"Transphoria" Won the Ringo + Our New York Comic Con Overview!
Lifeline Comics had a very busy week with the launch of WITCHING SEASON, tabling at New York Comic Con, and taking home a Ringo Award!
Hi Lifeline Comics Readers!
We’ve got a lot of topics for you in this post!
Firstly, we’re asking for YOUR FEEDBACK in exchange for a free digital comic! Complete our 2025 Survey to anonymously let us know what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong, and what you’d like to see from us going forward. Help shape the future of Lifeline Comics!
Then, we’ll break down our newest anthology, WITCHING SEASON, talking about how it came to be, how we curated the book, and working with co-editor Michele Abounader (who will also share her experience in this post)!
And finally, we’ll talk about Transphoria winning the 2025 Ringo Award for Best Anthology, our New York Comic Con 2025 experience, including why we made the decision to only have one table this year (versus our two tables last year).
We’ll also share our thoughts on Peacemaker Season Two, Digimon Beatbreak, the firm Friendship, and more!
Let’s dive in!
Get a Free Comic by Filling Out Our Survey
Kat: Every year, we like to send out a survey to our backers to see what we’re doing right and how we can improve as a company.
If you fill out the survey (you do not need to answer every question), we will give you a FREE digital copy of our mature superhero book, Bombshell & Atomica #1, the comic we write for Bad Bug Media.
Phil: We are always looking to improve! So, we welcome your honest feedback about your experience with Lifeline Comics!
How Did We Put Together WITCHING SEASON?
Phil: As huge horror fans, we’d been wanting to put out a Horror Anthology of some sort for quite a while. We’d also been looking for an excuse to work more closely with Michele Abounader on a project.
I threw the Witch topic out simply because I just love a good witch story. We knew our next anthology would fall around Halloween time, and I thought back to just how into witches I was the previous Halloween (particularly with Agatha All Along taking the world by storm).
There’s such versatility when it comes to a good Witch story. So we knew we’d be able to get a wide variety of stories, themes, and horror subgenres from the topic.
Michele: I have been working in comics, specifically queer anthologies, for years now, and jumped at the chance to work with Kat and Phil at Lifeline. We get along really well; it has been really easy to work with them from the start. There’s a lot of mutual respect between us, and I think that really helps when you are working together to create something.
When we first started talking about making an anthology together, we had to settle on a theme. We came to the decision pretty quickly to make a horror book centering around witches. Horror comics are really having a moment lately, and we knew that we could make something great in the space.
Submissions
Kat: It’s truly our greatest pleasure to do open submissions for a handful of our anthologies. We know how hard it is to break into this industry, and we want to give our experience and means to help newcomers tell stories next to industry veterans.
We were specifically blown away by the response for WITCHING SEASON. We had over 500 submissions (which took DAYS to comb through), and we can’t express to you how hard it was to cut certain stories because we just had so many wonderful submissions. But we are glad so many people gravitated to the topic, and we feel like we put together a very well-rounded book for fans who love horror and witches.
And if you are looking to join one of our anthologies. Our Women Sports’ comic book anthology has submissions open until Friday 10/24 at 11:59 PM EST.
Phil: We had a pretty healthy mix of applicants via our Submissions Form versus invitees (prolific creators that we invited to the anthology directly) for WITCHING SEASON. It worked out that two-thirds of the anthology is made up of applicants and one-third is made up of invitees and stories from the three editors.
Covers and Invitees
Michele: Picking cover artists was honestly pretty easy for me. When I need a cover artist, I always ask Skylar Patridge first. I think she is one of the absolute best in the industry. I was really happy that she agreed to do a cover for the project, the main cover for Witching Season is INCREDIBLE, and I couldn’t be happier with it.
Jess Fong is someone I’ve wanted to work with for a while, I’m a big fan of her Poison Ivy covers, and honestly everything she does is so beautiful, it’s been a really cool thing to have her involved in this book.
And obviously Sweeney Boo. Her Kickstarter exclusive cover for this book is amazing. I’ve been a fan of her work since Eat and Love Yourself came out back in 2020, and she was absolutely the perfect artist to make the Witches of Oz-inspired cover for us.
Choosing the invitees for this project was really fun for me, I got to make a list of people I wanted to work with and talk them over with Kat and Phil to decide who we thought would be the best fit. Many of them are people I have worked with on other anthologies, and I knew their voices would really make this a standout project.
Kat: It’s a rarity to have three voices mesh so harmoniously, but that’s exactly what happened when you put the three of us into the same room. It was a no-brainer to add Michele to the Lifeline Comics’ team on a more consistent basis.
Witching Season is just the first of many projects from the Deathline imprint, which will focus on horror stories created by other creators in the comic book community. Michele is the lead editor for the titles under Deathline and POWerline (an everything but horror creator owned collaboration). The rest of the wave 1 roster will be launching on Kickstarter by the end of the year and early 2026.
And if you want to learn even more about Michele’s upcoming projects you should subscribe to her brand new newsletter!
“The Witches of Oz” Short
Phil: We knew pretty early on that we wanted to include a story from the world of The Witches of Oz in this anthology.
We think it’s always fun to include a new-reader-friendly story from the worlds of our other comics in our anthologies. It gives our long-time readers something special to look forward to in the anthology. And it gives new readers an intro to another series of ours that they might become a fan of.
For this 8-page short, we decided to do a flashback story to show the first meeting of Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West a decade before the start of our series.
This also gave us the opportunity to showcase other Ozian witches — including Mombi the Wicked Witch of the North (as seen in Ozma: The Trans Witch of Oz) and the first appearance of Margot’s sister: Charlotte the Wicked Witch of the East!
Whether you’re an existing reader of The Witches of Oz or completely new to the series, we think you’ll have a really fun time reading this short!
Conclusion + Livestream!
Phil: We are just so, so proud of how this anthology has turned out. There’s such a wide range of different stories and some of the most breathtaking art we’ve had the pleasure of featuring in our anthologies to date.
It’s our biggest anthology to date at over 150 pages. And we have a pretty lofty goal to make it a reality, so we need your help to make it across the finish line and to make this amazing anthology a reality!
PS: If you want to hear us talk about WITCHING SEASON live with over a dozen contributors to the anthology, we’ll be hosting a LIVESTREAM this Thursday 10/23 at 7pm EST!
We’ll discuss the anthology and several stories therewithin in greater detail and talk about what makes the book special. We hope you’ll consider joining and (if you feel so inclined) asking your own questions in the chat!
What have we been up to?
Let’s talk about how we’ve kept busy these last few weeks!
New York Comic Con 2025
Phil: We had our most successful year yet at New York Comic Con 2025 — turning a bigger profit than we did in 2022 AND in 2024!
Why We Didn’t Do Two Tables
Phil: If you’re a long-time reader of our newsletter, then you might recall that last year we had two tables at New York Comic Con — one in Artist Alley and one on the Exhibitor Show Floor.
We did a whole post last year breaking down our experience with the two tables. It’s one of our most popular posts, so we recommend checking that out if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty details of our experience.
The big conclusion from two tables last year was that having the Exhibitor table was fantastic for advertising — gaining us a lot of new fans we otherwise would not have connected with in just Artist Alley alone — but incredibly costly.
Between Booth Space Cost, Exhibitor Wi-Fi, and Hired Help, the Exhibitor Space cost more than five times the total cost of the Artist Alley space. And while both tables turned a profit, the profit for Artist Alley was significantly higher for us.
Going into this year, we wanted to restrict ourselves to just the one space to answer a simple question: Did having two spaces in 2024 affect our numbers for 2025?
The Results of Just Doing Artist Alley
Kat: It’s been very surreal to say that every passing New York Comic Con we continue to just do better and better. We actually made more money this year than last year, even with having two tables last year.
Complete transparency, we made about a $200 profit last year with the exhibitor table (this does not include Artist Alley). We were still in the green, but we made a much higher profit with Artist Alley’s much smaller $500 price tag. And this year we beat our Artist Alley numbers by the end of Saturday. Sunday was just as good as Saturday’s numbers and really helped us beat New York Comic Con 2024 total profit across both tables by a wide margin.
So would we do two tables again? You’re going to be surprised by our answer….but yes. You can’t beat advertising, and people this year (2025) still remembered we had two tables last year.
We hit a completely different crowd on the Exhibitor Floor than you do in Artist Alley. We have some really cool ideas to make both booths valuable that we can’t wait to instill next October.
WEBTOON Canvas
Phil: In addition to the tabling/selling component of NYCC, the convention also gave us the chance to connect with the absolutely wonderful Webtoon Canvas team!
We’ve spoken to the team via email and Discord before, but this was our first opportunity to meet them in person. They were an absolute pleasure to talk to and truly care about the series that post to Webtoon Canvas and about getting indie webcomic creators in front of readers. We can’t say enough nice things about them!
We had the pleasure of getting interviewed by the Canvas Team, getting a wonderful swag bag and custom series plaque, and we got to attend Webtoon’s NYCC Party (where my fiancé, Julius, snagged a selfie with Webtoon CEO Junkoo Kim).
“The Loud House” Signing with Papercutz/Mad Cave
Phil: On Sunday (Family Day), we did a signing of The Loud House: Loudest and Proudest (for which we wrote the first story in the collection) at the Mad Cave Booth!
It was such a joy to see kids who love The Loud House get excited at the idea of a comic tie-in to the TV series!
NYCC Overall Experience
Kat: New York Comic Con continues to be my favorite comic con. I’ve been going since the very beginning, and it’s been mind blowing to see how much bigger it gets every year. And I don’t just mean that from an entertainment point of view, the great people at ReedPOP put their heart and soul into creating a dynamic artist alley, and New York Comic Con truly celebrates comics.
The amount of hype I saw ranging from Absolute Batman to indies was mind blowing. And I even had a little time to be a fan and support other creators (shopping in Artist Alley is my favorite activity at comic cons).
Phil: As Kat said, between all the work, we even got to have a little bit of FUN!
I spent some time at the Digimon Booth and grabbed Digimon TCG Packs (more on Digimon in the Media section below). And Kat got to see so much Spider-Man and Jeff the Land Shark!
We had so many wonderful conversations with friends and fans (special shout out to Patricia, who we know is reading this newsletter)! And Julius randomly ran into Scott Rogowsky (of HQ Trivia fame).
And we got to see some truly amazing cosplay!
We’ll see you in 2026, NYCC!
“Transphoria” Wins a Ringo!
Kat: If you haven’t already heard…Transphoria took home the 2025 Ringo Award for Best Anthology.
I can’t express to you how overjoyed Phil, Dan, and I have been about this achievement. Working in comics can sometimes feel like working in a bubble, but moments like these remind you how important telling stories like these can really be. Especially, having friend and contributor, Brent Fisher, right by our side for the win - expressing their own joy for the project.
It was such a pleasure having Julius and Marianne along for the ride, and our parents and my brother glued to their screens at home. Without our families, Lifeline Comics would not be the company it is today. SERIOUSLY, the amount of love we have received from our circle helps us keep going and our parents have LITERALLY touched every package you receive as the big movers in our fulfillment operation.
Thank you for nominating our book and helping get Transphoria into more hands. This book could not EXIST without your loyal support. Thank you for helping us tell authentic queer stories and allowing our dreams to become a reality along the way.
Aly & AJ Concert
Kat: In between all the comic madness, my brother and his partner were able to snag $4 tickets for an Aly & AJ show - you heard that right, $4 for tickets. So it was a no-brainer to see them in concert. Growing up I loved their edgy Disney pop sound, but I’ve also enjoyed their more mellow music they’ve been producing in the last couple of years.
They both sound incredible live, and it’s no surprise that their voices just really complement each other. They had a good balance of old and new songs, and when they did play their Disney hits, they did a great job at arranging them to sound more like their newer music. You can tell they still appreciate the songs that made them famous in the first place, all while performing it through a new lens as adults singing to adults.
I usually snag a T-shirt to support the artist, but this time around I got a signed vinyl (a great souvenir).
Media
Let’s discuss some non-comics media!
Peacemaker (Season 2)
Phil: Peacemaker Season 1 was a huge surprise for me. It took a character I thought was a fine villain in Suicide Squad and turned him into a complex, loveable antihero in one of my favorite superhero shows ever. So this sophomore season (coming over two years after the conclusion of the first season) had some pretty huge boots to fill.
And yet somehow, Peacemaker Season 2 manages to be just as good as (if not better than the first season). The entire surviving crew from the first season (lovingly nicknamed the Eleventh Street Kids) find themselves at a crossroads. They all learned things about themselves that they didn’t expect to from the events of the first season, which puts each of them (with the exception of Adrian) in a sort of identity crisis of not knowing who they are anymore or what they want out of life.
Enter the major plot device of the season: a seemingly perfect alternate reality where Peacemaker’s father and brother are both still alive. The Alternate Earth is, in my opinion, a much more engaging plot than the “Butterflies” of Season 1 and really serves to bring out some of the strongest character moments we’ve gotten to date from John Cena’s Chris Smith. There’s a twist with the alternate world for which it’s pretty hard to avoid spoilers. But even if you know the twist going in, the reveal is still incredibly engaging and leads to the best episode of the show to date (Season 2, Episode 7).
Peacemaker Season 2 is just as much of a triumph as the first season. It expertly balances the comedic and the dramatic — taking the characters to new heights and bringing out even stronger performances from its cast. Whether it’s Peacemaker Season 3 or an entirely new show, I need more of these characters ASAP.
Kat: I don’t watch Peacemaker because I’m looking for the next big DC easter egg or Justice League cameo. I love Peacemaker because of the friendships made along the way.
Superheroes and comics may be known for their big action pieces, but what makes me keep coming back to the genre is the rich character work you can play with as you develop an intricate cast. And that’s exactly what Peacemaker Season 2 sets out to do as it paves the way for a completely new chapter for Chris and his team.
Every cast member has a big arc to work out, and I’ve even grown a soft spot for Vigilante, the one character I really didn’t connect to in Season 1. I was especially impressed with Adebayo and Harcourt’s arcs as they had a lot of emotional baggage to explore, and the actors gave their absolute best performances as they dealt with those high emotions.
I never knew I needed a Peacemaker show. I didn’t expect to love the character as much as I do. Season 2 deepens the respect I have for everything James Gunn is building with the new DC Universe - especially this cast of characters.
Friendship (2024)
Kat: Friendship had been on my watch list for a good while. The first trailer really pulled me in as it seemed like a fresh narrative about friendship (and maybe a horror story???). But what I got was actually a story about a very narcissistic man, who heavily leans into black comedy.
I truly can’t compare this movie to anything else. And, honestly, that’s what I really enjoyed about it. Our lead is so extremely unlikable that you actually want to follow his journey just to root against him.
It’s hard to recommend this movie to the casual moviegoer, but if you enjoy absurd humor, you’re guaranteed to walk away with something after watching this film.
Phil: Friendship is an incredibly unique viewing experience. It revels interchangeably in the awkward and in the quiet, chronicling a sort of descent into madness for marketing executive, Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson).
It’s a surreal film, with all of the characters acting a bit “off” to emphasize Craig’s fragile mental state. This stylistic choice really helps to put you into Craig’s shoes as a person who finds it nearly impossible to form meaningful connections with those around him. It creates and eerie, unsettling feeling with most of his interactions.
But then the film pulls the rug out from under you by having Craig act more bizarre than any of the other uncanny folks in his life, with the other characters being just as horrified as the audience.
If you enjoy surreal films that feel very different from anything you’ve seen before, then Friendship is a must-watch.
Digimon Beatbreak (Episodes 1-3)
Phil: I was a big Digimon kid growing up. The shows, the video games, the trading card game — I’ve done them all. But I haven’t really connected with any of the anime series since Digimon Frontier (Data Squad was decent but never became “great” for me).
And while it’s still too early to tell for sure where it will fall in my Digimon rankings, the newest series, Digimon Beatbreak, debuts with a promising start in my eyes.
Taking place in a more futuristic world where everybody has AI-driven “Sapotama” that occasionally glitch to become sentient Digital Monsters, Beatbreak is a pretty high-concept take on the Digimon formula. There are a lot of players introduced right off the bat (perhaps too many). There’s a lot of “groundwork building” in these first three episodes. But I see a lot of potential for strong character moments down the line.
The two biggest strengths of Beatbreak so far are its animation — which is perhaps the best animation we’ve seen from the franchise so far; incredibly slick and fluid with really great action — and its star Digimon: Gekkomon. They’re just…SO CUTE. I literally never get tired of seeing them on screen.
Digimon is very rarely “great” from its debut episode. But I have more hope for this series than I have had for the last handful of series.
The Digimon series I’d most compare Beatbreak to so far is Digimon Tamers (which, in my opinion, is the best series). There’s a “slice of life” quality to the series already that I’m enjoying. Here’s hoping that as the series continues, it achieves the greatness of some of its early predecessors.
Kat: Fun Fact: One of the first things Phil and I bonded over when we met over a decade ago was our love for Mimi from Digimon. Digimon will always place a special place in my heart, but it’s a shame that I haven’t truly loved a new iteration since Digimon Frontier.
Digimon Beatbreak takes the mature tone of Digimon Tri with a whole new cast. Beatbreak leans more into modern anime than the kid friendly approach previous iterations have taken, which makes me feel that Beatbreak has more promise compared to something like Digimon Fusion.
But I will say, with all of that in its favor, the main character just doesn’t have the charisma of past tamers. The series tries to pull on the heartstrings with the lead’s relationship with his brother, but the dramatics felt more cliche than emotional. I much rather of seen the lead spend more time with the rest of the ensemble to learn more about the cast.
I’m curious to see where Beatbreak will take its fans 20 episodes in, but as of right now, the first two episodes didn’t make this Digimon fan crave more.
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: Everything Dead & Dying (Image Comics)
Kat: If you’ve been waiting for the next Walking Dead than you should rush to the store and grab Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips’ Everything Dead & Dying.
Well, it’s actually the complete opposite of The Walking Dead. What if a man wanted to live amongst the dead because he couldn’t be affected by the disease and your Walking Dead type gang wanted to kill our lead? Everything Dead & Dying puts the zombie genre on its head as it focuses on the things left behind rather than the survival aspect that so many other zombie stories rather explore. Two issues in, it has skyrocketed to one of my favorite comics of the year!
DC Comic: Cheetah & Cheshire Rob The Justice League
Cheetah & Cheshire Rob The Justice League is Ocean’s Eleven meets DC Comics!
I love when the Big 2 releases a series to just zoom into a story that their flagships couldn’t possibly explore. Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott reconnect to tell a good old fashioned heist story with BFF’s Cheshire and Cheetah at the center. Villains that have toggled between good and evil for decades as they use that hero’s knowledge to rob the Justice League.
I really love the intricacies the creative team is able to squeeze in, especially Harper’s role in all of this as the daughter of a hero and villain. All while Scott and Rucka create new characters to become foils for our group of B-list & C-list villains. Cheetah & Cheshire Rob the Justice League is everything I wanted the title to be and delivers stories I didn’t even know I needed.
Webcomic: As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale
Phil: A Disney-produced webcomic retelling Beauty & the Beast with more Eastern-inspired art and sensibilities, as well as a darker tone. As a big fan of the original Disney film, it’s exciting to see another interpretation of the story that puts a different visual spin on the material.
The world presented in this comic is somehow both more “real” (featuring guns, religion, and Paris, France) AND more “fantastical” (featuring Magic Spells and Witches). Time will tell if it comes together to create a cohesive world, but I can appreciate the efforts to explore a different type of setting than the one we’re used to seeing.
I think it was a curious choice that two of the three debut chapters do not feature Belle or the Beast at all – the two character we are reading this series to see. Instead, Chapters 2-3 of the series serve as an extended flashback for Belle’s father, Maurice, as he meets Belle’s mother (who is presumably the Enchantress who will later curse the Beast).
While this twist on the source material, in isolation, is pretty interesting, it’s kind of hard to connect with the comic when our introduction to it fails to establish the key characters before pivoting to a flashback for ancillary characters who really only matter through their relationship to Belle and the Beast.
I’ll keep reading As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale to see where it goes from here. But I might recommend others wait until more episodes are available due to the odd choices the series makes in how it spends its limited opening screen (panel?) time.
Read “As Old As Time: A Twister Tale” on Webtoon!
Kickstarter: You Never Know #1
“You never really know what other people are going through behind closed doors. Told in alternating flashback chapters, this nine-issue series delves into how strong of a hold anxiety can have on someone and how far it can push them, regardless of what others see on the surface.”
Phil: The debut comic from our friend and huge indie comic reader/supporter, Elliott Mondry. You Never Know is an exploration of mental health and anxiety. It centers around Jason Banks, who seems to have it all together. But beneath the surface, it becomes quickly apparent that Jason is struggling with some pretty heavy demons.
The cast of friends introduced in the preview pages for the book are instantly likable, throwing out loveably quippy dialogue that you’d expect to see going into this book if you know its creator. And there’s an immediate earnestness to Jason’s regard for his friends and his inner monologue.
If you enjoy long-form explorations of mental health struggles, you won’t want to sleep on this one!
Support “You Never Know #1” on Kickstarter!
In Closing…
Thanks so much for reading!
We encourage you to complete our 2025 survey and provide your honest feedback in exchange for a free digital comic!
And we hope you enjoyed our breakdown of WITCHING SEASON, New York Comic Con, and our Ringo Award win!
If you haven’t already, we hope you’ll consider supporting The Comic Shop: The Comic and WITCHING SEASON: A Witch Horror Anthology. Both campaigns have pretty high goals (in large part due to the big names contributing to both books), so we need your help to make them a reality!
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)
WITCHING SEASON - A Witch Horror Comic Anthology (Ends11/13)
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)
Woooot! Congrats :)
Congrats on the Ringo Award!!
Sorry I missed you both at NYCC, hopefully next year!