I’m writing this Newsletter up before my last week in Los Angeles for the year starts. As you are reading this I am packing my suitcase to head back to Massachusetts for the holiday season, and getting ready for what I hope are two easy flights on Friday. Outside of the pandemic, it’s been a couple years since I have gone home for Thanksgiving AND Christmas. But…as a single dude who has outgrown Friendsgivings, something I did happily for many years, going home to be with family is the right decision. Something I tried to do this year that I am going to try to do next year even more is, less solo time. I have had plenty of time to myself in my life, and more time with friends, family, and community is needed.

This was not my favorite year in Los Angeles. Truth be told, it was probably the most isolating time I have had here since the pandemic happened. And that’s for a variety of reasons. First and foremost there was a five month block where I was intensely busy, weekends included, and it made me hard to schedule stuff with people. And then when I came out of that time, everyone in my life was busy. I could tell in my heart that the lack of connection was not due to lack of trying on my part or the part of my many friends, but still…all the missed connections started to add up.

With that being said, this probably the year I spent the most time with my family in…years. They came out here to Los Angeles back in June we had a great week together, and then after FanExpo Boston I spent the better part of a month with them where I also got to catch up with many of the friends I grew up with. Those were two big highlights of my year. And I think spending the holidays with my family and those friends is going to feel really special and good for the heart.

Next year is shaping up to be busy too, but I think it will be a different kind of busy. This year I learned to balance a schedule and how much energy, time, and resources different types of projects were going to take. Writing scripts is something I already had down to a firm process, but doing research on and for a universe spanning project like The New History of the DC Universe? I learned on the fly. I think, or perhaps I am manifesting, that there will be a lot more time spent with friends in Los Angeles, being social, and having great connections.

All of that will also be balanced with my goal of doing a few more conventions than I did last year. And also doing some more comic store signings as I will have a couple projects that I believe will warrant me hitting the pavement pretty hard in terms of marketing. And I have found doing conventions and store signings is a lot of fun, and good for the soul.

Do I view this year as a failure? Not even close. Last year I had six professional comic writing assignments. Now that this year has come to a close, I can say that I had eighteen this year. I tripled the number, will I triple the number next year to fifty four? That would be very ambitious, getting to thirty six seems more plausible but still like a high bar to go after.

If I’m being honest, and hopefully you didn’t get sick of the sports metaphors I made in last week’s Newsletter, I feel like a team that had a winning season, but we didn’t quite make the playoffs. Now what does that usually mean for that team’s following season? Either they come out, like bats out of hell, and everyone in their league needs to fear them because they are going to be the fiercest competition. OR they slide back into being a losing team. I am going to be the bat out of hell, the fiercest competition, my 2026 is going to be stellar creatively, professionally, personally, all of the above. I will not settle for anything less.

I am going to write about that more for my last post of the year, but I am going to have goals for next year, but they are not going to be so defined and specific that I can never achieve them. That’s something I need to work on. I would do something I was very proud of, someone would tell me they were proud of me, and then I would look at them as if they had three heads and say “But you know I’m not writing three ongoing titles a month yet, and I haven’t gotten my Eisner, right?” I am extremely difficult on myself, and I’m going to be working on that, while not giving up going after the things I want. Balance. I’m working on balance.

What is the rest of the year here at the Weekly Up-Dave going to look like? Great question. Next week we will have a shorter post as it is a holiday week. Then depending on how many questions we get for the second annual HoliDave Q&A, we will either do that for one or two weeks. Then the last post of the year will be talking about the goals I have for 2026 and the things I accomplished in 2025. And then for the last two weeks of the year, we will go dark. In 2026 we will have a lot to talk about, especially in Mid-January when my second cool project of 2026 is announced, it’s going to knock your socks off. It knocked mine off, and I am still looking for them. Seriously, it’s a problem.

Team, we have eleven days left in this month, and eleven days for you to get your questions in for this years HoliDave Q&A. What kind of questions are we looking for?

I am hoping to get at least ten questions like we did last year. If we get more I will be able to break the HoliDave Q&A into two weeks of posts which would be…pretty sick. So, I strongly encourage to send in a question (or two) to [email protected], we are taking questions until the end of November and they will all be answered early in December.

Like I said, next week’s post will be brief, but you will still see me.

Until then?

Stay safe.

—Dave Wielgosz