Let’s get this out of the way right up front: Free Planet #4 is available in comic shops right now! If you are, somehow, subscribed to this email without being fully sold on the Shape of Comics to Come, hit up bit.ly/FreePlanet4 for a full preview. Then find your local comic shop and ask to subscribe to Free Planet; if you don’t have a local store, my friends at Collector’s Paradise are ready, willing and able to meet all your Aubrey comics needs.

MadEx absolutely ruled

Even outside all the Spotted Cow, brats, cheese curds, and, perhaps, the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten, I had a blast at Madison Comic and Pop Culture Expo. It was a treat to chop it up with folks I admire and respect, including – as depicted above – Paul Bearer, Zander Cannon, Phil Hester, Michael Kingston, and Heathcliff. But, truth be told, that wasn’t even the coolest part:

That’s right: Free Planet was featured on the official MadEx con badge! This was a total surprise and I freaked the first time I saw someone walk by with one. It was the first time I’ve ever had one of my books featured this way and I can’t lie to you: It felt awesome. I continue to be amazed and humbled by the response that Free Planet receives; copies of it, The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling and No One Left to Fight vol 2 absolutely flew off my table.

But don’t worry; I just put in orders for more stock to make sure I’m ready for the rest of my 2025 convention appearances:

• Long Beach Comic Con on August 30 and 31

• Twin Cities Con from November 7 to 9

My con schedule for 2026 is already coming together, so: Tell your local promoter that you want to see me slinging books at their next con!

Jed Dougherty’s Hal Foster’s Where’s Waldo?

Issue #4 of Free Planet hit shops today, containing with it what proved to be one of the most deceptively complex sequences in the series to date. If you read our preview, you know what I’m talking about. In order to depict the Freedom Guard’s response to a violent insurrection, I suggested to Jed that we start by taking inspiration from Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, specifically the wide panels he would often utilize, depicting multiple vignettes receding into the distance.

But, naturally, merely following in the footsteps of one of the greatest cartoonists of all time wasn’t enough for us. I also asked Jed to duplicate the scene across two spreads, prompting a Where’s Waldo? response, by which readers are incentivized to flip back and forth between the two spreads, seeing what’s changed with each character in the interceding moments.

Of course, “A big scene repeated, with inset close-ups in each corner” is much easier to say than it is to actually draw. What I failed to fully consider before asking Jed for such a thing is that maintaining the same point-of-view and framing across multiple spreads makes things harder, not easier, especially in concert with making each individual vignette not only read properly but contribute to a cohesive whole. Jed didn’t just have to find a way to arrange eight-to-ten vignettes in a single view, he had to find a view that would also accommodate eight-to-ten different vignettes.

Of course, like every issue of the Shape of Comics to Come, Free Planet #4 was designed specifically for the print periodical format. Unsurprisingly then, this particularly sequence is going to be exceedingly difficult to experience properly in the digital format. The size of most tablets makes reading any spread a difficult proposition, which is compounded when there is so much detail to zoom in on and then compare across pages. While the upcoming Free Planet vol 1 collection (preorder with your local comic shop today, natch) will be better in this regard, the sequence is best experienced in a format you can lay fully flat.

Perhaps even less surprisingly, the way this sequence works is even more difficult to convey over social media; even experienced pros would be forgiven for thinking that the pages were exactly the same when viewed at the size of the phone screen. To help address this, I’ve zoomed in on a couple vignettes above and below, placing their depiction in the two spreads side by side, enabling better comparing and contrasting. However, there’s plenty more to explore and be discovered, so make sure to spend some extra time with these pages when you get your hands on the issue.

But of course, if you’ve been reading this newsletter and/or Free Planet you know the truth: Nothing is ever enough. So, on top of the heavy lifting done by Jed laying out these spreads and Vittorio Astone keeping everything distinct through color, they also constituted a major ask for our letterer Taylor Esposito.

We took two specific actions to ensure that readers spent time with the spread, as opposed to just quickly skimming. First, we dropped in our standard historical captions, providing context and thematic rumination regarding the scene in question. Second, we utilized a distinct close-up approach, with our cast providing internal monologue voiceovers. Worrying that I was driving Taylor nuts trying to hammer out the visual language for how to present the big, punchy conclusions, I looped in my Uncle Howard Chaykin, who provided incredibly helpful guidance regarding placement, size and color. He also suggested that we add more historical captions on each page for aesthetic purposes, stating that we had more space than we realized. We opted to stick with the existing four per page.

Return to the Oblivion Bar

If you kept up with my pre-release Podcast Gauntlet, you’re already familiar with my buddies Aaron and Chris and their Oblivion Bar Podcast. My first appearance on their show was such a blast that I was champing at the bit to return, this time with my Free Planet cocreator Jed Dougherty in tow! It was a fun, rewarding conversation that allowed us to get more in depth with Free Planet, particularly Jed’s approach to the page and the book’s military aspects, drawing on Aaron and Chris’ experience serving in the military. Find it on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for “The Oblivion Bar Podcast.”

My Pop Culture SquadCast debut

For years, I’ve enjoyed chopping it up at cons with Bob Harrison, a particularly smart and thoughtful comics aesthete. So, imagine my excitement to be invited to talk to not only him but comics luminary Mike Gold, who – among other accomplishments – was a co-founder of the legendary First Comics! I was blown away by their praise for and insightful analysis of Free Planet as we delved into the unique possibilities of the comics medium, the distinction between topical and timely stories, Archie vs the World and more. Find it on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch.

Finally, a big, hearty welcome to the many, many people who signed up for this newsletter at MadEx this past weekend. While this is the end of this particular installment, there’s plenty more to dig into on Atlantis Still Sunk, including my ongoing series digging into Free Planet’s bibliography:

• Hugh Thomas’ The Spanish Civil War

• David Graeber & David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything

• C.L.R. James’ The Black Jacobins

• Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China

• Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution

• Hugh Thomas’ Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom

And that’s it for me this week. As ever, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Shape of Comics to Come in the comments, but, if you have questions about the history or world of Free Planet, fire them off to Dr. Aldous Foyroushi. If you’re lucky, the good doctor will answer them in our “Questions & Clarifications” feature, exclusive to single issues of Free Planet.

Aubrey