Hello!

It's tax season and we just got our paperwork sent off to the accounting department here at JP Creative International Corp. Spent the morning going over the last few details and discrepancies between spreadsheets with Alison. SO FUN!

Which means I had to push writing this newsletter back to this afternoon. I almost gave myself permission to skip it this week, but I set a goal to do this EVERY Friday this year, so here we are.

Ok, got some cool stuff to share with you this weekend. Hope it finds you safe and sound.

Enjoy!

1) NEXT WEEK: RED SHIFT RENEGADES #1 DROPS

From the Making Comics Division

Next week the first issue of Red Shift Renegades, my self-published sci-fi comic, will be available in my online shop for download. It's digital only for now.

I was this close to launching a kickstarter for the print version of the first 3 issues which will be coming out over the next several months, but I had a change of plans and decided to postpone that kickstarter.

I have an extended explanation on the Patreon of some pretty exciting things that are happening behind the scenes with this book. You can read all of that here: LINK

Can't wait for you all to read this explosive first chapter!

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Accepting New Patrons: Patrons are getting frequent updates on the comic I'm making, including more behind the scenes stuff. They've also read the full comic in both roughs, pencils, and now inks as I finish them.

I just dropped the Red Shift Renegades title logo reveal plus a detailed breakdown of how I designed it. You don't want to miss that.

I'm also sharing other art and sketches and stuff related to other projects. It's a treasure trove of information and cool art. When I finish this comic I'll have an exclusive special edition Artist Edition PDF for patrons.

Join here: LINK​

2) The Epimeriidae Aliens

From the Flora and Fauna Unit

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I keep finding images of these little suckers popping up in Pinterest and Twitter. They're not alien life or mutated lab experiments, these are little shrimp cousins that live in oceans and lakes. One of these is from Lake Baikal, the oldest lake on earth. Creepy and cool, I do take a little comfort knowing they're very small.

To me these look like inspiration for monsters in a future comic I'll be working on.

You can read more about them here: LINK​

Or this New Scientist article: LINK​

And here's a cool paper on how one of their legs evolved into wings in insects: LINK​

3) Colliders

From the Machines Division

Photographer Luca Casonato put together a nice gallery of colliders he's photographed. I love machinery and interesting tech. Colliders are some of the wildest stuff out there. What's great about these is they're designed by engineers with the needs of project and the constraints of the technology as the motivating factor of the design. And yet there's still a distinctive beauty to them.

Eating lunch with a friend yesterday and we were talking about jets. He brought up that they look like the way they do not because we designed them that way, but because we discovered the best shape needed to get the job of flying accomplished. There's a beauty to function.

Colliders are the same way.

See the rest here: LINK​

4) March Reading List

From the Reading Desk

I made a goal this year to actually read all the comics I’ve bought but never read. And to not buy any new graphic novels. The goal was even more specific: read a book, screenplay, or graphic novel a week.

And as of earlier this month I had only read ONE.

So this month, every time I wanted to reach for my phone to check social media, the news, or messages, I reached for a comic instead.

Here's what I read:

TMNT books I, II, and III.

This is where it all started. These collect the first 10ish issues of the Turtles. I hadn't read this since I was a teenager and it was amazing to be reminded of how much these books have influenced me. It also rekindled a love for the Turtles that has been somewhat dormant, though never extinguished.

I was also reminded of how fun these books are, and the secret sauce of making good comics which I will get into another day.

Get copies here: LINK

RADIO SPACEMAN: MISSION TO NUMA 4 #1

Mike Mignola writing a story about a space skull character??? SIGN ME UP! Drawings by Greg Hinkle are so much better than they needed to be to pull this off. Can't wait for issue 2.

Get your copy at your local comic shop.

THE WITCH OF WICKERSON by Derek Laufman

I highlighted Derek back in November and talked about the kickstarter for this project and how cool I thought it was to do a smaller "graphic novellas" instead of these epic 200+ page stories. This approach directly inspired doing a shorter story for Red Shift Renegades.

Well, I finally got my copy of The Witch of Wickerson and it is just plain delightful. REally impressed with the whole thing. Laufman is a real pro.

Get your copy here: LINK​

I actually got this book on audible and listened to it while inking Red Shift Renegades. If you've seen the Social Dilemma on Netflix this book covers a lot of the same ground.

What was interesting to me was reading the author's experience of doing a three month detox from the internet by going to a secluded seaport village with out anything but some books, a laptop (with internet disabled) to write with, and a dumb phone for emergencies.

The author sets up the problem, shares loads of reports and data to back it up, then offers some solutions to fix it. Pretty well done, even though I don't entirely agree with some of his conclusions.

Get it here: LINK​

Honestly, if you feel like you've got an attention problem due to your phone or internet you're better off reading this book: LINK​

5) On Stretching

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

For many years I put off doing my comic SkyHeart because I felt like I wasn't ready to do it. I knew it would stretch my abilities, perhaps beyond what I was capable. I felt like I needed to prepare a little more, get a little better, level up a little more before I took it on.

​ James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, has this to say about doing something that stretches you.

After 15 years of putting it off I realized I might never be ready. It dawned on me that perhaps act of doing SkyHeart was going to be the thing that made me level up and be ready to do the book.

When I figured that out, it decided to just dive in and do it and boy was I grateful. It was by no means a perfect comic! However, I leveled up as an artist, it was a self publishing success with 3000 copies sold, and it boosted my confidence as a creator. There's way more to the story, but the lesson learned was I shouldn't have waited 15 years for the perfect time.

That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake

My sponsor for this newsletter is…me. It's me, because I'm not accepting sponsors for my email list, and don't plan to any time soon. Really, I'd just like people to buy stuff from my shop. If you like this newsletter, you can support it a few ways:

​Order something from the shop (Best)

​Back a kickstarter when I launch one (Also Best)

​Support me on Patreon (Second Best)

​Share the newsletter with a friend (Third best)

​Shop for art supplies using my affiliate links* (Fourth best) Mention it on social media (Fifth best)

I'd appreciate any of these when you can. Thanks!

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*Any amazon link I post is an affiliate link

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