Chicken Jockey!!
+ upcoming Author Visit changes
A little comic about how “back in my day…” we didn’t have fancy MCU’s and expanded Star Wars Universes and none of those things. We had tedious boring Incredible Hulk tv shows, and low quality series like My Secret Identity, and it was good enough for us!
The joke, of course, is that my kids couldn’t care less about the MCU themselves. It’s bringing to life the pop-culture I loved as a 12 year old, and has nothing to do with the things they’re passionate about.
This topic is the theme of the newest ‘zine I just published, “CHICKEN JOCKEY!!!”.
8-pages, black and white, digest sized, it features comic strips about my struggles to get my Gen Z children to love the Gen X pop culture I loved, plus a brand new three page diary comic about The Minecraft Movie, and how I missed my chance to see it as it was meant to be seen - in a crowded theater filled with screaming 12 year olds hurling buckets of popcorn at each other and screaming “CHICKEN JOCKEY!!!” - out of pure pettiness.
You can get a copy by joining Mike Dawson’s Monthly ‘Zine Club, or by becoming a paid subscriber to this Substack. Joining here is only $5 a month, or $50 annually. so it’s half the cost of the Patreon, but will only get you a ‘zine every other month, but perhaps that’s enough?
Cartooning Lessons Changes Coming
March is a busy time for me in terms of school assemblies and comics workshops, as it’s Read Across America. I had a number of fantastic school visits over the past month or so, traveling all over New Jersey, and even up into Queens. I have a few more events scheduled before the end of this school year, but am always happy to plan more. If you are affiliated with a school or library and would like to know more, contact me through my Author Visits website.
I will be adjusting my pricing and the programs that I offer over the Summer, as I want to do more full-day visits which will consist of two back-to-back assembly presentations, followed by a hands-on comics-making workshop. The workshops have become one of the most enriching events I can bring to students, building upon the principles that I discuss in my assemblies, and giving them an opportunity to get one-on-one instruction from a professional cartoonist. I’ve developed a highly engaging program, and feel strongly that it’s a valuable experience for kids that they will remember for a lifetime. The new fee structures will go live on my website in July, if you reach out to me before that, I will honor the current pricing. It’s never too early to start planning for 2025-2026!
I will have one other task to take care of over the Summer, and that will be to update the assembly presentation so that it features more work from The Hidden Dominion of Geordie James, my new graphic novel scheduled to hit shelves in May 2026. I ought to have a cover to reveal in the near future, and my next newsletter update will likely feature that. For now though, here’s a sneak peek at a few new images of forests and trees that I recently drew to include in the endpapers.
Thanks as always for reading along!
Mike