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Radiant Black: The Audio Book, The Singularity, C2E2 announcements and More!
Hey everyone! Happy Friday! First off— how is it already the middle of May?! Everyone jokes about needing more hours in the day but for real, we could absolutely use another 3-4 days in the week over here.
Per usual, we have a million things going on at Black Market Narrative HQ. We’re racing on a number of projects, trying to catch up on some things that are behind and charting the course for what’s shaping up to be a mega San Diego Comic Con this year.
I’m also prepping to head in for another big knee surgery on May 31 which is going to knock me out of commission for a bit. Not sure when exactly I’ll be fully walking again, but I’m going to work as hard as I can to make sure I’m mobile in time for SDCC. Fingers crossed.
But, Kyle’s extended knee drama is not the content you’re here for! And fortunately for the books, you don’t really need to walk when you’re a writer, right?!
So let’s talk about some of those million things we’ve got happening!
C2E2 News
Two weeks ago marked the 15th anniversary of C2E2 and unless I’m forgetting something, it also marked my 15th time doing the convention. I’ve lived in LA for almost 20 years but my heart will always belong to Chicago— C2E2 is my favorite show and it’s the one I try to prioritize every year, especially now when it comes to everything we’re doing in The Massive-Verse.
This year was a really special one— Radiant Black co-creator Marcelo Costa made his first trip to not only Chicago and Lockport (more on that in a bit!) but also the U.S.! Oh yeah, it was also the first time that we met in person!
We spent the weekend signing books and dropping news (we’ll get to the news in a second, I swear) and Marcelo also cranked out some of the coolest commissions I’ve seen. Like this blacklight SHIFT!
Our panel took place on Saturday at 3:30PM and featured a who’s who of Massive-Verse talent— Marcelo, myself, Joe Clark (Radiant Black), Stefano Simeone (Supermassive 2023), Rod Reis (C.O.W.L.) and Alec Siegel (C.O.W.L., WHO IS NO/ONE) all joined along with moderator Ryan Sidoti (Circle Guy News, The Invincible Podcast).
We dropped a ton of news, which Michael Busuttil graciously live-tweeted on that terrible platform that we all really need to stop using.
So, as a hopefully small way of encouraging us all to X our Twitter, I’m going to run all that news right here!
First up, coming this October— Radiant Black: Massive Edition Book One, an oversized hardcover collecting the first year of Radiant Black with a brand new cover by Marcelo!
In addition to featuring some new art updates— including revised colors on issue 11— this collection of the first year of Radiant Black features some of the craziest back matter I’ve ever been a part of. A quick rundown—
-Ten pages of concept art
-The original Radiant color line-up
-All of Marcelo's issue 10 layouts
-Quotes from Mo of Frakking Bath Bombs, who made all the Radiant bath bombs
-A breakdown of Circle Guy News
-Full storyboards and key art from the launch trailer
-A discussion of Sam Ewing’s original score
-The rules for how the Radiant alphabet is constructed
All of this is supported by over 5000 words of brand-new interviews with myself, Marcelo, Eduardo Ferigato, Igor Monti, Becca Carey, and and a whole bunch of other people who made the first year of Radiant Black happen. In total, it comes in at 456 pages and includes almost 40 pages of back matter.
Plus, we’re including the original pitch for Vanguard, the series concept that led directly to Radiant Black.
Now, full disclosure— we don’t know if we’re going to be able to do more hardcovers beyond book one. We very much want to, but so much of that depends on the order numbers for volume one. So, if something like the above sounds up your alley, then please, please, please preorder this book with your local comic store as soon as it hits previews (next month).
Next up— Rogue Sun! While Ryan Parrott and Abel weren’t able to join us in Chicago this year, we still brought some sneak peeks of next week’s wild issue 19! Once again, Ryan has outdone himself with a special take on the comics medium— issue 19 is a special flip-book issue that tells a single story from the perspectives of both Dylan and Marcus, with art by Marco Renna and Natalia Marques!
And, in other big Rogue Sun news, we also announced that the incredible Stefano Simeone is joining us as our new ongoing cover artist!
And if that wasn’t enough, we’re also introducing some new faces to Rogue Sun in this next arc! Are they friends? Enemies? Background characters who only appear once very far in the distance but who Abel did a whole design sheet for for some reason? You’ll have to read to find out! Allow me to introduce… Divinity and Mad Melody!
Next up, Inferno Girl Red!
We debuted some new pages, including one that we had to redact pretty heavily for some reason! Who— or what— is under those mysterious white boxes?! Check out this epicness from Erica D’Urso!
NO/ONE issues 9 and 10 were next. We didn’t announce anything new on the series (YET) but we’re all racing to the finish line to get our last two issues wrapped up. In particular, our upcoming issue 9 features some stunning turns— including the fallout of Proposition 87 passing, which legalizes “preemptive self defense.” As you might imagine, the results… are chaotic.
For those who may have missed the announcement a month or so ago— we’re also doing a new Supermassive! Illustrated and colored by Stefano Simeone, this year’s Supermassive is extra special.
Supermassive 2022 featured the first appearance of Premier.
Supermassive 2023 followed Nathan and Marshall right after they learned they’d have to choose the future of Radiant Black, on the eve of The Catalyst War.
Now, in Supermassive 2024… we’re going into The Catalyst War.
But not in the way you might think :)
Don’t worry— our universe mantra that you only have to read what you like still applies. If you’re not following The Catalyst War in Radiant Black right now, this one shot will still make total sense. We’ve designed it to be additive but also accessible, as we have our previous two Supermassives.
Also revealed at C2E2, our B and C covers by the incredible Kelly McMahon and Tony Daniel (colored by Igor Monti)!
Oh, hey, C.O.W.L.! Now that’s a fun take on the logo! After all, it’s C.O.W.L.’s 10-year anniversary this month! I wonder what that could mean—
There we go!! Coming in early 2025, THE C.O.W.L. COMPENDIUM! This edition collects all 11 issues of the original series, including new pages of remastered art by Rod plus the never-before-collected issue 6 with art by Elsa Charretier (her first US work!)
But why 2025? Because this collection also includes—
C.O.W.L. 1964! A brand new 3-issue miniseries reuniting myself, Alec Siegel and Rod Reis to complete the storyline of the original C.O.W.L. series! The first issue is out this August! Take a look at some early pages by Rod! How great are these?!
Oh, and if that weren’t enough C.O.W.L. goodness for you, coming next year we also have—
For the first time ever, we’ll be releasing Joe Clark’s incredible in-universe album, The C.O.W.L. Sessions, on vinyl! This will be a release through Black Market Narrative and Image— more info on this later this year!
Finally, to wrap up the panel… we had one more big announcement. But to help us make it, we enlisted some friends— or, I should say, they reached out to us to give us their unsolicited opinion on everything happening with Nathan and Marshall in The Catalyst War. And boy oh boy do they have some opinions.
Yep, that’s right— we’re making an audio book. But not just any audio book— this is going to feature a full voice cast, headlined by Rider Strong and Will Friedle—who is reprising his role from our big in-universe Versus film in 2022. I’m going to be writing, directing and narrating the book and man oh man do we have some fun surprises in store for listeners.
More info and cast announcements will be dropping in the coming months but for now, take a look at this gorgeous album art that Michael has put together.
We’ve also got a press release with a host of information on the audio book initiative we’re embarking on, plus quotes from Will and Rider along with a few more details on the production from myself and Black Market Narrative. You can read all of that right here:
And that was the panel!
Afterwards, we did a big group signing in Artist Alley followed by some killer deep dish at Gino’s East. Just look at this motley crew!
A big, special thank you to everyone who came out, picked up books, prints and pins from us, and told us how much the books mean to them. Honestly, it was an overwhelming weekend but one that I’m so grateful we got to have.
Until next year!
Marcelo Costa Scopes Out Lockport
One of the highlights of our Chicago trip was actually the day after C2E2 when I took Marcelo down to the real Lockport, IL, a town he’s spent the last three and a half years rendering in intricate detail.
The Singularity
In non-Massive-Verse news, I wanted to take a second to make sure I called out The Singularity, the companion graphic novel to composer Bear McCreary’s epic new rock concept album!
The book just released this week, the album went live last week and as of today… it’s also available on vinyl through Mutant!
I creative directed the book, which was written by Inferno Girl Red’s Mat Groom, and it’s the exact type of wildly ambitious project that Michael and I love doing with Black Market Narrative. Featuring a roster of insane artistic talent and providing a narrative to the track order of the album, the album also includes monologues from the book, performed by Lee Pace (Foundation), Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead), and Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead)
Bear is also kicking off this mega-release with a concert to end all concerts on Sunday, May 12 at the Fonda theater.
You can find more info on all of the above— including links to buy the book, the album, and tickets to Sunday’s concert— right here.
Okay, that’s going to do it for me! Back to the keyboard—
—Oh! But! One more thing before I get out of here. If you’ve got some time to kill, the Fulton Street Collective recorded a livestream of Joe Clark’s epic BATMANIA! concert that I played on a few weeks back! This band was absolutely ridiculous— shout out to the saxophones and The Riddler absolutely shredding his guitar solo. Plus, you can hear me bust out my best Burt Ward and flub some trumpet notes!
The whole concert is available for free right here… though I definitely encourage you to shoot Joe a tip if you dig it as much as we all did!
More soon!
Stay Radiant!
Kyle
Los Angeles, CA
Can't wait to get those books!!!