Dear Diary (to My Friends),

It’s the time of year when a lot of my peers (including Source Point Press Editor-in-Chief Josh Werner) are heading-off to the mighty San Diego Comic Con and/or otherwise preparing for several other summer and fall convention appearances, including the equally massive New York Comic Con in October, where I will be in Artist Alley again this year.

While I originally anticipated heading to California (and, in fact, am looking at my SDCC badge sitting here on my desk as I type this), I realized I had the choice of dedicating approximately a week of time to prep for attending the show (which itself then takes-up another week of time between travel, attendance, and recovery)… or I could allocate that same amount of time to hunkering down and getting some script writing and project management duties finished and to their next stage of production. While I sincerely enjoy SDCC and will miss the people I sometimes only see at that show, by deciding not to attend this year I was able to finish work on upcoming projects including Hope Volume 2: “Masks”, Homestead, the second edition of Write or Wrong: “A Writer’s Guide to Creating Comics” (not to be confused with the also-in-production Write or Wrong Volume 2), and a few other yet undisclosed and unannounced projects that I’m very, very excited about.

TALES OF MR. RHEE OMNIBUS: ACT ONE with a cover by the legendary James O’Barr, creator of THE CROW (How cool is that?!?)

If my current production schedule holds, 2023 is going to be a year of many firsts for me, including the first year in my career where I have a new comic/book on shelves almost every month of the year. It’s an exciting thing to consider, and, honestly, my heart fluttered a little bit even as I typed that.

There I go, sliding into the future again. Sorry.

Currently, both Tales of Mr. Rhee Volume 5: “Rock Star Paranoia” and the Tales of Mr. Rhee Omnibus: Act One are currently en route to Source Point Press headquarters so those you amazing people who pre-ordered the book on Kickstarter will get your advance (and deluxe) copies. Furthermore, I’ve been working with the team on The Adventures of Cthulhu Jr. & Friends doing final proofreads and edits on those pages we can prep that book for print and delivery — as well as those adorable Cthulhu Jr. plushies!

Work on the Arn Anderson graphic novel is also humming along as we prepare for a fall pre-order window via Kickstarter, so if you want to make sure you get notified upon launch for that, please take a moment to sign-up for my once-a-month email newsletter on the front page of this very website HERE.

As always, it remains one of the greatest thrills and joys of my life to be able to provide you all comics and graphic novels you’ll enjoy, and as I recently mused on social media (are we connected on Instagram and Facebook yet?), while I’ve been fortunate enough to work with amazing illustrators and other artistic and professionals since the very beginning of my career in comics, I don’t know if I’ve ever worked with a stronger and more diverse group of collaborators… and I’m quite enjoying — and appreciating — it. While the past few years have presented various strains and challenges to all of us, I remain grateful for all the work and projects I’m currently involved with — including the ones that you don’t know about yet!

There I go again, getting closer and closer to teasing and hinting about things I shouldn’t be — at least not yet — so I’m going to get out of here for now before I open my mouth about an upcoming project I love to death or one that might have me howling with excitement even after midnight.

Over the last few months I’ve continued to add content to the Bibliography, Press, and YouTube Channel (are you a subscriber?), so if you haven’t checked them out recently, take some time to do so while you’re here (as well as perhaps taking a moment to scroll through the Events Calendar to see when I’ll be attending a convention or signing appearance you can attend as well, and hopefully we’ll see each other soon, yeah?

In the meantime, thank you for your support, friends! I can’t wait to see how much more I can share with you in January… but let’s stay in touch between then and now too!

Your friend in comics,
Dirk Manning

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