Ten years ago I headed down to San Diego Comic-Con for the first time to announce* my published debut, Holy F*ck. A decade later, I'm headed back again (not sure if it's for the 9th or 10th time [???] it's hard to keep track because of the pandemic) for what is now an annual ritual for myself and my friends.

Naturally, I'll be joined by my stellar wife Rosie Knight and the talented Oliver Ono, both in attendance to celebrate next month's release of Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp, an OGN where I assisted on colors. They'll be signing (with a stealthy appearance by yours truly) at IDW booth #2729 on Friday, July 26th at 2:15pm. Fingers crossed that IDW will have early copies! Otherwise, we'll have some free homemade preview zines for you.

Last month was the ALA Annual Conference, also held in the San Diego Convention Center. It was an alternate utopian vision of a comic convention. My time was filled with intriguing conversations with incredible librarians and fantastic people from across the business of publishing, pics of which are scattered throughout this post. Exhibiting at the Zine Pavilion was an unbelievable experience and I look forward to being there again next year for ALA Annual in the city where my family hails from, Philadelphia.

Unrelated, I need to mention that I had a fantastic time recording a new episode of Frankenstein's Podcast with Rosie about my beloved beast, Biollante. Joe and Khalid were terrific hosts, discussing the classic Godzilla film with us alongside other fun topics. Listen to find out which niche interest is my top obsession at the moment (you'll never guess).

*I was hoping for a big announcement or two this year at SDCC but those projects aren't ready to be revealed just yet! Stay tuned because I anticipate news of at least one to get out by the end of the year. In the meantime, find me at SDCC to check out new printings of KUTE Crew and my deranged Baby Shrek zine, both debuting this weekend.

I've had a year full of koalas and undersea action in KUTE Crew along with my collaborator Nils-Petter Norlin. Here are my fave SFX from our Webtoon Canvas webcomic. Just click on the sound effect to read the episode that featured it!

Nils-Petter Norlin and Nick Marino (that's me!) talk about the creation of KUTE Crew! This time around we're discussing color, magic, and lots more.

Making KUTE episode 9 [ 1:27:11 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We kick things off with a conversation about the many helmets of Nils, who builds custom Stormtrooper designs and posts them on his Instagram. That leads us into a discussion of color and how it has informed the design and feel of KUTE Crew.

After some deep thoughts, we dive into a conversation about the role of magic in our webcomic. Thanks to some feedback on our previous episode from Loch Ness, we're laying out the rules of magic in our universe, how it works for our koalas, and how all of that informs our writing and drawing choices for this story. We'll have a new KUTE Crew update on Webtoon soon, so follow us there and read along!