30 of Powers Squared. Our artist is currently working on page 14 and our colorist is working on the first 8 pages. The next issue to come out would #28, "Agnes, Wreckage", Part 1 and I think we're probably looking at August for that to come out. It's going to be an interesting story arc, as two different artists will have drawn the two issues.

So next week, I should get back to Blackmail and finish my review of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Next weekend, we're attending DesignerCon in Pasadena. I've never attended it before, so it will be new, and hopefully exciting. I'll be writing about it after.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.