Warning: The writing inside these notebooks is not as good as the art on the covers.

Other than my comics and baseball cards, my most prized collection is made of the Field Notes journals where I do all my writing. (Should I do a post about my baseball cards? No. Will I? TBD.) I carry one of these notebooks with me at all times, usually peeking out of a coat pocket, accompanied by the pencil constantly stabbing into my chest.

The writing found inside ranges from fully fleshed out scripts to the incomprehensible scribbles of a madman. The photo above is the 2024 collection and in review, this year’s in particular seem stuffed with ideas that never went anywhere. Sometimes that’s by design--I go all-in on a flawed idea to get it out of my system so I can move on to more productive endeavors. Other times, pitches or scenes or ideas don’t make the cut but help the Good Stuff come together.

No matter what though, it’s always entertaining at the end of the year to go through the stack and flip through the good, the bad, and the ugly within.

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The 2024 notebooks include many of my short stories that were published this year in DC’s Spring Breakout, TMNT: Black, White, and Green and The Farscape 25th Anniversary Special. (Plus a few projects to come in 2025 and beyond.)

The highlight of my 2024, though, was celebrating something that was actually written back in 2021, long before this batch of Field Notes: Mapmakers and the Flickering Fortress, the conclusion to the Mapmakers trilogy.

The Mapmakers finale debuted in April and features what’s probably my favorite cover of the bunch.

Unlike the previous books in the series, I got to launch Flickering Fortress in April with artist/co-creator Amanda Castillo and series editor Whitney Leopard IN PERSON at The Kids Graphic Novel Festival hosted by The Silver Unicorn Bookstore.

The Mapmakers team: me, Editor Whitney Leopard, and artist/co-creator/friend for life Amanda Castillo.

Every year at this event, kids come out in droves for graphic novels. Getting to meet fans of the series or see kids discover it for the first time is a joy I can’t really put in words. So, naturally, I’m still processing getting to do that with the whole team together.

During downtime at the table, Amanda and I used one of my notebooks to see who was better at drawing random characters. I’ll let you be the judge:

My Pikachu is better and you can’t tell me different.

Later this year I might do a post or two about the Mapmakers series since it was completed before I started this newsletter. It was a labor of love and something I’m immensely proud of. (And boy did it teach me a lot about writing.)

If you haven’t read the series about a pair of best friends who discover a magical map and head off on a grand adventure to better understand the world around them, you can check it out HERE.

Help! I Can’t Stop Thinking About These Comics I Read in 2024 and Honestly I Don’t Want To

My comics reading diet can be broken up into three tiers: monthly comics, graphic novels, and binge-reading older series. Looking back on 2024,these are the reads I still have on my mind.

PUBLIC DOMAIN by Chip Zdarsky
With two arcs now complete, I feel comfortable saying that Zdarsky is crafting one of my all time favorite comics. Yes, it’s a tale about the history of the comics industry and the current state of I.P. entertainment, topics I’m an easy target for. But at its heart, Public Domain is a beautiful, funny, and at times heartbreaking study of how family and creative pursuits can break you down and build you up again.

THE HARD SWITCH by Owen D. Pomery
This is the rare graphic novel I would recommend to both pros and folks who typically don’t read comics. Its elegant sci-fi hook and clean line art make it an accessible read while also featuring ambitious cartooning and storytelling. I discovered this at the beginning of 2024 and a full year later, it was an easy pick for this list.

JUSTICE LEAGUE by Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al.
This is one of those runs I’ve heard so many people rave about and seen panels posted about online so often that I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the expectations. And yet…the most fun I had reading in 2024 was blowing through this series in December, giggling and laughing with glee all the way.

News from the Writing Desk

Before the close of 2024, I turned in first drafts for my next graphic novel and a new short story. Both of these projects should be announced soon and I’m excited to share more about them when I can. (The two projects could not be more different.)

I have a comic series that should hopefully debut this year as well, but we’ll see how the timing shakes out.

Other than that, I’ll be cracking open new notebooks to see what sort of incomprehensible scribbles I can come up with this time.

Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful start to the new year and as always…

Thanks for reading,
Cam
1.6.25