This comes out next Wednesday! (Unless your shop got it early and snuck it out this week!) I’m doing a signing on January 7th at We Can Be Heroes in Chatsworth if you’re in the SoCal area!

Eric Stoltz Problems™️

I say a few words about the nicest, most committed, people in comics. And so do a bunch of my other beloved colleagues.

And now a word from our sponsor.

“I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration,” the North Carolina Republican Party's communications director wrote in an email response to us. “I would strongly suggest dropping this story.” We didn't. #ICYMI, read the story that he wanted dropped:

In 2025, GLAAD Award-winning & Eisner-nom'd publisher & media outlet Fanbase Press celebrated its 15th anniversary. We're grateful to our friends for sharing their thoughts on the past 15 years. We look forward to the next 15 & beyond! ~ @barbrajdillon.bsky.social & @comicbooksniffer.bsky.social

In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.

Tired: “It’s not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls from the top of Nakatomi Plaza!” Wired: “It’s not New Years until Norville Barnes falls from the 44th floor (not counting the mezzanine) of the Hudsucker building!”

Augusta had the incredible idea to follow our NYE watch of LION IN WINTER with THE HUDSUCKER PROXY, and midnight hit just as Norville Barnes fell. Perfection.

“We’re both alive… and for all I know that’s what hope is.” Peter O’Toole as King Henry, in James Goldman’s elegant and hilarious script for THE LION IN WINTER. A very good New Year’s Eve choice, it turns out.

“All that remains of America is the evidence of its failure.” Ouch, Fallout. Ouch.

Too relatable.

Last self portrait of 2025. Some resolutions are easy, like “wear more vests.” The good news: finished one last short story. It came in long, and it’s probably going to turn into a novel. The bad news: the somewhat red-flaggy but also potentially life-saving client seems to have flaked. 1/?

I was hoping for Master Splinter, given the location, but this is the next best choice.

Now’s as good a time as any…

This morning, in bed, I reached out and put my arm around my sleeping wife. And then my cat Kissy, sleeping on her pillow, put her paw on my arm and rumbled like she does when she’s happy and secure. Whatever else is going on, good or bad, that alone is worth living for.

Late night thoughts.

It’s not that late, but it feels late. This year, friends. This year. Someday I’ll tell you all of it, but this was one of the most challenging years of my life, and this week may be the most challenging. Or the next. Always in motion is the future, right?

Thinking about the comic script you want to publish/kickstart in 2026? Now’s a good time to book me for editorial consulting! My flat rate for a standard-length comic (20-24 pages) is $200. Reasonable rates for any writing project, like $250 for a sitcom script. 1/2

Bill: I thought you were finished with doing weird stuff. Joan: I thought I was too, but I guess I’m not.

higher res!

My friend Mark Morris gave me this for Christmas a few years back. No one got killed. Of course it’s a fake. A phony. The stuff that dreams are made of.

Thinking about the comic script you want to publish/kickstart in 2026? Now’s a good time to book me for editorial consulting! My flat rate for a standard-length comic (20-24 pages) is $200. Reasonable rates for any writing project, like $250 for a sitcom script. 1/2

The last newsletter of 2025 is a little promotional, a little thoughtful, and a little emotional. Where I’ve been and where I’m going, with high hopes and realistic expectations... Or maybe a lot emotional. Give a read. Subscribe if you're feeling generous... www.patreon.com/posts/week-2...?

COBRA is so incredibly well-named, in that its venomous bite is literally killing me. I bet a million people have made this observation. Haha. So “funny.” Anyway. If you’d like to subscribe to an entertaining/ informative Patreon about comics and movies and TV… www.patreon.com/DavidAvallon...

Just unfollowed a perfectly nice person because they reposted someone who used the term “Misandry” unironically. Sorry. You don’t get to put that kind of nonsense in my TL. Life is too short.

The last newsletter of 2025 is a little promotional, a little thoughtful, and a little emotional. Where I’ve been and where I’m going, with high hopes and realistic expectations... Or maybe a lot emotional. Give a read. Subscribe if you're feeling generous... www.patreon.com/posts/week-2...?

I posted this one in the middle of the night, and I thought it might be worth prime time placement.

I was in a greeting card section of a gift shop on Sunset Blvd, Valentine’s Day 1988. Me and another guy were spending a long time trying to find the right card. The other guy was Glenn Frey, of the Eagles. The cards were subdivided by “from Husband, from Boyfriend,” etc. 1/2

This surprised me: I thought it was a story about someone’s heart curdling as she grew older. Nope! Brigitte Bardot was ALWAYS horrible. Less than 14 years after the Nazis were run out of Paris, here she is with a couple of Fascists.

Le Monde knows how to kick off the obit of a dead racist.

Every installment of this MTG rehabilitation tour feels like “Nice Scorpion Regrets Past Stings, Needs Help With River Crossing!”

The Trump-Kennedy Center has reached out to Ryan Coogler to see if “that Irish folk band is available.”

Great post about generative AI. Happy Holidays. Don't say I never gave you anything. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

You know who was great? Claudia Cardinale. Terrific actress, fine human being, never became a fascist. Also extraordinarily beautiful. She was a feminist and a UNESCO goodwill ambassador. She died earlier this year. Just remembering her today for no particular reason.

COBRA is so incredibly well-named, in that its venomous bite is literally killing me. I bet a million people have made this observation. Haha. So “funny.” Anyway. If you’d like to subscribe to an entertaining/ informative Patreon about comics and movies and TV… www.patreon.com/DavidAvallon...

My seasonal thoughts, free on the Patreon for interested parties.

Apparently I'm doing this -- my open letter to that open latter about AI in writing and publishing. I emerged from Hibernation Week to write it, so god only knows how much sense it makes. But at least a human wrote it, so that's nice. Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.

All I was able to muster was “this is horseshit,” and I’m glad Courtney took the time and effort to dismantle it point by point. I was too mad. I’ll sure as shit never read a word that AI bot-licker “writes.”

“If you want a TikTok of the future, picture a robot boot stamping on human balls — forever.” Inner Party Leader O’Brien, in George Orwell’s 2024.

I will be repeating this advice (or my version of it) for the rest of my life, as a personal crusade. There is no such thing as networking. There is making friends. And you can be genuine and kind… or transactional and worthless. Be genuine and kind. Great thread from Jim.

The only thing ChatGPT ever does.

It was a beautiful thing and I think Werner Herzog should take over doing morning weather reports for KCRW.

My seasonal thoughts, free on the Patreon for interested parties.

I am bad at relaxing. Partly because I love my work, and partly because I’m doing my best to keep the lights on. So sometimes I need to be convinced to pick up the old childhood hobbies I loved. Today, @pennystarrjr.bsky.social convinced me to build a ship model….

One of many holiday traditions: watching the Comfort and Joy episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE. A great Christmas story by @pauldini.bsky.social.

The Christmas Essay. Enjoy, and have a lovely day, doing whatever it is you choose to do… including nothing. It’s a great day for that, too. www.patreon.com/posts/133679...

🎶 I don’t want a lot for Christmas I just want one thing from you. For that A.I. bubble to burst, And all the tech bros get sued. 🎶 🎄

Great thread. Never apologize for what you believe. Never apologize for not being Christian.

Merry Christmas with the yule logs and the chestnuts roasting on open fires and the reindeer games and whatnot and so forth and so on!