Will Friedle and Rider Strong's Radiant Black Recap - Links Fixed!
The Radiant Black Audiobook stars record a special recap video ahead of issue 31! Plus, a special charity signing with Will Friedle! Now with fixed links
Hey everyone! Apologies for the double newsletter— the first one I sent out to inboxes unfortunately had some broken links to the Will and Rider video. I’ve fixed them in the archived post, but wanted to make sure inbox readers had a proper one!
Kyle here, coming to you from my desk fresh off an amazing trip to India (!!) with my Radiant Black partners Marcelo Costa and Eduardo Ferigato and the ever amazing Kelly McMahon.
I had wanted to get this newsletter out before I got back but as you may be able to see from the quick photo dump I put together here, we were pretty busy :)
We traveled to Chennai for six days, primarily for Comic Con India, which welcomed us with open arms after printing a truly staggering number of Radiant Black #1s to give out to all con attendees. We signed copies all weekend and were so thrilled to get the opportunity to bring the book to a brand new audience and culture— a culture that loves superheroes. From the incredibly warm staff members to all the volunteers, I can’t thank Panda, Jatin and everyone involved with the convention for a truly one of a kind experience.
If you ever get the chance to visit Comic Con India, I highly recommend it! We’ll be going back, for sure :)
Will and Rider’s Radiant Recap
You may have seen this passing around social media by now, but for those of you who missed it, last week we dropped a very special version of the Radiant Black Story So Far recap special, this version animated and voiced by none other than Boy Meets World—and upcoming Radiant Black: The Audiobook—stars, Will Friedle and Rider Strong!
For some reason, YouTube Shorts previews don’t embed in Substack so you’ll have to settle for a custom button. But I promise you, it’s worth a watch. But viewer beware—this recap goes FULL SPOILERS for Radiant Black #1-30!
Or, if you prefer TikTok, you can check it out right here:
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
This took me a few days to put together— I actually edited, animated and mixed it myself—but it was a blast to get back into Premiere, After Effects and Pro Tools for the first time in a minute. AND! This isn’t the only one of these we’re doing ;)
But more on Rogue Sun down below!
Speaking of Radiant Black, we’re just a week and a half away from issue 31 hitting stands. I received my copies earlier this week and man, to say it printed fantastic would be an understatement. In particular, our 1:25 foil cover turned out to be a real stunner.
We’ve been going hard on press and trying to raise general awareness ahead of our Rebuild era kicking off— I think I did something like eighteen podcasts ahead of Final Order Cutoff, with a few more coming timed to the issue hitting stands. I’ll throw a few podcast links at the bottom of this post if you’re not sick of hearing my voice already :)
The other thing we’ve been putting a lot of energy into is building consistent short form content targeted for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram— videos like the recap video, plus clips that rework some of the cool video stuff we’ve done over the last few years including our big (secret) Radiant Black vs. Blaze short film. This has been a lot of fun to do and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that getting back into all my old post production programs has been really cathartic.
We have some really, really fun— and weird— plans for a bunch more content, some of which will definitely push the limits on what an indie comic line can do in this space. You’ll know it when you see it :P
And speaking of that kind of stuff, I’m pumped to be able to give an official update on our big Radiant Black: The Audiobook! Yesterday, we kicked off our first recording session with these two wonderful actors.
We’ll be recording everyone over the next few weeks and will have a firmer release date for you soon. If yesterday is any indication, this is going to be a good one.
Radiant Black #31 - February 26
NEW STORY ARC!
RADIANT BLACK RETURNS!
In the wake of the CATALYST WAR, MARSHALL WARD is the one and only RADIANT BLACK! But not everyone in Chicago is happy with their new hero—and with old foes returning and new threats rising, will Marshall’s time as Radiant Black be abruptly cut short?
A new era of RADIANT BLACK begins in this perfect jumping-on point for new readers!
As we get ready for our big issue 31 launch, I wanted to take a second to call special attention to our B cover by Riccardo Robaldo. This one:
As previously mentioned, our B covers for issue 31-36 are actually going to make a connecting set! Oh, and it’s all done! Check this out:
And of course, we also have the previously mentioned 1:25 foil cover by Marcelo:
What’s that? You’re wondering if we’ve got a sneak peek for you yet? Well what do you know— you ask, we deliver!
Preview:
Massive-Verse Rebuild Launch Signings
To celebrate our big launch, I’m going to be doing two signings the week of February 26— both of which are really special. First up, I’ll be in Annapolis, Maryland on Wednesday, February 26 to sign at the incredible Third Eye Comics! This is my first time visiting Third Eye and I’ve only heard fantastic things—I can’t wait to scope it out myself. And if you’re in the Baltimore/Annapolis area, I hope you’ll come out and say hi! I’ll bring some fun goodies with me :)
A few days later, on Saturday, March 1, we’re going big in Los Angeles with Brian Buccellato (NO/ONE, Midlife), Melissa Flores (The Dead Lucky, Power Rangers Prime) and some actor guy who keeps trying to play Radiant Black in everything we do.
But in all seriousness, we’re super excited to welcome Will Friedle to the signing— and Will’s doing something super, super cool for our Los Angeles community, which was recently devastated by wildfires. As a part of this signing, Will is going to donate all proceeds to the Wildfire Recovery Fund.
So come out, listen to Will be mean to me, support a good cause and help us kick off the next era of The Massive-Verse!
Final Order Cutoff
Rogue Sun Rebuild
On Monday, Rogue Sun #25—which kicks off the Rebuild era for Rogue Sun—hits stands and similar to Radiant Black #31, is designed as a perfect jumping on point.
And to help anyone catch up who may have been missing out on one of my favorite superhero books, we’ve also put together a Story So Far TLDR comic— FOR FREE!— that you can check out right here!
Oh, and also similar to Radiant Black, we’re running a killer sale on all Rogue Sun trade paperbacks as well!
ROGUE SUN: THE STORY SO FAR
Have you heard about our immersive superhero series and been meaning to give it a shot? Or maybe you were an early reader but fell off?
Rogue Sun #25
NEW STORY ARC
A NEW ROGUE SUN RISES! For the past year, Dylan has defended New Orleans as the one and only Rogue Sun. Now, his half-sister Aurie has joined him—but how? And why? And what new enemy is so terrifying they'll need two Rogue Suns to defeat them?
A new chapter of ROGUE SUN begins in this perfect jumping-on point for new readers!
And with Final Order Cutoff happening on Monday, today we have some killer new preview pages for everyone to check out!
Preview:
Podcasts
As promised, here are a few of the podcasts that were kind enough to host me over the last couple weeks. Huge thanks to everyone for having me on!
Okay, that’s going to do it for me! I’ve got two scripts on my desk this weekend and a Rogue Sun Recap video to finish animating!
Talk to you all next week!
Stay Radiant!
Kyle
Los Angeles, CA
I’m going to be doing something special for issue 31 to help my local comic book store. I’m going to be doing a live Instagram stream while in suit.