Hope you find something very very soon, my friend!
Writer, artist, comic book creator. DC's Misfits of Magic, The October Girl (Book One coming October 2025 from Mad Cave/Maverick), Amelia Shadows, and others. Literary agent: Moe Ferrara at TriadaUS.
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Hope you find something very very soon, my friend!
This is absolutely heartbreaking news.
You ARE soooooooooo awesome!!! And probably younger than me. I know because I get nervous if I don't show up to the airport at least TWO hours early. And I probably leave the house half an hour before I need to, just in case traffic is bad.
All my questions would be along the lines of "Why are you and your sister so awesome?!" so I'll just wish you a safe and quick flight. Also... only an hour and a half?! Pfffft. You young people.
9 pages pencilled and inked today, which is a really solid start to Book Three. Can't wait until people can read these books! #MakingComics #TheOctoberGirl #BookThree
I'd put you on a ban list for that joke alone, Adam.
I feel this. So hard.
Behind The Scenes: Inking has begun on THE OCTOBER GIRL Book Three! #TheOctoberGIrl #YAGraphicNovels #MakingComics
Granted serializing kids comics on a platform that really only adults should sign up for was not the best business plan, but if you sign up for the eReader tier on my Patreon, you get a PDF of each chapter you can download and share with your kids.
If you don't know about my Patreon, I post a 10 page comic chapter there every Friday! Right now I'm serializing a new Amelia Shadows graphic novel, AMELIA SHADOWS AND THE RESTLESS MANSION. Tons of comics for kids and adults for my paid subscribers to read! www.patreon.com/matthewdowsmith
Making Comics Monday: Step-by-step process for a page from last week’s Amelia Shadows chapter, now up on my Patreon — www.patreon.com/matthewdowsmith Layouts Roughs Inks Colors #AmeliaShadows #PatreonComics #KidsComics
Here's a link to an excellent essay about her on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame site. Oh, yeah. She's in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. My only complaint is that she wasn't inducted in the first year. rockhall.com/wp-content/u...
Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of the coolest people who ever lived and you should know who she is. You don't get rock & roll without her.
I'll check it out! Thanks, Roxi!
Happy Birthday!
I couldn't even afford much of anything right now, but thank you! (Maybe no one will buy it. But people would be crazy not to buy it. Or Javi's insanely cool Doctor Who cosplay pieces. His Third Doctor cosplay is LEGENDARY!)
Happy Birthday, younger me.
Greg's so good. And Paul is so underrated. As is his Confess, Fletch film.
I'd send my former manager, but they got laid off a while back and left L.A.!
DAMMIT! If I had money. And lived in LA. GAAAAAAAAH!!!
Oh, I am sooooo there!
I hope you enjoy it! I'm so proud of it and I've really enjoyed working with Mad Cave! They've been so great to work with.
Very sad to hear that Christopher H. Bidmead has passed away. His name will always be burned into my mental pantheon, not just for his time as script editor on the classic series, but for the novelizations of his stories that I read and reread again and again in the time before VHS and DVDs.
It’s a little of both. I did redo the original chapters that were put out all those years ago, but it is the same story. Only now it’s complete.
THE OCTOBER GIRL Book One arrives on shelves October 21st! But you can pre-order now from @madcavestudios.com or the retailer of your choice!
One of my favorite reviews of the upcoming THE OCTOBER Book One so far, courtesy of reviewer Poorvi K on NetGalley --
13 yrs ago today I finished my first draft of GYRO. That book is now in stores. This weekend I start writing GYRO book two. Today: I launched my first adult horror novel w my editor, (my 15th published book). No one cares how long this takes but you. Get writing that thing. It can change your life.
It really is
(And apologies to @edzitron.com if this brings any additional weirdness into his orbit. But he IS very much worth following and reading.)
I need to mute this for my own sanity, but if you're on the fence about "AI" or think that "AI" is super neat and people need to just stop complaining and embrace it, might I recommend following and reading @edzitron.com, who is much smarter and better informed on the topic than I am.
Thanks so much, Steve! I'm really proud of it. I can't wait for people to be able to read the whole thing.
The AI discourse on social media thing is sort of fascinating to me. It really seems like a topic that we all project our personal concerns on, whether that's creativity or climate or capitalism or education or just about anything. "AI" certainly touches on all of them.
I certainly don't expect any of it to change your mind about "AI", but there are a huge number of concerns involved in using these models that far outweigh any benefit as a creator, and Zitron is far more knowledgable on this topic and better at explaining those issues than I am.
For what it's worth, I highly recommend reading anything Ed Zitron has had to say about the true capabilities of "Generative AI", the business practices of the companies developing these models, and the resources they use in the training and operating of them.
It IS a 3k-worthy joke, though.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! You know how much fun I had making it. Mainly cause I wouldn't shut up about how much fun I had making it. (The October is less funny, but I am really proud of it and had a great time making it.)
Same reason I mostly focus on the comics I'm making and telling my online creator friends how awesome they are. An endless stream of nothing but everything wrong with the world isn't good for anyone.
My art is waaaaaay better than my opinions. But wait. That's an opinion, too! *Brain explodes*
It's just never not gonna be weird. "I am mad about this thing" always gets infinItely more engagement than "Look at this thing I made."
What it's like being an artist on social media in one screenshot. Other artists on social media will understand what I'm getting at almost immediately.
New Comic Book Friday: A brand new chapter of AMELIA SHADOWS AND THE RESTLESS MANSION is now up on my Patreon for all my paid subscribers! #AmeliaShadows #PatreonComics #KidsComics
I could stare at this all day. This is INCREDIBLE, Simon!
Every day I wake up and see some article about "AI" and I feel like I've completely lost my mind.
I will never get over how a handful of tech bros set billions of dollars on fire to build a plagiarism machine that doesn't work and will destroy human society when they could have used a fraction of that money to fund a new golden age of creativity and knowledge.
Thanks, Elliot!
Thanks, Jeff!
Pssst. Wanna see some preview pages from THE OCTOBER GIRL Book One?
Darkseid and Highfather are teachers with rival classes. Metron is the Principal. And Granny Goodness is the gym teacher.
Happy Birthday, Jack.
I have dug around into this a little and as I understand it, we can only claim if we are the copyright holder of the material, and in the case of a Doctor Who comic, it’s the BBC. I might be wrong, of course, but that was my understanding.
It's definitely the right shape. Mourning Dove would be my guess, as well, but I'm not as up on their markings.
And that's a wrap on the draft for OCTOBER GIRL Book Three! 180 pages written and laid out in, like, two weeks might be a personal record. Now to start inking. All the inking. So much inking. #TheOctoberGirl #MakingComics #YAGraphicNovels
Congratulations!
Here are the full panel details! Some absolutely fantastic creators! Should be a lot of fun!
Thrilled to be taking part in @slj.com's Day of Dialog on October 9th. It's free and it's virtual and you can register on the website! I'll be taking part in a panel at 10:05 about fantastic creatures called Survival Is the Name of the Game!
Writing and laying out the final chapter of THE OCTOBER GIRL Book 3 today! #MakingComics #TheOctoberGirl #YAGraphicNovels
Me, too. I actually auditioned to be the artist on that book and didn't get it. I love your take on him.
Oh, man! I've never seen that one before. That is some very very good Oeming work right there!
Writing and laying out the next-to-last chapter of THE OCTOBER GIRL Book Three today and it's breaking my mind that after all this time I'm only a day or two away from starting the final art on a THIRD October Girl book. #TheOctoberGirl #YAGraphicNovels #MadCaveStudios
Making Comics Monday: Step-by-step process for a page from last week’s Amelia Shadows chapter, now up on my Patreon — www.patreon.com/matthewdowsmith Layouts Roughs Inks Colors #AmeliaShadows #PatreonComics #KidsComics
Hang in there!
Knowing Jadzia and Nicole's work, I'm sure everything will be perfectly clear without reading any of the books they're pulling from, but you should read GALAXY, BAD DREAM,Jadzia's HAWKGIRL, and Nicole's SECRET SIX run, anyways. Just 'cause they're really good.
Looking forward to hearing about all the things you've been cooking up since the last time I saw you online!
Nice to see Chris posting on here again!
Thanks, Mark!
Congratulations!!!
Thanks, John! That means the world to me!
Thanks, JMD!!!
35 years of thinking about it and making sure it all makes sense and then explaining the entire OCTOBER GIRL universe in 4 and a 1/2 pages. And then the bad guy shows up. Making comics is weeeeeird.
I was up late last night working on probably the trickiest section in all of the OCTOBER GIRL books so far -- the inevitable somebody-explains-the-entire-cosmology section.
If you don't know what MonkeyBrain Comics was, my fellow MBC alum @adampknave.com wrote a lovely piece about it a couple of years back -- www.adampknave.com/2022/07/02/t...
For the record, THE OCTOBER GIRL wouldn't exist without @chrisroberson.net and @allisontype.bsky.social's visionary and much missed MonkeyBrain Comics. I owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
As a life long bass player in many, many bands... ...it hits the mark dead on.
New banner... #TheOctoberGirl #UAGraphicNovels #PromoModeEngaged
#TheOctoberGirl #PublishersWeekly
Oh wow!
“This propitious series starter promises intrigue, adventure, and fresh takes on fantasy tropes…” Publishers Weekly on THE OCTOBER GIRL Book One.
New Comic Book Friday: A brand new chapter of AMELIA SHADOWS AND THE RESTLESS MANSION is now up on my Patreon for all my paid subscribers! #AmeliaShadows #PatreonComics #KidsComics
Thanks, my friend!
"A dazzling and heartfelt supernatural coming-of-age story" is going on my tombstone. Or I'm getting it tattooed on my forehead. (From the Kirkus review of THE OCTOBER GIRL Book One)
Nice review of THE OCTOBER GIRL Book One up on Kirkus! www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
And yes, there's already a Morton character in the adult Amelia Shadows stories. He might appear in the kids stories at some point, too.
Random thing you may or may not know about me: Every project I do on my own, there's one character specifically created for Joe Morton to play them in a film or TV adaptation. 'Cause he's just cool. Just hit the page in October Girl Book Three that introduces the Morton character in these books.
IN TWO MONTHS FROM TODAY!!! More than 30 years of dreaming. More than 30 years of plotting and planning. I finally just went and did it. Book One of THE OCTOBER GIRL will be on the shelves!!! madcavestudios.com/product/the-...
It would be so very very nice.
Speaking of... Hey. THE OCTOBER GIRL Book One comes out October 21st! You can pre-order it. It would be so freaking awesome if you pre-ordered it.
Just realized that THE OCTOBER GIRL Book One comes out two months from tomorrow and I'm freaking out about it a little. This is a big book for me. This is a really important book for me. I'm going to drive you guys so crazy talking about it all the time. And I will not be apologizing for it.
Thanks so much, guys! That's so incredibly kind.
Hey, we're exactly 12 weeks away from the release of GOD'S JUNK DRAWER. Less than a hundred days! In a weird way, I've been writing this book since grade school. Can't wait for all of you to read it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY @adampknave.com!!!!!
Behind The Senes: Just hit page 99 in my draft of OCTOBER GIRL Book Three, where I write the book and do the layouts and lettering all at the same time. Almost 100 pages in like 8 days. Which is insane. But also really great. I love making these books. They're a lot of work, but it's fun work.
Making Comics Monday: Step-by-step process for a page from last week’s Amelia Shadows chapter, now up on my Patreon — www.patreon.com/matthewdowsmith Layouts Roughs Inks Colors #AmeliaShadows #PatreonComics #KidsComics
A huge thank you to everyone who ordered custom drawings this weekend to help me out of a tight spot. You know who you are and you are great! Thank you.
Thanks, my friend!
Thank you so very very much, my friend!
I did, with F. Paul Wilson, who wrote the original novel. It's been out of print for a while, but FPW and I keep trying to get it back in print with no success so far. (FPW famously HATES the movie, so I taunt him occasionally with how much I loved it as a kid.)
