There are many endorsed masterpieces I indulged as a young person that I didn’t fully appreciate. I couldn’t for contextual reasons. One of them is a play called Death Of A Salesman by Arthur Miller. I didn’t really get it because I couldn’t relate. A story about expectations and a sad sack family. So what?

Joe Stockdale, my Dramatic Structure professor who was also Dean Emeritus of the Theatre and Film division at the SUNY Purchase School of the Arts (for 16 years), asked the class, “What did Willie Loman want?” Nobody could answer. Stockdale advised us that all good plays bake their characters desires into the script. It’s embedded in the text. Their actions. Their dialogue. And what Willie Loman wanted was “to be well liked.”

Well liked?

In a modern world of social media inspired “likes” and data mining, what does it mean to be “well liked?” It’s clearly more than your typical “like” but to what degree?

I never re-read Death Of A Salesman and I even blocked how it ended. So I had a bad feeling when a red Chevrolet entered the stage and haunted the recent production at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway in NYC, directed by Joe Mantello. Starring Nathan Lane as Willie Loman and Laurie Metcalf as his wife, I suspected that this wasn’t gonna end well. Pay attention to the title, Dean. Remember what Joe Stockdale said. A good writer puts everything you need to know in the words.

Usually I recommend revisiting the books, movies, plays, etc., that we indulged as a kids -- in school -- later in your adult life. After you’ve lived a little. Experienced ups and downs. Big losses and little victories. Navigated the complications of humanity. These stories are more meaningful when you can relate. Can grasp the desperate concept of wanting to be well liked.

Spare your soul the unbearable heartbreak. Don’t see Death Of A Salesman. It’s a masterpiece that will crush you.

His Name was Harvey Pekar
”Saving the legacy of Harvey Pekar: Urgent mission to rescue four full storage units of American Splendor history before it’s lost forever.”

Having been a fan of the American Splendor comix since the 1980s, I’ve always championed the Harvey Pekar cause. I was the guy who advised Ted Hope to produce American Splendor the movie. I was the guy who brought Pekar to DC/Vertigo and illustrated his origin story, The Quitter, and then helped illustrate two American Splendor mini-series edited by Jonathan Vankin. I also helped orchestrate Harvey to write webcomics when he could hardly use a computer and recruited Jeff Newelt to be his editor of The Pekar Project at Smith Magazine. And I will do what I can to help Danielle Batone preserve the legacies of her foster parents Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner, who I consider more than just friends and collaborators, may they rest in peace. The fact that there isn’t a regular shelf of Harvey Pekar’s entire oeuvre astounds me. And I hope fans of American Splendor, et al, will chip in to help Danielle shine a new light on such ground breaking and historically important work and materials.

You can help HERE

REAL LIFE COMIX: Only In New York, the comix anthology I co-edited with Doug Latino (published by Cosmic Lion Productions) features 52 NYC stories by 69 creators, including Jack Kirby’s only comix memoir, “Street Code.” The entire tome is headed to the printer and is scheduled to be in comic book stores on September 9th. The Final Order Cutoff date is August 10th. Please let your local comic shop know and pre-order the book.

ALSO — if Panick Entertainment’s Kickstarter hits a certain goal, you’ll get to see and read my Attack of the Killer Tomatoes story! Click HERE to pledge.

I’m absolutely thrilled and honored. My self-published comic book, CHEST FACE, was nominated for a Ringo Award for ‘Best Short Story.’ Hallelujah Baltimore Comic-con!

Comix creators can vote now. Click HERE.

I’m teaching my comix workshop again at the Art Student’s League in September.

Comix Fundamentals: Writing in Pictures and Drawing Narratives
Class #6583
This is a 4-day workshop taking place on September 14, 15, 17, and 18. There will be no class on Wednesday, September 16.

Workshop Description:

It’s time to tell your story. In this workshop, a Ringo and Emmy-winning artist will teach you about layouts, scripts, and the iterative process of bringing your ideas to life in comics. Students are encouraged to come to class with a story to tell and the materials (traditional or digital) they wish to illustrate it with.

This workshop includes a lecture and exercises on the fundamentals of storytelling. Students should expect to produce a finished layout of their story or a scene from it. The instructor will be present throughout and will offer individualized feedback as well as general tips on approaching the craft. All skill and experience levels are welcome; however this class is designed for students who are comfortable drawing from their imagination.

ENROLL HERE

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

In January 2021, I did an interview with Daniel Elkin at Solrad where I gave advice on making comix for a living. Soon after, I soured on the business of comic books, got allergic to pitching to publishers, and nearly quit the medium. In early 2023, I was mentoring six cartoonists at The Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida and I was at the end of my freelance rope when I decided to rediscover the joy of crafting stories and crowdfund that joy. Since then, I’ve successfully completed five comix Kickstarters, from Covid Cop to Antimatter. A good five years have passed since I shared that comix career advice and nothing has changed but it hasn’t gotten easier, either. Here’s what I had to say:

What I expect from working with a publisher:

I expect a publisher to do what a creator can’t and/or shouldn’t have to do. I’d like a publisher to offer editorial insight, a livable advance, and a respectable deal. Help manage a reasonable workflow and keep timely communication. Provide great distribution and even better marketing. Why make something nobody knows about or can’t find? I need my publisher to invest in my idea as much as I do even if they don’t own any of the intellectual property. Besides artistic expression, the business of comics is to make money, right? Otherwise, there are many ways for a creator to get eyes on their work and money in their pocket on their own terms.

Why submit to agents and publishers?

I’ve never hired an agent so I can’t advise. I’ve heard legend of some good ones, but, according to colleagues, most agents are lazy and lousy. Be careful.

If you’re pitching cold to a publisher, make it easy yet interesting as possible. Understand your concept inside and out but leave wiggle room for a smart publisher and editor to respond proactively. Provide a compelling title, synopsis, main character descriptions, cool art, and an illustrated scene that helps set the visual tone. And know what the publisher likes. Don’t try to sell a steak to a vegan. But, jelly makes a peanut butter sandwich so much sweeter.

Red Flags creators should look out for…

Run away from NDA’s (Non-Disclosure Agreements) unless it’s Coca-Cola, Disney, or some giant, well-known conglomerate who will PAY you really well to zip your lips. Otherwise, how the hell does a stranger know what ideas you’re developing? They could be very similar and suddenly you’re in a legal battle over Captain Ginormous! ALSO, work with a publisher who’s had at least 5-years of publishing experience. It should’ve given them enough time to make their rookie mistakes and manifest a strong strategy that works.

Take a lower-paid illustration job in return for…

Exposure? Nah. You can always take a lunch break in the sun if you want exposure. The only reason I might discount my rate is if I was getting work in bulk or I was trading it for something like a root canal at the dentist or an operation for my cat at The Vet. Decide what your rates are for friends, family, and business. Respect yourself before you wreck yourself.

When an offer seems to good to be true…

Ask other creators who have worked for said publisher if they’re on the level. Get the lay of the land. Usually, if something’s awry there’s already chatter about it online. But, don’t believe everything you see and read on the internet. Do your homework. Meanwhile, a contract is supposed to be binding. Keeps both parties culpable.

An organization I’d go to for support if I needed advice…

I don’t have a lawyer or agent, but I’ve been a freelancer for 30+ years and I’m lucky enough to know smart people in the business. I tend to lean on them for legal questions, etc. Maybe you, too, know friendly people like that who fight the good fight. I know the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) has been good for creators’ rights. And, The Hero Initiative helps cartoonists in need. In fact, they were the group I curated and co-edited a benefit anthology called PANDEMIX, Quarantine Comics in the Age of ‘Rona, for.

Promoting your work online and at cons…

A communication artist grows up in public, warts and all. Don’t be shy about what you do. Try to be witty and bold but don’t bully. Comfortably engage with your industry veterans, peers, and your readers. Develop healthy relations with movers and shakers but ignore the jerks. Know your community and show up to your own party.

To take care of your health / mental health as an artist…

Stand up. Stretch. Wave your arms. Move around. Rest your eyes and hands. Drink lots of water. Learn to cook food. Eat spicy food. Get cheap massages and go to the Russian-Turkish bathhouse if you don’t have a bathtub to steam in. Indulge in new things on a regular basis. Walk home a different way. Look up.

Things I wish someone had told me before I started working in the comics industry…

There are so many things that recommend making comix. Starting with the low-budget aspect of creating worlds with a full pen and a blank piece of paper. No permissions. No apologies.

BUT…

Making comix can be extremely lonely. Sometimes hard to motivate. Almost impossible to be seen by strangers. Some people are okay with the process. Just making the comic is good enough. And, I applaud that exercise. But MY comic isn’t finished until YOU have read it.

I wish someone could have told 11-year old Dean that comic books would start to cost A LOT more than 35-cents and most newsstands and comic book shops would dissolve, only to be replaced by the realizations of Dick Tracy’s wristwatch radio, Star Trek’s communicator, and Jack Kirby’s Mother Box.

I wish someone had told me that working in the comics industry was the most unprofessional profession, and would basically become free digital content where most fans of the form will never read your stuff or know it even exists. That the coolest medium of all time would be forced to compete with cinematic sisters and blockbuster brothers. Don’t get me wrong, I love movies and TV but Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane said it best when Christopher Reeve’s Superman caught her falling in mid-air and he said, “I’ve got you.” And she said, “You’ve got me? Who’s got you!?”

Remember when “what happened?” was something you were interested in finding out on your own terms? Nowadays, narrative “content” is usurped by spoilers and click-bait aggregators fanning the infinity flames of social media outrage and “breaking news.”

Sure, reading teaches us that it’s one of the main characters who did it in a whodunit, but it’s the journey of getting there, as crafted by the sensibility of a unique author and/or creative team, that makes me a loyal fan.

So, if you so choose to dedicate your life to this, only YOU (and/or your team) can make YOUR comix. Meanwhile, live and learn, seek good advice, but don’t let anyone try to take that away from you. And, if you’re ever granted the privilege to be a custodian of an established property, please be respectful to its legacy. Don’t start drawing funny mustaches on all the characters just because you can.

The recent San Diego Comicon inspired me to throw my own mini-con online.

I have an exclusive set of Down & Dirty cheap cardboard art featuring mainstream superheroes that I sketched while on retreat at Yaddo last month. All pieces are for sale at $100 a pop. I could really use the boost as I’m between paying gigs. If interested, please DM me so we can exchange details. I’m also open for commissions. First come, first served.

If you haven’t gotten a copy of ANTIMATTER #1, my one man anthology featuring 40-pages of brand new stories showcasing my personal pantheon of protagonists (including The Red Hook, Billy Dogma + Jane Legit, Chest Face, Covid Cop, and AI Joe), DM me for details so you can buy it directly from me.

ITEMS:

I did a very fun interview with Chad Farley for Collectors Confessions and he created a graphic collage of my art (see above) with a digital tool called Canvas that turned me into AI Dino. I dug the parlay but I’m disturbed by the fake face. It’s creepy. And now the internet thinks it’s me but THAT’S NOT ME.

If Panick Entertainment’s Kickstarter hits a certain goal, you’ll get to see and read my Attack of the Killer Tomatoes story!

I was interviewed by Zach Rabiroff to discuss crowdfunding for Publisher’s Weekly in the article titled “Inside the Brave New World of Kickstarter Comics.”

Not surprised to learn that Marvel Comics is moving from New York to California. Now DC and Marvel can duke it out in Burbank. BIG UPS to new Marvel editor-in-chief Stephen Wacker who hired me to write and draw a Spider-man story for the 50th anniversary issue of The Amazing Spider-man that I’m still proud of. And, when he was at DC Comics, hired me to draw a fun Justice League story written by the late/great Keith Giffen. And cheers to C.B. Cebulski, a guy who’s always been super kind to me, for transitioning overseas.

One billion dollars.

I’m waiting for Christopher Nolan’s cinematic version of The Odyssey to break one billion dollars before I fork over my hard earned $20 (or whatever it costs to see a movie in NYC these days) because THEN I’LL KNOW IT’S A GREAT MOVIE. Because it made one billion dollars.

In all seriousness, how much money a movie makes NEVER even crosses my mind when I decide to watch one. Why would it? There are so many movies I love and cherish that straddle the financial fringes and — at best — often fall short of what it cost to make and market said movie. Again, none of my business.

I find it odd that part of the marketing strategy for many creative things is how much money it cost to make and how much money it made. It’s akin to Kickstarters where some people wait to pledge until it’s reached its initial goal. Like the project is not worth investing in until there’s a surge of endorsement.

I mean, where do you think cult classics come from?

Join me, Kari Sanders, and the Splash Pages gang tonite @8pm EST.

I can’t believe he’s gone. His funeral was like his own comic con. So much of his art was everywhere. So many people came to pay their respects. Tommy Lombardozzi was a true champion of music, art, theater, community, comix, and was the co-host of The Jacked Kirby podcast — which I was a guest of plenty of times. I’m gonna miss talking old and new comic books with Tommy. And T&A. Tommy loved T&A (who doesn’t?). My condolences to his family, friends and Mike D. We will toast you at Wo Hop. Say “Hi” to Jack for me.

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

One polyp removed. I swear I ate more steamed broccoli in the last year than my entire 59 years. Alas, my Diverticulosis diagnosis is confirmed. I need to eat more salad, fiber and roughage. I’ve been instructed to return for another check up in three years. Don’t skimp on your colonoscopy, people. It’s a life saver.

I’m a guest at IC3 + First Coast Comic Con at Duval Hall, 13601 Normandy Blvd, Jacksonville, FL on Saturday, July 11th 2026. Come see me at table 315 (between James Greene & Mahdi Khene) and catch up on my “Deep Cut” comix (including the newly released ANTIMATTER #1) and buy some of my exclusive Down & Dirty cardboard superhero sketches that I drew while on retreat at Yaddo. I also drew Absolute Superman for the show!

And here’s a Red Hook comic from a series I produce monthly at The Red Hook Star-Revue — for your enjoyment.

I realized some of the stuff I might type in my newsletter I say on the VITO x DINO podcast. And so I hardly ever reshape my stories and/or unsolicited hot takes into an essay. And that’s okay. There’s enough newsletters to go around.

If you’re like me and spend way too many hours alone scratching away at the art table (or travel long distances) and need some human company, take a listen to the free weekly comix adjacent palavers I do with my buddy, Vito Delsante.

See you in Florida (I’ll be there soon, mom)!

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

The thing I love about Yaddo is also the thing I have a hard time with about Yaddo.

The legendary artists/writers residency offers a profound sanctuary for personal creativity but also yields a communal turnstile of coming-and-going creators and disciplines you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Modes and mediums of creativity that can suddenly and significantly impact your work, and often does, in the most unexpected ways.

Like the presentation a composer once gave about the Greek goddess Gaea and how Methane was ruining Mother Earth; influenced my series, The Red Hook. Or the artist who hand illustrated a thirty-foot long scroll with silver paint that illuminated the cosmos by way of human anatomy and made me think differently about the comic books of Jack Kirby and Grant Morrison. Or when the colony chef (a culinary artist in his own right) shared with me some concepts about hunting and gathering and how the mind is growing faster than the body, and the idea of “eating because your mouth is lonely” made its way into a new play I’m writing.

Yaddo exists to feed, shelter, and provide a private space that allows creators to challenge and forge their ideas while fomenting human connections — life-changing conversations — and playing late night games of Sardines in the mansion where creators get to hide, seek, and cuddle at the crossroads of truth and imagination.

Creators Sloane Siegel and Juan Doe asked me to draw a promotional poster for their new comic book series, Lazarus Order, published by Mad Cave Studios. Sloane has a very specific marketing concept that paid homage to old propaganda art and I was honored and happy to oblige.

I got asked to draw a Godzilla vs. New York City cover for the current Godzilla vs America series that IDW is publishing. As you can see, I opted for the classic version I grew up with. I believe this one-shot will come out September 23, 2026.

While on retreat. I’ve been doing a lot more writing than drawing. I’ve cracked a few comic book scripts (here’s looking at you — Antimatter #2), pitches and plays, but I managed to start sketching a round of unsolicited Down & Dirty cheap cardboard art that I dub my “Yaddo 2026” series of superheroes. I might wait to sell them at my booth at IC3 on July 11th, 2026 in Jacksonville, Florida (unless I get early offers I can’t refuse) and whatever doesn’t sell I’ll make available online (stay tuned).

Happy 53, Vito, my podcast brother and occasional collaborator. Take a listen to the VITO x DINO podcast, our free weekly comix adjacent palavers.

See you in the gutters!

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

I had no intention of going to college after high school.

As a teenager, I had a bitter taste for fine art ever since my beloved comix were wholly rejected by most institutions. I couldn’t afford the School of Visual Arts and I didn’t wanna transit back and forth to New Jersey for the Joe Kubert School. Besides, I’d basically learned a lot about making comix by assisting masters of the field, Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin and Walter Simonson during my senior year at La Guardia High school. And I was gonna try to get paid comic book work. My first portfolio reviews were at Heavy Metal and MAD magazines. Both met with kind tips to “keep up the good work and come back in six months.”

I continued to live in my upper west side apartment/home with my father (Mom and my late brother, Mike, split to Brooklyn when my parents broke up) and it was a quiet, albeit sad and lonely time.

Most of my good friends got into SUNY Purchase college for film and art and I wound up visiting them a lot over the next two years while I took part-time gigs working in restaurants and other jobs I had no real interest in with the occasional drawing work. Regular weekend visits to SUNY Purchase meant I could co-star in their films and become a known quantity among student peers and teachers. Within that two year hiatus from studying, I convinced my parents to pay for college if I got in. Or maybe it was the other way around. My parents noticed how much time (and fun) I was having away from home, collaborating on projects, and convinced ME to go to SUNY Purchase.

The semester before I was going to become a freshman, a few senior filmmakers wanted to pull a prank at their graduation ceremony. They’d recruited some of my good friends who were also filmmakers and somehow I got involved. Back then I had no shame. I was an open book and an open wound. Nothing and everything hurt me but I didn’t care. I wasn’t a narcissist but I might’ve felt a little nihilistic. My own worst enemy with a comic book-sized chip on his shoulder! (Later on I would discover a small community of cartoonists who contributed to The Load, the college newspaper)

The prank was gonna involve one of the filmmakers who looked a lot like Jesus Christ to storm the stage with a thick, four foot long cock, strapped around his waist and spew some kind of message that, to be honest, I was not privy to nor did I ever find out what he was supposed to say. But before they could storm the stage, a stage that sat prominent staff members and the likes of singer/actor/civil rights activist Harry Belafonte (”Day-O”), me and another student (who I’d basically met on the spot) were supposed to distract the students, families and audience while the pranksters ran to take over the microphones on stage.

The signal was given. I took a swig of whiskey and went to hand it to my partner-in-crime but he was no where to be seen. Abandoned, I knew I had a job to do and kept my word as I screamed (as scripted), “Jesus is back and he’s bigger than ever before!” Over and over. For some reason, hardly anyone noticed me as the crowd was clapping for someone or something (I can’t remember who or what) and the rebel filmmakers took the stage hostage.

There I was, a lone perpetrator trying to distract everyone while the four foot long cocksure Jesus started his speech and suddenly everything went dead. A frozen moment in time. It took a second to realize that some genius pulled the plugs on the microphones, killing the broadcast and making the stunt moot. The rebel filmmakers looked at each other and scattered off stage in defeat. Their prank had fizzled. Their message unheard.

Suffice it to say there was a lot of anger and upset. There was a tribunal. The seniors lost their diplomas, even though they went on to make movies, and my good friends, the ones who still had to show their faces in school the next year or two, were put on suspension.

And so was I.

How? I wasn’t a student there. Yet.

But there was a video.

During the tribunal, one of the film teachers kept pointing out this guy who was waving his hands and shouting and kept wondering who that was. My friends didn’t rat me out but, eventually, the film teacher remembered I was the subject of a faux-documentary my good friend made and he put two-and-two together.

Busted! I got a letter. Or was it a phone call? I don’t remember. Alerting me to the fact that I was going to enter SUNY Purchase college as a freshman under suspension. Did I make the Guinness book of World Records? Perhaps. But I walked in already a bad ass with a reputation. A reputation that was instantly squandered when I found out what my punishment was going to be as per my suspension duties.

See, The New York Knicks basketball team had just signed on to use the SUNY Purchase gym facilities as their practice space. Which meant we got to see the Knicks play or wander around the food court. My job was to work one of the reception desks in the gym but also wash and dry the NY Knicks hammocks. Or, at least that’s what I thought I was washing and drying. Those NY Knicks hammocks turned out to be NY Knicks jock straps. Much more intimate than a hammock and drenched in sweat. I remember feeling pissed off. Just because I was lightly involved in a dumb prank gone wrong didn’t mean I should be humiliated into washing and drying giant jock straps (not that there’s anything wring with that).

When I told my friends what I’d been subjected to they could barely pick themselves off the floor from laughing. Those giant jock straps got a lot of mileage and my once semi-nihilistic feelings turned an inner frown upside down and I felt less lonely. I found the humor.

My suspension didn’t last too long as I elected to quit and never go back to that gym even though the NY Knicks used it for practice for the next ten years. Luckily, no one on staff was checking my attendance and I walked away with a funny story to tell.

Go New York KNICKS!

--Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

Yaddo hosted its first residency on June 7, 1926 with painter Ursula Whitlock from NYC and writer Joseph K. Hart from Madison, WI. I happen to be on residency at Yaddo on June 7, 2026, one hundred years later with a magical group of creatives. Happy 100 to Yaddo and all the mighty creators who came here to crush imposter syndrome, wrestle demons, experiment, excavate emotional truths, shape their souls, fail hard and make art.

June 7^th is also Prince’s birthday who was born in 1958 and gave the world so much great music and songs. RIP.

Filmmaker, cartoonist/artist & songwriter Onur Tukel hosts a monthly salon at Pinky Swear, and he invited me, Whitney Matheson (who’s short story collection THE FEELING inspired the salon), and others to divine scenes to be performed by actors. My scene, “Nobody’s Perfect,” was performed by Jamie Block and Kristin Noriega, and I wanted to share the script with you here.

A few years ago I wrote a weird screenplay about siblings named Stella and Carl, and it didn’t really work like how I wanted it to. When Onur invited me to contribute to his salon, I decided to cobble together a few ideas and revisit the siblings to see if I can tackle their story a different way.

Enjoy this brief, light-hearted scene.

NOBODY’S PERFECT
Written by Dean Haspiel
Copyright 2026

INT. MOVIE THEATER - DAY

Siblings Stella and Carl wait for a movie to start while discussing film.

STELLA
--but a horror movie isn’t supposed
to be funny. That’s why it’s a
horror movie. You go to get scared.
If you want to laugh, watch a
comedy.

CARL
Why limit genres to their basic
tenets?

STELLA
Name one horror movie that makes
you laugh -- on purpose.

CARL
“Abbott & Costello meet
Frankenstein.” The perfect
intersection of humor and horror.

STELLA
“Abbott & Costello meet
Frankenstein?” Isn’t that a
stretch?

CARL
“Get Out.”

STELLA
You get out.

CARL
No. “Get Out” the movie by Jordan
Peele. It’s both funny AND scary.

STELLA
That movie spooked the hell outta
me. But, I’ll admit, it made me
laugh out loud, too.

CARL
Hitchcock did it. The Coen Brothers
do it. Tarantino does it but he’s
gone next level.

STELLA
Next level? How?

CARL
Have you seen INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
or ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD?

STELLA
Not yet.

CARL
Tarantino has this trick up his
sleeve where he takes real stories,
real people, and fictionalizes a
new reality.

STELLA
He’s doing science-fiction now?

CARL
Not exactly. I won’t spoil it for
you but ONCE UPON A TIME...IN
HOLLYWOOD is Tarantino’s love
letter to the end of a certain era
of motion pictures. He makes you
wonder what it would have been like
had Sharon Tate lived to make more
cinema.

STELLA
The power of imagination. Remember
what dad used to say about
midnight?

CARL
No.

STELLA
Dad would claim, “There are things
you would never ever consider doing-
-”

CARL
“--before midnight.” I do remember
that. What did he mean by that?

STELLA
He meant, there are things you ARE
willing to do AFTER midnight!

CARL
Well, that explains a lot.

STELLA
All that trouble he would get into
in the wee hours. I admired his
desire for adventure.

CARL
Hate to break it to you but Dad was
probably a criminal.

STELLA
Nobody’s perfect.

CARL
“Some Like It Hot.”

STELLA
Excuse me?

CARL
“Nobody’s perfect” is the last line
in Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It
Hot,” starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack
Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

STELLA
Isn’t that a crime noir that’s also
a comedy?

CARL
And a musical. It’s about two male
musicians on the run from mobsters
after witnessing a massacre. They
dress up like women to hide out in
an all girl band.

STELLA
I’ve gotta see that one!

CARL
Spoiler! A millionaire falls in
love with Jack Lemmon’s female
incarnation who has to finally
admit he can’t birth children. That
he, in fact, is a man. The
millionaire smiles and says
“Nobody’s perfect.”

STELLA
Adorable. Did you hear about that
dude who married a fictional
character?

CARL
Say what?

STELLA
People who date fictional
characters are called fictosexuals.

CARL
Ficto...sexuals? They fuck fiction?
How does that work?

STELLA
I’m not sure but the dude was
married to a real woman and then he
fell in love with a drawing of a
woman. Left his wife for a cartoon
character.

CARL
When I was thirteen, I had such a
major crush on Wonder Woman that I
married her...in my mind.

STELLA
The comic book or the movie?

CARL
The TV show.

STELLA
You didn’t fall in love with Wonder
Woman. You fell in love with Lynda
Carter. WE ALL DID.

CARL
Semantics!

STELLA
Could you imagine a world where
Lynda Carter and a still alive
Sharon Tate are in a TV show,
kicking ass and taking names?

CARL
You’ve just described my safe
space.

STELLA
But safe spaces can be dangerous.
Everyone hiding out like Jack
Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

CARL
There was this guy who used to roll
himself up in a large rug and plop
himself on street corners and get
stepped on by a thousand feet.

STELLA
That can’t be real.

CARL
I swear! It happened to me! A giant
rug was in my path. So, I stepped
on it and BOOM – a guy exploded out
of the rug and started screaming
like a wild banshee. Gave me a
heart attack.

STELLA
You gotta admire a person who knows
what they want. Takes the rules and
bends them towards their will. Just
like dad.

CARL
And Quentin Tarantino.

STELLA
Nobody’s perfect.

LIGHTS OUT

##

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

The late/great actress Marilyn Monroe turns 100 on June 1st, 2026.

My father, James Haspiel, met Marilyn when he was 16-years old. At their first meeting he asked for a kiss on the cheek and the rest is history. A fan who became a friend, Dad knew Marilyn the last eight years of her life and has written three books on her. His first book, Marilyn - The Ultimate Look at the Legend, tells the story of their relationship and her life and tragic death.

Even though Marilyn became an icon, Dad dedicated a lot of his life defending and honoring her humanity. There’s a lot more I can say about Dad and all the cool people he encountered and knew. Being in the right place at the right time. But most of his stories have been published and/or televised. He is THE authority on MM. You can look him up.

On May 21, 2026, I visited my father in his home and asked if we could spontaneously chat about his old pal, Marilyn, and record it on my smart phone. He agreed.

Here’s a 30+ minute interview with my father talking about his old pal Marilyn regarding her 100th birthday.

Happy 100, Marilyn!

love, Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

I met actress & stand-up comedian Hannah Einbinder at my local ice-cream shoppe, Farmacy, in Carroll Gardens, BKNY. We talked about her great HBO show Hacks, Molly Crabapple’s new book Here Where We Live Is Our Country, and Hannah’s upcoming horror movie Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. She was super nice and I look forward to the finale of Hacks this Thursday.

Here’s a Red Hook comic I did for The Red Hook Star-Revue titled “Dead Meat.”

I was visiting my mother in Florida when I got the call from actor/cartoonist Tony Wolf. When he told me what he was concocting, I immediately said “Yes.” Six weeks later he would have what would become TIMES LIKE THESE.

43 creators. 7 Eisner winners/nominees. Assembled in 6 weeks. 80 pages. Initiated & edited by Tony Wolf, with associate editor Eli Schwab. Published & distributed by Cosmic Lion.

TIMES LIKE THESE is an 80-page protest giant! At this critical time in history, celebrate progressive artists, free speech, and healthy dissent! This unique art gallery & comics one-shot takes on some of the key issues of our time. All proceeds (after printing costs recovered) will be donated to the ACLU.

THE ROSTER: Bill Sienkiewicz, Emil Ferris, Peter Kuper, Gideon Kendall, Liza Donnelly, Rachel Merrill, Keith Henry Brown, Jeremy Nguyen, Dean Haspiel, Alex Hernandez, Koren Shadmi, David Ostow, Tarik Rashaan Davis, Kevin Alvir, Ben Granoff, Alfonso Martin, Stan Mack, Ariel Kahtan, Monique Hernandez, RD Murphy, Steve Brodner, Thomas Gryphon, Barbara 'Willy' Mendes, Lad Decker, Ian Cinco, Doug Latino, Rachelle Meyer, Rick Parker, Ro Higashi, Eli Neugeboren, Gregory Benton, Michael Ricci, Steve Stegelin, J.T. Yost, Nick Forker, Adam Lemnah, Shaun Riaz Mohammed, Spencer Alexander, Gerard Mantese, Eli Schwab, Christian 'Meesimo' Meesey, Tony Wolf, and Peter Rostovsky.

Filmmaker, cartoonist/artist & songwriter Onur Tukel hosts a monthly salon at Pinky Swear, and he invited me, Whitney Matheson, and others to divine short stories and scenes to be performed by actors TONITE; Tuesday, March 26th from 7:30pm - 9:30pm, located at 171A Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side of NYC. I’ll be debuting “Nobody’s Perfect,” starring Jamie Block and Kristin Noriega. And it’s FREE.

Last call! The Ringo Awards are open til May 28th and I’d be honored if you took the time to nominate me and my comic book CHEST FACE for “Best Cartoonist” and “Best Short Story.” Also, please nominate TALES FROM EROTECH (published by SHP Comics), featuring the debut of my latest creation, AI Joe, for “Best Anthology.” You can nominate HERE. ~ Thank you!

Finally, Vito Delsante and I still wax weekly, comix adjacent palavers, via our podcast VITO x DINO. Our latest episode #71, features living legend Ann Nocenti of Daredevil, Longshot, and The Seeds fame (and so much more.)

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

98% of the ANTIMATTER #1 digital and physical rewards have been emailed and shipped. I have a few more commissions to draw and a couple of addresses to accrue before this campaign is officially closed (and prepare for ANTIMATTER #2).

Here’s what J Kevin Carrier had to say about ANTIMATTER #1:

“The themes of love, sex, and relationships are never far from Dino’s mind, and most of these strips broach those topics, whether through the lens of superheroes, sci-fi, or dystopian thrillers. The stories echo and overlap each other, and there’s no doubt that this is the singular vision of a unique creative powerhouse. Love, Dean assures us, is the ultimate act of rebellion, and the ultimate expression of our humanity. That’s a message we need now more than ever.”

That’s mighty kind of ya, JKC — thanks, man! For now, folks can write me directly for details of how to get your signed copy of ANTIMATTER #1.

Apparently, Kickstarter (and creator-driven spaces like Patreon) is making it harder to campaign Mature/Adult-oriented fare and creators are justifiably having a fit. You’d think these corporations would wanna take the money and run but their payment processor (Stripe) is enforcing puritanical policies and that’s not fair. Especially since it was respectful smut and outlier content mainstream publishers don’t produce that helped grow Kickstarter and spawn what is arguably the third biggest publisher of comix — if not THE biggest publisher of independent comix.

Maybe not for long.

“When you’re a kid you want to be a cartoonist and you become one and it’s the dream, but then it slowly becomes a job,” Haspiel said. “So I changed course in 2023 to become my own publisher so I could reinvent what comics meant to me and access the joy of making them again.”

Reporter Jack Whitman talked to me, Josh Neufeld, Tony Wolf, and BICS director/co-founder Aynsley Leonardis about the Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase 2026 for The Red Hook Star-Revue.

On May 11, 2026, I had the privilege of witnessing the street naming of JACK KIRBY WAY on the corner of Delancey and Essex streets NYC, one block away from 147 Essex where the late/great groundbreaking comix creator Jack Kirby was born and raised. Spearheaded by Roy Schwartz, Karen Green and a cabal of movers & shakers, the event was flanked by a who’s who of veteran & rookie comix makers and fans alike, including Jack’s three grandchildren.

Jack Kirby Way not only honors a lower east side kid who grew up to change comic books forever, but helps inspire imaginations of all people who stumble upon “Yancy Street” and beyond.

My father/writer/Hollywood historian, James Haspiel, is in PEOPLE magazine (twice) talking about his late friend/legendary actress/icon Marilyn Monroe for her 100th birthday to journalist KC Baker.

"The Private Marilyn Monroe Was ‘a Gentle Soul’, Recalls Fan-Turned-Trusted Friend"

and

"Why Marilyn Monroe Hated Wearing a Girdle: ‘She Was Real’ Says Longtime Friend"

In May of 1976, 50 years ago, Harvey Pekar self-published AMERICAN SPLENDOR #1. And comics were changed forever. You can listen to a series of podcasts I did with Josh Neufeld that covers a lot of Pekar's comics career and the feature film. Plus our collaborations with Harvey and his influence on our work. And guests. Lots of great guests. Now if only there was a proper library of his work made available for sale and study.

Viva Jack Kirby and Harvey Pekar!

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

Brief message to let my backers know that ANTIMATTER #1 is currently getting packed and mailed the next couple of weeks and I look forward to responses.

Speaking of responses: writer extraordinaire, Adam McGovern, already published his response on Hilobrow and I love it! He totally got what I was going for. Here’s an excerpt:

“Haspiel’s been cutting his own door with these self-published, crowdfunded “Deep Cut” one-shots, and ANTIMATTER feels like both the redemption of blockbuster corporate event-comics and a reinvention of the anarchic sexual psychedelic underground-comix movement of a bygone but surprisingly kindred DIY age. This book tells us that, despite everything we do, it all matters.”

You can read the whole thing HERE

Vito Delsante and I talked to my old high school chum/Keyhole comix co-conspirator, Josh Neufeld on the VITO x DINO podcast #67. We covered many years and plenty of yarns, including Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor.

My current co-created Kickstarter, REAL LIFE COMIX: Only In New York has eight (8) days left in its campaign. 51 stories by 66 creators. Come for the blitz, stay for the schvitz. Check it out HERE.

I talked to Jimmy Aquino at KICx 2026 about the anthology (and other stuff) for Comics News Insider 1707.

I expressed some much deserved love for Trailblazer Turner award winning Don Simpson’s current project, MEGATON MAN: MICROBUS on the Kickstarter community pick column. He’s got 18-days to go. Click HERE to check it out!

And finally, as we enter a robust age of crowdfunding, it would be delinquent of me to not give a heads up to Stephan Franck’s Complete Palomino graphic novel. This 6th and final graphic novel completes the stylish crime thriller set in the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs. Stephen is an annoyingly deft comix creator whose confidence astounds yet galvanizes me to make better comix. Do yourself a favor and check out his cool Kickstarter HERE.

See you in the gutters!

--Dino!

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

Please forgive the brevity and hi-shill factor of this particular newsletter:

Off the heels of KICx and BICS (I’ve yet to share pix), I’ll be a guest at ITHACON 2026 this weekend. I’ll be selling most of my Deep Cut comix, including Antimatter #1, and tabling with Americans UK’s very own Jeffrey Burandt, writer/co-creator of Blood & Brains, Ghost Planet, Killer Bad, Gonad The Ballbarian + more.

I’ll also be taking part in “Do the Batusi: A Celebration of Batman 66,” a panel celebrating 60 years of Batman — “The Adam West way” — on Saturday April 25th, 2026 from 4pm - 5pm in the Klingenstein Lounge at ITHACON. Panelists include Jim Beard, Tom Peyer, and Ed Catto.

If you're interested in taking a three-night workshop with me to learn comix fundamentals at The Art Students League NYC from April 28th - 30th, please register HERE.

Co-editor/writer Doug Latino, Cosmic Lion Productions publisher Eli Schwab and I talked to Bob Harrison & Mike Gold about REAL LIFE COMIX: Only In New York on the Pop Culture SquadCast. See/hear us HERE.

VITO x DINO #66 hosted a live episode featuring many of the contributors to REAL LIFE COMIX (including Jonathan Baylis, Bob Fingerman, Tony Wolf, R. Sikoryak, Pat Palermo, Jen Ferguson, Gideon Kendall & Charles Fetherolf) to help promote the Kickstarter campaign which is going til May 8th. Make sure to check out REAL LIFE COMIX if you haven’t already.

The Ringo Awards are currently open (til May 28th) and I’d be honored if you took the time to nominate me and my comic book CHEST FACE for “Best Cartoonist” and “Best Short Story.” Also, please nominate TALES FROM EROTECH (published by SHP Comics), featuring the debut of my latest creation, AI Joe, for “Best Anthology.” You can nominate here: https://ringoawards.com/ — thank you!!!

Happy birthday Whitney!

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

I had to get dressed up for an Easter brunch at the University Club for my gals family gathering in NYC. But I didn’t have a suit. So I recruited Jen, Whitney and Opal to help me score a suit jacket for $12 at No Relation Vintage Store in BKNY. Now I have something to wear at weddings, funerals and special events.

I’ll be honest. I don’t like wearing a button down shirt. I don’t like to wear professional clothes. I understand it can make me look nice in a dapper way. But I can’t shake the feeling that I’m posing. Pretending to look like someone or something I’m not. A person walks into a room with a tie and I already think they’re lying to me.

The way I fixed that feeling was to line my jacket with blades, grenades, and a MAC-10 for when I roam the streets late at night to fight crime looking like a fancy vigilante named “Tad Harsh.”

But I’ve yet to employ my weapons of crass destruction as I befriend midnight cats, raccoons and possums trying to get by on old food in those brown compost bins. I carry a bag of mixed nuts to leave for the squirrels. Sunflower seeds for the birds. And recycled Wonton soup containers filled with water for all types of life.

Where I feel comfortable — where I feel most like me — is in a black t-shirt, blue jeans and Blundstone boots — while crafting meaningful stories in the world of creator-owned comix and off-Broadway theater. Where both of these extraordinary mediums require your undivided attention — no matter how you look.

ANTIMATTER #1 is in hand! And it's perfect. I couldn't be more thrilled.

Thank YOU, my beloved backers, for helping me realize this comix-based anthology of existential bombast and unbridled heart. Make sure to complete your Kickstarter survey for your campaign reward by Monday, April 20th, 2026.

If you haven't checked out the current campaign for REAL LIFE COMIX: Only In New York, a 216 page hardcover anthology featuring 51 stories by 66 creators, please do.

We got some RLC love from ICv2, AIPT, and The Comics Beat.

RLC co-editor/writer Doug Latino and I talked to contributor Gil Roth about RLC on the Virtual Memories Show #672. Listen HERE.

RLC publisher Eli Schwab, Doug and I talked to John Siuntres at Word Balloon. See/hear us HERE

We talked to comics librarian Jameson on Comix 4 All. See/hear us HERE

Eli and Doug joined Vito Delsante and I on VITO x DINO episode 65. See/hear us HERE

If you're interested in taking a three-night workshop with me learning comix fundamentals at The Art Students League NYC from April 28th - 30th, please register HERE.

On Saturday I'll be tabling at KICx, (Kingston Independent Comics Expo) and participating in a noon panel, “Breaking into comics…and staying there.”

On Sunday I'll be at BICS (the Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase) organized by St. Mark’s Comics in Industry City.

And the weekend after, I'll be at Ithacon, in Ithaca, NY.

This weekend go see my girlfriend Jen Ferguson’s new paintings at DUMBO Open Studios BKNY.

My upstairs neighbors, Emily and Hermes, invited me to read a short story at their monthly Tiny Jazz event. You can see/hear the whole thing here:

A variant cover I drew for GEIGER #24, featuring Junkyard Joe, is coming out from Ghost Machine (by way of Image Comics) soon! Pre-order it.

Where I feel comfortable…standing in the doorway to Jack Kirby’s childhood home located at 147 Essex Street, NYC (a couple of blocks away from El Castillo de Jagua).

RIP Afrika Bambaataa, who with The SoulSonic Force, produced my favorite song of all time, “Planet Rock.”

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

Ahoy!

My one-man comix anthology ANTIMATTER #1 is at the printer and should be in my studio a week from now. I’m excited to get the book into my beloved backers hands and then made more available at shows — only from me. And, as excited as I am about that, I have MORE exciting news:

Co-editor Doug Latino and I, along with Eli Schwab (publisher of Cosmic Lion Productions), have officially launched the REAL LIFE COMIX! Only In New York Kickstarter.

Here’s the skinny:

Coming Fall 2026 from Cosmic Lion Productions, Real Life Comix, Only in New York (Hardcover, 216 pgs.) features 51 short stories in a sprawling, high-voltage, memoir, graphic novel anthology celebrating the grit, glory, absurdity and heart of life in New York City.

Co-edited by veteran comix creators Dean Haspiel and Doug Latino, this vibrant collection brings together a wildly eclectic mix of legendary and emerging voices, including New Yorker cartoonists, MAD contributors, and American Splendor collaborators. Storytellers hail from across comix, comics, graphic novels, literature, art, film, and music, each offering their own take on the city that never sleeps–humorous, heartbreaking, surreal or unmistakably true–capturing the everyday chaos and accidental poetry of New York life.

The anthology features work from cultural luminaries and underground icons alike, including Roz Chast, David Collier, Joe Dator, Gary Dumm, Liana Finck, Bob Fingerman, Drew Friedman, Danny Hellman, Ben Katchor, Gideon Kendall, Keith Knight, Peter Kuper, Barbara Willy Mendes, Rachelle Meyer, Josh Neufeld, Ann Nocenti, Rick Parker, R. Sikoryak, Doug Latino, Noah Van Sciver, Julia Wertz, and Ron Wimberly, Jonathan Ames, Karl Stevens, Onur Tukel, Spencer Alexander, Wesley Allsbrook, Dieu Sam B., Jonathan Baylis, Nick Bertozzi, Wendy Blake, C. Cassano, Cecil Castellucci, Ezra Cumbo, Vito Delsante, Jen Ferguson, Dean Haspiel, Charles Fetherolf, Christopher Gomez, Ben Granoff, James Greene, Sarah Lee Grillo, Jennifer Hayden, Ariel Kahtan, Whitney Matheson, Jared Miller, Moby, Chris Miskiewicz, Eli Neugboren, Ayoko Nito, Pat Palermo, Joan Reilly, Peter Rostovsky, Gil Roth, Rani Som, JG Thirlwell, Cynthia Von Buhler, Sean Von Gorman, Steve Walker, Owen Brozman, Carol Tyler, and Tony Wolf–each conveying a singular voice and style within the city’s ever-evolving mythology.

The book features a striking cover by acclaimed sibling illustrators Maria and Peter Hoey, a preface by Columbia University’s Karen Green, and a foreword and two illustrated contributions by the one and only Drew Friedman.

Real Life Comix is both a love letter to New York and a testament to the enduring power of personal comics storytelling. This is the city in all its jagged perfection: unfiltered, uncensored and unforgettable.

CLICK HERE to the Kickstarter and check out the fun rewards.

My Down and Dirty drawings on cheap cardboard campaign for $100 each has been wildly successful. I’ve got a bunch more to do and I’m very grateful for the commissions. It’s helped pay for 2/3rds of my unexpected expenses, thus far. My dance card is still open but I gotta keep requests to established characters. Trying to draw real life likeness requires more work, more trial and error, than the spirit behind this “down & dirty” offer. The price is gonna go up so get into the queue soon. Thanks for your support & cheer.

The Ringo Awards are currently open and I’d be thrilled if you took the time to nominate me and my comic book CHEST FACE for “Best Cartoonist” and “Best Short Story.” You can nominate here: https://ringoawards.com/

Rookie and veteran comix writers and artists are encouraged to sign up to my upcoming in-person workshop: Comix Fundamentals: Writing in Pictures and Drawing Narratives at The Art Students League NYC, April 28 - 30th, 2026.

Also:

I’ll be attending & guesting at three upcoming indie-comix shows:

April 18th: Kingston Independent Comics Expo

April 19th: Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase

April 25th - 26th: ITHACON

Two more weekly episodes of the VITO x DINO podcast is available for your eyes and ears. In episode #63, Vito Delsante and I talk to comic book artist David Jaxon while remembering Sam Kieth (RIP), celebrate Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and ponder: Does Frank Miller have another game changing work within him? Or will it be someone else?

In episode #64 we talk to Jeffrey Burandt aka Jef UK of the punk rock band, Americans UK. Jeff talks about his origins in writing, TRIP CITY, and his recent works: Gonad the Ballbarian, Blood and Brains, Ghost Planet, Killer Bad, and more. The trio then talk about the absolute achievement of Superman/Spider-Man.

Only hours left to back Vito’s current comix Kickstarter: Stray: Vol. 3 REQUIEM: Issues 1-3

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

Legendary comic book writer/editor/Daredevil contributor, Ann Nocenti, invited me to be her date to the Daredevil: Born Again season 2 premiere at a fancy joint in NYC. It was a great night mixing and mashing comix with cinema as some of the most important Daredevil shepherds congregated to celebrate “the man without fear.”

I got to hang out, meet, talk to and shake hands with some of the greatest storytellers in the business. Comix makers like Frank Miller, Ron Garney, Chip Zdarsky, Charles Soule, Michael Lark, Michael Gaydos, Paolo Rivera, C.B. Cebulski and Stephanie Phillips (who just took over writing the Daredevil comic book series) and more!

I had brief encounters with actors Lou Diamond Phillips, Vincent D'Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Margarita Levieva, Tony Dalton, Michael Gandolfini, Ayelet Zurer, and Wilson Bethel. Including the mysterious new antagonist portrayed by Matthew Lillard, an actor I’ve been meaning to meet every since I drew him in the SLC PUNK comic book/movie tie-in in 1998! An item Matthew told me he signs all the time at conventions, et al.

On the train ride home I realized I was probably the only person at that party who’s never written or drawn (and certainly not worked on the cinematic side of) Daredevil. Clearly that needs to be corrected…

Speaking of antiheroes wearing red tights, here’s a Red Hook comic I did for The Red Hook Star-Revue:

Whoa! I was nominated for an Inkwell Award for the “All-in-One Award: Favorite artist known for inking his/her own pencil work.” There’s NO WAY I’m gonna win but you can vote for me here (takes less than a minute): https://inkwellawards.com/polls/ —and see if we can beat the odds. Voting ends Friday, April 3rd.

Say! The Ringo Awards are currently open and I’d be thrilled if you took the time to nominate me and my comic book CHEST FACE for “Best Cartoonist” and “Best Short Story.” You can nominate here: https://ringoawards.com/

My Down & Dirty drawings were a big hit, thus far (take a gander here and here). I got a bunch of commissions (with more to go) and it’s helping me pay unexpected expenses. Thank you very much. If you’re interested in a Down & Dirty sketch on cheap cardboard for a hundred bucks, gimme a holler. May take a minute as I enter the final phase of printing and shipping ANTIMATTER #1, but I promise to eventually rock your sketch.

Workshop Description:

It’s time to tell your story. In this workshop, a Ringo and Emmy-winning artist will teach you about layouts, scripts, and the iterative process of bringing your ideas to life in comics. Students are encouraged to come to class with a story to tell and the materials (traditional or digital) they wish to illustrate it with.

This workshop includes a lecture and exercises on the fundamentals of storytelling. Students should expect to produce a finished layout of their story or a scene from it. The instructor will be present throughout and will offer individualized feedback as well as general tips on approaching the craft. All skill and experience levels are welcome; however this class is designed for students who are comfortable drawing from their imagination.

Writers are encouraged to attend, too. Sign up to my upcoming workshop: Comix Fundamentals: Writing in Pictures and Drawing Narratives at The Art Students League NYC, April 28 - 30th, 2026.

Click the NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH button on this amazing graphic novel anthology I co-curated & co-edited with Doug Latino.

REAL LIFE COMIX: Only in New York, from Cosmic Lion Productions, brings together 66 creators across 50 stories in a wide-ranging, high-voltage collection of short-story comix capturing the grit, glory, absurdity, and heart of New York City.

I never met cartoonist Sam Kieth but he drew the cover to THE VERDICT mini-series I co-created with writer Martin Powell for Eternity Comics (published by Brian David-Marshall) in 1987. Sam was a unique creator and a powerful influence to new generations of cartoonists. May he rest in peace.

Meanwhile, in the Happy News department…

I’ll be attending & guesting at three upcoming indie-comix shows:

April 18th: Kingston Independent Comics Expo

April 19th: Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase

April 25th - 26th: ITHACON

Happy anniversary Fantagraphics & Gary Groth for 50 years of life changing comix, journalism, graphic novels, archives and collections.

And…

Two more weekly episodes of the VITO x DINO podcast is available for your eyes and ears. In episode #61, Vito Delsante and I discuss the “100 Best Superhero Comics of All-Time” list in Die With Your Mask On #3! And, in episode #62 we talk to Charlie McElvy and Mat Major about crowdfunding + much more! And it appears that we have a VxD Facebook page. Get on that!

Finally, be sure to back Vito’s current comix Kickstarter: Stray: Vol. 3 REQUIEM: Issues 1-3

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

I was honored and humbled to help take part in nominating and choosing the winners for the inaugural Jack & Roz Kirby Awards which debuted at OAX (Original Art Expo) 2026 in Orlando, Florida, of which I was also a guest (and got to hang out with comic book legends like John Romita Jr.). Big Ups to everyone involved at OAX, ComicArtFans and Kasra Ghanbari for roping me into this cool affair.

You can see a video of the ceremony here:

I learned something absurdly obvious at OAX. If I draw on paper it can be turned into money. I drew a small unsolicited Batman sketch, yelled out loud, “You can have this Batman sketch for twenty bucks,” and it was gone in 30-seconds. The bigger I drew, the more money I could command. I might have to take my show on the road!

I was lucky to avoid the Bomb Cyclone that hit my hometown NYC by staying a few extra days in Florida to hang with my mama, Inverna, Lincoln, Mary, Jocelyn, Jeanne, Dave, and good pals, Val & Drew, for a visit to a shooting range and a dip in a hot tub before heading back into the icy fray of Brooklyn.

As of last weekend, I hit some financial speed bumps due to unexpected dental (crown for a sensitive tooth), veterinarian (for my beloved cat, Kima), and car maintenance post pothole blow out in Long Island (four new tires and brakes).

Not using funds saved for the printing, packaging and shipping of ANTIMATTER #1, I decided to offer small cardboard sketches for a hundred bucks each. Pick your favorite character and you’ll get a Down & Dirty drawing (like the Batman below) mailed to your home. Or make it a gift for your pal. Your call. DM me for details.

I also had a pleasant time doing panels and hanging out with all stripes of pop culture creatures at LICH, The Long Island Convention of Horror in Hauppauge, NY. I drove up with my buddy Fred Harper who is currently the regular artist on the The Toxic Avenger comix published by Ahoy! The Troma folks were there, too, and Toxic Avenger movie creator & director Lloyd Kaufman and I signed exclusive posters for Mr. Melvin, The Toxic Avenger sequel reconstruction.

Big Ups to show organizer Patrick J. Kennedy for his kind heart and vision.

Meanwhile…

The 445th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium was held on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

The Comics vs the Fascists – A Will Eisner Week 2026 Event

When fascism threatened the world in the 1930s and ‘40s, comics creators rushed to counter its threat, including through their characters actions. Will Eisner (with The Spirit), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (with Captain America), and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (with Superman) were among the prominent writers and artists who used their four-color platforms to combat fascists both at home and abroad. Today, shining a spotlight on the way these creators rose to the challenge, and what lessons may be learned for the present, is an expert panel including: Karen Green (Columbia University Curator for Comics and Cartoons), Dean Haspiel (The Red Hook), Arie Kaplan (From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books), Charles Kochman (Abrams ComicArts) and Danny Fingeroth (Will Eisner Studios) moderator

You can watch it HERE

Also…

Check out the 25 questions I answered for The Art Students League: Artists Profile with Stephanie Cassidy, in preparation for my upcoming workshop: Comix Fundamentals: Writing in Pictures and Drawing Narratives at The Art Students League, April 28 - 30th, 2026. Sign up!

And don’t miss…

VITO x DINO podcast 59 where I recap my appearance at OAX 2026, Vito Delsante and I discuss the meaning of justice + more.

VITO x DINO podcast 60 x Chris Miskiewicz - prolific actor & graphic novelist talks about his early beginnings on screen and in comics to become an multi-nominated writer!

Excited to spill the beans on this amazing graphic novel anthology I co-curated & co-edited with Doug Latino:

Real Life Comix, Only in New York, from Cosmic Lion Productions, brings together 66 creators across 50 stories in a wide-ranging, high-voltage collection of short-story comix capturing the grit, glory, absurdity, and heart of New York City. Contributors include New Yorker cartoonists, Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor collaborators, MAD artists, and from the worlds of literature, film, art and music.

Click the NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH button!

See you in the gutters—

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

You can spot them a mile away. Their smart clothes. Their charming smile. Their enthusiastic handshake.

Within three minutes they’re pretending to listen to you while glancing over your shoulder. It only took them the same amount of time it takes to unload a dishwasher to assess you. No longer making full eye contact. Every time someone new enters the room they’re making calculations like a Terminator. Is that somebody or nobody? Can they elevate my life? Can you?

Those people are transactional.

Then there are people who make things despite you. Do things that get things done. They’re not gonna let anyone get in their way. And if you happen to (((vibe))), share similar references and mission statements, can bring skill sets and talent to the table, there may be an opportunity to achieve something cool together. Or, at the very least, bounce off each other. Workshop. Get inspired.

Those people are actionable.

Some of my favorite interactions are the random ones. An unexpected encounter that turns into something astonishing. You make a joke at a party. Or an open observation. A stranger responds. A natural exchange happens. An honest conversation bereft of agenda. A human connection and suddenly you’re best friends the next two-to-three hours. Often never to see or hear from that person ever again.

But they made an impression that is now a part of you. Your intentions. Your risks and resolve.

I have 28-pages of ANTIMATTER #1 to color and letter and then my good buddy/cartoonist Josh Neufeld will put it all together and we’ll send it off to the printer. While I wait for boxes of the book to land in my studio for packing and mailing, I’ll be working on The Red Hook sketches. Which means I’ll be closing late pledges soon and start collecting backers mailing addresses, commission requests, etc. Meanwhile, I’ve started to outline the next three issues of ANTIMATTER and I hope y’all dig the first issue enough to desire more.

My latest AI Joe adventure, “A Toy And His Dog,” is running in the back of the EROTECH mini-series, published by SHP Comics. I gotta admit, it ain’t easy to produce two-page chapters. I think it was writer Mark Waid who advised young writers to train themselves by writing five-page stories. That he honed his trade conceiving of Archie Comics stories that traditionally run 5-pages. My current AI Joe ditty works best as a ten page tale but I hope I made each chapter interesting enough for you to wanna know more.

You know who writes a brilliant one-pager? Whitney Matheson. And if you haven’t checked out her short story collection, THE FEELING, you’re doing a disservice to your soul.

Venmo — send $20 for THE FEELING to @whitneymatheson (my last four digits are 8338)

PayPal — send $20 for THE FEELING to whitmath@gmail.com (again, my last four digits are 8338)

Etsy — place an order at my Etsy shop, Pulp Candy Press

In other news…

Comics Watch: Meet The Creators Behind The ORPHAN WORKS Kickstarter

VITO x DINO podcast 55: Vito Delsante and I welcome musician and comics retailer, Nick Purpura, to talk about the current state of comic book retailing and strategies for comics creators to consider when publishing their books. This is ONE TO WATCH and TAKE NOTES!

VITO x DINO podcast 56: Vito and I celebrate Black History Month by talking about our favorite Black creators and characters (including our own), but not before asking one of the toughest questions we've asked in 56 episodes: How would superheroes solve the problems outside our window?

VITO x DINO episode 57: Vito and I tackle the comic industry’s latest hot topic; story versus art (thanks Todd McFarlane). A quick hip hop “versus,” a discussion about creator avatars in comics, and favorite love songs for Valentine’s Day!

Catch me in Orlando, Florida, Feb 20 - 22, 2026 at OAX (Original Art Expo), table A40, where we will be debuting the Jack & Roz KIRBY AWARDS. Check out the “Absolute Batman Last Laugh” drawing I donated to the OAX auction & fundraiser. You can bid on it HERE. And check out this OAX preview/talk I did with IC3’s very own Matthew Sardo.

Then come spook me and Fred Harper at the Long Island Convention of Horror in Hauppauge, NY from Feb 27 - March 1, 2026. I’ll have comix and new prints for sale, including an exclusive poster of Mr. Melvin, signed by me and legendary The Toxic Avenger creator/Troma filmmaker/actor, Lloyd Kaufman!

I'm teaching "Comix Fundamentals: Writing in Pictures and Drawing Narratives" at the Art Student's League in NYC, April 28 - 30, 2026. Learn more about it HERE.

Happy 88, Dad.
See you soon, Mom.
Love, Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

Anything beyond adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing vexes me. Math was my worst subject. Algebra? No thanks. I wasn’t very good at science and history, either. I stumbled through English and, I swear to god, I almost failed art class because the teachers never took comic book art seriously and tried to make me feel like a fool. Like my love for The Fantastic Four was for dummies. So, I rebelled and treated fine art like a bitch. I wasn’t a very good student.

Like most kids, I hated homework. Last thing I wanted to do after school was to do more schoolwork. Especially schoolwork I didn’t understand. I wanted to hang out with my friends and play games. Go home and draw superheroes. Flirt with girls. I remember getting the idea to draw a team of second tier William Shakespeare characters featuring Mercutio, Tybalt, and Iago. I never got past drawing the first page or two because I couldn’t crack a story.

Upon seeing The Empire Strikes Back, I was all about Boba Fett and went from loving Marvel & DC superheroes to fascinated with the concept of intergalactic bounty hunters. My first hero was a character called “Mercenary.” A masked vigilante who sported a mohawk and brandished an electric sword. Later on, I invented another mercenary called “Slash” whose design I borrowed for The Verdict with co-creator/writer, Martin Powell, my first comic book mini-series published by Eternity Comics in 1987.

When I discovered Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor and Chester Brown’s Yummy Fur, everything about comix changed for me. I’ve illustrated my share of semi-autobio comix and franchise superheroes, produced many collaborations, and went on to create my own reluctant anti-heroes that I keep returning to. Not quite Batman or Spider-man but not Boba Fett, either.

People who know my library of work could easily imagine my comic book avatar to be Billy Dogma — the last romantic antihero. And they wouldn’t be wrong. But out of all the characters I’ve created, I feel closest to Sam Brosia aka The Red Hook. I’ve come to explore what heroism, justice, trauma, and responsibility means to me in over 4.5 seasons of The Red Hook on the Webtoon platform — and other Red Hook stories I’ve published in print. I’ve covered a lot of territory that I aim to collect into an omnibus (or two) someday — with new material.

When The Red Hook Star-Revue publisher George Fiala approached me at BICS 2025, and asked me to curate a monthly page of new comic book strips, I already knew I was gonna revisit The Red Hook. I knew I was gonna experiment a little with the format and see how far I can push a story in a limited amount of space. The challenge of coming up with tidy vignettes has been a good exercise for me. Subtracting, adding, multiplying and dividing story elements into something compelling yet succinct.

My kind of math.

I drew AI Joe to benefit Visual AIDS.

“Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.”

Jen Ferguson made art called “The Claw”.

For $100 you can probably find a cool piece of art to help the cause. See what’s available HERE.

I drew a commission called “Absolute Batman’s Last Laugh” for OAX 2026 in Orlando, Florida of which I will be a guest at from Feb 20th - 22nd. You can bid on my art HERE.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
—Steve Walker

In VITO x DINO #54, Vito Delsante and I welcome cartoonist and comics art teacher, Steve Walker, to the show to talk about his work with the Art Students League of NY, his collaborations past and future with Vito, and then he and I critique Vito’s second attempt at drawing comics. LOTS of instruction in this one, so don’t miss out!

Kickstarter pledges are still open for ANTIMATTER #1 and ORPHAN WORKS.

RIP Sal Buscema, who was my Incredible Hulk artist in the 1970s & 80s. He drew half the Marvel Comics I read as a kid, including The Defenders, Spider-man, Thor, and Rom the Space Knight!

Abolish ICE.

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

I can’t run.

I lost my ability to run when I was 21 years old. I fell off a 3-story building; the library roof at SUNY Purchase that broke both my legs (right knee and left ankle/heel), my right hand, and lower back. I was only in mid-air for one flight of that fall (part of the roof was designed at a 45-degree angle — like a slide), but I was dealing with momentum, slippery rain, and a hard landing that changed my life.

I was in my physical prime and I had just finished penciling a Blue Beetle and Booster Gold “Bonus Book” for DC comics. Upon initial recovery, I inked said story in a wheelchair with a brace around my drawing hand (and legs wrapped up in bandages and braces). Suffice it to say, I botched the job and felt my comics career was over. Fortunately, I lived long enough to disprove those fears. But I sometimes wonder what kind of life I would’ve had if I hadn’t pursued drawing stories.

Mailman? Cook? Paramedic?

I remember getting into a few fights while hobbling around with crutches. I never let my physical limitations get in the way of my mouth — or my mind.

See, I grew up with a father who wasn’t afraid of confrontation or conflict. In fact, he was drawn to it like a magnet. He’d weaponize his voice. Punch punks out. Spook crooks in Riverside Park. My father was a cop in my own home. I have a mother who has the brains, brawn, and balls of a world leader. Every room she enters she finds common ground while, concurrently, being a staunch activist. I loosely based The Coney, The Red Hook’s psychotic vigilante mother bent on extreme justice, on my mother. A tongue-in-cheek homage to my fair yet righteous mom.

Growing up, I was a thin-skinned twerp who loved Marvel Comics, original Star Trek, Batman ‘66, The Yankees, Prince, Run-DMC, Atari video games, The 4:30 movie, and a good dare. I wasn’t afraid to take on most challenges. Especially when provoked. If doing something stupid caused howling laughter among my chums, I was down to clown. I often felt like I was my peers id to their ego. I was Lennie to their George. “Of Mice And Men.”

Whenever I watch a horror movie and the victims have an opportunity to get away, I shout “Run!” and I’m instantly reminded that I can’t run. I can’t get away.

I understand a lot of people can’t get away from a dire situation even if they have the legs to run away with. But some, if not most, people are trapped economically, emotionally and existentially. We all have our hills to climb. One battle after another.

As I enter my senior years it hurts to walk. Hurts to draw. It’s hard to see.

Hard to see how someone’s death can be broadcast from many different angles and some people see it as justified while others see it for what it was, a cold blooded murder. A murder that showed me, nay, broke me into understanding that I am living in a different reality from others. Full stop.

Makes me wanna run.

But I can’t run. And if I had the legs to do it, I wouldn’t run. Besides screaming online and protesting injustices in person, I try to reconcile the world in my comix and plays. And hope it communicates the complications of society while making human connections that brings us closer together.

Closer to reality.

Recently, Heidi MacDonald of The Comics Beat published her annual year end survey where she asked a bunch of comix industry folks some questions. Here is an excerpt of a couple of my answers:

What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026?

Auteur autonomy. The expanding culture of indie/alt creators and the downsizing of corporate produced comic books. When the pandemic forced a remote lifestyle, it helped shave overhead costs but it also galvanized freelance cartoonists to take more self-publishing risks and find new ways of distribution (see: Power Pulp for a curated group of independent creators and distribution). A hearty deluge of autonomous, albeit, target-based newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube channels has become necessary as Patreon and crowdfunding platforms continue to help underwrite our efforts between creator and customer. The comic shop remains a crucial intersection for cultural optics and book sales, but it will have to bend some of the rules when it comes to alternative comix. And, unless the world renegotiates its relationship with money, readers will have to pay more for the privilege of truly alternative fare. I have made a Marvel comic book but my self-published “Deep Cuts” aren’t Marvel Comics. If you’re looking for new ideas and characters not beholden to popular trends, corporate mandates and Hollywood streaming, follow the footsteps of Michel Fiffe, who self-published 50+ issues of his creator-owned series, COPRA. And look no further than the likes of Russ Kazmierczak, Nicholas Forker, Dan Goldman, and Mahdi Khene, for regular grass roots efforts. I predict anthologies will make a comeback, too. Bring back DC Comics Presents, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-In-One, Dark Horse Presents, and Joe Pruett’s Negative Burn already! (Editor’s Note: that last one is happening.)

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026?

I’d love to see Mark Chiarello draw more but also bring back projects like Solo and Wednesday Comics under his guidance and his own imprint (or spark a double threat of high art comix and hitch his wagon to Scott Dunbier’s Act 4 Publishing). And, I swear to god, if Vito Delsante doesn’t publish at least three comix in 2026, I’m gonna deck him!

Heidi also asked everyone to anonymously nominate the 2025 Comics Industry Person of the Year (of which DC Comics’ Editor-In-Chief Marie Javins got the most votes. Cheers, Marie! You earned it. You deserve it.).

I nominated:

Michel Fiffe debuted COPRA in Fall of 2012. A Suicide Squad-inspired revenge comic book series with an Al B. Sure soundtrack that became a cult hit through sheer will, passion and grit. After taking a swing at webcomics with PANORAMA, Fiffe chose to veer away from pixels to keep it real with pulp and, in the spirit of Dave Sim’s CEREBUS THE AARDVARK, and Erik Larsen’s SAVAGE DRAGON, he carved his own path. When he wasn’t killing it monthly with COPRA, and rocking other creator-owned concepts like ZEGAS and NEGATIVELAND, he was tackling sacred cows the likes of GI JOE, BLOODSTRIKE, SUPERMAN and more. Big Ups to Fiffe for sticking to his guns and for sticking the landing.

Someone was kind enough to anonymously nominate me (I believe that “someone” to be Russ Kazmierczak — thanks, buddy):

”Dean Haspiel remains a pioneer in self-publisher comics. He was a forefather in webcomics with his Act-i-vate co-op, and his crowdfunded projects demonstrate his momentum and commitment to direct-to-reader content (in PRINT). Dean is constantly mentoring new and established cartoonists, and his podcast Vito x Dino offers invaluable insight to the processes and lifestyle of the working comics-maker. As long as he’s working, Dean will be a force in comics.”

Bill Anderson invited me to participate in Orphan Works. Years ago I got hired to illustrate a short story called “Snow Angel” written by a comix student named Brandon White that never got properly published. Now we can share it in this lovely collection.

Here’s the pitch and Kickstarter link:

Cartoonists so often have unpublished stories sitting in their files. Now, at last, you’ll get to see them too!

Orphan Works is a 250-plus page volume of new or little-seen comics from a variety of incredible creators, including mainstream titans Rudy Nebres, Luke McDonnell, and Trevor Von Eeden, who provides us with his first new sequential work in 6 years! In addition to that, we’ve got current stars like Matt Haley & Tom Simmons, Christopher Schenk, Stefano Cardoselli, and Brandon McKinney!

On the alternative side, look for new work by one-of-a-kind talents Roberta Gregory, Jeff Bonivert, and Tom Stazer, as well as master satirists Dean Haspiel, Kerry Callen, Don Simpson, Michael T. Gilbert, Rob Walton, and Fred Hembeck!

And hey, let’s not forget to mention some stellar contributions from Joe Pruett & Ken Meyer Jr, Greg Giordano, Mark Weber, Bill Anderson & Rick McCollum, and some of the final work from the late Franco-Belgian comics maestro Gérald Forton!

Plus, as an added bonus, there will be short text pieces by Steve Leialoha, Bill Reinhold, Khoi Pham, Ray Lago, Al Milgrom, Dan Panosian, Geof Isherwood, Zach Howard, and P. Craig Russell among others, on a special, secret topic!

And it’s all wrapped up in a pair of covers by the aforementioned Rudy Nebres and Fred Hembeck!

Check out this new, cool collection of orphaned comix. Click HERE

After talking about burn out in episode #51, Vito Delsante and I celebrated our one year anniversary doing the VITO x DINO podcast and we ended strong talking “economy of words and wealth of information” with my favorite human/studio mate, writer/cartoonist/playwright, Whitney Matheson, in episode #52.

Then we started off VxD year two with a bang in episode #53 talking to our friend/mentor and comix legend, Mark Waid, who GUARANTEED has written some of your favorite comic books of all time.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

See you in the gutters—

—Dean


Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

In September 2025, I enjoyed a long conversation about Artificial Intelligence with my pal/filmmaker, Michael O’Shea. See his movie, The Transfiguration (it’s sublime).

Here is that conversation as edited by Mike (and possibly, AI — with light edits by me) for his private newsletter (of which he gave me permission to repurpose). I’m sure half of it is already outdated, and some of it is clearly obvious, but there are some good bits of discussion buried within.

(Note: Mike’s side of the discussion is italicized).

Do you pay for AI, Dean?

I do not pay for AI that I know of.

Although sometimes when I criticize it, I do realize we absolutely live in a digital world, right? And so how many years have I been using Photoshop. Is that considered AI? I don’t think so. I consider it more like a calculator. You could do math by hand, but I’m not sure I know math very well anymore because I have a calculator, you know? So that technology has made me dumber.

That’s how I worry about these tools. That they are helpful, but at the cost of making us dumber, less self-sufficient.

Do you have the latest Photoshop? Because the latest Photoshop has a lot of AI elements in it.

I have an earlier version of Photoshop that doesn’t use AI tools, but that’s the word I was going to use: tools.

When I was writing a short film about how much I hated AI, and I made AI the villain, it didn’t work because AI is not a villain, it’s people. I realized, oh, this is just a tool. It’s how you use and or abuse the tool.

People can roll their eyes and say, “oh, does everything need to be authentic?”

I do draw with pen on paper and then I scan it in, and then I color my comics in Photoshop, and I often letter my comics in Photoshop. But I don’t think I’ve ever even typed the word ChatGPT in my own computer, because I’d rather just write my own shit and figure it out on my own.

But I also respect and understand that there’s a lot of people who use it to do initial kind of passes and or edits or whatever, you know. So again, it’s a tool. And I guess for me the question is authenticity. And then I think about, well, who gives a shit? You can sell stuff as authenticity or artisanal or whatever. And some people like that.

But I think ultimately a lot of people just like to see the thing and they don’t care how it’s made.

When you say some people are using it do you mean other cartoonists and illustrators are using AI? For first drafts?

Well, in reading your discussions about AI, I was discovering that some people seem to, like, want to write a prompt or an idea. It’ll spell it out, and then there’ll be a first draft of something.

That you can then edit and toy with.

I have a manager here at the studio I work at who knows I have a character called The Red Hook, and he decided to have some fun with me, and he put in the plot synopsis of my character that I had written that’s online. And he generated a few songs, a rock and roll song, a folk song, and something else. And then he sent it to me, you know, just thinking it was funny.

But I didn’t think it was funny because number one, I didn’t know yet if I was trying to write a song for my character. Right? So I was like, wait a second, what if you’re stepping on my toes here? It felt intrusive, even though I know that what he was trying to do was something funny, I felt upset because, let’s say I was trying to make a song of my Red Hook character or a movie or an animation or whatever. And now it seems like with these AI tools, you can do a version of that just by typing in some prompts and feeding it some information and data and images and whatnot.

And I don’t really know how I feel about that. And he kept saying to me well, don’t you want to produce more comics? You can just use AI and it can be like all your assistants and you can produce like 100 pages a month if you wanted to.

I was like, that’s not the point of what I do. You know I need to live with what I make and how I make it. But, you know, other people might debate that and say no, just create content, you know?

We used to draw on walls, right? On cave walls, before we had ink and pen and paper and pulp and all. Now we have pixels, and I do employ pixels in my work. So it is an odd space to debate and fight this stuff.

But just today, I got an email from a publisher that I did a comic for, and he knows that I’m going to be doing a Kickstarter. And he wanted to know if he could bring his comic to my Kickstarter and vice versa, to cross promote.

I said sure, until I actually saw what the comic was, and I swear it looks like it’s all AI generated. And I don’t feel comfortable hitching my wagon to his project because it just seems super AI. And also, I don’t even like the way those AI images look right now. I mean, they all are pretty easy to spot.

If you go in the subway, you’ll see ads on the walls and they’re like these Skechers ads. Sneakers or something. And they’re clearly AI generated. And there’s a lot of companies right now using AI. And you know, I’ve had incidents as far back as 3 or 4 years ago where I lost a $20,000 job because I called out a CEO and shamed him for trying to show me a project that he wanted me to draw by employing AI and basically having it all completely drawn and written already. And he was like, “No, no, no, I just wanted to show this to you, to inspire you.”

I bet that’s what’s happening every day now. I’m sure this is happening every day now.

I want to ask you a question, but first tell a story. I was hearing this famous lady writer speak. She has controversial political opinions. An audience member asked if she felt canceled. She said it’s impossible to know if she’s old and irrelevant or actually canceled. That’s true for freelancers and all of us as we age—we wonder if it’s our opinions, our content, aging.... It’s this paranoid feeling we get of feeling things may be slowing down but not knowing why.

For you, not asking if you’re canceled, but do you have these feelings if work has slowed? Or do you feel work has definitively slowed because of AI?

Yes, I definitely know things have gotten slower specifically because of AI, but also I’ve become allergic to pitching to publishers because of the the way the system works in publishing these days, where basically you don’t get an advance, they’ll put it out, the printer gets paid, distribution gets paid, the publisher gets paid, and you’re the last person to get any kind of money in the back end. Which is why I’ve started to crowdfund my own comics since 2023, because at least I have full control and I can reap the most benefits from any profits that might be made from that.

As for the aging out thing. I’m 58. In 2023, I was 56. And I was already feeling, you know, that I was aging out, as it were. But also I put myself there because I decided to “lean into Dean,” where I was carving my own niche path where you can only get what I do from me, whatever that means, you know? And part of my philosophy is I’m creating something you didn’t know you wanted. So the whole idea is to try to get you to know about it, and it’s not about money anymore. It’s about time. It’s about stealing people’s time. A few minutes here or there once in a while to to woo you into at least checking out a teaser for what I’m doing. And then hopefully that would then create interest in a sale. Right? Right. So that’s kind of the place I’m in right now, And it’s fucking hard because I’m not doing — like I’m not dancing on TikTok. I occasionally show up on Instagram and Facebook, that’s how I get out there. And then I hear how people don’t go to Facebook anymore and people are getting tired of Instagram.

And so now I have a Substack, that I try to engage with people. And those are the tools I’m using right now. That’s the social media I use.

But if I’m going to be serious, I need to work with retailers again because, right now you can either pre-order my comic that I mailed to your doorstep or you get my comics at a comic con or some kind of pop culture event, but I’m not showing up randomly in the store.

But then I start to question, where are those stores? Show me the comic shop. There’s like a handful in New York. Does it matter? I don’t know, are we becoming our own stores? Eventually, I think so.

Yeah. I mean, obviously I know nothing about comics, but I feel the way all art, the way the bend of all art currently is… is that your comics just exist for you to sell t-shirts and tote bags.

You mean like art just exists for the merch aspect? Yeah. So?

So you should be in those stores. Not for the actual sales, which will give you $70 a month, but just for the exposure of the brand the red hook, to then sell t-shirts of it.

Optics to get optics, to remind people you exist. Yeah. I think that’s important too.

Sell a t shirt instead of a comic.

Right. Because people don’t read anymore and they can barely watch a movie.

I mean Ted Hope recently wrote, I think on Substack; he wrote something like that the future of indie film is merchandise, which I think is kinda silly as it relates to indie film But at the same time I get where he’s coming from.

It’s true that the only monetization for any art right now is merchandise. For example bands now get their money on touring from selling albums and t shirts at the venues. Because no one’s paying them. Because they’re getting fucking $0.20 to stream on Spotify.

The other thing is, the people that are actually interested in physical media are probably older; older people like us who still covet physical items. Even though we don’t have space in our homes anymore to store them or to even look at them. And yeah, I guess at the end of the day, what people ultimately want is a token of of the thing that they like, you know because people are now being fooled into thinking that they can watch any movie at any time, which is not true. But it does feel like that, you know, or you can just type in something and you can go to not necessarily the dark web, but you can pirate most anything and get it for free as long as you have a phone, you don’t have to buy anything. So as a freelance artist that’s trying to make something that means something, you’re basically trying to create collector’s items or luxury items.

I did hear a hint of something in one of your answers, which was you were pointing out that Photoshop is just a tool. It’s not a cheat, to you. It’s a tool for the artist to use to help them to get from A to B. It sounds like you’re starting to consider AI could also be a tool for an artist to get from B to C. Is that something you’re considering?

I think if I was going to be honest with myself, I’m sure that someday I’ll delve into that.

But I’m actually looking right now at a Cintiq that I bought used for $400 about eight, nine years ago that I opened up once and never used.

Even though I’m using Photoshop, I’m still using a Wacom tablet with a pen, so it’s not entirely on the screen, though it feels ancient.

But yes, I get that it’s basically a production tool, so the same thing would be true for AI. It’s just that when you find out that, like, AI is stealing art, or is being used for training with your literal art. Which it did, by the way. Somebody looked up my name and they said, yeah, AI was training itself with your art.

And on the one hand, I feel so complimented. You know, but no, I shouldn’t feel that way because they don’t pay. They don’t ask. What they’re doing is just taking things that are online, like random or whatever, and it’s messed up. Listen, if you’re a lawyer writing some kind of, like, dissertation or something that you’ve done a million times, go ahead, use AI. I get it. You know, you’re not writing a novel. So I get that it’s useful in those ways.

I guess for me, when I think about AI, I think about, again, I cringe when I say the word, but authenticity. I think some people’s authenticity is using the tools and seeing what happens.

It reminds me of a spin wheel that you throw colors into, and it makes a splatter effect that you had no real control over. You just chose the colors while it was spinning, and then it just came out the way it came out, this abstract piece of art. And then you were involved in that, sure, but I wonder if if that’s what AI is kind of doing with people right now. They’re like literally throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the wall just to see what happens and what comes out of it, and they think it’s their art when it’s really not, it’s someone else’s art that was stolen and is now being fed back to them.

And they literally made a lying machine. Inherent to the experience is the thing just lies with confidence mixed in with true information, which is just so ridiculous in terms of a product. And also they claim with one hand that they give a shit about misinformation but with the other hand they promote these fucking things that are just literally misinformation machines.

Exactly. And we’re kind of, and I know this is an old term, but we’re kind of at a Mexican standoff with the truth right now and what we’re being asked to do is homework all day long. Just to find out the truth. And I don’t have time to do homework. I can’t even look at the New York Times every couple of hours to see the new headlines, because then I have to do all this homework to understand what is real and true about it.

And we did this to ourselves. The fact that these skewed slightly to heavily partisan headlines that exaggerate facts in a direction that will outrage you or will reaffirm you on either side. We click on those headlines more. So newspapers made more and more of them. Wrote articles more and more like that. Because we liked reading that, clicking on that. So we did it to ourselves.

And it becomes a rabbit hole. I had a friend who, like, denies all these things that I kind of believe in.

You live in kind of different realities. That’s common nowadays.

Yeah. She went off the rails a little bit, and then she found something to support her narrative online. And said, “Here, see? Look at this!” And, she was trying to bash whatever I used to look at for truth online. I said, “Well, you’re doing the same thing I’m doing. So who knows what’s right anymore?”

And this is now true for AI as well. I’ll connect this to AI as well. It used to be you grew up in a town and you announced that you think the world is flat, right? Everyone else just goes, “You’re a fucking moron.” And the difference with the internet now is you can go online and search “I think the world is flat.” And you’ll be served up a community of 50,000 people that also agree with you that the world is flat and you’re suddenly getting reaffirmed. This is true for everything. And AI is now just an agentic expression of that search engine that leads you to people who will reaffirm any crazy shit you believe. these chat bots first and foremost want to reaffirm whatever you are typing into it. so it’s gonna help us just delve even further into our own kinda reinforced micro-realities.

I mean, listen, AI has been a question ever since Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, right? So we’ve been talking about it forever, and I think people are fucking lazy. I’m lazy, I get it, there’s some things I don’t want to work hard to do.

I just wrote a first draft of a play called “The Flat Tire,” about four artists in a car who get a flat tire on the side of a highway. No one knows how to fix a flat tire, but they’re really good at making movies and drawing comic books and making music and pictures, but you realize — what’s more important? Making art or fixing a flat tire?

When do you become useless?

So, I don’t know, I think AI’s become a crutch in some ways. And it’s a dangerous crutch. Just like, again, the way I use the calculator as an example: the calculator has ruined my ability to count or subtract, but at the same time, it’s not the tool. It’s not the calculator’s fault. It’s the people and how they use the tool and that’s where the judgments can come in. People are going to ruin their ability to think and create using this stuff, is I think the danger. But your criticisms and your mileage may vary.

Gil Roth invited me and 25 other authors to weigh in on the books we read in 2025 on his podcast, The Virtual Memories Show #668. I realized after I submitted my embarrassing answer that I forgot to mention that I had read Jonathan Ames’ Karma Doll, and Whitney Matheson’s The Feeling, both of which I absolutely loved.

Listen HERE.

Meanwhile, Gil has gone on a much needed indefinite hiatus and I wish him the best.

##
Heidi MacDonald asked comix makers questions for The Comic Beat’s 2025-2026 Creator Survey Part 2: What to look forward to in ’26.

Excerpt:

What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026?

Auteur autonomy. The expanding culture of indie/alt creators and the downsizing of corporate produced comic books. When the pandemic forced a remote lifestyle, it helped shave overhead costs but it also galvanized freelance cartoonists to take more self-publishing risks and find new ways of distribution (see: Power Pulp for a curated group of independent creators and distribution). A hearty deluge of autonomous, albeit, target-based newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube channels has become necessary as Patreon and crowdfunding platforms continue to help underwrite our efforts between creator and customer. The comic shop remains a crucial intersection for cultural optics and book sales, but it will have to bend some of the rules when it comes to alternative comix. And, unless the world renegotiates its relationship with money, readers will have to pay more for the privilege of truly alternative fare. I have made a Marvel comic book but my self-published “Deep Cuts” aren’t Marvel Comics. If you’re looking for new ideas and characters not beholden to popular trends, corporate mandates and Hollywood streaming, follow the footsteps of Michel Fiffe, who self-published 50+ issues of his creator-owned series, COPRA. And look no further than the likes of Russ Kazmierczak, Nicholas Forker, Dan Goldman, and Mahdi Khene, for regular grass roots efforts. I predict anthologies will make a comeback, too. Bring back DC Comics Presents, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-In-One, Dark Horse Presents, and Joe Pruett’s Negative Burn already!

Read the rest of my answer + others HERE:

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Vito Delsante and I did a live recording of VITO x DINO podcast episode 50, with special guests:

Happy New Year!

—Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO

Ho Ho Ho

Thanks to everyone who support me and my endeavors — and indulge my occasional newsletter. Deciding to “Lean Into Dean” and self-publish in 2023 has been a super challenging yet rewarding experience, thus far. I publish less material but it’s stronger work. And I couldn’t do it without you and the people close to me (you know who you are).

ComicArtFans.com just announced the Jack & Roz Kirby Award categories, Advisory Board, and Voting Committee -- of which I’m proudly participating in. The Kirby Awards will be debuting at Original Arts Expo in Orlando, Florida, February 20 - 22, 2026. You can read more about it HERE.

Come 2026, I’ll continue to edit the “Comix Block” for The Red Hook Star-Revue and produce monthly episodes of The Red Hook comix strip. And, fingers crossed, there’s a good possibility that I’ll be teaching comix at one of the most prestigious and historic art institutions in the world.

I’m more than halfway done finishing the line art on “Covid Cop Insurrection.” And I’m also concocting a fun encounter between Billy Dogma, Jane Legit and Chest Face! That, plus more for ANTIMATTER #1, my one-man comix anthology (which you can still support/make a pledge for if you haven’t already).

There are two more episodes of the VITO x DINO podcast:

In episode 48: Vito Delsante talks about his decision to learn to draw comics. We also talk about the Humanoids bankruptcy, One Battle After Another vs Eddington, Netflix vs Paramount for the hand of Warner Brothers, and much more!

In episode 49: we discuss Vito’s first art assignment, the proliferation of artificial intelligence and how it is creeping up on all of us, and what comics in the 1980s taught us about being “grim and gritty.”

We will be doing a LIVE VITO x DINO podcast for episode 50 on Monday, December 29th @ 8pm EST. Join us!

Despite hardships, the madness and uncertainty of 2025, I pushed myself as a creator — but I spent too much time alone. I mentored and imparted the wisdom I can offer while doing better to listen and observe. Absorb the sights and situations. I managed to experience joy but I hope to spend more time with people than screens.

Animals elevate human lives. Big Ups to Kima & Iris.

Cheers to a lovely 2026.

love, Dean

Instagram / Etsy / VITO x DINO