Lost two teeth, gained a killer cover

Also, your link to preorder our exclusive FanExpo Boston cover

Hello!

I hope you’re surviving the heat as best you can.

I’ve got two things to share with you today:

1. How you can grab a special variant of the killer Marguerite Sauvage cover for Universal Champion.

2. A quick story about getting a wisdom tooth extracted on Thursday.

Shall we? Let’s!

MARGUERITE

In the last newsletter, I showed you a preview of my new comic series, Universal Champion, and the variant cover created by Marguerite Savage.

We’re creating a FanExpo Boston exclusive version of the first issue featuring Marguerite’s cover.

This virgin, full foil cover is going to be limited to just 25 copies at the show.

If you can’t make it to FanExpo Boston and would like a copy, you can preorder it from my shop for $25 (Includes US shipping. Outside the US? Drop me a line for shipping costs.)

Preorders will be up until Wednesday at midnight. It’s a short window, but I want to make sure I have the books in hand for the show on August 7.

This is the first convention exclusive I’ve made, and I can’t think of a better set of circumstances:

• FanExpo Boston is the biggest convention I do, and I’ve made such an incredible group of friends and fans at the show.

• I’m incredibly proud of this book, and Fernando Pinto, JP Jordan, and Justin Birch are so damn talented and a joy to create with.

• It’s freakin’ Marguerite!

So, if you’d like to secure your copy of this exclusive cover, preorder it before Wednesday at midnight.

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I HAVE TWO LESS TEETH

So yeah, I’ve been spending the last few days recovering from have a wisdom tooth and molar yanked out of my skull.

Should I have done this 20 years ago when a dentist first told me it could become a problem? Of course.

Would it have saved the molar next to it if I did? A-yup.

But I was stubborn…and dumb…so I found myself plopped in a chair, trying to stay calm, looking at the Manatee of Mindfulness.

Imagine this being the last and first thing you see as you go in and out of consciousness.

All-in-all, it went well. I’ve had very little swelling or pain and having to eat lots of ice cream for medical reasons isn’t so bad.

What I was most worried about was what I was going to be like afterwards. While Tracy and Logan were hoping for a “David after dentist” moment…I was not.

As best as I can stich it together, here’s a rundown of my Thursday morning:

• I remember being awake, looking at that manatee…and then nothing. There was no gentle slide into sleep. Just a light switch going off.

• Next thing I remember is the nice assistant saying, “Everything went great.”

• Do I remember sending two texts to Tracy post-surgery? Of course not!

• Oh god! What did I text Tracy?

  • Text #1: “Done. Still shaking off the IV, but I feel good.” Oh…that’s not so bad.

  • Text #2: “Might note. Less bits, more feeling loose and slightly disconnected.” That’s…less good.

• Do I remember leaving the room and the office? Of course not!

  • I’m told I said, “I’m fine,” sat up, swung my legs around, tried to stand, and immediately sat back down with a, “I need a second.”

  • I apparently DIDN’T embarrass myself or Tracy walking out of the office. I’m told I was pleasant and thanked everyone.

  • I do have a vague memory of locking arms with Tracy, thinking, “Not good enough,” and throwing my arm around her shoulder—You know, like a D-Day veteran trying to get off the beach. So brave.

  • Getting out the door was a hair tricky, cuz the opening wasn’t wide enough for two people. I had to go first all on my own. So brave.

• No memory of walking out of the office, to the elevator, and taking it down to the parking garage.

  • Vague memory of pointing to the car when we got into the parking lot. I’m a helper.

• It was a tight parking lot, so I was on my own getting into the car.

  • First attempt—tried to yeet head-first into the seat. Luckily, I had enough sense to stop and silently muttered, “Nope.”

  • Second attempt much more successful…except I forgot how legs work. Tracy had to lean over and pull them in for me.

• In another attempt to be helpful, I turned on my phone’s GPS, so Tracy knew how to get home.

• Slight hiccup—Tracy, as a fully-functioning adult human, has her own phone with her own GPS. So for a while, we had dueling GPS’s. I’m a helper.

  • I do have a memory of finding the dueling GPS voices funny, until my self-preservation instinct kicked in and I shut my phone down.

• But that self-preservation instinct was thrown out the window when I apparently decided to start sharing my opinions about Tracy’s driving.

  • Friend, you don’t get to almost 25 years of marriage by sharing opinions about your significant other’s driving. I blame the drugs.

• Outside of the hazy dueling GPSs, I have no memory of the drive home, getting out of the car, or getting into the house. Just the realization of, “Hey! I’m on the couch!”

• There was a short cycle of, “Why is my mouth full of gauze? Oh right!” pause “Why is my mouth full of gauze? Oh right!”

• After a couple of hours, I was clearheaded if just a little sore.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of “Storytime with George.”

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HENRY

Sadly, I wasn’t the only member of the house going through it this week. Allergies have been messing with Henry to the point he licked his front-right paw too much and created a cyst.

To give him a chance to heal the let the meds to their work, we’ve had to cone him. Here he is, staring off into the middle distance.

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COOL THINGS TO SUPPORT

VOODOO NATIONS
How far will you go to save your soul when faith is fractured, and evil wears a charming smile?

Writer Travis Gibb is one of the North Stars of the Kickstarter community, with Voodoo Nations being one of his flagship titles, and now he’s collecting it in trade paperback.

Voodoo Nations is a globe-trotting supernatural horror comic series, where missionaries collide with dark magic, corrupt spiritual leaders, and the true cost of belief. Follow RJ and her husband Brent as their path of service takes a terrifying detour into the world of voodoo — one filled with ancient rites, moral decay, and sinister forces that don’t just want your body... they want your faith.

Wikipedia Brown and the Case of the Hotep Heist (one-shot)
Wikipedia Brown, boy detective, has to crack a case that hits way too close to home.

I dig writer Lesley Julien’s vibe, and his new book sounds and looks like a lot of fun. It mixes the classic “kid detective” genre, but through the lens of The Boondocks. Plus, the art by Daimon Hampton looks fantastic and charming as hell.

GHOSTBRAWLER #1 Bruiser Edition by John Layman & Rob Guillory
Joey Frezzini used to be a boxer. Now he evicts unwanted ghosts from people’s homes. With his FISTS.

John and Rob are the creators of the comic series CHEW. I LOVE Chew. When I got back into comics as an adult, it played a huge part in figuring out what types of comics I enjoyed. It continues to be a huge inspiration in my work.

They’re back together with this new series, Ghostbrawler. From the campaign:
Joey’s a good-hearted musclehead from the neighborhood, always unlucky, born behind the eight ball. And after an unlucky punch leaves him dead in the ring, Joey recovers with the ability to see and physically interact with ghosts and other supernatural beings.

So Joey, who’s never had a job that hasn’t involved his fists, starts a second life as the guy to call when your house, church or graveyard is infested with pesky spirits. One call, and Joey clears out any ghostly or infernal presence the only way he knows: With Muscles and Knuckles.

Yep…love it!

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UNTIL NEXT TIME

If you want to preorder the FanExpo Boston exclusive version of Universal Champion #1 with Margurite Sauvage’s cover, head over to the shop before Wednesday midnight!

Be cool. Be safe. Make the thing.

All the best!