Fantastic Four
Happy New Year from Li’l Nosferatu!
Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2026! And welcome to my “year-end wrap-up” blog post for 2025. Look, before you say anything: yes, I’m writing a “year-end” post the day after the year ended. Which is probably against the rules, but as I’ve learned over the years, I don’t like rules. Rules are stupid. Also, I was busy yesterday.
So. Here are some of the best things that happened to me in 2025:
I wrote many, many books. Most of them were for kids. Some of them were for adults. Here are the titles of some (but not all) of those books:
The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions.
The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book.
Stitch: Out-of-This-World Numbers.
Also, in January of 2025, I began working as a writer and narrative designer for an upcoming video game called Shadows of Dawn, which is being developed by Next Player Games. Currently, I’m still working on the game with the good folks at NPG.
And as you may recall, back in 2023, I wrote two episodes of the animated preschool series Hey! Fuzzy Yellow. In 2024, one of the episodes began airing and streaming. But starting in 2025, both episodes (“Boomerang Jelly Car” and “Sculpture Jam Abstract”) began airing and streaming. I wrote the scripts and the song lyrics for both episodes. As of this writing, Hey! Fuzzy Yellow still hasn’t begun airing or streaming in the US, but it’s available in various countries in Europe, Central America, and South America.
I also wrote the script for a Passover-themed children’s audio drama, titled “Mort the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah,” which was released in the spring of 2025 as part of Yoto’s 5-Minute Spring Holiday Stories collection. The title character, Mort, was even voiced by a friend of mine, Eli Schiff!
And there are several other projects I worked on throughout 2025, some of which will come out this year. I announced one of them, 96 Facts About Chappell Roan, in my previous blog post. (That book comes out on January 13th.) But I’ll announce some of my other upcoming projects ASAP. Please keep checking this site for more info!
BTW, I wouldn’t have worked on any of the aforementioned projects without the book editors, video game producers, and TV showrunners who gave me these writing gigs in the first place. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who hired me in 2025 (or really, anyone who hired me at any time, ever). And I mean that.
You may also be wondering about the “Baby New Year” photo which adorns this blog post. See, to usher in the new year, I’ve put a “2026” sash around a puppet I built. I call him “Li’l Nosferatu.” If you’re obsessed with me (and why wouldn’t you be?), you’ll notice that I’ve occasionally posted pics of Li’l Nosferatu on social media during the past couple of years. For today’s purposes, Li’l Nosferatu is playing the part of Baby New Year.
Someday, I’ll explain the backstory behind this puppet, because there is indeed quite a bit of backstory there. Basically, I built the puppet for a project which never came to fruition. But more on that some other time.
And to anyone who’s reading this, I just wanted to wish you the best for a wonderful new year!
Who Wants To See Some Comic Con Pics?
I went to the San Diego Comic Con a couple of weeks ago. How was it? Pretty great. Here’s some stuff that happened:
Okay, so this first thing requires a bit of set-up. Recently I wrote a children’s book titled The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book, which came out on July 1st from Penguin Random House. And at the Marvel booth this year, there were all of these props and costumes (and replicas thereof) from the movie Fantastic Four: First Steps. So on Wednesday July 23rd, Marvel staffers Jim Velasco and Neil Middleton were kind enough to let me do a photo shoot where I held up a copy of The Fantastic Four LGB with FF: FS movie props and costumes (and replicas thereof) in the background. It wasn’t really planned out beforehand, but it sure seems like it was, because I happened to be wearing all blue, just like the Fantastic Four themselves. Even the frames of my glasses are blue! Check out the pics:
Thanks to Neil Middleton and Lawrence Brenner for taking these FF/Marvel booth photos!
And on Thursday July 24th, I attended a mixer for animation writers which was held at Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop, just a few blocks away from the convention center. Everyone who came to the mixer got this super-cool button. It shows a typewriter (something associated with writers) and a mixer (the kitchen appliance). Get it?
Here’s a photo of me and my friend and fellow animation writer Charlotte Fullerton. This pic was taken by Charlotte at the mixer:
On Friday July 25th, I went to another mixer. This one was for animation folk in general, and it was sponsored by The Animation Guild (or TAG, as it’s sometimes known). I had a great time at the TAG mixer. It was SO much fun! But do I have any pics from it? No, I do not. (If there’s anything I realized after SDCC ended this year, it’s that I should take more pictures during SDCC!)
On Saturday July 26th, I appeared on a SDCC panel called “Writing Nonfiction About Fiction: Coffee Table Book Writers Roundtable.” The panel was moderated by Andrew Farago, and the panelists were yours truly and Jerry Beck. I don’t have any photos from that panel, which is just because I forgot to ask someone to take pictures beforehand. Oh, well. I mean, I have the sign-thingie that they put in front of my microphone before the panel started, and I took a picture of that. Does the photo of the sign-thingie count? (No. No it doesn’t.)
But on the good side, the panel was great fun, and I had a fantastic time. (From what I could tell, the crowd did, too!) I think it helped that Andrew, Jerry, and I were all really big fans of each others’ work. Lots of mutual respect there. During the panel, I talked about some of the nonfiction books I’ve written, like From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books and The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions. I also talked about some of the children’s books I’ve written – like The Bad Guys Joke Book – and some of the work I’ve done as a screenwriter for television and video games.
You can find out more about the panel HERE.
That night, I went to the Ignition Press party. Did I take photos while I was at the party? No. Because that’s something a cool person would do, and as anyone can tell you, I am not cool. But here’s an exterior shot of the Ignition Press San Diego Comic Con off-site popup!
And here’s one of the Ignition Press pins they gave you when you entered the party for the first time. If having lots of pins and buttons makes you cool, then I am indeed very cool. (But as anyone would tell you, I am NOT cool. Come on, we’ve been over this already!)
The very next day, on Sunday, July 27th, I attended the ceremony for the Dwayne McDuffie Awards for Diversity in Comics. It was hosted by actor and comedian Phil LaMarr, and the keynote speech for the event was given by Brandon Easton. Here are some pictures from the event:
There were a few other things I did at SDCC 2025, but I’ve got to go work on a deadline right now. So maybe I’ll do a second SDCC post at a later date, where I talk about those vague-sounding “other things” I just referenced.
And before I go, I’ll leave you with this photo of regular Deadpool and “Where’s Waldo” Deadpool. Because…well, just because. That’s why. I mean, do you even NEED a reason for “Where’s Waldo” Deadpool?
PS – if you want to read a similar “SDCC wrap-up” blog post I wrote last year, you can check it out HERE.
It’s Two-Book Tuesday!
Guess what? It’s Two-Book Tuesday! That’s because I wrote two children’s books which came out today. They are:
- The Bad Guys Joke Book, which is out now from Scholastic, and which was designed by Stacie Zucker with Sophia La Torre
- The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book, which is out now from Penguin Random House, and which was illustrated by Eda Kaban
Here’s the official publisher description of The Bad Guys Joke Book:
Get ready to laugh out loud with Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Ms. Tarantula, Mr. Piranha, and Mr. Shark! Packed with puns, funny fill-ins, limericks, and so much more, this joke book is the perfect companion to the Bad Guys Movie 2.
And here’s the official publisher description of The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book:
Marvel’s iconic first family of super heroes, the Fantastic Four, arrive to save the day in their first ever Little Golden Book! When a team of four daring space explorers get bombarded by mysterious cosmic rays, they return to Earth changed forever. Given incredible powers, Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing band together to keep the world safe from super villains and alien invaders.
These action-packed full-color pages will introduce these heroes’ amazing powers and their friends and foes! Kids 2 to 5—along with Marvel fans and collectors—will love this Little Golden Book based on The Fantastic Four.
For more info on The Bad Guys Joke Book, click HERE.
For more info on The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book, click HERE.
To buy The Bad Guys Joke Book, click HERE, HERE, and HERE.
And to buy The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book, click HERE, HERE, and HERE.