Nix Update! February 17 2025

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH NIX COMICS?

Ready for an interruption of the incessant doom scroll? Mine if not yours .Anxiety over the world is making my mental state is precarious. I’m sure I’m not the first artist to evoke the band playing on the titanic as an inspiration for continued work this week, but I here I go. Better to queue up my version of “Nearer My God To Thee” than to watch as the privileged few float away in the limited number of lifeboats.

MORE UNFINISHED WRAP UP: It was a great feeling to finally get the three Nix TPBs done last year. (A few copies of the first print run still available right ‘chere. Second print run probably coming in time for SPACE) I had been planning to release those in 2021 for a 10 year anniversary celebration!  My shitty employment situation combined with the Covid-19 lockdown through that idea for a loop but I finally got the project done. Now I need to finish up the projects that were delayed since then!

I’m most actively working on completing three record related projects: Tales from the Crate #s  8 & 9 and Sketchbook Picture Sleeves Volume 3.

Tales from the Crate: Way back in 2022, Kate and I had to abort a trip to Minneapolis because the jenky discount airline we chose kept delaying our flight. To the tune of a dozen or so delay notifications spaced out over two days. Eventually we decided to cut our losses and went down to Cincinnati for a couple days instead.  That involved two great record store trips: The old stand by, Shake It Records and the new-to-me store Torn Light. Those trips will be the subject of the next two issues of my record collecting zine Tales from the Crate. (For those of you are new to Nix Comics pubs, for each issue of TFC, I go into a record store or event with a limited budget and then talk about each record I buy.)  The text for both issues is complete, but I need to finish some artistic touches and laying the issues out. 

Sketchbook Picture Sleeves: One of my ongoing projects is “Sketchbook Picture Sleeves” wherein I create an original cartoon to pair with an inexpensive 7” record that either never had a picture sleeve or lost it’s original sleeve somewhere along the line. I then sell them for $15 a pop. When I get 120 or so of the picture sleeves done, I create a small limited run artbook. It’s that time! At this point I actually have more like 128, including some that I had forgotten to scan before selling where the new owners were nice enough to help me out!  Putting the book together involves prepping each picture sleeve for print, which I’m in the process of doing alphabetically by artist… On the Ms as of this writing.

Makin' the Sketchbook Pic Sleeves look nice!

Watch for these new pubs to be available for pre-order on this site soon. Ideally I would like to also have these available for SPACE. Limited quantities of the back issues are available here.

HOW ABOUT SOME NEW STUFF, MAN!Yeah Yeah Yeah… I’ve been working on a thing called “Flipside of Love” A Rock and Roll Romance Comic.

One of the most frequent questions I get from long haul Nix Fans is whether or not I will do anymore full color comics with multiple contributors, ala Nix Comics Quarterly. I’ve always said yes, but its been hard to organize. Money stuff mostly. (Y’all know, historically, I’ve ended up like $2K in the hole for each issue, right? I do them for love when and how I can.) So these projects need to be a labor of love…  A cliche which I’ve taken to heart with “Flipside of Love” 

Draft Design. Image swiped from an old public domain comic.

I’m still working out the specifics, but so far the basic idea is: An anthology of romance comics based on a notable rock single. Each story will have the narrator and perspective flipped. For instance, I’m writing a story inspired by the Shangri-Las “Leader of the Pack” told from the perspective of Jimmy as his life is flashing before his eyes as he tumbles to his doom. Anyways: Flipside of Love is a thing. I just need to make the money work on some level and invite some friends to take part.