San Diego Comicon 2023

Too hot for sleeves.

Thanks to your generous support and cheer, we made the initial goal for my BILLY DOGMA & JANE LEGIT Kickstarter in five days! Thank you - thank you! Now I can pay production costs and ship my erotic comix noir to your front door. But we still need to subsidize the creator and help set him (me) up for his (my) next planned project this Fall. I’m considering adding a bonus item (“stretch goal”) if we can reach $10k. Stay tuned. Please tell all your friends, family, neighbors & peers!

Click HERE if you haven’t pledged to my campaign ending on August 11th.

I’ll be hoofing it on the floor of San Diego Comicon this year while pimping BILLY DOGMA and COVID COP. I’ll be on three panels and doing two signings at the Kickstarter booth.

Panels:

THURSDAY, July 20th, 2023
3:00pm-4:00pm / Room 29AB
Comics Conspiracy: JFK’s Assassination in Comics
Moderator Danny Fingeroth (Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin) and Steven Grant (Badlands), Dean Haspiel (Covid Cop), Christopher Cantwell (Regarding the Matter of Oswald’s Body), and Richard Graham (Picturing History: Using Comics and Cartoons to Explore Our Past) discuss—accompanied by a wide-ranging slide show—why comics makers and readers are so tantalized by the mysteries and theories surrounding the 11/22/63 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, presumably by Lee Harvey Oswald, and Oswald’s murder, two days later—on live TV—by Jack Ruby.

FRIDAY, July 21st 2023
11:00am-12:00pm / Room 28DE
Will Eisner: Breaking The 4th Wall
The stories of Will Eisner (The Spirit, A Contract with God) were filled with larger-than-life characters who periodically interrupted the action—breaking the 4th wall—to address the reader or their creator to boldly call attention to the fact that they were, indeed, characters in a comic book. Originally a function of live theater, 4th walls are now broached in comics, TV, animation, and movies, shattering the illusion of reality. Join comics writer and historian Danny Fingeroth (Chair of Will Eisner Week, A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee) and 4th-wall-breaking experts including Dean Haspiel (Covid Cop, The Red Hook), Jerry Beck (The Animated Movie Guide, UCLA), and N. C. Christopher Couch (The Will Eisner Companion, UMass Amherst) as they explore Eisner’s innovative illusion-shattering in comics, and place it in the colorful history of creative risk-taking throughout media.

SATURDAY, July 22nd, 2023
3:00pm – 4:00pm / Room 9
The Mighty Crusaders panel
In 1940 MLJ Comics, the company later re-branded as Archie Comics, published Pep Comics #1, and created the First Patriotic superhero, The Shield. They would go on to create a pantheon of superheroes including fan favorites like the Black Hood, Comet, Hangman, Jaguar, and many more, collectively known as the Mighty Crusaders. These heroes’ stories have been reprinted in England, France, Germany, and Brazil. They have crossed over to radio, film, and the pulps. Presented here is the 80-year history of the greatest superheroes of the Archie Universe by moderator Rik Offenberger (MLJ Companion) with panelists (in alphabetical order) Dean Haspiel (The Fox), Andrew Pepoy (Archie Comics), Bobby Ragland (AC Comics), JC Vaughn (Gemstone Publishing), and some surprise guests too.

Signings:

Saturday, 5pm - 6pm at Kickstarter booth 1632

Sunday 1:30pm - 2:30pm at Kickstarter booth 1632

Listen to my Summer 2023 music mix on Spotify!

My Nightwork Studio mate Whitney Matheson wrote about herself and The Smiths at Hilobrow. Click HERE to read it.

Pre-order Spider-Squirrel & Trash Panda Titan-Sized Special if you want 80+ new pages of Charlie McElvy’s Xion Universe, and see/read the debut of my new character, CHEST FACE.

Hope to see you in San Diego!

love, Dean

Instagram / Twitter / Website/Blog / Nightwork Studio