This makes my third TOP 10 Whatever list so I guess that makes it tradition. As with the others, it’s a countdown to whatever I think has been the best (#1) thing for my career or existence as an artist. I had to move a few things around, reframe some of them so as to not be too redundant and I think I could have gone to 12 or 13 which is a pretty good sign. Not included on this list are those things of a personal (whatever that means these days) nature. So – starting with Number 10…
10: 2024 Movie Reviews
I’ve been reviewing movies for nearly 15 years now. While I’d participated in a variety of movie promos dating as far back as Jackie Chan’s 1995 debut of RUMBLE IN THE BRONX, my first official review was for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010). In the time since I’ve written about 30 reviews, conducted a handful of interviews and a few more extensively researched articles & essays. In 2024 I reviewed two movies one which inspired a fairly extensively researched review of DUNE: Part 2 and the other afforded me the chance to catch a movie I’d been initially ambivalent towards; Joker Folié a’Deux. I missed my chance to review Deadpool & Wolverine – that would have made a nice endocarp to my reviews of The Wolverine (2013), DEADPOOL (2016) & DEADPOOL 2 (2018). But there was a legit reason for missing that one; it sits at number 2 of this list; read on.
9: KCU Anthology Project
This is a project I’ve been ferrying along since the begging of the ear. Over the course of my participation with the Kids Comics Unite community I’d been pointing out the opportunity to crowdfund some of the work being done here. As the comics publishing industry continues to radically change it’s become apparent to me that being a part of a crowdfunding campaign is a necessary rite-of-passage. Because this is a learning community this opportunity evolved into an anthology project being published by nearly 40 creatives acting as a collective. It’s been a wild project with the chance to build gamified conceptual engines focused on the specific elements involved with getting a book published. This project landing page is just the tip of that iceberg.
8: Exhibit at the Sun Gallery
Artwork from Lucy Veloz: High-Flying Princess was displayed at the 33rd Annual Children’s Book illustrator Exhibit at the Sun Gallery in Hayward California.
7: Podcast Appearances
I should count up how many I appeared on in 2024- not counting my own work on THE COMICS FU SHOW. But let me spotlight the delight of two, three-time appearances. On Story-Comic & Graymanlkin Lane. Though that 3rd appearance on Graymalkin won’t appear until 2025; something to look forward too.
6: Local Cons
Because it’s a local San Francisco convention and I was away some comics colleagues would be there, I put in a press pass request via KungFuMagazine.com. It was ultimately a last minute thing and my T-Day weekend calendar was filling up, I was still able to make an aptly timed trip to the San Francisco Moscone Center to meet & greet some collaborators, attend some panels and pick up some swag. I may even be able to pull an interview or two from the event.
An even more local convention. This one was a delightful blend of ease (free admission), locality (north Berkeley) and the chance to connect with comics people I’d recently met and meet a number of new interesting characters. Plus and excellent book hall.
5: Asani Entertainment
I’ve written quite a bit about my work for Asani Entertainment. I didn’t anticipate it would figure so prominently over the course of 2024 – yet the expanding ambition behind the launch both of the brand, its website and subsequent kickstarter campaign resulted in a hefty amount of content which you can find over on AsaniEntertainment.com
4: BOX Of TAPES
I’ve been quietly working on the graphic novel BOX OF TAPES almost since 2020. This ambitious project is about to become a reality and it will count among my 2025 publishing by-line in comics.
3: A TIGER’s TALE volume two
It was delayed by a year not only due to the decision to remaster the artwork and color it, but to re-write more than one section and redraw a number of pages; there were also major rewrites to the back matter explaining all of this. But taking the extra step of printer proofs saved this book from a major technical oversight. All this production had printed books arriving in August of this year. Adding to the fulfillment effort was a number of custom commission, Wuxia Warrior illustrations and a number of custom sketch covers. But as of this writing there remain only a couple of VIP reader copies to be shipped out. They will be fun to have on display at some future comic convention or artist appearance.
2: SDCC
An appearance at San Diego Comic Con 2024 ranked high on the wouldn’t-it-be-cool ranking for 2024. It even showed up on my vision board for that year, but it was no easy feat. I encountered a number of hurdles including my own short-comings when it comes to planning ahead. I had received and declined enough invites to meet-up during the 2023 convention that showing up in 2024 would probably benefit my still burgeoning comics career. How? In some intangible ways – name/face recognition, written reviews & interviews, first-time meetings with people I’ve encounter again at other conventions in 2024 and the beginning of a 2025 collaboration.
1: GO DOGGO
People have been responding really well to my subscriber based comic series Go Doggo. I feel like I’,\m getting better at doing them, at least I’m growing more ambitious. So I’m striving to be much more productive on this front in 2025. BTW – if you’re reading this and you haven’t subscribed to my MUSEletter, you can do that here; trust me it’ll be worth it.
