Hello and welcome back to the Weekly Up-Dave!

After months of lead up, Showdown #1 came out yesterday in comic book stores across the country, and from reports I got also in the country of Canada, and…it was one of the best days of my life.

I slept in a little after a long night of writing, had a delicious bagel with a dash of margarine, and then my phone was consistently receiving messages from friends, peers, and comic book fans letting me know they had read the book and truly loved it.

Then late yesterday afternoon I went to Collector’s Paradise North Hollywood and signed for three hours. Many local friends and peers came through, and it was a joyous three hours. I am typing only a few hours after getting home from that event and the exhaustion is starting to set in, but I have just enough joy adrenaline in the tank to finish this opening!

Something I want to let you know. The last few years have been very up and down for me. High highs and low lows. This year has been the most consistent and happy year I had in a long time. Things had been so good that I was afraid that today my carriage was going to turn into a rotten pumpkin.

It didn’t. I’m still here. I’m still very happy. I have four issues of this book ahead of me to put out. And I have my next three projects lined up. I know what the rest of my year looks like as a comic writer (not that I’m not open to adding more projects) and I feel great. I feel like I’m the person I aspired to be my whole life, and I’m proud of that.

I was a guest on not one, but TWO podcasts this week. I was on the outstanding shows Off Panel by myself, and them I was on Comics XF alongside my Showdown collaborator Tadd Galusha. Give both a listen if you have the time, I think they are both fantastic!

New Comics I Read: The Flash #31-32 by Ryan North, Gavin Guidry, Adriano Lucas, and Buddy Beaudoin. The Flash is very high up there as one of my favorite DC Comics characters of the DC Universe, especially the Wally West incarnation of the character. When I heard these creators were going to be taking over the book and taking Wally in a new direction? I was delighted. After two issues? I’m in love. Ryan North has proven himself to be one of the smartest and most soulful writers working in mainstream super hero comics today. Between this and Fantastic Four he is carving out a place for himself as one of the best plotters and strongest character writers in the business. I LOVE the way he writes Wally West, it feels honest, he feels like a joyful person, he’s funny, but he’s not cartoonish, or a parody of his Justice League The Animated Series counterpart which is a mistake too many writers make. And artist Gavin Guidry? This guy is putting on a show. Between the beginning of this run and his JSA: Year One Arc on JSA with Jeff Lemire, he’s hands down one of the best comic artist of the year. A phenomenal storyteller, he does action wonderfully, every character he draws has tons of personality, and looks cool. He’s grown tremendously as an artist these last few years and I think this year between Flash and JSA he’s going to leave a big mark on the comic business.

New TV Shows I Watched: Hacks Season Five on HBO Max. Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs, and Jen Statsky (two of whom are from Massachusetts!) have created one of the best TV shows of the decade. And listen…I know this decade has a few more years left in it, but hear me out…since 2021 every year they have delivered 8-10 episodes a year of one of the smartest, funniest, most insightful, and character rich comedies of all-time. I am sad that we are finishing up our journey with Debra Vance (American Icon Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (the stellar Hannah Einbinder) is coming to a close. However, the creative team behind this show has paced that journey perfectly. The drama of the show largely came to a big climax last year, this season has felt like a very slow, deliberate, and well-earned goodbye. It’s been a joy to watch. I will miss these characters, this slice of Las Vegas/Hollywood, and this show terribly. However, I have to think that Aniello, Downs, and Statsky are going to create many, many more beloved TV shows and comedy projects in the future. They’re just too damn good not to.

New Music I Heard: Wired by Basement

LP 4 by American Football

Remember the Humans by Broken Social Scene

All three of these are comeback records. Broken Social Scene and American Football put out their last full length albums in 2019. Basement? 2018. And then in the span of a few weeks all of them come back with large, thoughtful, raw, powerful, return-to-form records that blew me away. I will admit that of the three Wired by Basement is the album that’s been in rotation the most, they play a type of Post-Hardcore that I find myself listening to the most genre-wise. BUT I have been a fan of Broken Social Scene since I was a teenager and I stole their album KC Accidental from the bedroom of someone I had a crush on (yeah, I had an adventurous youth, give me a YA Book Deal and I’ll tell you more about it). I have loved all of their work, but all their albums grow on me slowly. Rest assured, they all become classics to me in time. And LP 4 by some of the godfathers of American mid-west Emo scene, American Football, man, this record just rules. The whole album is pretty haunting, my favorite song is definitely “No Feeling” featuring vocals from Turnstile’s Brandon Yates, but I think more of these songs will creep their way into my soul. You would be well-off giving all of these albums a shot. But…here’s my favorite track from Basement’s Wired.

A reminder! This Monday May 18th, 2026, is our Final Order Cut-Off Date for Showdown #2. If you ordered all five issues in advance at your comic book store? You are all set. If you picked up Showdown #1 this week on a lark, and really enjoyed, it, I would absolutely make sure you let your local comic book store know that you want to order issue 2 (and 3 through 5) by this Monday’s May 18th FOC.

Issue one, I couldn’t be more proud of, but I have to be honest…I think Showdown #2 is the best comic book script I have written to date. Tadd Galusha and Triona Farrell’s art on the issue is absolutely stellar, it’s a gorgeous piece of work. And always Clayton Cowles shows why he’s one of the premiere letterers in our business.

Issue two releases on Wednesday June 24th, 2026. When we get closer to that date, we will talk more about it. Heck, maybe I will have one of my first interviews with someone on the creative team. We will see!

Moving forward our coverage of Showdown is going to shift now that we are entering issues 2-5. I’m absolutely still going to promote it, I want to do more interviews about it, but promotion for this first issue? I did something almost every day for the last three months. And you better believe it paid off and I would do it exactly the same way if I had a time machine, but, my posting about issues 2-5 will be less aggressive.

Something I am very excited about, though, is an idea I had this week which is to interview the rest of the creative team for the book. Interview one member for each of the remaining four issues, and post the interviews on the day the said remaining issues come out.

Next week we are going to talk about something BRAND NEW!

I have it on good authority there is going to be a cool new fun thing that I am going to be able to talk about it, and we are going to talk about it!

Until then?

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz