One month from today, I'll be on a plane headed to New York City for the first time since I was 12. I'm attending my first New York Comic Con, and I'll be doing so as an official member of the press!

As I expressed last week, we've been slowly growing out of the "lucky excited YouTuber" and into the "respected member of the press" era of Comics Are Dope, and this convention is a major step in that process. It wouldn't have happened without an assist from my man Sean of The Comics Pals, but that's a story for another day.

Thanks to travel logistics, I'll only be on the convention floor for 2 days. I'm still working on a game plan to meet some of my favorite creators without wasting too much time in lines. I'd love to attend at least one panel. I've also been invited to at least one private publisher event, but I'm not sure I'll be able to swing that. This convention is my last hurrah before I take a break from the circuit in 2025, so I'm really trying to make the most of it. If you've been to NYCC, I'd love a crash course in getting the most of the experience. (Save your hot dog jokes, BunkmastaB)

Subversive Comics Are Dope

Thanks to long ER wait times (don't trip, everyone's fine!), I got to read an awesome comic this weekend. The Best New Series Eisner-nominated miniseries Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees is Patrick Horvath's first outing as both writer and artist. Together, he and Eisner-winning letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou weave a grisly murder mystery set somewhere in like the busy world of Richard Scarry.

Woodbrook is the idealized small town of your dreams. Where everyone knows your name. You get your meat at the local butcher shop. Need screws? You'll head to the local hardware store owned by Samantha Strong, the town's favorite brown bear. But Samantha has been hiding a huge secret - she's a serial killer. It's a secret that threatens to be exposed when the town's first murder in 40 years happens. Over 6 issues, Sam better hurry up and find the real killer, or her life will come crashing down.

Much will be made about how the book's cute characters and art style are juxtaposed with gruesome imagery and subject matter. I loved that, too; but I wouldn't reduce this book to subversiveness as a defining quality. Under all the fur, Horvath crafts a great mystery, and even uses some body horror to illustrate the torment a killer must go through mentally. It was a really trippy read, and an awesome way to spend a Saturday morning. I mean besides the whole kid-in-the-hospital thing.

Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees TPB is out 9/18 from IDW Publishing. Grab it on Amazon here.​

By the way, I think this goes without saying. But please don't let your kids read this book about cute, fuzzy anthropomorphic serial killers. That wouldn't be a good parenting look.

Even More Sentimental Thoughts

Last week, the channel surpassed 13,000 subscribers! We're rapidly approaching the 4th anniversary of my first comic book YouTube video. With each day that passes, I'm reminded of two facts:

1. What I do on the internet is incredibly difficult.
2. I'm immeasurably lucky to be doing it.

I've been transparent about the fact that there's not much money to be made in comics YouTube. If you can do what I do without sending yourself into the red every month, you're incredibly fortunate. That's why I'm immensely grateful to the audience members, creators and publishers who all team up to make what I do a little bit easier.

Each time you share my videos, it's a small token to help convince others to watch. It helps the publicity department at your favorite publisher feel confident that a review copy sent out doesn't go into the void, but actually will return in the form of new readers. It lets your favorite comic creator know there's at least one place on the internet where they can be vulnerable about the pieces of themselves they pour into their craft, and that the audience will appreciate them (and their work) more after sharing. Perhaps most importantly, these actions combine to convince some unsuspecting YouTube scroller that comics are, in fact, dope.

For that, I'm eternally grateful.

Read Something Dope Today,

BJ KICKS