How We Made a Comic Tie-in to "The Comic Shop" TV Show
Find out what it takes to create a comic tie-in to a television show, featuring guest writers - Cheyenne Ewulu and Michele Abounader!
Hi Lifeline Comics Readers,
We’ve got an exciting newsletter for you this week! We’re going to dive in to how we created “The Comic Shop: The Comic” — with guest writers on this post Cheyenne Ewulu (creator of “The Comic Shop”) and Michele Abounader (lead editor of the comic). Learn how the project landed on our lap and why it is so important to all of us!
We’ll also reveal our New York Comic Con 2025 plans, share the relaunch of our second Webtoon series, and show you some of the fun stuff we’ve been up to (including a Halloween Crafting Party, a Food Festival, and a Dua Lipa concert).
And finally, we’ll share our opinions on some recent media, including Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” album, The Summer I Turned Pretty’s final season, Good Mythical Morning’s “Wonderhole”, and more!
Let’s dive in!
How We Made A Comic Book Tie-in to “The Comic Shop” TV Show
Cheyenne (The Comic Shop’s Showrunner): The Comic Shop characters came from me wanting to write about people and a friend group I could actually relate to. I didn’t see enough “Blerds” (Black nerds) in media, so I decided to create characters that reflect what I know.
Kat (Co-Publisher): I first heard about The Comic Shop when the show itself was being funded on Kickstarter! It was electrifying to see the drive the team had to make this show happen, and THEY DID!
A few months later, our POWerline and Deathline editor, Michele Abounader, told us that The Comic Shop comic book tie-in was looking for a home, and we jumped on the chance to work with Cheyenne Ewulu and her team. And it truly has been one of the most fruitful partnerships, as we all have the same passion to make this comic happen and for it to be the best comic it can be, with heavy hitters in the comic scene helping craft these stories.
Michele (Editor): I had been working with Lifeline on the horror anthology Witching Season (for Deathline), and was introduced to Cheyenne through H.E. Caldwell, who I worked with on the LaurenZside graphic novel, Going Under. Cheyenne had so many incredible ideas for creating comics. I was really inspired by our conversations and thought that Lifeline would be a good partner to help put this book together.
Phil (Co-Publisher): It’s honestly been such a whirlwind of an experience. We only first started talks with Cheyenne in late July to make this comic tie-in a reality. And we knew we wanted to launch the comic Kickstarter around the middle of the TV show’s release schedule. This gave us only two months to pull together an entire team and enough content to build a Kickstarter page. It was a tall order, but everybody involved has been so quick and professional!
Cheyenne: We explored a lot of different routes to make the comic happen. After a handful of meetings, Lifeline was the team that really believed in The Comic Shop. Working with them just felt right.
Michele: When we started work on this anthology, the first step was to get a creative team together that would best represent Cheyenne’s vision for the stories about the characters in the show, and the original universes of Ratz City and Edible Man (comics created and featured in the show). Since she’s such a big fan of comics, she had some ideas for creators to get on our team, including Stephanie Williams and Cody Ziglar.
We put together a powerful wish list of people we wanted to get on board, and we were able to get almost everyone! It’s been super important to me from the start that we build out the books creative team with people who can bring Cheyenne’s vision for the stories to life authentically, so we focused on including mainly Black and LGBTQIA+ creators.
There’s no shortage of incredible talent in the industry to pull from, and everyone we reached out to was so excited to work on this with Cheyenne. We’ve been having so much fun with these stories while watching the new episodes of the show drop each week on YouTube.
Cheyenne: As a Black queer woman, it felt natural for me to include queer characters in The Comic Shop. Stephanie, the main character (played by me), is canonically a lesbian, as is her former love Keke Wyatt (played by Hayley Law). I usually write what I know, and I definitely know WLW relationships. The audience response to this Sapphic “lovers to enemies” storyline caught me off-guard—people were obsessed with Keke and Stephanie and wanted more. That’s when I knew we had to give them a proper origin story. My friend Joshua David King, a queer writer, was the perfect person to bring in. After reading their BL project, Project Super Crush, I knew I wanted them on board. They ended up being a huge part of shaping the romance you see in The Comic Shop.
Cheyenne: As a kid, I thought I was going to be a mangaka. Comics were my first love. I’d draw comics in class, and it was the one thing my peers actually thought was cool. They’d pass my comics around the classroom like it was Shonen Jump, which honestly kept me from getting picked on. I figured if people were sharing them, I must be good at it. That’s when I knew I wanted publishing comics—whether Western or manga—to be my future.
Phil: Everybody involved really believes in The Comic Shop: The Comic and knows it is going to be such a satisfying anthology both for fans of the TV series and new readers alike. We need YOUR help to make this project a reality. It’s a high goal (the price of including so many incredible creators) — one that we can only reach with your support!
We’ll Be in Artist Alley for Our Home Show - New York Comic Con
Kat: Lifeline Comics is back in Artist Alley (Table L-21), and with our NYCC-exclusive covers for Mob Princess #1!
Phil: If you’re not attending the Con, you still have until Thursday to grab the exclusive cover via our limited-time Kickstarter campaign!
Kat: We’ll also be signing at the Mad Cave Booth (Booth #4455) for The Loud House on Sunday at 12:00 PM.
Phil: As always, make sure to stop by our table to say “Hi” if you’re a fan of our work! We will have free art prints for anyone who supports our Kickstarters and/or reads our Webcomics!
Second Bite (our second Webtoon) Relaunches!
Phil: Speaking of Webcomics, we’ve officially relaunched our Vampire Boy Love webcomic, Love at Second Bite, on Webtoon and Tapas.
Liam Graves is a cheerful vampire who misses his days in the sun, while Dean Hikaru is his gloomy and secretive classmate with a dark past. Will the two fall in love at their mysterious college: Hemlock University?
You may have seen the original run of this comic that launched as part of the Webcomic Legends 2025 Contest. We’re excited to now be releasing episodes on a regular schedule!
Episodes will post twice per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5pm EST) until we catch up with the Contest Episodes. Then we’ll transition to a new episode every Tuesday starting on 10/21.
Support us for free by Reading, Liking, Subscribing, and Commenting!
If you’re interested in Early Access and Exclusive Content (including SPICY content), we encourage you to check out our Patreon for the series!
And finally, you can follow the Pre-Launch Page for our upcoming Kickstarter which will collect the first five chapters of LASB in January 2026!
What have we been up to?
Let’s talk about how we’ve kept busy these last few weeks!
Dua Lipa Radical Optimism Tour
Kat: When I’m looking for some easy listening pop music, Dua Lipa is always one of the first artists I gravitate towards. (And to this day, Future Nostalgia is still a near perfect album for me!)
After seeing artists like Lady Gaga and Beyonce with incredible set pieces, it was nice to see a pop star rely more on just the music and the different genres of dancing (jazz, club music, etc.) for her tour to feel just as magical.
She did a splendid job at connecting with her audience and there are a few stand out moments during the show where she directly interacts with her fans, which I appreciated. I also enjoyed the diversity of performance styles as she gave a few stripped down songs, which is a breath of fresh air to see from a pop singer.
Halloween Heads Craft Party
Phil: If you know me, then you know that Halloween is my absolute favorite time of year. I love everything about the spooky season…except that it’s in October — one of our busiest months of the year.
I haven’t really had much of a chance to celebrate Halloween the way I love to these last few years since October is always a very heavy Kickstarter month for us and since New York Comic Con is always smack in the middle of it.
But this year, I made it my mission “do Halloween” in some way. And I did so by reviving an old family tradition.
A few years ago (I want to say 2019 or 2021), my siblings and I went to Michaels on a whim and just bought a bunch of random Halloween/Fall craft items. We made a few small projects (wreaths, potions, etc.), including four Styrofoam heads (pictured at the top of this section) that we pained and decked out with accessories. The “Halloween Heads” were the most fun we had with our random craft day, so we made sure to do the same project again the following Halloween.
And after not having the time the last few years, I made sure this October to carve out a Sunday just for the heads party (which coincided nicely with Kat attending a Food Convention; more on that below). And for this one, I brought in the extended family (who are also huge Halloween lovers).
I absolutely loved seeing all of the creativity and fun that everyone brought to their heads. It was such an enjoyable no-pressure session where everyone threw things at the wall and had a blast with it. My grandmother, in particular, really enjoyed the experience. I haven’t seen her so smiley in a long time!
In the end, we got zombie beauty queens, bird attack victims, butterfly princesses, unearthed maggot-filled corpse heads, and more! It was so, so much fun. And something I’m definitely going to do again next year. I’ll even make sure to rope Kat into the next party!
Mamma Mia Broadway Revival
Kat: Since I was a little kid, my Mom had always wanted to see Mamma Mia on Broadway, and she had just missed it during its first run. So, luckily, Broadway has cooked up with a revival, and we got to take her for her birthday.
I won’t say Mamma Mia is the type of musical I would normally go running for on my own accord, but I can see why it’s so popular. Abba’s discography brings with it some easy listens, and the story is engaging enough to warrant its 2+ hour run time.
I’d still like to see some new musicals hit the same highs as Mamma Mia did 10 plus years ago, but I’m happy it came back to Broadway for fans who want to relive the magic or even see it for the first time on a New York stage.
New York’s EEEEEATSCON
Kat: It’s a rarity that I get to go to a convention that has nothing to do with comics. A week before Comic Con, and across the street from the Javits Center, it was nice to take the exhibitor badge off and just be a fan at an event.
You can’t go wrong with New York Cuisine as the show highlighted some of the hottest places from all five boroughs and even a few restaurants from as far as Miami. With every booth creating at least one special dish exclusive to the convention!
I didn’t have one bad dish, but the highlights for me were Birdee’s garlic pretzel knot, Culture Espresso’s corn cookie, and L’Industrie Pizzeria burrata slice.
We also got A LOT of free stuff, especially if you had a Chase Sapphire card. But I was especially impressed by the amount of free drinks to keep con-goers hydrated. Free water, free Pepsi, free La Croix! We even got a free alcoholic drink in the Sapphire lounge.
It was just the right amount of people allowed into the venue. Enough to feel like you were going to something worthwhile, while not being too overcrowded. The longest line lasted maybe 10 minutes.
Eeeeeatcon had already been on my radar, but it was especially exciting to find out that Mythical Josh was giving a talk about his popular web show, Last Meals. You didn’t need to be a fan to enjoy his hysterical conversation with the two stars from Loot, Ron Funches and Joel Kim Booster.
As a foodie, I’d book a reservation to Eeeeeatcon’s next event any day!
Media
Let’s discuss some non-comics media!
Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl
Kat: Life of a Showgirl is classic Taylor on a platter. Her storytelling techniques are distinct as she spins tales with a fictional bend and a few that seem to pull from personal experience. All culminating into one thesis statement about Taylor’s complex relationship with show business, especially as a female performer.
Musically, I won’t say this album reinvents the wheel. There are a plethora of songs that sound similar to songs we’ve already heard from her discography with the exception of the title track: “Life of a Showgirl”. This skyrocketed to my top as the song blends a few genres with Sabrina Carpenter’s inclusion adding a new point of view for Taylor to explore in the pop space.
The other two stand out tracks juxtaposed each other completely - “Cancelled” and “Eldest Daughter”. “Eldest Daughter” explores the frequent theme of Taylor feeling misunderstood. It’s the one song on the album that embraces Taylor’s singer/song writer side as it paints a sweet girl that you can trust.
“Cancelled” is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE. It’s one of the most shocking songs that Taylor has released in recent memory. She’s letting her fans in on a little secret - she’s a bad girl who hangs out with all the rest of the baddies, and she doesn’t care what you think of her (even though she kind of does). Exploring a very intricate topic in not just Hollywood, but society as a whole as we take a look into a world reliant on social media and America’s search for perfectionism through the lens of an edited medium.
Life of a Showgirl is a step in the right direction following The Tortured Poets Department, though still not as distinct as Folklore or as sharp as Midnights.
Phil: As it always does, the Internet seems to be of two minds when it comes to The Life of a Showgirl: “It’s amazing“ or “It’s horrible“. My boring assessment is that it’s pretty middle of the road.
There are three songs (The Fate of Ophelia, The Life of a Showgirl, Elizabeth Taylor) that I really enjoyed and could see becoming regular listens for me alongside a lot of Taylor’s previous work. But the rest of the album was pretty middling for me. Actually Romantic (allegedly a diss track about Charlie XCX), in particular, I found to be mean-spirited and left a bad taste in my mouth.
I think something I’ve learned about myself is that my favorite Taylor is when she’s telling a story about somebody else. My top picks from this album definitely fall into that category. As do my favorite preceding albums from Taylor.
As Kat said, I enjoyed The Life of a Showgirl more than The Tortured Poets Department. But it’s certainly not my favorite album by Taylor Swift. But I do love that a new Taylor album means that everybody has something to talk about for a week. Even my grandma had an opinion to share 😂
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season Three
Phil: I firmly believe that we, as a society, need mainstream teen drama. We need melodramatic plot twists and overcomplicated love triangles. We need Team Jacob/Gale/Jeremiah versus Team Edward/Peeta/Conrad. And The Summer I Turned Pretty delivers this generation’s new big teen drama.
The third-and-final season begins with a time skip, taking our leads to the end of their undergraduate college year. But while they may not be “teens” anymore, they certainly keep the teen spirit alive by centering the season around the ill-advised wedding of Belly and Jeremiah, who rush into a marriage after nearly breaking up due to the classic Ross Gellar “We were on a break” conflict.
My biggest compliment of this season of TSITP is that a lot happens. We spend time with our cast in college, see them plan a wedding, see them hop from the East to the West Coast, see them work their first big jobs, and see Belly make her way abroad to Paris. You have relationship drama with the parents, relationship drama with the brother/best friend characters, and, of course, big drama between our center love triangle. And all that drama is mobile and keeps changing locations. It’s messy, but a lot of fun.
My major criticism when I finished the season is that the “finale”…didn’t feel very final. It does see Belly make (at least what appears to be) her final choice for her romantic partner. But it felt like there was still more to see and more to explore after that choice was made. I learned after I finished the season that TSITP is planning a feature length film that will serve as the “true” conclusion to the show. This retroactively made the series finale work a lot better for me.
At the end of the day, Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad are all pretty toxic in their own ways. They’re (mostly) well-intentioned but consistently hurt one another and probably shouldn’t be dating within their little incestuous group at all. But if they weren’t, then we wouldn’t be able to have all of this fun dividing ourselves into Team Jeremiah and Team Conrad camps. We wouldn’t get news headlines about Jennifer Lawrence’s “confession” of which team she’s on. And I wouldn’t have a huge icebreaker that leads to a ten-minute conversation every time I talk to my teen cousin or any early-twenties age girl.
P.S.: I’m Team “Belly Should Find Someone Whose Last Name Isn’t Fisher”. But if that’s cheating, I’m Team Conrad all the way.
Wonderhole Season 2
Kat: After a long day making comics, Good Mythical Morning is my comfort show. (crazy I mentioned Mythical twice in this newsletter) Rhett and Link have been a consistent name in the content creator space because they aren’t afraid to innovate. They are constantly reinventing themselves!
Wonderhole is scripted series that uses their knowledge about YouTube to create wacky narratives with plenty of twists and turns. Season 2 uses the Mr. Beast formula to prompt videos like: “Stranded 100 Hours on a Homemade Raft” and “$1K vs. $100,000,000 House”. Each episode starts like your average YouTube video but then takes a turn into narrative storytelling. And because of Rhett and Link’s “long take” styled morning show, reality and narrative blend together to create a truly unique show that marries online content creation with traditional media.
Comics
Let’s discuss some comics we’ve enjoyed recently!
As usual, we’ll spotlight an Indie Book, a DC/Marvel book, a Webcomic, and a Live Kickstarter book!
Indie Comic: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT 3
Kat: Crossovers can be tricky, how do you make fans of both franchises satisfied, while also developing brand new dynamics? This is the third volume of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Ryan Parrott and co. continues to reinvent the series, all while giving satisfying moments for each franchise individually through character work and mythos building.
Why do crossovers exist? Storytelling wise, it’s fun to see characters that normally don’t interact, but it’s also a marketing opportunity for fans to get into a new franchise. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan, but anytime I get to revisit this series, it makes me question that decision.
Power Rangers/TMNT continues to be a great jumping on point for any reader, and it can truly make you a fan of these long running franchises!
Marvel Comic: Emma Frost: The White Queen
Kat: Amy Chu and Andrea Di Vito’s Emma Frost: The White Queen takes the “lost episode” approach to explore Emma’s time with the Brotherhood, all while seeing how she started teaming up with the good guys in the first place. Di Vito’s artwork truly stands out with his crisp line work that you’d come to expect with a flagship title. If you like morally gray characters, then this is the miniseries for you!
Webcomic: Loving Reaper
“Animals struggle. Pets and Wildlife alike. The reaper cares for their stories and helps them with the crossover. Short stories about the ‘Loving Reaper’ to raise awareness and collect funds. Breaking hearts for a good cause.”
Phil: Chances are that you’ve seen Loving Reaper before even if you’re not a frequent Webtoon reader. It’s one of those comics that is constantly shared on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — and for good reason.
A wholesome-but-heartbreaking “anthology” series of shorts about a kind-hearted Grim Reaper who does his job as the harbinger and guide of death but does so with compassion and pathos for those souls that he takes from the world.
The series most often sees the Loving Reaper interacting with animals. But it doesn’t limit itself, sometimes showing the Reaper interacting with deceased humans as well. Whoever he is with, the Reaper always shows patience and empathy for those he approaches. It’s a comforting read for those who have lost someone.
The series also often has a conservationist message, raising awareness about practices that are harmful to the ecosystem. Most recently, they published a short about Fox Hunting, a common and harmful practice in the UK.
It’s clear that the creator of this webcomic cares deeply about the world and seeks to use their voice to raise awareness and to try to make the world a better place, one heartbreaking and/or heartwarming episode at a time.
Kickstarter: Macabre Valley #1
“A young reporter gets a job covering the night cops beat at a newspaper in South Texas. When a Border Patrol agent is gruesomely murdered, our hero must untangle a violent mystery with a beloved local priest and a werewolf at its dark center.”
Phil: A continuation of a story from last year’s Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1, this first installment of a planned four-issue series scratches a lot of itches for me.
Firstly, I love seeing shorts from anthologies continue as their own properties. One of the great things about short-form storytelling is that they can serve as jumping-off points for longer-form storytelling. And seeing that happening is always inspirational for me and makes the property more exciting.
Secondly, this series is based on writer Zack Quaintance’s real experiences as a night cop reporter in Texas…just, you know, with werewolves added. I love a story with an authentic, lived-in feel to it. And this one promises to deliver just that.
In Closing…
Thanks so much for reading!
We hope you enjoyed our breakdown of how “The Comic Shop: The Comic” came to be! We need YOUR HELP to get this project funded and to make Cheyenne’s dream come true, so please consider supporting the Kickstarter!
If you’ll be attending New York Comic Con 2025, be sure to stop by Table L-21 to say “Hi” and grab a free art print. And if you won’t be attending, you can grab our NYCC-Exclusive Cover until this Thursday via a limited-time Kickstarter.
Subscribe above for biweekly updates on our future projects!
Buy Lifeline Comics on our Website!
Current Kickstarters:
The Comic Shop: The Comic Anthology (Ends 10/23)
Mob Princess #1 - NYCC 2025 Exclusive Variants (Ends 10/09)
WITCHING SEASON - A Witch Horror Comic Anthology (Launches 10/14)
Read our Webtoons for FREE:
Slice of Life [GL] (Anime Character x Closeted Cheerleader High School Romance)
Love at Second Bite [BL] (Vampire College Adventure/Romance)
Next Cons/Events: New York Comic Con (Table L-21)