I’m Always a Writer.

This year is very quickly coming to a close. I’m already reflecting on it and preparing for the next year. We will talk about this more at the end of December when I go over all of the goals I had for 2024, but I succeeded in the writing goals I set for myself. I got six comic script-writing jobs, five of them you know about, and one will be announced next year. Which is awesome, I feel fortunate to have been able to set out this goal and achieve it.

As I type this, I am preparing to send my final samples of the year to the editors I’ve been in contact with and let them know my comic book writing schedule for 2025 is very open, and I want to fill it as much as I can.

Despite achieving my goal of getting six projects, I still wish I had gotten more. I know I would have felt that way if I had gotten twelve writing projects. Right now I am incredibly hungry to take on as much work as I can, but there’s another side to wanting that level of work, and that’s to keep the voices of doubt and fear I have in my head silent. Voices that I know many people have, which makes me feel all the more comfortable talking about my own.

This year I was at my happiest when I was working on those six scripts and the stories that got drawn from them. You will meet writers who tell you that they love having written, but they find the act of writing to be a necessary evil to getting to that point. For me? I love the process of writing. It’s one of the times in my life when I feel the most present that my feelings of doubt and inferiority complexes disappear. I’m focused on the task at hand, building the best story I can, and then actively listening and trying to support my collaborators. When one job was done, and I was waiting for the next one…that’s when things got tricky.

When I didn’t have a script to write or a pitch that I was actively working on, I would feel like I wasn’t a writer. I was somebody who wrote from time to time when the opportunity presented itself, but not the professional I was hoping to be. It’s a feeling that would chase me around, I would talk to friends who would tell me “You are a writer. You’ve been one for a very long time.” Which was helpful, but it’s hard to silence those voices in your head. They would go away when another writing opportunity would come up, but once I’d finish a piece another fear would come into my head…

Then the fear that I would never work again would come about. I think writers of all varieties can understand that one. But when it comes to writing mainstream American comics, especially because I have been an editor, I am painfully aware of the production cycle. When weeks would go by and I’d be looking for work but not getting any, I would know “Okay, right now editors are commissioning work for this month, or this month, or already working on the end of the year.” So even though I’d be looking for work in the Summer, I’d know that the editors I was contacting must be on the verge of completing the staffing on their projects for the end of the year. And even as I type this, I know they’re already thinking about Spring of 2025 and beyond.

One of the main things about being a comic writer in the mainstream market is you want to have something out as often as possible. At the very least you want to have something out every month when you’re starting. This fall I have been lucky that I had a book out in October, two out in November, one in December, and one in January. It’s the most consistent my comic releases have been since Man-Bat came out in 2021.

However, as I type this, I do not know what the vast majority of my 2025 looks like writing-wise. I’m unsure how many jobs will come my way, who is considering me for things, or if I will achieve my goal of trying to at least double my output from this year, and make some of those projects longer than the ones I did this year. Right now, though, I’m feeling at peace because I have figured out something huge. And that is how to feel like I’m a writer all the time, because I am.

This started in September, I had finished the last comic script I was assigned, I was waiting for scripts I had written stories for to finish being drawn, and I reached out to folks, letting them know I was looking for work for the fall and 2025. I got nice responses, but no new work came. The doubt and voices set in, and I was feeling pretty rough. My friends told me things were not as bad as I felt, and they were right, but when you’re in the center of a storm you’ve created…you don’t know that.

A couple of things got me turned around. This Newsletter and doubling down on my commitment to making it more regular were big deals. With this Newsletter, I have something that I write every single week and send out into the world, and slowly but surely, the readership is growing. It allows me to promote my work in a way that feels holistic, and I also communicate and share parts of myself on my terms, which is important.

Then there was LA Comic Con. I had applied for an Artist Alley table earlier in the year so I could sell and sign my comic books at the show, but I found out I applied too late. Then, a couple of weeks before the show happened, I got an email saying that they had opened up more tables, and if I wanted one, I needed to let them know that day. I know I wrote about this a few weeks back, but I initially thought of saying no. I didn’t think I had the time to put everything together I needed to do this right. But I realized…this was something I was looking for. Something I needed. Not only was tabling at a show on my list of goals for 2024, but I was asking the universe to remind me I was a comic writer as I was waiting for more work to happen, and this was a clear thing as was going to be sent my way.

I said yes, and thank the universe I did because it was one of the greatest experiences of my comic book writing career so far. I got to sit with my full body of work in an awesome magazine rack (That was a huge hit at the show by the way), and people came up and asked me about my work, supported it, and asked me to sign it. It was a reminder that even though I may be waiting for the next thing, I have done a lot of work already, and that work is only going to reach more people with my persistence and promotion.

Doing the show and writing the Newsletter has gotten me in the headspace of reminding myself that I am a comic book writer every day, and I need to do things every day to reaffirm that. Writing is the most important one. I’m working on pitches, sending pitches, and again preparing to send a whole new batch of work out to people. But also posting online is important, interacting with my peers and seeing if I can support them is important, going to the comic store every week and reading what is coming out is important, keeping track of the books I have, treating my day as a writer like I’m managing a small business (which is what I’m doing), and a list of other stuff. Also… I don’t want to sound like a faux-mental health guru, but just saying to myself “I am a comic writer” when my brain says I’m not, goes along a lot further than you would think.

So right now…I am waiting for work, I am waiting for projects to wrap up so I can share them, but I am also celebrating the victories I have had. Practicing gratitude so I don’t fall into despair. I am making sure that I keep this Newsletter has become so important to me coming out at a regular pace. And I am promoting the hell out of the upcoming signing I have in Easthampton, Massachusetts on December 21st, 2024 from 1 PM to 5 PM, where you can get me to sign your comics, come get some new comics, and support a great LCS (Local comic book store) before the holidays hit.

And I am telling you and telling myself…I’m Dave Wielgosz, I’m a comic book writer. And I’m a comic book writer every day. A pretty damn good one.

That’s it for this week. Next week we are going to have a HUGE post talking about Batman: The Brave & The Bold #19. Not just the story by me and Nikola Čižmesîja, but possibly ALL four stories in that anthology issue. Stay tuned!

Also don’t forget that I am still getting questions for the first annual Dave Wielgosz Holiday Q&A. I am taking questions at [email protected] until 11/29/24. Ask me about the comics I’ve made, ask me about the process of making comics, ask me about pop culture stuff, ask me about various writing things, and be cool. Don’t send me scripts, don’t send me pitches, don’t send me treatments, and don’t send me mean stuff. And if you want me to run your name with your question, just let me know. As I type this we have four awesome questions, I would love to get to ten if we could, help me with my holiday dream! Of giving YOU more content!

All right, that’s it!

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz