Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Final Cut — your weekly roundup of what’s moving in the world of visual storytelling.

This week the industry has its dress shoes on. Cannes opened with the Marché du Film quietly making 2026 the year animation stops being a sidebar — there’s now a full “Cannes Animation” umbrella threaded across the whole market. 🙌

Meanwhile in Burbank, DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation showed their cards for Annecy: a three-feature Batman: Knightfall world premiere, plus first looks at Tom King’s Mister Miracle and Jake Wyatt’s My Adventures with Green Lantern. And on the less-glamorous end of the spectrum, Mad Cave laid off senior editors the same week Newsarama’s last writer walked out the door — the comics journalism job market really is that fragile right now.

Grab a coffee. Let’s get into it.

Animation — Industry

DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation Unveil Their Annecy 2026 Slate — Headlined by a Three-Feature Batman: Knightfall

Peter Safran and Sam Register are taking a heavy slate to Annecy in June. The headliner is the world premiere of Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall, the first installment of a three-feature animated adaptation of the 1993–1994 Bane storyline. Around it: first looks at Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ adult Mister Miracle, Jake Wyatt’s My Adventures with Green Lantern, Josie Campbell’s Starfire!, plus Creature Commandos, Batman: Caped Crusader, Cartoon Network’s new SuperMutant Magic Academy, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe’s Living the Dream and Keeping Up With The Joneses. For working storyboard artists and animation directors, this is the clearest signal yet that DC animation has stopped being a single-track output and is being structured as a tiered slate — adult-prestige, YA, and four-quadrant in parallel.

Sources: Variety · The Hollywood Reporter · Animation World Network · The Beat

Industry — Film & TV

Cannes Quietly Stops Treating Animation as a Sidebar — Launches a Full “Cannes Animation” Umbrella Across the 2026 Market

The 2026 Marché du Film (May 12–20) is the first edition under the new Cannes Animation banner — a structural change that pulls animation out of its single “Animation Day” silo and embeds it across the entire market: works-in-progress screenings, finished-film showcases, panels, workshops, networking events, and targeted co-production meetings. The centerpiece event is the Annecy Animation Showcase (May 17), with five post-production features including Sofía Carrillo’s stop-motion Insectario, Oscar-nominated Alain Gagnol’s Dog My Cats!, Takayuki Hirao’s Wasted Chef, dwarf studios’ samurai stop-motion Hidari, and Vergine Keaton’s Bataille. Japan is the Country of Honor. For pre-production teams hunting financing or co-production partners, this is the closest the European market has come to giving animation the same vertical that live-action features have had at Cannes for decades.

Sources: Marché du Film · Variety · Cineuropa

Comics & Illustration · Industry

Mad Cave Cuts Senior Editors the Same Week Newsarama’s Last Writer Walks Out

Two cuts in the same news cycle, both worth tracking. Mad Cave Studios laid off Senior Editor of Creator-Owned Projects James Emmett, Senior Editor Chas! Pangburn, and Senior Marketing Manager Maya Vee, with President Mark Irwin framing the cuts as “necessary to ensure the long-term health of the company.” Days later, Newsarama — one of the few unionized comics journalism outlets — effectively went silent after its last staff writer George Marston was laid off in the latest wave at Future plc. The combined picture is bleak: an indie publisher trimming editorial bench depth at the same moment one of the field’s longest-running journalism platforms loses the staff that covered it. For working comics writers and illustrators, this affects two practical things at once — fewer editors actively shepherding creator-owned projects, and fewer outlets covering the work once it ships.

Sources: Bleeding Cool (Mad Cave) · The Beat · Popverse (Newsarama)

Animation — Industry

Alberto Vázquez’s Goya-Winning Decorado Opens in U.S. Theaters Today

GKIDS is releasing Decorado — Alberto Vázquez’s 2026 Goya Award winner for Best Animated Feature — in U.S. theaters today, in both subtitled and English-dubbed versions. The Spanish-Portuguese co-production expands Vázquez’s earlier animated short of the same name into a feature-length black comedy about Mouse Arnold, a resident of the city of Anywhere, spiraling into the suspicion that everything around him is fake scenery. For animators working in 2D and stop-motion-influenced design, Vázquez’s anthropomorphic visual language and stripped-back palette is a useful counterweight to the dominant US TV-animation aesthetic — and a reminder that the festival circuit is still delivering features that don’t look like everything else on the shelf.

Sources: Comicon · Official Site · Wikipedia · Animation Scoop Interview

Animation — Industry

Devil May Cry Season 2 Drops All Eight Episodes on Netflix — Studio Mir Back at the Wheel

Adi Shankar’s Devil May Cry animated series returned to Netflix on May 12 with all eight Season 2 episodes released at once. South Korea’s Studio Mir — the team behind The Legend of Korra and The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf — is again handling animation, with Johnny Yong Bosch back as Dante, Robbie Daymond as Vergil, and Scout Taylor-Compton as Lady. Season 1 set a high bar for stylized action choreography in a Western adaptation of a Japanese property; for storyboard artists and action animators, Season 2 is worth studying as a case in how Studio Mir is sustaining that level of fight design across a longer episodic order. A third season has already been ordered.

Sources: Animation World Network · Animation Magazine · Wikipedia

Animation — Festival

Stuttgart ITFS 2026 Crowns ‘With Tapes and Toasts in the Car’ as Grand Prix Winner — and Auto-Qualifies It for the Oscars

The 33rd Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film wrapped May 10 with Kiana Naghshineh’s With Tapes and Toasts in the Car — a Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg graduation film — taking both the €10,000 Grand Prix and the €6,000 Audience Award, an unusual double that automatically qualifies the film for the Academy Awards. Other notable picks: Tanja Nuijten’s Sensual earned a Special Mention at the Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award, Switzerland’s Banana Soup won the Trickstar Nature Award, and Anna Böhm’s Emmi & Einschwein took Best German Screenplay for an Animated Feature. The festival drew 2,000 submissions and handed out 11 awards. For independent animators on the festival path, ITFS remains one of the cleaner shortcuts to Oscar eligibility for shorts.

Sources: Zippy Frames · Animation World Network · AMCRS

From the Community

Worth a restack — recent posts from other working creatives in visual storytelling.

An Artist for the Underdog · Animation Obsessive
A deep dive into Raoul Servais — the Belgian master who founded the European continent’s first animation school in Ghent in 1963, and whose ethical, underdog-side filmmaking still casts a long shadow over short-form animation. Useful context for anyone teaching or learning the craft. Published May 8, 2026

Storytelling in Illustrations · David Rickert
A short, sharp post passing along advice from cartoonist Roy Doty: characters need a setting to actually tell a story. Rickert breaks down how even a single drawing earns its narrative weight from environmental detail, not just figure work — the kind of reminder storyboard artists and illustrators don’t get often enough.

The Outsider Newsletter — May 13, 2026 · Drew Landry
Landry’s mid-week filmmaking dispatch is one of the better independent reads for indie directors and pre-production crews — covering grants, festival calls, and craft notes for filmmakers working outside the studio system. Published May 13, 2026

Leave a comment

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.

Beyond The Process is a newsletter for working creatives in visual storytelling — storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.

You’re receiving this because you subscribed on Substack. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe below:

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© 2026 Beyond The Process

By the time you read this CIRCLE OF SNAKES: RETURN of the CURSED should be out in the wild for you to enjoy. But how did I get here? What were the steps taken in my first attempt at a FRENCH BD format?

Because of the panic I was feeling about not advancing my concepting skills while embroiled in this comic project, I incorporated more 3D modelling into pre-production than I had originally planned. Here’s how that went…

Prefer a downloadable PDF? Get it here.

Buy PDF Here

Read more

Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Final Cut — your weekly roundup of what’s moving in the world of visual storytelling.

A heavy week. The industry lost two giants in seven days — Gerry Conway, the writer who killed Gwen Stacy and built the Punisher out of moral ambiguity, and Ted Turner, the man who put a 24-hour cartoon channel on cable when no one thought there was an audience for it. Meanwhile, a small team of comics makers quietly launched Panels.store, a DRM-free alternative to the platform-lock-in we’ve all been complaining about for years. The contrast tells you something about where this medium is right now.

Grab a coffee. Let’s get into it.

The Week in Visual Storytelling

Storyboarding · Animation · Comics · Pre-Production · Tools & Pipeline

May 8, 2026

Tools & Pipeline · Comics & Illustration

Panels.store Launches a DRM-Free Comics Marketplace — Built by the Team Behind the Panels Reader

The team behind Panels, the iOS and Mac comic reader used by hundreds of thousands of readers, just opened Panels.store — a digital marketplace where readers can discover, buy, and download DRM-free comics that play instantly in the Panels app. The pitch is simple and unusual for this category: no platform lock-in, no per-publisher silos, files you actually own. For working comics makers, the more interesting layer is the distribution model — direct sales to readers without surrendering rights to a Comixology-style middleman. Worth tracking how this affects the indie publishing economics.

Sources: Panels.store · Product Hunt · Founder Interview (YouTube)

Comics & Illustration

Gerry Conway, Comics Writer Who Co-Created The Punisher and Killed Gwen Stacy, Dies at 73

Gerry Conway died April 26 at 73, of pancreatic cancer. He took over Amazing Spider-Man from Stan Lee at age 19 and wrote the run that contained the 1973 “Death of Gwen Stacy” — still arguably the single most consequential editorial decision in superhero comics, the moment the medium proved a main character’s love interest could actually die and stay dead. He co-created The Punisher with John Romita Sr., created Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Firestorm, and Vixen, and helped shape Jason Todd’s Robin at DC. He was named to the 2026 Eisner Hall of Fame months before his death. For working comics writers and illustrators, Conway’s Spider-Man run is a foundational study in how a single story decision can permanently bend a character’s gravity for fifty years.

Sources: 5News · Variety · Marvel Tribute · Deadline

Industry — Animation & TV

Ted Turner, Founder of Cartoon Network, Dies at 87

Ted Turner died Wednesday, May 6, at his Avalon Plantation home in Lamont, Florida, at 87, after a long battle with Lewy body dementia. He’s remembered most often as the CNN founder, but for animators his more durable legacy is Cartoon Network — launched October 1, 1992, built on the Hanna-Barbera library Turner Broadcasting acquired in 1991. Without that bet, an entire generation of working animators wouldn’t have had a 24-hour pipeline to grow up on, and shows like Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and Adventure Time wouldn’t have had a network willing to greenlight them. Turner also launched TBS, TNT, and Turner Classic Movies along the way.

Sources: CNN · ComicBook.com · Anime News Network

Animation — Industry

‘I, Chihuahua’ Locks Voice Cast — Iglesias, Luna, Beatriz, Perlman — and Heads to the Cannes Market

Jorge R. Gutierrez’s long-shelved Lucha Libre animated feature I, Chihuahua just confirmed its voice cast: Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Diego Luna, Stephanie Beatriz, and Ron Perlman. Rocket Science is launching world sales at the Cannes market next week, with Indian animation studio Assemblage handling production for UK partner Snafu Pictures. Gutierrez (Maya and the Three, The Book of Life) parted ways with original backer Netflix two years ago over creative differences — this is the project’s full revival as a creator-controlled independent. Worth watching as a case study in what happens after a streamer-funded animated feature goes back into the wild.

Sources: Deadline · Deadline (Background)

Industry — Film & TV

Cannes Opens Next Week With Generative AI Banned From the Palme d’Or

The 79th Festival de Cannes opens May 12, and for the first time, generative AI is formally ineligible for the Palme d’Or. Any film where generative AI serves as the “principal authoring tool” — script, visual generation, or principal performance synthesis — is excluded from Official Selection. Festival President Iris Knobloch summed up the position: “A film is not an assembly of data; it is a personal vision.” Technical AI tools (sound restoration, image cleanup, standard VFX) remain permitted; the ban targets AI as a creative originator, not as a production instrument. A separate World AI Film Festival ran in Cannes in late April for hybrid and AI-led work that doesn’t qualify. The line drawn here is going to shape how festivals worldwide distinguish AI-as-tool from AI-as-author over the next twelve months.

Sources: FSU News · AI Films · Wikipedia (Festival Overview)

Animation — Industry

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Crosses 1 Billion Viewing Hours, Sets Up Another Theatrical Run

Netflix’s animated phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters just crossed 1 billion viewing hours globally and remains Netflix’s most-watched film of all time, with view counts now well past 500 million. The recent limited-release sing-along version sold out 1,300+ theatrical screenings across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK before returning to streaming. Netflix is reportedly prepping another theatrical run as the title approaches its one-year anniversary. For animation studios still being told family animation only works as a four-quadrant theatrical investment, this is the counterargument — a streaming-first animated original that the audience pulled into theaters by sheer demand.

Sources: Netflix Tudum · The Hollywood Reporter

Tools & Pipeline · Pre-Production

Lightcraft’s ‘Spark Story’ Pitches Itself as the Google Docs of 3D Previs

Lightcraft Technology — co-founded by Emmy winner Eliot Mack and Avid founder Bill Warner — has been rolling out Spark Story, a browser-and-mobile previs tool that lets directors, DPs, and storyboard artists collaborate on 3D scenes in real time using scripts, Gaussian splats, imported USD assets, and physically correct camera/lens models. Cameras placed in the scene auto-generate shot list entries linked back to the script. The framing pitched at NAB and picked up by Creative Bloq this past month is aggressive: a “Google Docs of 3D” for the previs stage, designed to put real-time previs in front of teams that historically couldn’t justify the licensing or learning curve of Unreal-based pipelines. For working storyboard artists, the question worth asking is whether browser-native previs starts pulling some of what’s currently boarded in 2D into 3D earlier in the process.

Sources: Animation World Network · Creative Bloq · Newsshooter

From the Community

A few recent reads from other Substack writers in the visual storytelling space — worth a restack if any of these land for you.

An Artist for the Underdog — Animation Obsessive, by Animation Obsessive Staff (May 8, 2026)
A profile of Belgian animation master Raoul Servais — founder of Europe’s first animation school, the artist who pushed back when Pixar’s early Luxo Jr. tech demo arrived as a pure technique exercise and insisted “even the shortest of films should tell a story.” A useful piece for anyone thinking about why story-first thinking still beats craft-first thinking, even now.

Newsletter 5, 2026 — Why Cartooning Needs to Innovate — Cartoon Movement (May 4, 2026)
A field report from the International Journalism Festival on why editorial cartooning may be the least innovating profession in publishing — and why that’s actively hurting the form. Direct, pointed, and worth reading if you make work that lives next to the news.

[BIZ] Animation First 2026 Festival: How Animators & Composers Surprised Me About Making Comics — Charles Merritt Houghton (May 2026)
A working comics maker walks through what he learned at the Animation First 2026 festival in New York — including Chris Wedge’s argument that sound in animation isn’t subordinate to image but a parallel storytelling channel. Practical cross-pollination notes between animation and comics craft.

Leave a comment

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.

Beyond The Process is a newsletter for working creatives in visual storytelling — storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.

You’re receiving this because you subscribed on Substack. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe below:

Subscribe now

© 2026 Beyond The Process

Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Final Cut — your weekly roundup of what’s moving in the world of visual storytelling.

This week was loud. Annecy dropped its 2026 lineup with Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn headlining, along with Pixar’s Gatto, and a long-overdue 50th-anniversary tribute to Aardman — basically a stop-motion family reunion. On the anime front, Toei is restructuring One Piece’s production for the Elbaph Arc, while Hazbin Hotel earned its fifth and final season at Prime Video. Netflix came through with a slate refresh featuring LEGO One Piece and Bass X Machina, and THE LINE’s Warframe short had us reminiscing about 2000s AMV energy.

Grab a coffee. Let’s get into it.

The Week in Visual Storytelling

Storyboarding · Animation · Comics · Pre-Production · Tools & Pipeline

April 17, 2026

Animation — Industry

Annecy Unveils Its 2026 Lineup — Brad Bird, Pixar, and a 50-Year Salute to Aardman

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival rolled out its 2026 program this week, anchored by a Special Events slate that includes Brad Bird walking audiences through Ray Gunn, Enrico Casarosa previewing Pixar’s Gatto, Ricky Gervais hosting a masterclass on Netflix’s Alley Cats, and a Rick & Morty spinoff reveal. The headline tribute goes to Aardman, marking 50 years of Wallace, Gromit, Shaun, and stop-motion stubbornness. Travis Knight will also bring footage from his upcoming feature Wildwood. The festival runs June 21–27 in Annecy, France.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter · Variety

Animation — Industry

Toei Restructures ‘One Piece’ Production for the Elbaph Arc

Toei Animation announced a significant production overhaul for One Piece coinciding with the start of the Elbaph Arc. Beginning this April, the long-running anime caps annual output at 26 episodes, split into two 13-episode cours with a planned three-month production hiatus between them. It’s a notable move away from the relentless weekly grind toward a season-based model — a structural shift other long-running anime productions are likely watching closely.

Source: Animation World Network

Animation — Industry

‘Hazbin Hotel’ Renewed for Fifth and Final Season at Prime Video

Prime Video confirmed at the show’s LVL UP Expo panel on April 25 that Hazbin Hotel will end with a fifth season. Creator Vivienne Medrano — who built the property from a 2019 YouTube pilot into a global animated series at SpindleHorse Toons — said the renewal lets the team finish on its own terms rather than getting cut short. For independent and creator-owned animators watching from the outside, the arc still matters: a self-funded indie pilot became a multi-season Prime Video original and gets to walk away from the table on its own schedule. Season 5 will roll out in 240+ countries; release date is TBA.

Sources: Variety · The Hollywood Reporter

Animation — Technique

THE LINE’s Warframe Short Channels 2000s AMV Energy — and It Worked

Creative Bloq dug into Jade Shadows: Constellations, the new Warframe animated short from arthouse studio THE LINE (the team behind Gorillaz’s The Mountain, the Hades 2 launch trailer, and Overwatch cinematics). The piece is built around a metalcore track from the band ERRA and leans hard into glitchy, saturated, deliberately nostalgic 2000s anime-music-video aesthetics — bedroom-editing energy weaponized at studio scale. A useful case study for any animator pitching a stylistically risky project: the “wrong-feeling” reference can be the whole point.

Source: Creative Bloq

Animation — Industry

Netflix Refreshes Its Animation Slate — LEGO One Piece, ‘Bass X Machina,’ and ‘Swapped’

Netflix posted a sweeping animation slate update on April 29, headlined by LEGO One Piece — a two-part 3D animated special premiering globally September 29 — and Bass X Machina, a new adult animated sci-fi Western debuting October 6. Also confirmed: Swapped, an animated feature directed by Nathan Greno (Tangled) with a voice cast led by Michael B. Jordan, Juno Temple, Tracy Morgan, and Cedric the Entertainer. Netflix continues to spread bets across kids, adult, and major-IP animation.

Source: About Netflix

Comics & Illustration

‘Anti-AI Crafting’ Tops Creative Bloq’s 2026 Illustration Trend Report

Creative Bloq’s late-April trend roundup names “Anti-AI Crafting” as the dominant force shaping illustration in 2026 — a deliberate move toward hand-drawn texture, wonky charm, and visible imperfection as a counterweight to AI’s hyper-polished output. The piece flags hybrid 2D/3D workflows (think Nimona, The Wild Robot) and “micro-animations” creeping into static illustration as adjacent currents. For working illustrators and storyboard artists, the practical upside is real: clients increasingly want work that visibly came from a human hand.

Source: Creative Bloq

From the Community

A few recent reads from other Substack writers in the visual storytelling space — worth a restack if any of these land for you.

Inside Satoshi Kon’s Last, Unfinished Movie — Animation Obsessive, by Animation Obsessive Staff (April 27, 2026)
A deep look at Dreaming Machine, the “road movie for robots” Kon was making when he died. Storyboards exist, 26 minutes of footage are colored and edited but unvoiced — and the piece walks through what the film was supposed to be. Required reading for anyone obsessed with the planning side of animation.

Alien Day 2026 Is Here! (& Stuff) — Ben Templesmith’s Substack (April 26, 2026)
Comics artist Ben Templesmith breaks down the gold-foil prints and painted originals he released for Alien Day, plus a candid look at his current commission queue. A useful peek at how a working illustrator turns a fandom event into actual income.

April 2026 in Comic Book Covers — The Indies — Substack, by CH Wilkins (April 2026)
A curated visual roundup of the strongest indie comic covers shipping in April. Good fuel if you’re an illustrator looking at what’s actually getting commissioned right now outside the Big Two.

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.

Beyond The Process is a newsletter for working creatives in visual storytelling — storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.

You’re receiving this because you subscribed on Substack. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe below:

Subscribe now

© 2026 Beyond The Process

I’ve been a metalhead since I was thirteen, but even at that time I was very specific in my tastes. I didn’t care much for the popular stuff, the accessible stuff that seemed to be on the tips of every burnouts tongue. I was hooked on CHEZ 106.1 out of Ottawa who had a 3 hour metal show every Friday night from 9-12pm called POWER CHORDS. They played a lot of stuff from Europe as well as a bunch of indie metal. At thirteen, when we’re all seeking our identity in the world, it felt right as rain.

Just as a brief example of what I was listening to back then:

• PILEDRIVER

• GRAVEDIGGER

• LOUDNESS

• MALICE

• EXCITER

• MANOWAR

• ACCEPT

• LEIGE LORD

• ZNOWHITE

• OVERKILL...etc.

The thing of it was, I’d record stuff on my boom box as the songs were introduced. In most cases I was trying to hit RECORD while trying to remember who the band was. In some cases, I got it completely wrong. For years, I had no interest in METALLICA until I realized that some of my favorite stuff was off their first two albums. Even to this day, I have a thin skin for anything past Kill ‘em All and Ride the Lightning.

When it came to more popular bands like DOKKEN or MOTLEY CRUE I was a casual listener. Though RATT seemed to get through to me for some reason. Anyway, there were A LOT of bands to seek out and that was part of the fun. Sending away for catalogs in the back of KERRANG! magazine to find even more obscure music and t-shirts was as good as it got when it came to finding a means of expression.

One band in particular I never could wrap my head around was IRON MAIDEN. I loved the album covers, thought EDDIE their mascot was great, and even liked “Run to the Hills”, but Bruce Dickinson’s vocals always felt like he was singing through a sock. Like it was this quiet powerful voice...if that was even possible.

A few years ago, I was contacted by Z2 Comics editor Rantz Hoseley to see if I wanted to work with Bruce Dickinson on an Iron Maiden series. The pay was really good for indie comics...hell even for mainstream comics! Compared to my Marvel rate in 2009 it wasn’t too far off.

BACKSTORY: Rantz contacting me years ago to work on COMIC BOOK TATTOO, a Tori Amos anthology project. He had been friends with her and pitched a book that would use songs from her catalogue that people would write and illustrate. What was even cooler is I asked if my wife could write the story…and he said sure! As the years went on Rantz ended up becoming the editor at a music-based publisher called Z2 Comics.

He’d remembered working with me and offered up an interesting BEETHOVEN: The Final Symphony anthology. A few years later…GWAR came out with a book that I contributed to. It seemed like they were happy with my work to keep contacting me.

Anyways…of course I jumped at the chance, because I knew a series with as big a name as BRUCE DICKINSON would get more eyeballs on my work. I even had a very good friend I was hoping would do covers as he was an IRON MAIDEN FREAK! Absolutely loves them!

The gig itself was perfect. I’d illustrate 20+ pages every 60 days for 3 years, until the launch of their latest album. But as we all know nothing is definite until the check clears--especially in comics.

A week before our initial meeting, Bruce decided to “go in a different” direction. The project may have been cancelled for all I knew. [NOTE: Actually, it wasn’t but instead went to one of my favorite long-haired heavy metal-loving British comic artists, STAZ JOHNSON…so really, we all won!]
However…Rantz, threw me a bone to illustrate an 11-page story for another band: TYPE O NEGATIVE.

I’d heard of TYPE O NEGATIVE but never really listened to their music. They were more of a goth/metal thing...not that I was against it. After CANDLEMASS I didn’t really seek out anything Doom Or Goth. I was more of a Power/Melodic metal kind of guy.

So, here’s the crazy thing, I had about 2 weeks to do 11 pages and really no idea how I was going to do it. I wanted it to have a looser rock’n’roll feel to it but wasn’t sure how I was going to get there. The above thumbnails took me 2 days to cook up in Photoshop. I didn’t even do my usual little thumbnails on the actual script. I created a hybrid, something that was polished enough in between thumbnail and rough...and then I blew them up to full size pages to ink!

I’d never really done this with any great success before. My thoughts were if I could get the underlying structures to look solid enough, I could build on it with ink...or pencil in stuff I didn’t feel was quite right.

I ended up inking it primarily with a quill which more or less kept it linear until I went back in to fill in blacks. I knew I wanted to rely on spotting blacks as much as I could because I’m not terribly crazy about the colorists they can afford for these projects. Taking a page from comic artist Alan Davis’ notebook, the more I spot black the less chance people have of messing up the art. Still...they do pick some rather horrible colors.

This was also a first for me to directly incorporate Zip-A-Tone effects in Photoshop. I’ve always liked the halftone gradations, and they really helped me out to create depth and shape things.

The story itself was incredibly simple and straight-forward. I was happy that it didn’t have a lot of buildings or structures to contend with. This is a factor in how fast one can accomplish the work.

The story was based on the cover of a song by Seals and Crofts. TYPE O NEGATIVE’s version was obviously darker and more haunting. I don’t have too many opportunities to illustrate horror material. In fact, I was looking through a bunch of flash fiction I wrote a few years back and realized it’s not a genre that I’ve embraced to any large degree. I’ve tried a few times and the most I come up with is something “disturbing” but not quite horror.

I guess that’s why it was interesting to work on a horror film over the summer. I wouldn’t have picked it for myself, nor would I have written it. Though I grew up with a lot of the Italian horror films and pretty much anything I could find, it was the “disturbing” stuff like HENRY: PORTRAIT OF SERIAL KILLER that haunted me most.

So, here’s the rub.

A lot of people I’ve shown these pages to seemed to really like them. Like them in a way that they like my sketchbooks, and my storyboards. They’re loose, as I had hoped, but my satisfaction in their execution left me feeling flat. I did my best to craft something that was attractive to my eye, but it never rises to what level of finish I prefer.

Sure, there’s a few moments here and there, but overall, I’m left puzzled. How is it some artist like JOSE LUIS GARCIZ-LOPEZ can have both “liveliness” and “solid draftsmanship” to their work? Guys like BILL SIENKIEWICZ can whip ink at the page and yet pull off stunning light and shadows.

Some of my earliest influences were CARLOS ESQUERRA and JUAN GIMENEZ whose works were always loose. But for some reason I could never find what satisfied me. I’ve often felt through the years I was stuck “interpreting” what comics or characters should look like and not ever finding my natural flow. Maybe it was because I felt I could never find work at the “BIG TWO” if I was drawing something of a “marketable” style.

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Nowadays the field is wide open. There’s really no need to be stuck in thinking that there’s a HOUSE STYLE or way of working. I need to get out of my own way. If nothing else this project has taught me a lot about what the audience wants. If they like this stuff and I don’t and proceed the way I have been, they won’t vote with their dollars.

On the flipside, if I give them what they like, I won’t be as happy creating the stuff. I won’t like the work that I produce. I’ll enjoy the process...but the finish will mean very little.

BUT...there is a way that does take time. Spending time with myself, in this style, regardless of what I draw, eventually I could find my groove. If I give it a chance, it may EVOLVE into something meaningful for me. And maybe that could be time well spent.

Especially if it means I can produce work faster. All in, these 11 pages took 8 days to produce--from start to finish. So, it can’t be all that bad, can it?

And to think if Rantz hadn’t been friends with Tori Amos all of this would never have happened. Who says LUCK isn’t a large part of this business?

=s=

P.S. If you haven’t seen our SUBSTACK LIVE w/ RANTZ check it out HERE!

Happy Friday — welcome back to The Final Cut.

Big week. This installment of The Final Cut is a bit weighted towards Animation, but that’s just how the week’s news panned out.

California just opened its film tax credit program to animation for the first time in the program’s history, and studios apparently had a lot of pent-up opinions about that — applications jumped 400% in the first window. Also, 9,000 creators showed up in Burbank this week for AfroAnimation Summit 6.0, which is either deeply inspiring or deeply exhausting depending on where you fall on the introvert spectrum.

In other, less positive news, Disney just axed nearly the entire Marvel visual development team — the artists who built the look of the MCU — and replaced them with a freelance contracting model. And separately, Warner Bros has made the decision to finally release the long awaited movie Coyote vs. ACME which was originally shelved in 2023 as a tax write off.

Grab a coffee. Let’s get into it.

The Week in Visual Storytelling

Storyboarding · Animation · Comics · Pre-Production · Tools & Pipeline

April 24, 2026

Animation — Industry

California Finally Opens the Tax Credit Door for Animation

For the first time in the history of California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program, animated features are eligible — and three major productions are already in. Governor Newsom announced on April 23 that 38 film projects will receive a collective $193 million in credits, including inaugural animation recipients The Simpsons Movie 2 (20th Century Studios, $21.9M), a Phineas and Ferb feature (Disney), and an untitled DreamWorks Animation feature ($24.7M), each qualifying for a 35% refundable credit.

This matters beyond the specific titles. California animation studios have spent years watching productions leave the state for Georgia, Canada, and the UK in search of incentives. The expanded program — which now also covers animated TV series, competition shows, and short-form content — is a direct response to years of industry lobbying and a 2025 economic study documenting the scope of that exodus. Applications for the new program jumped more than 400% in its first window.

For working animators and visual storytellers based in California, this shift could mean more local hiring, more projects staying in the state, and more stability in a production landscape that’s been contracting since 2020.

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Industry — Film & TV

Disney Guts Marvel’s Visual Development Team in Sweeping 1,000-Person Layoff Wave

Disney announced approximately 1,000 layoffs across its divisions under new CEO Josh D’Amaro — and Marvel Studios took some of the sharpest cuts. Nearly the entire visual development team, the group responsible for designing the overall look and feel of the MCU, has been let go. The model shifts from full-time staff artists to per-project freelance contractors; some of those departing have been there for a decade or more. The studio maintains this wasn’t AI-driven, though individual artists have noted that AI visual generation is already being used internally on some projects. For working concept artists and visual development professionals, this is a significant structural shift in how the industry’s biggest player intends to operate going forward.

Source: Comics Beat

Animation — Industry

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2026 Selects Animated Films — Including Honami Yano’s Eri

The 2026 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight lineup includes several animated works, most notably Eri by Japanese animator Honami Yano. The hand-drawn short follows a Holstein cow who falls in love with another female in a world that only values cows who bear calves — a quiet, pastoral, and quietly devastating piece. Yano works entirely outside the commercial anime industry, and her selection signals a continuing appetite for independent animation at the highest levels of the film festival circuit. A broader set of animated shorts and one animated feature also appear in the full Fortnight program. Cannes runs May 13–23.

Source: Cartoon Contender

Animation — Industry

Coyote vs. Acme Gets Its First Trailer — the Shelved Looney Tunes Movie Is Actually Coming Out

In 2023, Warner Bros. shelved the completed Coyote vs. Acme as a tax write-off without ever releasing it. In 2025, Ketchup Entertainment acquired it. And this week, the first trailer dropped — the film opens theatrically August 28. The live-action/animation hybrid stars Will Forte as a personal injury lawyer helping Wile E. Coyote sue Acme Corp, with Looney Tunes cameos from Bugs, Daffy, and Tweety. Directed by Dave Green, it’s a rare Hollywood story about a completed film that was discarded, rescued, and actually getting its shot. Whether it holds up is another question, but just reaching theaters at this point is genuinely remarkable.

Source: Variety

Animation — Community

AfroAnimation Summit 6.0 Puts 9,000 Creators on the Same Floor

This week in Burbank, AfroAnimation Summit 6.0 is underway (April 23–26), drawing more than 9,000 artists, animators, technologists, and storytellers to what has become the largest four-day gathering in the US dedicated to non-traditional creators in animation, gaming, VFX, and emerging media. Studios present include Disney, Netflix, Marvel, DreamWorks, BBC, Nickelodeon, and Warner Bros. — not just as sponsors but actively recruiting.

Summit co-founder Keith White is presenting his lecture series “Margin to Mainstream: The Evolution of Black Animation,” a multimedia deep-dive covering Black animators from 1956 to the present. The series — which White has been touring at colleges including USCBAC, Academy, and SVA — examines pioneers whose contributions shaped the medium but rarely receive industry credit. The April 25 Creative Job Fair is a new addition this year, alongside an Artist Alley and a Graphic Design Interactive Lab.

If you’re in LA this week and haven’t found a way in, there’s still time. For everyone else, White’s documentary project documenting this history is also in development — one to watch.

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Animation — Storytelling

Aubrey Plaza’s Kevin Is the Adult Animated Comedy Worth Watching Right Now

Six years after Aubrey Plaza and her then-boyfriend Joe Wengert first started developing it, Kevin arrived on Prime Video on April 20 — and it’s the strangest, most interesting animated debut of the spring. The premise: when couple Dana (Plaza) and Dan (Mike Mitchell) break up, their rescue cat Kevin (Jason Schwartzman) decides to walk out on them. The show follows Kevin adjusting to life as a solo cat in a fictionalized New York City, voiced by Schwartzman in full neurotic mode.

What makes it worth attention as a storyteller is how the premise flips the default protagonist POV. The show’s emotional logic — the anxiety, grievance, and confused loyalty of the cat — is consistently held to Kevin’s perspective rather than the human drama playing out around him. The result is something genuinely odd: a show whose emotional stakes are small but felt, with an animation style that emphasizes posture and pacing over spectacle.

The supporting cast (Whoopi Goldberg, John Waters, Amy Sedaris, Aparna Nancherla) gives it texture without overwhelming the central thread. Eight episodes, all available now. The first two are worth at least half an hour of your time.

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Animation — Feature Film

Nathan Greno’s Swapped Drops a Trailer That Earns Its May 1 Spot

Skydance Animation’s third feature, Swapped, releases on Netflix on May 1 — and the official trailer that landed this month gives a cleaner picture of what director Nathan Greno (Tangled) has been building. A small woodland creature (Michael B. Jordan) and a majestic bird (Juno Temple) involuntarily trade bodies and have to cooperate to survive: a premise that’s been done, but the execution looks genuinely fresh. The character design work and the use of scale — the size difference between the two creatures, and what that means when reversed — is doing interesting visual storytelling work.

Greno has been talking in interviews about the team’s approach to naturalistic animal reference: studying real behavior and movement before making choices about what to abstract or amplify. There’s an Animation Magazine feature this week with exclusive art and behind-the-scenes detail from the team on that process — worth reading if you work in character animation or pre-production.

Produced by John Lasseter, Jennifer Magee Cook, David Ellison, and Dana Goldberg. Score by Siddhartha Khosla. Runtime 1h 42m, rated PG. One to watch on May 1.

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Comics & Illustration

Illustrate Ishiguro: The Folio Society’s 2026 Award Is Open

Entries are now open for the Folio Book Illustration Award 2026, and this year’s brief is genuinely compelling: create an original illustration based on the opening chapter of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. The Folio Society describes the opening as “quiet, unsettling and deeply human” — which is an accurate characterization, and also a useful constraint. The scene is set in the seemingly pastoral world of Hailsham, where memory, friendship, and something unnamed just beneath the surface intertwine.

The award is free to enter, open internationally to anyone aged 18 or over who hasn’t previously been commissioned by The Folio Society. The winner receives a £2,000 cash prize, a £500 Folio voucher, and — most significantly — their artwork featured in a future Folio edition. Five runners-up each receive a £500 voucher. The 2026 judging panel includes Folio editorial staff and 2025 winner Dawn Xintong Yang.

Deadline is May 26, 2026. If you illustrate, this is exactly the kind of brief that produces a portfolio piece worth keeping regardless of the result. Full submission details at foliosociety.com.

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From the Community

Recent posts from visual storytelling Substackers worth reading — and worth restacking.

The Forgotten Art of Visual Storytelling

A one-person newsletter from a production designer working across film, animation, and cross-media projects. If you work in pre-production, this is the kind of close, practical thinking about boards and visual narrative that’s hard to find in broader industry coverage.

Substack — Pesto Comics

Predicting Indie Comic Trends for 2026

A thoughtful breakdown of where the independent comics market is heading — audience shifts, distribution changes, and what creators need to think about to find readers in a noisier landscape.

Substack — How To Draw (RJR)

An Exercise in Visual Storytelling: Adapting Your Favorite Films to Comics

A practical exercise using film adaptation as a way to study visual language — how shot selection, panel rhythm, and composition choices translate (or don’t) from one medium to another. A useful framework for anyone who works across both.

“The Process Is the Art”

Animation Obsessive · April 19, 2026

This issue centers on animator Coleen Baik, who is animating on paper and reflects: “In the era of ‘let the machine do everything,’ I’m increasingly drawn to do more of the labor myself.” Also covers Glitch’s Amazing Digital Circus ticket presales and Honami Yano’s Cannes selection. One of the best animation newsletters running.

Newsletter 4, 2026

Cartoon Movement · April 2026

Cartoon Movement covers editorial cartooning and political illustration with genuine craft conversations — this issue includes work from Pedro X. Molina and discussion around their long-form DELIAH project. Essential reading if your work touches illustration, narrative art, or sequential storytelling.

“Animation First 2026 Festival: How Animators & Composers Surprised Me About Making Comics”

C. Merritt Houghton · April 2026

A firsthand account of the Animation First festival at Alliance Française in New York, with honest observations about the unexpected crossover between animation craft and comics making. Short, specific, and worth a read for anyone working across both disciplines.

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.

Beyond The Process is a newsletter for working creatives in visual storytelling — storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.

You’re receiving this because you subscribed on Substack. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe below:

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© 2026 Beyond The Process

I’ve had this story brewing for years. I probably wrote it around 2010 or so and it’s gone through a few iterations. But the core of the story hasn’t changed. Now I have an opportunity to get it published in an anthology from RAID! STUDIOS. I’m super-excited to share my process of how it’s coming together.

Prefer a downloadable PDF? Get it here.

Buy PDF Here

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Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Final Cut — your weekly roundup of what’s actually moving in the world of visual storytelling.

This week: Adobe dropped a massive NAB update — a brand-new color grading interface built into Premiere, a smarter way to work with Frame.io, and an AI-powered matte tool in After Effects that’s genuinely interesting for compositors. And in the comics world, Oni Press and Matt Kindt just unveiled a “100% Human-Made” certification logo — open-source, Creative Commons licensed, and landing at an interesting moment in the AI conversation.

Grab your favorite beverage and let’s get into it.

The Week in Visual Storytelling

Storyboarding · Animation · Comics · Pre-Production · Tools & Pipeline

April 17, 2026

Tools & Pipeline

Adobe Brings Color Grading Into Premiere, Launches Frame.io Drive, and Updates After Effects at NAB 2026

Adobe’s NAB 2026 announcements landed on April 15 with significant workflow implications. The headliner is Color Mode in Premiere Pro — a new color grading interface built directly into the editing timeline, developed over three years with input from hundreds of working editors and now in public beta. The idea: editors can now do primary color work without round-tripping to Lumetri or DaVinci.

Also shipping: Frame.io Drive, a desktop app that lets you mount Frame.io project files locally in Finder or Explorer and work with them as though they’re on your own drive. On the After Effects side, version 26.2 introduces an AI-powered Object Matte — click an object in a single frame, and AE tracks and isolates it automatically, no painting required. Kling 3.0 AI video generation also joins the Firefly Video Editor.

Source: No Film School | Adobe Blog

Animation — Technique

Studio 4°C’s ChaO Opens in U.S. Theaters — A 7-Year Passion Project That Won Annecy’s Jury Award

ChaO, the wildly inventive romantic comedy from Studio 4°C and director Yasuhiro Aoki, hit North American theaters via GKIDS on April 10 after spending seven years in production. Set in a futuristic world where humans and mermaids coexist, the film follows a mild-mannered office worker suddenly proposed to by a mermaid princess — and builds something unexpectedly moving out of the absurdity. It took the Jury Award at the 2025 Annecy International Film Festival, where it was one of the most talked-about features of the competition.

For animation professionals, the film is worth watching for craft alone. Studio 4°C has always operated at the edge of what hand-drawn and mixed-technique animation can do — and a seven-year production window shows. If you’ve been following the Annecy 2026 selections announced this week, ChaO‘s journey from last year’s Jury Award to wide release is a useful reminder of what the festival pipeline can actually do for a film.

Source: GKIDS | Aftermath

Comics & Illustration

Oni Press and Matt Kindt Launch a “100% Human-Made” Certification Logo

Oni Press and cartoonist Matt Kindt unveiled a “100% Human-Made” seal this week, designed to certify that a comic or creative work was made without generative AI tools. The logo debuted on April 9 and will first appear on Kindt’s upcoming series MIND MGMT: New & Improved (June 24). Kindt released it under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, meaning any creator or publisher can use or adapt it — with attribution.

The initiative lands at a charged moment in comics: a BBC News piece from March noted at least eight separate efforts to establish credible “AI-free” certifications, and the conversation has only intensified. The Creative Commons licensing makes this particular effort notably open — the logo belongs to no one publisher and is available to the whole industry.

Source: Comics Beat | Comic Book Club Live

Animation — Industry

Netflix Animation Opens Its New 110,600 Sq. Ft. Vancouver Studio

Netflix Animation Studios officially opened its purpose-built Vancouver facility on April 8, marking a significant expansion of North American animation infrastructure. The 110,600-square-foot studio sits in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood at the new M4 building and currently employs more than 450 people. It’s designed as a full-cycle animated feature hub — development through post — and will eventually integrate Netflix’s in-house VFX division Eyeline on the same floor plan.

The studio’s first major project is Steps, a reimagining of the story of Cinderella’s sisters. The Vancouver opening follows Netflix’s expanding footprint in Canadian animation and reflects a broader industry shift toward building owned, permanent production infrastructure rather than relying entirely on outsourced studio relationships. Construction alone contributed over $50M to British Columbia’s GDP.

Source: Animation World Network | Animation Magazine

Animation — Industry

Annecy 2026 Reveals First Screening Events for Its 50th Anniversary Edition

The Annecy International Animated Film Festival (June 21–27) is ramping up its 50th anniversary programming announcements. The festival has confirmed 141 short films from 43 countries in competition, 66 TV and Commissioned Films from 32 countries, and is now rolling out its first confirmed special screening events. Immersive works selections are expected mid-April; the feature film lineup will be announced at the end of April.

For animators, the Annecy selections remain one of the clearest windows into what the global animation community is actually making — particularly at the short film and experimental level. The 50th edition is also the first year the festival operates out of the new Cité internationale du cinéma d’animation venue.

Source: Animation Magazine | AWN

Tools & Pipeline

DaVinci Resolve 21 Arrives at NAB with AI Search, AI Color, and a New Photo Page

Blackmagic Design announced DaVinci Resolve 21 at NAB 2026, bringing eight new AI-powered tools to the professional editing and color grading platform. The highlights include IntelliSearch (which lets you search footage by face, object, or scene description), CineFocus (AI-driven depth of field control for post), an AI Speech Generator, and an AI Face Age Transformer. A new Photo page also debuts, extending Resolve’s reach into still photography work.

Resolve 21 is available as a free public beta, which continues to be a significant advantage for independent filmmakers and small studios evaluating pipeline options. The AI tools arrive on the same week as Adobe’s NAB announcements, making this one of the more tool-dense news weeks for post-production creatives in recent memory.

Source: No Film School

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From the Community

Recent posts from visual storytelling Substackers worth reading — and worth restacking.

Devin’s Chicago Comics Book Club Digest — Devin Whitlock

Comics NEWS Digest — April 10, 2026

Devin’s weekly round-up is one of the more reliable comics news aggregators on Substack. This week’s edition covers the 2026 Herblock Prize going to Jack Ohman, Emily Flake winning the Thurber Prize for American Humor in Cartoon Art, the Oni Press “100% Human-Made” logo, and GlobalComix’s $13M raise and INKR acquisition — plus a handful of creator announcements worth knowing about.

Published April 10, 2026

Animation Obsessive

Stepping Inside UPA

The Animation Obsessive team digs into the revival of Inside UPA, the book covering the legendary mid-century animation studio that defined a generation of character design and graphic economy. If you care about where modern visual shorthand in animation actually came from, this is the kind of deep history that makes the newsletter genuinely essential reading.

Published April 13, 2026

Devin’s Chicago Comics Book Club Digest — Devin Whitlock

Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 1 — March/April 2026 Book Club Edition

Devin’s book club digs into the first volume of Kamome Shirahama’s gorgeous manga Witch Hat Atelier — a series celebrated for its intricate linework and exceptionally thoughtful visual storytelling. Good reading for anyone who wants to think seriously about how illustration and sequential art can carry narrative weight through craft alone, independent of dialogue.

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.

Beyond The Process is a newsletter for working creatives in visual storytelling — storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.

You’re receiving this because you subscribed on Substack. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe below:

Subscribe now

© 2026 Beyond The Process

Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Final Cut— your weekly roundup of what’s moving in the world of visual storytelling.

Big week. Brad Bird just dropped the first-look images for Ray Gunn (see above image)— his sci-fi noir animated feature that’s been 30 years in the making — and the cast alone is worth pausing over. Also this weekend: a festival in Nashville that somehow assembled Andreas Deja, Aaron Blaise, and John Pomeroy under one roof.

One last note before you grab a coffee and get into it. Shane and I are well aware how polarizing even the mention of AI can be, especially in a newsletter designed for artists. That said, we feel completely ignoring it may not be the best approach, as some may want to keep tabs on the advances and how it may affect their careers.

A couple of articles in the Tools & Pipeline section mention AI this week. We would be interested in knowing exactly how our readers feel about this moving forward, so please sound off in the comments section (but please keep it civil).

Leave a comment

The Week in Visual Storytelling

Storyboarding · Animation · Comics · Pre-Production · Tools & Pipeline

April 10, 2026

Animation — Events

Animation Y’all Expo Returns to Nashville This Weekend with Disney Legend Lineup

The second annual Animation Y’all Expo runs April 10–12 at Lipscomb University in Nashville, bringing together an impressive roster of working and legendary animators — including Andreas Deja, Aaron Blaise, John Pomeroy, and Stephen Silver. Masterclasses cover animal drawing, world building for story, and a behind-the-scenes look at Deja’s film Mushka. The expo features nearly 90 exhibitors and sponsors including DreamWorks Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Skydance Animation. April 11 has been officially declared “Animation Day” in Tennessee, timed to coincide with the event.

Source: Animation World Network

Animation — Industry

TAAFI 2026 Wraps This Weekend at TIFF Lightbox with 100+ Films and Industry Conference

The Toronto Animation Arts Festival International runs through April 12 at the TIFF Lightbox, presenting over 100 animated films from around the world alongside the Toronto Animation Industry Conference (TAIC). The lineup includes speakers Bobby Chiu, Suzanne Wilson, Mark Edwards, and Nic Cabana of Claynosaurz. Programming includes Perfect Pitch, Speed Pitching, portfolio reviews, and panels on navigating the current industry. For those in the Toronto area, the conference programming runs through Sunday.

Source: Animation World Network

Animation — Feature Film

Netflix Drops First-Look Images for Brad Bird’s ‘Ray Gunn’ — and the Cast Is Exceptional

Netflix and Skydance Animation have revealed the first official images and voice cast for Ray Gunn, the long-in-development sci-fi noir animated feature from two-time Oscar winner Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant). Sam Rockwell voices private eye Raymond Gunn, Scarlett Johansson voices Venus Nova, and Tom Waits voices Eyera — set against the backdrop of Metropia, a sprawling city imagined from the vantage point of 1939. Bird has said the project has been in his mind for over 30 years, and the first-look visuals already carry that sense of long-gestating vision. Produced by Skydance and John Lasseter.

Source: Animation World Network

Comics & Illustration

Graphic Novel Sales Jump 28.5% in Q1 2026 as Market Rebounds

According to Circana BookScan data reported by Comics Beat, graphic novel sales climbed 28.5% in the quarter ending March 28, 2026 — a significant rebound following last year’s disruptions from the Diamond Comic Distributors collapse. The surge appears driven largely by DC’s Absolute Batman collections and continued dominance from manga titles including Jujutsu Kaisen. The growth comes even as total print book unit sales fell 3.1% for the same period, making the graphic novel category a genuine bright spot in publishing right now.

Source: Comics Beat

Tools & Pipeline

iQIYI Launches Nadou Pro — An AI Agent That Handles Storyboarding Through Post

Chinese streaming giant iQIYI launched Nadou Pro on April 3rd, positioning it as China’s first AI agent built specifically for end-to-end professional film and TV production. The platform combines proprietary multimodal models with third-party tools to support script development, storyboarding, art direction, and visual effects inside a single workflow — no platform switching required. It’s already being used on 16 productions across genres, and was credited by director Fangzhao Zhuang for achieving the visual look of Celestial Quest. The platform was co-launched with Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau, whose AI Theater initiative gave directors early access.

Source: PR Newswire / Morningstar

Tools & Pipeline

Autodesk Rolls Out New AI Features for Maya and Flow Studio — Free Webinars Next Week

Autodesk has released new AI-powered features across its animation tools, with two standouts worth knowing about. MotionMaker in Maya now includes a horse motion archetype that uses AI to generate realistic base motion in seconds — a practical time-saver for animators working with quadrupeds. Wonder 3D, available in Autodesk Flow Studio, lets artists generate 3D characters or objects from text prompts or reference images, designed for previs and concept development. Autodesk is hosting free live webinars on what’s new in Maya on April 15 and 16 at 10:00 AM PT.

Source: Autodesk News

From the Community

Fellow Substackers worth your time this week. If their work resonates, give them a restack.

BIZ — Charles Houghton

Animation First 2026 Festival: How Animators & Composers Surprised Me About Making Comics

Houghton reports from the Animation First 2026 festival and digs into an unexpected connection — how animators and composers approach narrative rhythm in ways that challenge the way he thinks about comics. Cross-disciplinary thinking at its best.

How to Draw ____ — RJR

An Exercise in Visual Storytelling: Adapting Your Favorite Films to Comics

RJR walks through the process of taking a beloved film and translating it to the comics page — exploring how panel composition, pacing, and visual language shift when you move from motion to static frames. A genuinely useful exercise for anyone who works across both mediums.

Cartoon Movement

Newsletter 2, 2026 — Cartoons, Democracy, and the DELIAH Project

Cartoon Movement shares updates on DELIAH, a European research initiative exploring the relationship between humor, cartoons, and democratic literacy. It’s an interesting lens on what editorial and political cartooning can actually do in the world.

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.

Beyond The Process is a Substack for working creatives in visual storytelling — storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.

You’re receiving this because you subscribed on Substack. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe below:

Subscribe now

© 2026 Beyond The Process

We’re trying something new!

Welcome to our first edition of “The Final Cut.” A weekly roundup of industry news we hope you’ll find both interesting and useful. Scouring the web in search of the latest stories related to visual storytelling is no fun, so we’ve collected them for you here. Please let us know what you think!

Leave a comment

The Week in Visual Storytelling

Storyboarding · Animation · Comics · Pre-Production · Tools & Pipeline

April 3, 2026

Pre-Production & Training

Gobelins Opens Registration for “From Storyboard to Animatic” Online Course Starting April 6

Gobelins — the Paris animation school behind some of the most celebrated European animated films — is running a three-week intensive online course starting this Sunday, April 6, running through April 24. The course walks students through drawing a storyboard, then editing and adding sound to build a finished 1–2 minute animatic, guided by working animation professionals via lectures, masterclasses, and individual tutoring sessions. It’s taught entirely in English, open to international students, and aimed at animators, directors, graphic designers, and screenwriters who want to get serious about storyboarding as a craft. Cost is €2,300 for the three weeks; registration is through the Gobelins website.

Source: Gobelins

Animation — Industry

One Piece Returns This Week with a Fundamentally Different Production Model

After a three-month production hiatus, One Piece relaunched this week with the start of the Elbaph Arc — and with it, Toei Animation put a new production model into effect. Going forward, the series will produce a maximum of 26 episodes per year, split into two cours of up to 13 episodes each, ending a 27-year tradition of near-continuous weekly broadcast that began in 1999. Toei framed the change as a deliberate move to close the gap between the anime and Eiichiro Oda’s manga, allowing the animation team more time per episode. For working animators and storyboard artists, the shift mirrors a broader industry trend toward quality-over-volume seasonal production.

Source: Anime News Network / AWN

Comics & Illustration

MoCCA Fest 2026 Wraps in New York — 400+ Artists, 15 Awards of Excellence

The Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Arts Festival returned to New York on March 28–29, drawing over 7,000 attendees and more than 400 exhibiting artists and small-press publishers. The SI MoCCA Arts Award of Excellence, given annually to 15 works discovered on the festival floor, went to creators including Rebecca Mock (Widow’s Wing), Olivia Fields (LTHRWRK), and Nick Bunch (The Resurrection of Low Down Coyote), with winners also receiving a Xencelabs pen tablet. Comics Beat’s coverage notes MoCCA continues to prove itself as a vital circuit stop for indie cartoonists, illustrators, and animators working outside the mainstream.

Source: Comics Beat

Animation — Adaptation

Witch Hat Atelier Anime Premieres This Weekend on Crunchyroll

The anime adaptation of Kamome Shirahama’s celebrated manga Witch Hat Atelier — known for its intricate, illustration-forward visual language and its story about a girl learning to draw magic — premieres April 6 exclusively on Crunchyroll with a same-day English dub, releasing the first two episodes back-to-back. Shirahama’s source material has long been referenced in illustration and comics communities for its meticulous approach to linework and world-building through visual detail, making this one of the more creatively anticipated adaptations of the year. The series is produced by BUG FILMS and directed by Ayumu Watanabe.

Source: Anime News Network

Tools & Pipeline

How AI Is Actually Rewriting VFX Pipelines — Not Replacing Artists, Restructuring Workflows

A new analysis from AWN examines how AI is shifting the day-to-day reality of VFX work — not by eliminating artists, but by absorbing the tedious middle of the pipeline: rotoscoping, motion tracking, background generation, and shot cleanup. Tools like Adobe After Effects’ updated AI-assisted masking, Luma AI’s camera-angle editing from text prompts, and open-source ComfyUI node workflows are giving individual artists and small studios the ability to hit turnaround times previously reserved for larger teams. The key framing: AI is compressing prep work and iteration cycles, which means storyboard artists and previz creators are being asked to move faster and more precisely earlier in production.

Source: Animation World Network

Industry — Film & TV

The Post-Strike Hollywood Rebound That Wasn’t — L.A. Production Still Down 20%

No Film School is reporting that Los Angeles production has still not recovered to pre-strike levels, running nearly 20% below its five-year average as of early 2026. The post-strike hiring surge that was widely predicted for 2025 largely failed to materialize, leaving crew-level work — including storyboard artists, previz teams, and production designers — in a continued holding pattern. Industry observers point to a combination of runaway production (other states and countries offering deeper incentives), studio consolidation, and streamers recalibrating their content spend as compounding factors.

Source: No Film School

From the Community

Fellow Substackers worth your time this week. If their work resonates, give them a restack.

Animation Obsessive

‘Truth and the Budget Have the Last Word’

A deep-dive into a 1970s animated sequence from Everybody Rides the Carousel that recently went viral, featuring the work of animators Barrie Nelson and Tissa David. Animation Obsessive traces why the clip landed the way it did — and what it reveals about the economics and artistry of the era. Also includes news on the Annecy 2026 shorts lineup. Published March 29 · 102 likes.

How to Draw ____. · Robert James Russell

The Work of Drawing

Russell writes about where creativity meets commission — the tension between making work you love and making work that pays — and walks through a museum sign he designed from first sketch to finished piece. A grounded, honest look at the realities of a working illustrator’s practice. Published March 25.

The Line Between · Coleen Baik

114. Float

Baik’s bi-weekly visual newsletter follows her process as a designer and animator. This edition explores getting stuck and unstuck creatively, with a new animated sequence with sound. One of the more quietly beautiful process newsletters in the animation space — recommended by Animation Obsessive. Published March 23.

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.

Beyond The Process is a newsletter for working creatives in visual storytelling — storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.

You’re receiving this because you subscribed on Substack. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe below:

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© 2026 Beyond The Process

When it comes to character design in animation the DEAD LINE is the cleanest and most effective way to create character designs with. But it’s not without its challenges.

Because of the minimal approach, the emphasis is on very strong shape language and draftsmanship. Consistency from character to character to hold fast to a given style is also imperative. That is why it is incredibly difficult to get a job as a character designer. Why is that?

Prefer a downloadable PDF? Get it here.

Buy PDF Here

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It’s easy to say don’t panic...but then what?

Back in 2004 or so I had a really rough year. The company I’d been frequently freelancing for eventually had no more work for me and I had no plan. I was in the thralls of working on my first full color graphic novel, an autobiographical book that sent me to some pretty dark places. I was losing sleep and started drinking more regularly. When Christmas rolled around I had nothing to give, no extra money to spend on people so I ended up making cards and tried putting my creativity to work. By all accounts I was too depressed to panic--I just didn’t have the energy.

Somehow, I made it through, a client here, a client there came calling. I had no forward-thinking plan. Looking back on it, it was a rather scary moment, but I was so heads down in my work I thought being busy was better than brooding about my situation.

Part of that approach was and can be true.

Q&A

So, what happens when the clients stop contacting you?

Sometimes we start questioning ourselves: Am I not good enough? Am I not fast enough? Am I too expensive?

In many cases client work can be cyclical. Budgets are allocated per quarter to get things done and to prove out that the money was well spent. I’ve noticed more lately that my work increases in the 1st and 4th quarters of the year for ad agencies. Video game companies are generally trying to hit a Christmas Release schedule so, if you’re working in production, your summers are booked. In Pre-production usually 18 months or more out, it really doesn’t fall under any guiding principle. Though in some cases you’re extra busy at the beginning and ending of a project (especially if they need marketing art, etc.)

Clients are like you; they don’t always have work or money to pay for outside help. They have overhead, a lean staff and they too have to go looking for work. That’s why they tend to hire an accounts manager or some rep that approaches and bids on projects with a variety of companies in their specialized field.

Back in the day many illustrators and designers employed Art Reps and some still do today. There are still a few out there, especially in the children’s book markets but I have heard a few artists mention SHANNON ASSOCIATES. I haven’t worked with them, so I don’t know if they’re good or not.

I used to have an art rep years ago. I was guaranteed $50 and hour while she charged the client $70, making a cool $20 for connecting and managing a few of us. It was great for me for about two years and then she took a full-time job. I got exposure to a lot of clients and did a lot of fun and different type of work. Stuff I would not have had access to if I’d been doing it all on my own. So, it might be the right fit for you if you decide to go that route.

But it’s not always a guarantee that you will be working more.

Why are we likely to panic and what can we do to avoid making bad choices?

I think the number one reason we panic is because of MONEY EXPECTATIONS. We have bills coming at us like a pack of hyenas and we have to make hard choices of how to spend the money we have…and sometimes don’t have. Credit Card, I’m looking right at you!

The first big no-no is our knee-jerk reaction to LOWER OUR PRICES. I heard a friend of mine tell me this and I was disturbed by it. He felt like it was the only choice he had. A year later he said he was always busy but barely making enough to get by. EXACTLY! His prices were too low.

OR he was too slow, and it was costing him. Don’t lower your prices. It usually brings lackluster clients looking for bargains. Then those clients in some cases want to treat you like a manufacturer, promising more work if you keep your rates lower. That’s not how artists and craftsmen should be working if they want to do this for any length of time.

In most cases, price has nothing to do with it. I raise my prices every couple of years. I feel out the market and ask friends what they charge small, mid-level and corporate clients. I tend to charge a little more in some areas while they may charge more in other areas.

The second thing may run a little deeper.
Many artists tend to not have a savings plan or a budget or some way to mitigate a dry spell. They spend the money while they’re hot and suffer when they’re not.

Establishing your baseline cost of living helps. What can you do without and still enjoy life? Subtract the little vampires that nickel and dime your bank account until there’s the bare minimum. I’m not saying to live like a homeless person but more like a monk. Find ways to treat yourself of course but be wise about it.

Here are a few strategies that I’ve put into practice time and again.

Website & Portfolio Upgrade- This is always a great opportunity to reexamine your work and to see if it’s attracting the kind of clients, you desire most. Think of it like when you were starting out dating, how much care you put into your presentation to attract someone to you. It’s not much different. Just don’t be so nervous.

ASK YOURSELF: Am I being the best version of myself? Is my portfolio true to my passion and growing in the right direction that keeps me engaged and challenged?

This is usually the time I take to TRY NEW THINGS and experiment with new approaches or processes. In playing, I discover things and can offer new ideas or approaches clients have yet to see.

Education & Fundamentals- This is a great time to start taking a class and tuning your abilities. It takes your mind off your situation and puts your brain in a constructive problem-solving mode. Education is within your sphere of influence. You can’t make clients come to you, but you can make yourself more viable to them.

Pounding away again at fundamentals is always good and it creates a steady stream of work that you can seed your social media accounts (if you have them) or at least LINKEDIN (which you should have) to show that you’re not sitting idle. By posting there it’s like chumming the waters and waiting for that trophy client to come up and ask if you’re available.

Reminders & Check-Ins- This is a great time to check in with past clients to ask them how they’re doing. I’ve gotten several jobs this way because I was not necessarily on their mind, but a job landed on their desk that they needed help with.

Also, a nice, crafted note reminding them of how much you enjoyed working with them on X, was for you, and that you hoped they’re doing well. Looking forward to working with you again in the future. How ‘bout them Mets? Whatever...

NEVER ASK FOR WORK or INQUIRE (You got any work for me?) Instead, always ask how their business is going, how are they doing, and leave it at that. It’s bad form to ask because it puts you at a disadvantage when negotiations come around. They can now dictate that you need them more than they need you. This gives them an upper hand when it comes to pricing.

Of course, if you have a longstanding relationship with the client and you’re essentially friends, letting them now that your schedule is open if anything comes along that might be a good fit. That’s a better approach. It doesn’t come from a place of desperation. Imagine trying to get a date and coming off just as desperate. How do you think that’s going to go down?

New Clients & Approaches- Reaching out to potential clients in your area or industry is common. Cold calling an agency or studio to ask the ADs name or email from the receptionist or if they’re open to accepting and passing on your portfolio, is a good approach.

Collecting and connecting with ADs and managers on LINKEDIN helps, too. They see your name, they connect, a week later you send them an introduction email and a link to a portfolio that is tailored for them. You can do tailored portfolios on Art Station if it’s too much of a hassle on your own site.

Mailing out postcards with your art on them has become cheaper than ever. And it’s so unusual now that people might take notice again. Who gets mail at work anymore? Especially if it has a really cool image? Shake that tree ya’ll!

Do you have friends in similar situations? If so, then ask what they’re doing to get new clients. If they’ve already got clients, take them out for coffee and pick their brain about their working methods and see where you could do better.

Essentially you need to have a public presence to show that you still exist and that your work is viable and you are available...but avoid being too obvious about it. Again, don’t ask on social media that you’re in dire need of work. Even the tag AVAILABLE FOR WORK on LinkedIn is a little touch and go...but, if you feel it’s right, then give it a whirl. Maybe it’s the way to go on that platform. I myself have not tried it.

Touchstones- During the holidays it’s a good reminder to the client that you appreciate their business. Sending a standout greeting card is a nice way to do it. If you’re making bank from them, upgrade it to a gift basket. Usually that gets shared in the office and in many cases people from other departments and other projects will see it and think to hire you next time.

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I have one friend who, when he works at a studio throws a lavish bbq outing. EVERYONE remembers these, even years later they still talk about them because it brings so many people together. Sometimes throwing a little shindig for clients and friends who are also artists isn’t the worst idea. In fact, it might be the best idea if you have the space and the ability to do it up right! #yourewelcome

Personal Projects- Lastly, start that personal project you’ve always wanted to do. Like furthering your education, once you put into a practice a daily routine of work, when new clients or work comes in, adjust your schedule to fit the client in and not the other way around. Sure, you’re going to need to dedicate more time to the client, but DON’T ABANDONED what you’ve started. This is piece of mind for you that you’re still doing WORK THAT MATTERS...whether you get paid or not.

And isn’t that something worth fighting for?

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Inking Comics Digitally: How I Build Depth, Rhythm, and Story on the Page

When I sit down to digitally ink a comic strip, I’m not just tracing pencils—I’m making decisions about depth, focus, rhythm, and storytelling in every line. In this first part of a two-part breakdown, I took a Sunday-style adventure strip I drew a couple of years ago and walked through how I ink it in Clip Studio Paint.

This article is a written “director’s commentary” of that process. If you want to jump into the actual video at any point, I’ve added clickable timestamps so you can see exactly what I’m talking about in motion.

What This Strip Is, and What I’m Trying to Do?

The strip is built around a character I created back in my teens. My original plan was to do a Sunday comic on a semi-regular basis—once or twice a month—but like a lot of personal projects, it sat in the drawer for a while.

Now I’m using it as a teaching piece: how I approach digital inking in Clip Studio (though most of this translates directly to Photoshop or any other digital inking tool). I start from a blue-line rough I penciled earlier, then ink right over it. Watch the setup here.

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If you don't know who JACK KIRBY is, I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully by the time you finish reading this you'll see why I am among the legions of fans and comics practitioners who appreciate his work. But it wasn’t always that way. As a kid, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. Why did these figures look like broken toys?

He, along with Stan Lee, created the very foundation of the Marvel Universe. Even before he met Stan, Jack and Joe Simon created Captain America. It stands to reason that he's had an impact on comics and modern day 21st century entertainment. SEE ALSO: Marvel Movies.

Admittedly as a young artist I didn't understand Jack's work. The lead image to this post is the one that got to me. It actually scared me as a child. The bold large shapes of the figures are easy to read, even in a thumbnail size. That's where most of the power comes from in Kirby's work. Simple shapes are more memorable than complex shapes. Strong silhouettes are easier to read, and our brain processes them as symbols. Because these symbols are used time again in, they become pillars of effective storytelling.

Another point to consider are the bold passages of black. Whether it's an outline or spotting of blacks, they are the tools that were used to separate large forms from each other for Kirby. Balancing these elements were essential to bring focus where he wanted the action to be or where he wanted the viewer to look. When you break down some of the squiggles and random shadow lines, you start to realize that they do less to create form and volume for the shape they're on and more as stylized touchstones. Especially in the penciled image of Black Panther below.

If you squint, you can see how heavy the shadow passage is an how it holds the center focus of the entire image. Everything else, thick and thin line, support this. The shadow on the ground has very little to do with any actual lighting, but it does enough, convincingly to cement the figure.

Another element that Kirby uses is scale. Whether it’s objects that are juxtaposed next to each other or the scaling of the detailing and negative space used, as in the large metal creature above. In conjunction with all the smaller characters fighting it, the creatures large areas of light are where the eye rests. The open, un-shaded eyes especially where we look first. Seeing his work without color really show how the early days of flat color had less influence than today’s very rendered colors.

In my own work I rarely ever consider the double-page spread. To me they can tend to interrupt flow and should be used sparingly. They provide a dynamic cinemascope look of an event, or to show impossible scaling of destruction, expanse of an environment or a powerful character moment that would make no sense in a single splash page.

But over the years I’ve seen them used in less stellar ways that became wasteful and did nothing to propel the story forward. Kirby understood the basics...and as far as I know, may have invented the use of the double-page spreads, but I don’t have any evidence to support this at hand.

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Because Kirby was cranking out several books a month, he relied on his shorthand for the figure and environments to become how he solved all the problems he needed to tell Stan Lee’s stories. The unfussy, unresearched art delivered the highest impact with efficient clarity. Matched with a good inker like Mike Royer or Frank Giacoia the combination was riveting.

The above samples are a select few, but I encourage you to dig for more as they are very rewarding. Comparing today’s comics and seeing Kirby’s work is like watching Toy Story 12 or whatever and then turning around and watching Don Bluth’s the Secret of Nimh. Life just pours from the hand-drawn animation no matter how excellent the character animators are at Pixar.

Nobody drew power like Kirby. And I’ve yet to see anyone do it better.

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If you’re like most people, you prefer to learn visually by watching a video of someone actually demonstrating what they are teaching. However, I also realize there are those out there who prefer written articles over video tutorials. But if you’re like me, you would love to have both. A video from which you can watch and learn, as well as a written article that highlights all of the important moments from the video that you can keep as a quick reference guide.

That’s why I’ve decided to turn some of my more popular videos from our Beyond The Process YouTube channel into written articles. Perhaps you’ve already watched the videos, but have forgotten most of the material of which I spoke. Well, my hope is this article will be a good refresher for you. Enjoy.

When you’re storyboarding, it’s not enough to draw nice poses and compositions. If you can’t clearly indicate how the camera moves, you’re leaving the director, DP, and crew guessing—and that’s where miscommunication (and expensive reshoots) start.

In this article, I’m breaking down four foundational camera moves I use constantly in my boards:

• Push in (dolly in)

• Pull back (dolly out)

• Zoom in / zoom out

• Dolly zoom

I’ll walk you through what each move does emotionally, how it’s achieved technically, and—most importantly—how I indicate it clearly in my storyboards. This is part one in a larger series where I’ll eventually cover almost every shot type we use in visual storytelling.

You can watch the full video version of this breakdown here:

Watch the full tutorial

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What are your goals today? How are they different than when you were younger?

Our tastes change as we are exposed to more and differing inputs. We find our way by trying new things. In our education, where we start out is not always where we end up.

Think about what you wanted to study early on and why. The more you discovered and the more investigation you did, how might things have changed for you? We usually start with our best foot forward…good intentions and all that.

WHAT ARE WE PASSIONATE ABOUT? What could we ENVISION ourselves doing that would FULFILL US and make working worthwhile? I believe that’s how many of us started. But sometimes we need to RESTART or create the space and opportunity restart, to find out where our PASSIONS ARE TODAY.

It’s rare that our chosen careers will become stagnated and isolated for a long period of time. Some people enjoy that. But it’s a lot more uncommon now than it once was. How many jobs have you had where there was no growth opportunity? How long did you stay before you felt trapped?

Sometimes it’s not the job that traps you. Sometimes the choices, whether by you or your employer or even the industry as a whole, dictate where you end up. And where you end up may be harder to get out of because of any number of things. Life becomes more complicated as you go on living it and time becomes a commodity that you can’t count on. Where is the opportunity to keep up and retrain? Where is the potential to take a leave of absence when you have a child going into college? Money is tight, time is tight and suddenly realize you can’t transition to anything else.

I know, it sounds bleak. Sorry about that. But I do have a point.

Much of it comes down to energy management. When you have nothing left to give all you can do is dwell on where you’re at and why you’re stuck. Breaking your life down and examining where you can make changes is not as exciting or cathartic as sitting on the couch and binging on food and entertainment. Our bodies and brains crave respite and flights of fancy the more we come under stress.

What I’m painting here is very dark situation. I’m not speaking from that dark place however. I’ve seen people, grown up around people who get stuck or have been stuck in some way or another. Sometimes our brains get stuck and we come to a point where we just don’t know what we should be doing next.

I read this book a few years ago, Designing Your Life, that had some interesting points. Ways to rethink and reframe your existence. It’s a quick read, but the information sticks with you long after. That’s usually the best advice anyway, right?

If you’re at the bottom looking up this would be the first step I would offer. Even if you’re not, and you’re hoping to shake something loose in your head to look at life another way, it’s a fairly harmless and interesting boost that could be useful.

But it did open up other questions for me at large.

In my personal experience it seems to take about 10 years (or if you’re a fan of Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hrs) to become competent at something. Depending on where your natural proclivities lie, you may get better quicker or you might be passable later. The goal here is competency to be able to hang with other practitioners of the same pursuit and not come off as amateur. As an example, comedians across the board say it takes about 10 years to get good. And I believe it!

So how many decades do you think you have in you?

Outside of any health concerns, consider how many decades and how many things you would really like to do with your life. Now, I’m talking in terms of a career--making money. The next question: “How committed are you to doing it?”

For my parents’ generation and maybe those that follow it seems a lot of people put their dreams on hold, until retirement age. That’s fine, if that’s the way you want to live. But if you dreamed about being a ballet dancer, well...what’s the point? If one of your dreams involves a career doing X then are you moving away or towards X.

I’ve always moved toward X and along the way I’ve done a host of other things without losing sight of X. But when I got to X (and for me that would be making a living illustrating comics) I realized it was not sustainable with everything else going on in my life and the turbulent industry as a whole. The landscape changed and while my skill and training have facilitated me in other endeavors, they fell out of favor with current market trends.

Even the work I’ve done as a concept artist has changed out from under me. Again, I got behind in my studies and no longer could compete with how great the paradigm shift had become. Fundamentally I got behind the curve. It happens sometimes while you’re going about your life. It very well may happen to you. The best you can do is re-up on your education, burning that midnight oil to stay in the game OR...look at a career transition.

Storyboards have been my bread and butter for a long time. This year, I didn’t do any. So, no bread and no butter. I did land a few small projects here and there, so not a total loss.

In a decade or so I’ll qualify for retirement. As an artist and as a creative, that’s just not something I can do willingly. I don’t just stop creating. It’s a disease, to be honest...or more so it’s a nervous tick that I can’t rein in.

When I was younger, I thought I’d graduate to writing and illustrating Children’s Books in my golden years. At the time (20s or so) I was collecting them and thought they were a worthy endeavor to strive toward. But as I grew older, I realized...I don’t really like kids. It didn’t seem fair to them or their parents to profit off of warping their little minds.

As the years passed the options for a satisfying means of expression seemed to dwindle. While new avenues opened others closed or became unrecognizable and uninteresting. For example, teaching online has been an interesting addition. I prefer it to teaching in a classroom. But also, concept design has become so specialized, that many people in video games are slotted in one area of expertise, say character concepts or weapons concepts. boo. It’s not always the case but the larger companies have done this.

For me, I’m hoping that my endeavors in writing prose pays off in about 10 years. I’ve been steadily doing it for the last decade. I’m almost done writing another novel and drawing nearer to my goal to seek out representation. I also want to paint and move into fine arts. I’ve created a bucket for that kind of work that I hope to dedicate myself toward and keep growing. I’m not overly publicizing it yet because I’m not where I want to be. I have things to say and I’m finally finding the way to say them.

As for comics...there’s always some development happening whether from within my studio or outside of the studio that sucks me back in.

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DO THIS FOR YOURSELF

All this is to say, plan as best you can. Don’t leave your dreams and goals on the sidelines. Bring them inline to the overarching story of your life and stay true and honest in your passions. Subconsciously you may find yourself headed in that direction. Five and ten year goals help to cement that into your brain. The rest is action. Speak it to your partner or close friend, so they can witness it. Become part of a community that supports where you’d like to go or end up. Gain insight and knowledge and then do what it takes.

As we age, our energy isn’t as vibrant as it once was, but it doesn’t mean we are less vibrant in our vision for ourselves. Stay sharp, stay healthy and make the new year and every year the best you can.

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Patience will be justly rewarded.