THE FUTURE IS NOW!
FairSquare Graphics' year will be bigger and smaller at the same time. Intrigued? Let's take a closer look at what's coming up.
First, sorry for being late but I want to wish all of you a Happy 2026.
If you’re following me on social media, you already know about a few announcements that I made. But if you missed them, here’s a condensed version:
STATE OF THE UNION
As mentioned in my previous post, this is going to be a year of rebuilding. We owe money to some. We are owed money from others. We need to clear that up and move forward.
I’m very candid about the fact that independent publishing, though creatively rewarding, is financially stressful. People ask me all the time why I’m doing all these conventions and Kickstarters. Simply put: no cons and Kickstarter campaigns… No income. Webstore sales are decent but they’re not strong enough. Solution would be an access to stronger/bigger distribution channels. No breaking news on that front. I’m still working on it.
In spite of all that, FairSquare Graphics will live and continue operating. But we have to scale back. Kristal will only be with me at shows a handful of time this year, prioritizing her day job and her stand-up comedy career (if you don’t know her as a comedian, do yourself a favor and check out her album “Ain’t I a wombat” on Spotify and Apple Music). And I’ve been actively looking for a part-time job to help with the expenses of the household.
That being said, I’m not down or pessimistic. We’re going to release a smaller amount of titles until we have a new distribution deal in place, but we have some exciting stuff in the works as you’ll see below.
NO FUTURE #2
The pre-campaign has started. A teaser was revealed. And you can pre-register here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fairsquaregraphics/no-future1-2
I’m excited for you all to read issue #2. It’s been ready for a long time. And if you missed issue #1, you’ll be able to get it too. In a nutshell, NO FUTURE tells the story of a world where Time dies and days are reversing. It’s like the Earth was going through slow motion time-travel, except for a handful of survivors who remember the world before. Intrigued? Please register and back it when it’s live! It’s written by yours truly with art by Eder Messias (Marvel’s Moon Knight, Sam Wilson: Captain America, Black Panther).
LADY-BIRD
Since the graphic novel has been sold out for some time, we decided to re-release it as single issues for the first time ever, with a bunch of new material and covers.
All five issues can be ordered by your favorite comic book stores at Philbo Distribution, and they’re going to be added gradually on the FairSquare Graphics webstore. I also wrote a new issue of Lady-Bird that I hope can be drawn this year, a first since 2022. Felt good to get back to this series.
INTERTWINED IS BACK!
Can you believe it’s been a decade since the first issue of Intertwined was released? Fred Pham Chuong and myself are still shocked that this little project is 10 years old. It went through all sort of stuff. A difficult initial Kickstarter, a complicated relationship with our original publisher Dynamite Entertainment and a five year gap until we got our rights back and could finally publish the edition we always dreamed of… Only for all the copies to be seized by our former (and now defunct) distributor.
But Intertwined still rocks and has a solid fanbase. Fred and I have big plans for this year. Sure, we hope we can make enough money to reprint the original 300 page omnibus, but besides that, we have a new project in the works and it’s called: INTERTWINED Sì Jì (pronounced “suh jee” with falling tones on both syllables.)
Sì Jì defines the four seasons in Chinese. The new book will be an anthology style volume with four stories, all written by me with Fred. And art by different artists. There will be a bunch of covers to go with it too. We’ll launch the crowdfunding campaign for INTERTWINED Sì Jì in September.
EXPANDING THE BIG LIE
I could have written “here’s my new project: The Bigger Lie”, but I thought it was cheesy. Anyhow… The Big Lie is out and available! Kickstarter backers will start receiving their copy soon. This book, which stars Tintin, Snowy, Popeye and more, was crowdfunded early 2025 and has been my easiest hardest project ever. I also debuted my new cartoonist identity, Fajbee, with this book (I plan to sign some books as Fabrice and some as Fajbee depending on the topic). The Big Lie is a book about creative ownership. What would happen if, once in the public domain, characters landed in our world?
In 2026, the original Betty Boop is now public domain. A good opportunity for me to create a new story featuring the character in her early days, when she was half-woman half-dog (the most recent designs are still copyrighted), in the world of The Big Lie. “Who Is Betty?” will be a Digital original short story that will be offered to all the backers of the previous Kickstarter and, after that, to all those who purchase a copy of The Big Lie on our webstore. Then, later, it’ll be added to the next edition of The Big Lie. Are you excited?
HYPHEN RELOADED
It’s an understatement to say that I’ve been surprised by the success of our Jewish Diverse anthology HYPHEN. This book, co-produced with non-profit organization Bechol Lashon, was released in October 2025. The first print run was 500 copies. I thought that it’d be enough knowing that we did not have the expanded distribution we hoped for. But the success took me by surprise. By mid-December, we were down to 10 copies. We ordered a reprint, which will come late January. This is the proof that independent publishing has legs. This is the proof that people are still hungry for original content (in this case, non-fiction). I am thrilled that people from all walks of life can discover the rich and wide realities of Jewish people in their own words.
We doubled the print run this time. So hopefully we’ll last a bit longer. And this book got a lot of people, Jews and non-Jews curious. At a time when antisemitism is at an all-time high in this world, HYPHEN is a positive reading. A book meant to be a bridge between communities.
[co-editor] Julian Voloj and myself (plus some of the storytellers) are going to be touring with this book specifically. Our next event is in Washington DC on Feb.1st.
If you’re local and interested, please register here: https://www.edcjcc.org/calendar/book-brunch-hyphen-jewish-stories-in-our-own-words/
SONG OF THE MONTH
I love music. So why not end with a song? After challenging 2025, picking up a song like “Optimistic” from the Sounds of Blackness may sound like wishful thinking. But this is one of my favorite songs of all time. Really uplifting and positive. Enjoy!