What a strange trip this has been! So much happening in comics, at home and in the world. I don’t know as it’s entirely appropriate to share everything outside of comics (as this is a comics-centric operation, you know), but a Year in Review needs to be posted to provide historical perspective…but also to give me time to reflect, consider past efforts and to focus my thoughts as the new year dawns.
So let’s look at Phoenix Productions, issue by issue, for 2023. Click on the images to read/order copies of the zines.
April 2023
I forgot that this was the first thing I published in 2023. It took four months to come up with…anything? Wow.
The little marketing effort hasn’t taken off as a cross-selling platform for different small press creators, but it has provided me with a nice little piece to toss in with my mail shipments and to give out at zine fests.
April 2023
2023 United Fanzine Organization Awards
A side project to help out with the United Fanzine Organization co-op, I managed the annual “best of” awards – which Chairman Steve Keeter and I nicknamed “The Saucers”.
It was great to help recognize some of the fanzine worlds’ brightest lights. In fact, I enjoyed the experience so much that I’ll be doing it again in 2024!
May 2023
In which I took the reins on drawing my little minicomic, yet in a way that experiments and lets me tell the story without being distractingly bad on the art front while I figure it out in real time. I really enjoyed creating AI scenes of the global locales that perfect fit my script…and then superimposing my characters into these scenes. AI art has a deserved bad rap, but I’d like to think that my approach to it is more acceptable.
May 2023
And the fun continues! I plotted this arc so long ago, and it’s been a waiting game to get to the back 1/3 of the story. Why? Because that’s where the real action is! Reestablishing characters, setting motivations, planting seeds…it all takes time, and 8-page minicomics don’t give you a ton of space to do it. But think about what we learned from Hologram 8 – he can travel in space, he has massive power capacity…and his well of power gets drained at a cost. See? Every little page adds to our knowledge. Just as I planned.
July 2023
Strange Times started as a repository, a catch-all, for stuff that wouldn’t fit into my hero comics. It’s turned into something truly special. This issue represents a major step in that direction. Working for months with Walking Man Comics’ Matt Levin to build out a career-spanning retrospective and sampler was an absolute joy, and the book is a showcase of his creativity. Nobody did it like Matt back in the 80s…and nobody does it like him today.
This zine also was responsible for the biggest “unboxing” moment of the year. I had only seen Matt’s work in black and white, and while the digital work was in color…it didn’t hit me until the color copies came in. I was blown away, filled with excitement at sharing it with him and the rest of the world.
A magical zine, indeed.
July 2023
Hologram: Counting the Days Book One
My intention all along was to put the Counting the Days arc into a collected edition, but the decision to move to drawing myself made a halfway split appropriate. William Caddell was cool (brave?) enough to take a chance on me when I was just getting back into the mix, and we had an impressive run together. In retrospect, the collected edition tells the story better; 50-60 pages allows the reader time to get into the story flow.
August 2023
Slight change of plans in this issue…a little less AI, a little more me. Not sure if that’s a good thing for the reader, but it forced me to raise my art game. I won’t lie, it was fun to draw some homage pages based on Superman illustrations from some of the greats. I’ll also note that this was published back in August…and nothing came since. We can allow that Strange Times 4 was a large anthology undertaking (never mind the transition to Amazon print-on-demand), but stopping cold on Hologram for 5 months is kinda unacceptable. No one to blame but me.
August 2023
By this time, I had the drawing bug pretty seriously. And I had this story, actually the first idea I conceptualized when I decided to start making zines and comics again, that I had never acted upon. So I started.
We’re just getting started, and this is yet another experiment in serialized storytelling, but it’s been a fun challenge synthesizing my personal experience, my concerns about the environment, the structures of comics and my very slowly developing skill in sequential art.
Keep an eye on Sherman, Ohio. Something ain’t right there.
August 2023
My only tabling of the year, the SCZF was yet another good time with my daughter. For my money, there’s no better way to connect with other creators than at a zine fest. I look forward to returning (and to finally returning to S.P.A.C.E. in 2024)!
October 2023
In which we introduce our protagonist (or, perhaps, a major player in a slow-developing ensemble cast) and the challenges of trying to get work done as a de facto stranger in a strange land.
November 2023
Phoenix Productions Fall/Winter 2023-2024 Catalog
Does a catalog count as creative content? I dunno, but it took a little while to assemble as I waited for Heroes Now and Strange Times to arrive. It also indulged my wannabe graphic designer, which was fun.
The catalog also is a quick and easy way for me to share my diverse collection of titles, something to toss in mailings and hand out at zine fests. Never can have enough swag!
November 2023
Someone in the United Fanzine Organization suggested that I’m starting a pattern of one Strange Times zine as a creator deep-dive, then the next zine as an anthology. I don’t know as I planned on that, nor whether it will continue that way, but this WAS a big anthology issue. I’m so pleased at the combination of voices in this issue, ranging in gender, style, form and even geography. (There were three amazing Europeans in this zine, something I never could have imagined as a teen zine publisher!)
Content-wise, Strange Times 4 feels like a spiritual successor to issue 2. #2 explored the notions of self-definition with “Who Are You”, but I slipped in a page discussing my early detection of a precancerous condition. With #4, I was well past surgery but still working through the after-effects. The ideas of recovery, overcoming tragedy/challenges and the uneven and incomplete nature of returning to “normal” filled my head. It’s a universal human condition, and each creator shared their own perspective – often their own personal story – to fill it out. I was so touched that they chose to share it in Strange Times 4.
November 2023
Only one Heroes Now in 2023? Huh. That fact was lost on me until I started assembling this list.
There’s a certain comfort zone with this zine, one that makes it so easy to put together. The beats of the hero story, the look of the characters, the visual and written shorthand of the genre. I love making this zine for exactly the opposite reasons of Strange Times. Strange Times is a challenge, often an emotional one. Heroes Now is an expression of joy.
And the story concluded…or, perhaps better stated, continues! The Patriots mission ended, but it’s clear that there’s more to this extraction from Syria than we thought going in. I have a larger storyline in mind, and a challenge will be to move that story forward in the year(s) ahead. If it works out, it’ll be great.
Then we have the illustrations and pinups. Lots of great ones, from fantastic talents, but special mention goes to Keith Newsome. Keith is illustrating the different Phoenix hero universe characters as part of a “Guide to the Phoenix Universe”. And how can I forget Marvel artist Bob Hall sketching the Hero Gallery…and David Tryzenski and Tom Ahearn crafting the “Dark Knight Returns” homage cover?
Again, joy in every page.
So that’s it. 2023 in a single post. 11 zines of every size, shape, color and content and a zine fest to boot. Plus the UFO Awards! On balance, I’m very pleased with the output. No regrets about a single publication. Creative growth as a designer and especially as an artist (remember, I’m still not good…but the growth is evident!). Collaborations with people whose relationships I cherish.
But all of this growth suggests that there’s yet more room to develop, and I’m not sure I took full advantage of the opportunities that life presented. You can read my reflection in Strange Times 4 to see my rationalization. I think — no, I KNOW — I can do better.
But that’s another post for another day.
Thanks to everyone who participated in Phoenix Productions this past year. Whether you contributed to a zine, shared ideas with me online or at a zine fest, purchased a zine…or whatever…you were a part of one of the personal highlights for me of 2023 as I love this hobby and am so happy to share it with all of you.
Be good! And Happy New Year!
Phoenix Productions 
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