Dear Diary (to My Friends),

2023 proved to be quite a year — personally and professionally — in ways both exciting and challenging.

As anyone who pays attention to the comic book industry is aware, publishing has been facing dramatic shifts due to increased paper and shipping prices, especially, causing creators and publishers alike to reevaluate their practices.

My own publishing practices were no exception to this, as I decided to make the move to embrace going “straight to the trade” as they say in the industry. Specifically, moving forward for the foreseeable future (and quite possibly for the rest of my career) I’ll be focusing on launching my comic work directly as full graphic novels rather than pursuing the “floppies-to-book” model. Honestly, this is how I prefer to read and collect comics, and I believe it’s how a lot of you most enjoy my work… so that will be the plan moving forward.

The second half of 2023 saw the publication of Write or Wrong: A Writer’s Guide to Creatiing Comics (2nd Edition), Twiztid Haunted High-Ons Volume 2: “The Curse of the Green Book”, and Arn Anderson: My Life as the Enforcerall from Source Point Press, as well as a successful Kickstarter campaign for HOPE Volume 2: “Masks” with illustrator Sally Scott.

Looking ahead to 2024, as recently announced in my January newsletter (which you can sign-up for on the main page HERE), I’ll be releasing four new graphic novels with Source Point Press — first via deluxe editions on Kickstarter before then releasing TPB editions to the public. These books include:

• HOMESTEAD with Les Garner
• #TGitH (Working Title) with Josh Ross and a soon-to-be-revealed New York Times #1 Best-Selling Horror Author
• LOVE STORIES ABOUT DEATH (A re-release of the out-of-print LOVE STORIES (TO DIE FOR) with two new full-length stories illustrated by Austin McKinley and Chris Marchman, respectively)
• LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT with Marianna Pescosta and Chaney Entertainment

A sneak peek at 2024…

Some of these projects are ones I’ve been teasing for a while, and releasing four new graphic novels in one year (along with other books also being released into book stores everywhere, including NIGHTMARE WORLD: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION and TALES OF MR. RHEE Volume 5), but after celebrating “20 Years of Terror” last year, I’m dedicated to these four new books coming to fruition this year as I already am actively making plans with some of my comic book artistic collaborators for book releases in 2025 — including TALES OF MR. RHEE Volume 6, of which over 70 pages of the script are already written.)

Looking to the first half of 2024, I also suspect I’ll be dialing back on live appearances — at least a little — to focus on both my writing and project  management duties. My full list of live appearances will remain updated as appearances are announced at my Events Page here on the site, and I of course already heavily promote all my convention and signing appearances across Facebook and Instagram, especially.

As always, I appreciate all your support of the comics and graphic novels my collaborators and I bring to the world very, very much.

Twenty years of doing this is no small feat, and it’s also one that would have proven impossible without YOU (yes… YOU!), so thank you for that. Truly.

I look forward to seeing you all on the road or on social media soon, and, again, if you’ve read this far and haven’t signed-up to receive my monthly newsletter, I encourage you to pop over to the front page of this website and take a moment to do so. It’s a once-a-month, independent production from me to you about updates on books, live appearances, and more as well as a nice way to stay directly in touch in a world where more and more of what we see is controlled by external algorithms.

Thanks, all! Here’s to a great year ahead!

Your friend in comics,
Dirk Manning

“What do you mean you only look like that on the Internet?”