“Fearless, Unfiltered Stories for Those Who Dare to Indulge”

Our new mantra.

I couldn’t think of a better one to declare as we sail headlong into the choppy comic book seas of 2025. Not only does “fearless and unfiltered” embrace the overall vibe of the entire DD library of recent years, but it reflects my goals to be even more transparent and divulging of events behind the scenes with our fan community.

And the focus continues to be high concept action, supernatural, and sci-fi comics that inspire and entertain. The unedited full length tagline reads, “Fearless, unfiltered, inspiring stories for those who dare to imagine and indulge” but that’s hard to roll off the tongue (or squeeze onto every ad).

Choppy Waters

2024 saw a ton of disruption in the comic industry on a macro level, but also in my individual micro office life - in the form of lots and lots of moving-related disruption. Moving so… many… things (spoiler alert - most “things” = comic boxes 💪🏼). After several years and three lackluster experiences with third party inventory fulfillment providers, I made the call to bring everything back in house. That meant getting merciless about liquidating or pulping several pallets full of books 🥲, politely but persistently leaning on peers and former partners to take ownership of any of their books we had been holding, and lastly, because we’re beholden to keep some stock, to ship more than ten five-foot tall pallets (kinda like giant redwood tree stumps) to our former studio! As the only person in the company who really knows what everything is from over the years, I had to handle a lot of that myself. All stuff that’s necessary but boy does it really pull you away from writing and drawing new comics.

But fast forward to today and I finally find myself in the perfect set-up of having inventory and the studio separated, but under the same roof. And now, ironically, we’re being asked to start helping others fulfill their projects.

Comics I’m Working On

Mercy Sparx: Daddy Issues #1 😈 
Script, pencil thumbnails, and 6 pages of inks are done! (artist news coming soon)
I’ve overseen the creation of six new covers for this one as well - just waiting on colors for two more to be completed! Wait until you see these - all bangers!

Circuits, Seduction, Revenge #1 🤖 
I’m currently editing and managing Antonio Baldari’s progress on the first issue with Greg + Fake right behind him on colors. Baldari did have another gig to wrap up in between our campaign launch and now, but should have some new updates for us to tease soon. And I’m starting on the script for issue #2 soon!

Breaking Into Comics: No More Rules 🦸‍♂️
Not a comic book, but roughly 13,000 words all about comics, and everything going on today that makes it more confusing than ever for people trying to break in. It felt so good to finish this, and i’m happy with how it came out. Here’s hoping it helps people (and also it feels good to get this off my plate 😄 )
In fact, if you’d like a sneak peek - check out the first 10 pages here!

Projects Currently fulfilling:
Mercy Sparx: The Big Cover-Up
Club Nephilm (a small amount of straggler orders)

Hack/Slash vol. 5 - not a Devil’s Due title, but we oversee these campaigns for creator Tim Seeley, and have about six hundred of these giant tomes to pack this month - led by DD Fulfillment Czar Jenn Chun and our new crew of warehouse demons. Speaking of Hack/Slash, DD Assistant Publisher and Lady Paramount of Crowdfunding Kit Caogas is putting the final touches on the surveys for the next Hack/Slash campaign surveys - the stunning oversize 11 × 17 art books!

Projects at the Printer:
Mercy Sparx: Sweet 16 (issue #0-1 re-release)
Breaking Into Comics: No More Rules
The yFu
How to Self-Publish Comics: Not Just How to Create Them (reprint)

Comic Shop Updates: MAJOR News - Diamond Distributor Bankruptcy

The bankruptcy of our distributor, Diamond, has us holding back on shipping these pre-orders while we lock up some of our other distribution options, but both books are literally sitting with the printers, ready for them to hit the presses when we say “go.” That should be next Monday! Fingers crossed we get paid for those 👀 🤞 💸

- Mercy Sparx: Sweet 16 (issue #0-1 re-release)
- Breaking Into Comics: No More Rules

Other Fun Stuff

One of the most fun things about running crowdfunding campaigns is all of the cool merch it allows you to make at very low quantities. This week a couple of really fun items came in:

And speaking of fun, it’s time for me to go to bed!

I have stuff to move around tomorrow morning.

Thanks again for “tuning in.” Until next time, sinners ✌️ 😈 ✌️

• Josh Blaylock