That Certainly was a Year.

Looking back, and forward.

As the last few days of 2025 count down, I’ve been getting a ton of “end of the year” newsletters, which makes me feel like I should probably do one myself, so here we go.

If you’ve been following along, you know this year had a lot of ups and downs for me. I started out in radio silence, demoralized, beaten down, unsure if I even had anything left to my comics career. And angry, I was very angry. And the danger with that anger is that even by setting the intention to use it as fuel for pushing forward, there is always the possibility it will blossom into bitterness, and do more harm than good.

So far, though, that white hot anger has cooled into resolve, and a new outlook that’s so far been working for me, not holding me back. It was, as my friend Brian Level likes to say, a purifying fire, not a destructive one.

I was angry at the unfairness of this industry. But I realized that was wanting it to be something that it can never be. It just is. And so am I. And as long as I am creating stories, I am winning. And I am creating stories.

I didn’t put out a lot of work this year. There was the Chapo Trap House Anthology from Bad Egg Publishing, and a story in Venom: Black White and Blood #4 from Marvel. It’s maybe been the first year in 10 that I haven’t had a new original series out, which is weird, to be honest. That’s like 30 pages of content published, when a typical year for me breaks 100 easily.

And yet, it wasn’t a bad year.

For one, it’s not like I wasn’t working. It’s more that most of what I was working on isn’t going to hit until next year.

But I think the main thing I took away from it was just learning to open up a little.

It started with sharing my frustration, but grew from there into sharing positive things as well, and I also feel like it’s led to me opening up a little more both in my work and about my work, and I can honestly say I’m writing at a higher level than I ever have before, on projects that I am more confident about than anything I have ever put on paper.

Some of them are already in progress, some are still looking for a home. Some will be out in 2026, some in 2027. Some may never see the light of day! I don’t know. But I do know that they are some of the deepest, most personal things I’ve ever written, without sacrificing the things I love about creating stories in comics - the intricate, wild worlds I love to build.

So looking ahead, here are the things I am very excited about coming down the line, that I’m going to be slightly vague about as they are all still yet to be announced. So I’ll just use codenames for now.

Project: Leather
When I was in my 20s, I spent some time working as a bouncer in a BDSM dungeon in NY. It was a job I found through a friend who was a professional dominatrix, and I took it as much out of curiousity as I did for money. It was a wild time in my life, and for a long time, I’ve both wanted to, and been very afraid of integrating those experiences into my writing. The desire to comes from a place of just sharing these wild experiences and perspectives - the fear comes from it being deeply personal, and unconventional. But I feel like I’ve hit on a way to incorporate those experiences into a horror story that will turn some heads - a story that takes place where our darkest desires teeter on a razors edge of consent, with madness and depravity on the other side. I’m taking a lot of care with this one, as it deals with some very intense and sensitive subject matter, and I want to do it right. So it might take a while! But things are underway.

Some early concept art from Rosi Kampe

Project: Vortex
Every now and then, a talent comes along that’s just so unique and undeniably awesome that you just know they are going to do great things. I feel very privileged that Nir Levie reached out to me over the Summer with an interest in working together, and I’m thrilled that we found a project and are creating a world that excites us both. I can best describe his work as a mix between Mobius, Tradd Moore, and Peter Chung, and holy hell do we have some cool things underway.

It’s gonna get gloriously weird.

Project: Inferno
It wouldn’t be the same for me if I wasn’t working on a project with Alex Cormack. Together, we explored the depths of history and horror in Road of Bones, Sea of Sorrows, and Breath of Shadows. We dove into high octane hijinks in Drive Like Hell, and journeyed to Jonathan Hickman’s 3W/3M universe in the Charlatan. Next, we’re going to the stars… with a high concept sci-fi exploration of colonialism, resistance, and the strength of spirit it takes to shake off the chains of empire.

Alex, getting his Dune on.

Project: Eternal
I can’t share art for this one without spoiling it, but rest assured it’s awesome. I’m reuniting with Gavin Smith, and bringing the magic we cooked with on Heartpiercer to a dream of a licensed project for both of us. Stay tuned.

Project: Styx
A banger of a pitch I’ve been working on with Giulia Lalli, that will hopefully find a home next year - otherwise we’ll be looking to bring this one to Kickstarter as well. It’s a love story set in the afterlife, with a lot of twists and turns.

Project: DaVinci
Spent the bulk of the year working on this story in one form or another, from writing scripts to reviewing the amazing art as it came in. This one is complete, and should be announced in the first couple of months of 2026, where I’ll be able to talk more freely about it, but what I can say is that it’s a tense detective story about art, AI, and murder. Coming from Mad Cave next year.

And that’s it for now. There’s actually more stuff that I’m grinding on, but is maybe a little too early to talk about. And I’m still working on getting Gutter Magic to Kickstarter for its 10th anniversary, as well!

One last thing to close out 2025 with, and that’s a big thank you to all of you who read this newsletter, and listen to me ramble on through tough times, and good ones too. It’s great to have a place I can share my thoughts on writing, comics, creativity, and everything else, and I am forever grateful for each of you that’s reached out to say you’ve found something interesting, insightful, or useful to your own journey.

I wish you all the happiest of holidays, and I’ll see you in 2026.

Thanks,
Rich