Once a year I am lucky enough to be invited to speak to a comic book writing class taught by a fantastic former colleague of mine. Every time I come in the topic of that week’s class is different. This time around the topic was collaboration and I got to speak alongside one of my favorite all-time comic book artists, and a comic book artist I had been lucky enough to work with before, Scott Kolins best known for his long runs on The Flash, Marvel Team-Up, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Blue Beetle, and the recent Patra with writer James Robinson.

We had a great time talking to the students. Scott has worked with more great comic book writers than I have fingers and toes, and he has written plenty of his own material, so I learned a lot from what he had to say. And fortunately when I spoke with far less experience he was kind enough to support what I was saying and let me know my instincts were correct. He’s a good dude.

I think about collaboration a lot. Mainly because I am a comic book writer and my work does not exist unless I am paired with an artist, letterer, and colorist to turn those scripts I write into fully realized comic books. Also as a fan of comics, movies, television, music, and other collaborative mediums…I spend a lot of time thinking about the magic that happens when people work together. And how exciting it is when people work together again and again, but also when people work together for the first time.

Right now I am working with three different artists on three different comic book projects. The one project you know about…the mini-series Showdown coming out from Ignition Press has me collaborating with artist Tadd Galusha, colorist Triona Farrell, and letterer Clayton Cowles.

I finished my scripts for the project last year, so my role right now is giving feedback, being available to change things if they need to be updated, and supporting the heck out of this amazing team I am a part of. Showdown is a very personal comic for me, it comes from a lot of real places, but it doesn’t just belong to me. Tadd and I are co-creators and every time we talk I make it clear this work is our’s. And we are unbelievably lucky to have Triona and Clayton working with us, I want them to enjoy this experience as much as possible, not only because I want to work with them again, but because I think of how much time goes into making a comic? And if you don’t enjoy it…if you don’t feel like you’re on the team…man, that idea just breaks my heart. I mention it in the next section of the Newsletter, but I think the four of us worked really well together in the first issue. I think in the second issue we found our groove and really knocked it out of the park. And that comes with trust, effective communication, having an excellent editorial team guiding us, and all being professionals.

The other big project that you don’t know about yet, I have written sixty percent of it. I am working with a very talented artist and this will be their first published work. That carries a lot of responsibility. This is an artist who approached me about collaborating, and who has quickly shown me that they are one of the hardest working and most dedicated people I have met in comics to date. They want to do this so bad it hurts. I am doing everything I can to match their energy, provide great scripts for them to draw, AND act as a guide into the world of comics while never being condescending. When you all see the work this person has been doing…it’s going to blow you away. They are a star in the making.

The last of these three projects is the shortest, and it should be announced in the next month. A really fantastic short story opportunity that came up, I wrote a script and then was paired with an artist I have never heard of. However, upon seeing their portfolio…I was blown away. I am a huge fan of comic book art, and all types of it, but I never imagined I would ever get to work on a story that looked like this. We finished the pages on it last week and flipping through them…I was totally knocked out.

The thing that was unique on this project was, it was the most my script was changed by the artist, and I gotta tell you…I was so excited by that. I understood almost all of the updates the artist made to the storytelling, paneling, and page breakdowns. There was a few moments we went back and forth on, but we were never arguing. We were challenging each other and figuring out how to make each page as impactful as possible. It was riveting. A totally different chemistry than I have with Tadd and the secret artist in the paragraph above, but one I was so glad to experience.

And that’s really the most important part of collaborating for me…if I do my job right…if I write good material, if I am a good collaborative partner, and I inspire everyone to do work they are proud of, maybe they will want to work with me again. That includes editors too, you want to pitch and deliver work to editors that inspires them to go “I want to make this comic, fight for this comic and see it out the door.” On the artist front, I absolutely want to work with Tadd and these two secret artists again. We’ll see if I am lucky enough to have that happen.

I will leave you with the piece of advice I gave on collaboration, from a comic book writer’s perspective, that seemed to resonate the most with the class I spoke to. A comic book script is an invitation to collaborate. Sure someone might be able to read the script and tell you that you are good at writing, but really…the script is you asking people to invest weeks, maybe even months, of their creative energy to work on this project and make it as cool as possible. I am grateful that the invitations I sent out on these three projects brought so many amazing people to work on them.

This week Ignition Press released their June solicitations which included a first look at the two covers for Showdown #2. Our stellar main cover by the legendary Steve Lieber and red hot artist (in this case colorist) Dillon Snook. And the outstanding variant cover by series artist and Showdown Co-Creator Tadd Galusha. One thing that’s been very important for me to stress in the lead-up to the series release is that our story builds up to a major showdown between the characters of Trish Sullivan and Harvey Harlowe. But every single issue has at least one showdown: physical, psychological, and sometimes a showdown with your past.

Issue 2 will follow Harvey during his first 24-hours before his showdown with Trish. Examining his life, his past, why no one will forgive him, and why he won’t forgive himself for the death of Michael Sullivan. This issue is a knockout punch. Tadd drew the hell out of the issue there are pages that will be etched in my memory forever, Triona Farrell’s colors are out of this world, and once again Clayton Cowles brings everything together with his letters.

And for me…I had written the beginning of Showdown many, many times. Issue 2 is where I felt like I really started to get to stretch, expand on characters, take chances with the narrative, and see what was going to happen even though I knew where we were going to end up in the conclusion. It’s a piece of work I’m very proud to be a part of.

And you will be able to buy it on June 24th, 2026. The Final Order Cut-Off Date for the issue is May 18th, 2026.

But, you have to order the first issue first. And again…you can put in your orders for the first issue (and the whole mini-series to make your life easier) by Monday April 6th, 2026. And the first issue will be released on Wednesday May 13th, 2026. It’s coming up fast. We have a little over a week to get those orders up.

New Movie I Watched: Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. What a tremendous way to start off the blockbuster movie season. This adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel, screenplay by Drew Goddard, Directed by Lord & Miller, and a tour de force leading performance by Ryan Gosling where he shows off all his skills is firing on all cylinders. This movie shattered all expectations for it’s box office last weekend for a reason, it’s a dazzling movie that demands to be seen on the big screen, and it is by far the best looking multi-hundred million dollar budgeted movie I have seen in years. And if you’re going to spend that amount of money? The movies should always, always look this good. I laughed, got scared, got sad, was in awe, and found myself asking with childlike wonder “How did they do that?” Go see this movie ASAP.

Old Movie I Watched: The Nice Guys, Directed by Shane Black. I rewatched this for two reasons. One, after loving Project: Hail Mary I was very much feeling up to viewing something else with Gosling in it. Two, the movie was going to be the subject of this week’s Rewatchables podcast on The Ringer podcast network. I saw this movie when it came out, loved it, and was bummed when it did not make all the money in the world. Ten years later? It’s aged incredibly well, I liked it even more on this go around, and it’s clear the movie has amassed a much larger audience from streaming and cable. Gosling and Russell Crowe are off the charts fantastic in this movie. I forgot that Margaret Qualley was in this movie, that was a nice surprise. And I also forgot the legendary Keith David was in this movie too. A treasure trove of a film. Highly rewatchable. And I will not be waiting another ten years before I experience it again.

New Comics I Read: The War by Garth Ennis, Becky Cloonan, Tamra Bonvillain, & Patrick Brosseau. Project Hail Mary made me aspirational that in the face of the end of the universe we as humanity would get over our collective bullshit and come together to fix the problems facing us. The War was as cold a glass a water that could have been thrown on me after watching that movie. This phenomenal graphic novel follows a group of New York City couples as they face down the start of a Nuclear War. This book is grim, it pulls no punches, it’s psychologically intense, and it offers very little in terms of optimism but…I thought it was a brilliant piece of work. Garth Ennis and Becky Cloonan are two great comic creators and they collaborated tremendously. Tamra Bonvillain as per usual shows why she is one of the best colorists in comics, and I’m always here for Brosseau’s terrific letters. This is a challenging book, especially challenging with the world we’re living in right now, but I also think we need more challenging works in comics.

New TV Show I Watched: Ted Season 2 on Peacock. I loved season one of Ted on Peacock, I was shocked how much I loved it. Don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed the original movie when it came out, but still, the quality of the first season took me off guard. I really enjoyed Season 2. Because of how much work goes into making Ted the bear look good, this is the last season of the show, and I’m going to miss it. Primarily because the chemistry of the cast (Seth McFarlane as Ted absolutely included in that) is just off the charts, it’s a phenomenal group of actors who have great chemistry. Also as much as I adore a dramedy…it was awesome to have a live action show that was very much primarily going for jokes. We need some more of that. I didn’t love AI Bill Clinton, I thought it would’ve been funnier if McFarlane had just worn a wig and done his Clinton voice, but now we have a case study of “Hey, here’s a version of this AI thing they did in a show I really like, and I did not like it.”

That’s it for this week, gang.

Next week we will only be a few days out from the Final Order Cut-Off for Showdown #1, so I would be prepared for some kind of Showdown heavy-post. When you’re promoting something…you have to really shut off any kind of potential embarrassment you may have. I have definitely had moments over the last week where I was like “People are sick of me talking about this.” and I have then had to say to myself “Too bad, this is your dream, and you need to be the number one advocate for it, if that bothers people, they can look away or press mute on you.” I am proud of the book. It’s a great piece of work. I know if people give it a chance they will love it, but I have to get you to give it a chance. That’s the most challenging part.

Anyway, I’ll be here to convince you next Thursday.

Until then?

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz