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.