092 April Showers

Orlando, Chicago and Beyond!

Apr 19, 2026

Hey everyone!

Kyle here, coming to you from LA on what has turned out to be a lovely Sunday afternoon.

As I started writing today’s newsletter, I had to legitimately double check the calendar. Unfortunately, I can confirm that it’s already mid April, which should honestly be illegal.

It’s so funny when I think back on how long everything felt like it took when I was growing up, eight hours of school was an eternity, winter stretched forever, holidays were a lifetime away. Now, I lose days, weeks, and months with regularity. I know everyone says that your perception of time speeds up as you get older, nothing about this is all that original, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

I spent the back half of March almost entirely on the road, bouncing between Megacon in Orlando to C2E2 in Chicago plus a few days in Yosemite. At the end of it all, I landed with a gnarly chest cold that I’m just now finally getting over, too many scripts to finish, and more photos and videos than I know what to do with.

Don’t worry, I won’t inundate you with all the photos and videos, although I do have some cool sunrise shots that I’ll include below. Shout out to Keegan O’Brien and Greg McMahon.

This was my first time at Megacon since 2018 and only the second time I’ve been in Florida since Radiant Black debuted and man oh man did you all make me feel welcome! I had a great show this year and I even got to spend it next to a pretty awesome tablemate.

It was wonderful to catch up with friends and fans, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a long time and others I was meeting for the first time. Shout out to Frank and his son, Rio, as well as Joe Pantoliano (?!) who I somehow ended up in a conversation with. Don’t worry—I managed to hold it together just long enough to tell him how much I loved his work and for him to give me shit about not casting him in anything (yet). 2026, made.

Chicago was also, predictably, another amazing weekend. I got to spend some much-needed time with my family as well as Kelly and her family, all of whom flew in from Australia and London for her birthday, as a surprise.

And speaking of Kelly, she was asked by Reed Pop to illustrate the cover of the 2026 Zine, which had a Chicago diner theme. How cool is this?!

In fact, we loved how it so much that we turned it into a print for everyone who attended our Kyle Higgins Presents: Radiant Black, The Massive-Verse and More panel, complete with some new balloons by Becca Carey.

C2E2 print by Kelly McMahon and Becca Carey

We also brought some fun exclusives to both shows (and will continue to bring to shows this summer and fall). The standout was a special version of Radiant Black and White #1, remarqued by me in fluorescent ink.

Radiant Black and White #1 blacklight remarque

In between all the chaos of the con, I found some time to do something that I used to do quite a bit with my dad, growing up: trekking out to the Adler Planetarium just before sunrise to capture my favorite city at my favorite time of day.

I didn’t shoot very many photos this time, both because I was playing around with a little Action 5 video camera and also because I was joined by two fantastic photographers, Keegan O’Brien and Kelly’s dad, Greg McMahon.

Here’s a few shots from Keegan. If you dig ‘em, definitely go check out his and Greg’s Instagram pages. I’ll include links below.

Oh, and today is Keegan’s birthday! Happy birthday, Keegan!

And because I love this picture so much, here’s one of me and Kel on the Mist Trail in Yosemite.

Okay, onto comic book stuff!

MASSIVE-VERSE LIVE

We’ve had a few Massive-Verse Live episodes drop since our last newsletter, with Michael admirably holding down the fort while I was out of commission. Earlier this week, I was able to get caught up and pushed out the corresponding podcast + newsletter editions for each.

As a reminder, we record these live on YouTube every Monday night. But if you can’t make our 6pm PST time slot, you can always find the episode after the fact on our YouTube channel. Plus, we also have a dedicated section of this newsletter where we do a dedicated post for each episode that includes both the video version and an audio edition.

If you want to be notified when those posts go out, you can subscribe to that section of the newsletter by checking the box in your account settings, right here.

Subscribe to Massive-Verse Live

Here’s last Monday’s episode!

LATEST EPISODE:

Our next stream is tomorrow night, where we’ll break down all things Radiant Black #41. Plus, we’ll finally get into some of our promised segments. I swear!

NEXT STREAM:

Monday, April 20. 6PM PST on YouTube

ON SALE

Radiant Black #41 - April 15

Last week, Radiant Black #41 hit stands and it features one of my all-time favorite buffalo-based jokes in the series.

IYKYK

Here’s a little preview!

Preview:

And, as always, a new video promo featuring Will Friedle.

Inferno Girl Red Book Two TPB - March 25

Buy Inferno Girl Red Book Two

On the heels of Inferno Girl Red Book Two finishing its serialized run, our Book Two OGN is also now officially on stands.

And, after more delays than we’ve known what to do with, I’m also happy to report that nearly every Inferno Girl Red Kickstarter order has been finalized, packed, and will head out the door tomorrow.

We have a handful of orders that we’re working on still, due to some book one hardcovers that became impossible for us to fulfill thanks to the Diamond bankruptcy (TLDR: Diamond is holding about $8,000 worth of hardcover stock hostage and will not return it to us) but those orders are being finalized on a case by case basis with everyone, as we speak.

BLACK MARKET PRESENTS…

And speaking of Inferno Girl Red Book Two, we’ve got a special edition of our new Black Market Presents… spotlight today featuring the Burning Light of Hope in the Dark herself!

This is a story that Mat Groom put together shortly after finishing Book One, and it slots cleanly in between Book One and Book Two.

Eleonora Carlini, a Massive-Verse favorite and a former Power Rangers collaborator of ours, was kind enough to join along with the usual IGR colors/letters team of Igor Monti and Becca Carey.

And for those who missed last months news, Black Market Presents… is something we’re looking to do more regularly now: vertical scroll stories that we curate from creators we’re excited about, with an emphasis on new and emerging voices, direct to your inbox.

You can check out our first story, Black Eye, by Rich Douek, Nir Levie and Buddy Beaudoin right here.

Similar to Massive-Verse Live, we’ve set up Black Market Presents… as its own section of the newsletter, so your inbox won’t be inundated every time we put out a story.

But! If you do want those notifications, you can subscribe in the same way you subscribe to Massive-Verse Live, right here.

Subscribe to Black Market Presents

OK, enough preamble! Enjoy our Inferno Girl Interlude!

🚨THE BLACK MARKET🚨

Radiant Black Massive Edition Book Two — BMN Exclusive

We’re a few weeks away from shipping out our Black Market Exclusive edition of Radiant Black: Massive Edition Book 2 (we’re just waiting on the dust jackets to come in) but in the meantime, I wanted to give this one more shout out— we have a handful of copies left (we’re down to single digits now) so if this was something you were eyeing, now is definitely the time!

As a reminder, our Black Market edition features an exclusive bookplate signed and numbered by myself and Marcelo Costa, as well as a gorgeous new dust jacket from Goni Montes.

The book collects RADIANT BLACK #13-24, the SHIFT one-shot, a complete cover gallery and more than 30 pages of new and exclusive behind-the-scenes backmatter.

This edition is also limited to just 150 copies (sans APs).

Massive Edition Book Two BMN Exclusive