Know Your Rights and Mastering Arts

I’m honored to announce the free comic I made in collaboration with Mayor Mamdani’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the NYC Public Schools system:

The KNOW YOUR RIGHTS comic book - written by me, art by David Hahn, colors by Ellie Wright, and letters by Taylor Esposito, is part of the DOE’s “Civics For All” program, will be a tool for students, families, and neighbors to stay informed about what their rights are when faced with unexpected interference from non-municipal law enforcement, like DHS or ICE.

Told via a handful of vignettes starring a wide array of New Yorkers, the book hopes to educate everyone about their rights during these challenging times. Most importantly, the comic will be available for download for educators and parents across the city - with printed/hard copies on the way.

We launched the comic this week, at the second annual Project Open Arms National Immigrant Heritage Celebration, where I was the parent MC. The event spotlighted a number of student performances that reflect our city’s many cultures, languages, and stories - and the city’s commitment to standing with immigrant communities and ensuring every student has the opportunity to succeed.

I was also able to join a number of city officials - including NYCPS Chancellor Kamar Samuels - in announcing the comic book, which will hopefully serve as a lasting tool for the community and anyone interested in better understanding what their rights are.

I’m hugely thankful to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Chancellor Kamar Samuels, Joe Schmidt and the Civics for All team, Tamara Mair and Project Open Arms, the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs, and the NYC DOE for supporting this project from beginning to end, and understanding that diversity is New York’s greatest strength - and that all students and families belong here. The support for this project was unwavering.

Educators, parents, and anyone can download the Civics For All KNOW YOUR RIGHTS comic here, in English or Spanish - with more languages to come. The print edition will follow shortly.

This isn’t my first time working with the great folks at the Civics for All Comics Group. In fact, you can check out my last collaboration with artist David Hahn, colorist Ellie Wright, and letterer Taylor Esposito (the We Decide! Participatory Budgeting in our Schools comic) at their website. But I was beyond grateful to have the chance to cover such a vital topic, and want to shout out the local government employees and the mayor’s administration for being so helpful and courteous. I believe it all went into making the best comic we could’ve made, and you can get a sneak peek below:

It was also an immense joy to pull the curtain back on what makes a Marvel comic special. I called in some help from my amazingly talented writer, artist, colorist & letterer friends, and it’s all in Marvel’s Mastering the Art of Comics, making its way into bookstores this October!

Arizonians, come find me this weekend at the Phoenix Convention Center for this year’s Phoenix Fan Fusion!

I’ll be there Friday through Sunday, so come say hello and let me scribble on all of your books. This is a wonderful convention, and I’m so thrilled to be back to celebrate it with you all!

Want to own my prose novel Alter Ego? Well lucky for you, Kindle is offering it for the low, low price of $2.99!

I don’t know how much longer this offer will be available, so act now before it’s too late!

I’m excited to announce that my debut novel, Silent City, is being re-released by Thomas and Mercer. Check out the new cover below:

This marked the first entry in my acclaimed Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery series, and it’s now available for reviewers and influencers to download on NetGalley. If you want to get a peek at it and review it, now’s the time!

My good friends Mark Waid and Barry Kitson are issuing a deluxe edition of their seminal and influential series, EMPIRE, in partnership with the gang at Zoop! Mark and Barry are an amazing team, and you need this book in your life - one of my favorite Mark Waid stories ever. Back it here.

PHOENIX FAN FUSION (Phoenix, AZ) - June 5-7

Did you know that I’m currently co-writing not just one, but two webcomics for you to enjoy? The first of which is The Forgotten Five, a Patreon-run series created by Sara Century and myself with art by Pat Kennedy, Dean Kotz, Alex Diotto, Craig Cermak, and Oliver Mertz (the subject of a recent appreciation post), letters by Chas! Pangburn, and editing by Nola Pfau. Click this link or the picture below to find out more! We just wrapped a successful TFF Kickstarter campaign collecting the first 60+ pages of story with exclusive new content, a bevy of variant covers from some industry all-stars, character profiles, and lots more. We also launched a companion podcast for the series all about books and issues that influenced its creation. Four episodes of that are currently available, so now’s the perfect time to dive in!

My second webcomic is Phantom 2040: A New Shadow, currently running every Friday on Comics Kingdom! I write it with my Dick Tracy brother-in-arms Michael Moreci, with art by John Amor and George Kambadais. Click here or the picture below to start from the beginning!

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And hey, if you enjoy this newsletter, you’ll probably dig my Discord! It’s a fun community for like-minded nerds to talk writing, culture, and the epic highs and lows of high school football. Well maybe not that last one, but if you haven’t already joined, click this link to become a part of Stuff & Nonsense today!

That’s all for now! See you in a few weeks!