🔊🏡 We're Writing for Nickelodeon's "The Loud House"!
Lifeline Comics writes LGBTQ+ romance and more for Papurcutz's "The Loud House" graphic novels!
Hello Lifeline Comics Readers!
We’re excited to announce some news that we’ve been holding back for a few months now: we’re writing for Papurcutz and Nickelodeon’s official The Loud House graphic novels! We’ll dive into the announcement, how we started working with Papurcutz, and our experience with the work-for-hire below!
We’ll also announce a limited-time opportunity for you to grab our C2E2 2025-Exclusive Trading Card on our Website — featuring new art and a mini-HAUNTING/Like Father, Like Daughter Crossover!
And finally, we’ll share our experiences at C2E2 and Miami Pride, and discuss our thoughts on Black Mirror Season 7, Netflix’s Adolescence, Broadway’s Death Becomes Her Musical, and more!
Let’s dive in!
We’re Writing for The Loud House Graphic Novels!
Kat: We’ve been sitting on this one for a little while, but we’re “proud” to officially announce that we’re writing for Papurcutz & Nickelodeon’s official The Loud House graphic novels.
Our first story will be featured in their May edition — Loudest and Proudest — where we got to write a double date between Lori & Bobby and Luna & Sam.
Phil: We’ve had talks with Papercutz (and parent company Mad Cave) multiple times over the years about different projects. But the opportunity to write for The Loud House was really born out of Kat’s love for the series.
We connected with folks who work on The Loud House comics at various conventions over the years — folks who had seen Kat’s YouTube reviews and coverage for the series (both the Cartoon and the comics). Through her YouTube channel, they were well-aware of Kat’s fandom. And it was that love (and several pleasant interactions across different Cons) that made the connection for us to write for Papercutz.
For my part, it’s been such a treat becoming a Loud House fan through Kat and developing my own fandom and expertise to write for the series and characters. And the folks at Papercutz are just such a pleasure to work with. We’re excited for you to read all of the stories we’ve been working on with them!
Kat: I’ve been a huge fan of The Loud House since it first aired, and it’s honestly so humbling that Phil and I get to be a small part of this important franchise. I truly love the message it sends about diversity and feminism in a delightful slice of life cartoon reminiscent of the Sunday morning newspaper comic strips we grew up reading.
Stay tuned to more The Loud House stories from Lifeline Comics!
Grab our C2E2 2025-Exclusive HOLO Trading Card — Featuring Like Father, Like Daughter & Haunting!
Kat: For the Lifeline Comics’ readers who could not make it to Chicago for C2E2, we’ll have our Like Father, Like Daughter/Haunting EXCLUSIVE HOLO Trading Card available on our website for a week and then it will be GONE FOREVER.
Phil: We sold this Trading Card (featuring brand new art by AshMo) as our exclusive item at ReedPop’s C2E2, but as always wanted to give our online supporters a limited-time chance to grab the exclusive as well!
Head over to our Website to grab your own copy! You have until Thursday, April 24th!
Transphoria is on the Lifeline Comics Website!
Kat: Did you miss Transphoria: A Trans & Non-Binary Comic Anthology on Kickstarter? Well, now it’s officially on the Lifeline Comics’ website!
And if you’re looking to continue reading our horror book, HAUNTING, and our superhero title, Like Father, Like Daughter, you can also pick up the newest issues of those series recently added to the site!
Current Campaigns Reminder
While we have you, a quick reminder about our current crowdfunding campaigns — one of which reaches its conclusion TONIGHT!
ENDS TONIGHT: Bi Visibility #1: “Bi”-ke Shop Reprint
This Enhanced Reprint of our very first anthology features a new “Bi”-ke Shop Variant Cover by Sara Soler…
…AND a brand new 4-page story from the world of WEBTOON’s “Slice of Life”!
It’s been such a pleasure revisiting our very first anthology and getting to breathe some new life/content into it. It’s great getting the opportunity to restock on the book AND to give the original contributors to this volume another payment for their work!
The campaign ends TONIGHT, so grab the reprint (and a campaign-exclusive Metal Cover) while you still can!
LAUNCHES MONDAY: Like Father, Like Daughter #1-10
“WHO IS THE IMPOSTER INVULNERABLE? Teen Superhero Casey must find the man who is impersonating her dead father. PART TWO: ANGER!”
We’re so excited to continue this new era of LFLD by exploring the Anger portion of the Five Stages of Grief!
How will Casey handle an IMPOSTER pretending to take the place of her dead father? Find out in this exciting new issue!
What Have We Been Up To?
Let’s talk about how we’ve kept busy these last few weeks!
C2E2
Kat: Next to New York Comic Con, C2E2 is one of our favorite shows, and this year was no exception. Reed Pop in general puts on the best artist alleys in the biz!
There are so many wonderful Kickstarter supporters roaming the floors that we got to meet in person, and so many people wanting to find their new favorite comic. It’s such a great comic show that truly balances media and comic guests.
We actually first met our friend, Elliott Mondry, at C2E2 - who is releasing his own comic in the next few months. And we finally got to catch him and his wonderful friends for some deep dish. (I may have even liked it this time! …but sorry it’s still no New York slice).
Speaking of food, we’ve been doing a much better job at visiting some local spots, which is one of my favorites parts about traveling! We headed to Top Chef winner Joe Flamm’s restaurant, Rose Mary, where the pasta was the true highlight!
And we rounded our trip out with one of my favorite restaurants PERIOD, Apolonia. Their pasta has the perfect amount of bite and their truffle bread is a just dreamy cloud of goodness!
And, of course, it’s not a Comic Con without a Cosplay gallery!
Miami Beach Pride
Phil: The week before C2E2, we made our way to Florida again for Miami Beach Pride! Long-time readers may know that we try to do a lot of events around the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area because our good friend, Rocco, lives there. So it’s an excuse to visit a few times a year.
Miami Beach Pride was Wonderland-themed this year, which we were really excited about (considering we have a Wonderland-inspired comic). Ironically, we didn’t sell very much Nightmare in Wonderland at the event 😹 But the decor was cool nevertheless.
The event didn’t end up being one of our best. The crowd wasn’t particularly “comic”-hungry. But we had a fun time and got to see Rocco.
I’m sure we’ll find ourselves back in Florida in a few months!
“Death Becomes Her” The Musical on Broadway
Kat: We’ve mentioned our friend T. plenty of times in these newsletters. She has some great taste for Broadway shows, and we’re so happy to be able to make our trips to the theater a more frequent thing this year.
I never saw (or even heard of) the Death Becomes Her movie, but I was impressed by the quirky premise and out of this world stunts!
Phil: Death Becomes Her is a cult movie that has been on my watch list for the longest time. And our plan to see the Musical Adaptation was the kick-in-the-pants I needed to finally sit down and watch the movie (which I LOVED).
This musical adaptation is the right kind of adaptation of a beloved property. It uses the original film as a blueprint, but isn’t afraid to put its own stamp on the material. You can feel the admiration that the team behind the musical feels towards the movie — particularly in the ways that they build up to and expand upon some of the biggest moments in the film. It makes for such an enjoyable experience when you can really feel like love that’s put into the adaptation.
The production design, writing, acting, and pacing are all fantastic. And the musical transforms queer subtext of the film into supertext in a HUGE way that is a lot of fun to watch. And the way that the play portrays the iconic “deaths” from the film are both hilarious and technically impressive.
I really only have two negatives for the Musical. The first is one that the movie shares — I don’t particularly enjoy the character arc of Ernest. While the two women at the center of the story are consistently portrayed as villains (albeit loveable villains; ESPECIALLY in the play), Ernest is robbed of culpability for his own heinous actions in both adaptations. The play sidesteps this slightly by making Ernest a lot less sinister than his film counterpart, but it doesn’t rob him of all of his villainy. And he still manages to skate out of the production feeling like the unearned “good guy” / “moral compass” of the story in a way that doesn’t sit right with me.
My second, more damning, negative is that I didn’t love any of the music in the play. Most of it is fun to listen to in the moment. But there isn’t an earworm, or even a song that grew on me when I listened to the soundtrack a few times after seeing the play. That’s always a bummer for a musical (one shared by another play I saw and also enjoyed recently, BOOP!)
But my criticisms aside, Death Becomes Her is definitely a good time at the theater. If you’re a fan of the film — or even just a fan of villainous women and campy horror — then this play is sure to bring a smile to your face.
Media
Let’s discuss some non-comics media!
”Black Mirror” Season 7
Phil: Black Mirror is one of my all-time favorite shows. A modern-day Twilight Zone that’s seven seasons in can still find unique, thought-provoking, and intriguing premises for its episodes.
One of the most common “critiques” I hear for Black Mirror relates to an “inconsistency in style” since Netflix took ownership of the series. But honestly, the variety of episodes is my absolute favorite thing about Black Mirror. I love that we can get bleak, existential episodes like “White Christmas”, “Crocodile”, and “National Anthem” in the same series that we get bizarre, fun episodes like “Nosedive”, “Hang the DJ”, and "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too". I appreciate an anthology that has variety and doesn’t just seek to do the same thing every episode, and Black Mirror is consistently able to deliver drastically different tones that still feel like Black Mirror.
Season Seven, like every season, has a mixed bag of episodes. There were three I loved, two I liked, and (thankfully) only one that I wasn’t a fan of. But varying quality aside, I had a damn good time watching this season. Below, I’ll rank the episodes from least-favorite-to-favorite and share a quick summary of my opinion on the installment.
*Minor Spoilers*
“Plaything” - The only episode to come out of Season 7 that I would say I didn’t particularly like. “Plaything” is far from the worst episode of “Black Mirror” as a whole. But the premise of the episode didn’t particularly grab me. I tend not to love the “police procedural” approach in Sci-Fi. And I didn’t think that the episode ended on a satisfying note. That said, a scene featuring some Bandersnatch callbacks was a lot of fun. And the entire sequence involving the “murder” of Thronglets was also a stand-out moment. So even if the whole episode didn’t come together for me, I’m happy to say that my least favorite episode of Season Seven still had moments I enjoyed.
"Bête Noire" - This second episode of the season is one that I think would have really benefited from a longer runtime. I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and the lead performances (Verity Green drinking the almond milk was chilling). And while the technology at the center of the episode stretches credulity, I’m willing to roll with it. What I didn’t love was the quick resolution to the episode. So much of “Bête Noire” is spent setting up Siena Kelly’s Maria as a “former” mean girl who still exhibits mean girl tendencies, but rug sweeps her past (albeit more heinous) actions with “kids are cruel”. But she’s never really forced to face that reality that she’s still the same mean girl that she was in high school. Even Verity seems uninterested in present-day Maria, focusing exclusively on her past actions. I wish the climax had spent more time dissecting present-day Maria’s actions. The episode would certainly be higher on my list if it had.
"USS Callister: Into Infinity" - The first sequel episode in the anthology series. Fun fact: Season 4’s “USS Callister” is my favorite episode of Black Mirror. So this was an episode I was particularly excited for. And the episode sits at a lower spot on my list not because it’s bad, but because it doesn’t really surprise me at any point. The original “USS Callister” is my favorite because it’s such a unique, surprising hour of television, skillfully balancing a bonkers premise, a loving Star Trek homage, a fantastic cast of characters, and a chilling villain. This sequel episode continues elements I liked from its predecessor (particularly with Cristin Milioti’s Nanette, who continues to be a delightful lead), but doesn’t introduce a ton of new elements that excite me. And moreover, I think that the place where the characters end up at the end of this sequel is a lot less interesting and compelling than where they ended up at the end of “USS Callister”. A final note I’ll throw in is that I was initially very uncomfortable with the way Jesse Plemons’s Robert Daly was presented in this episode (in a very “Don’t Breathe 2” sort of way). Thankfully, I think the episode recovered from that initial portrayal in a pretty effective way, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the starting presentation of the character still leaves a bad taste in my mouth (considering his role in the original “USS Callister”).
"Hotel Reverie" - AKA, the Gay One. Surprising absolutely no one, I loved this episode. The classic film aesthetic, the tragic romance, the AI film technology premise. Issa Rae delivers such an earnest, likeable performance as actress Brandy Friday who finds herself stuck in the AI-generated facsimile world of an old film. And Emma Corrin’s Dorothy Chambers is such a haunting character that the viewer, much like Brandy, can’t help but fall in love with as the depths of her loneliness and self-loathing become more and more apparent. The scene where Dorothy finds her way into the data files containing the history of her actress is particularly impactful — maybe my favorite moment in this entire season. My only critique of this episode is that I don’t know if the actual ending of “Hotel Reverie” (the last scene of the episode, not the end of the movie) is a strong enough conclusion. There’s definitely a beautiful callback to an earlier moment that I appreciate. But I think a stronger ending is out there somewhere. Nevertheless, this is a great episode — beating out both “San Junipero” and “Striking Vipers” as my favorite queer episode of Black Mirror.
“Eulogy” - Paul Giamatti’s episode which sees his character contacted by a Eulogy service to extra memories of a former lover for her funeral service. Right from the logline, you can tell that this is going to be an emotional episode. But the performance that Paul Giamatti delivers as he dives into Phillip’s memories of his past love — at first filled with rage and denial towards his own wrongdoings before his walls are gradually broken down — it’s really powerful stuff. Patsy Ferran also gives a strong performance as the surprisingly-spunky Guide. Like many of my favorite Black Mirror episodes, “Eulogy” manages to be beautiful and tragic at the same time, with a mesmerizing ending scene that provides catharsis to both our lead characters and the viewer.
“Common People” - While opinions on Black Mirror are pretty much always variable and there’s rarely a consensus on which episodes are the best, “Common People” has been the episode I’ve seen discussed on social media most frequently. And I can definitely see why. An allegory this episode provides for Streaming Services and Health Care Providers is equal parts infuriating and brilliant. It has a very “classic” Black Mirror style and premise — reminiscent of Season 2’s “Be Right Back” — with a building sense of dread that leaves an ever-growing pit in your stomach — reminiscent of Season 4’s “Crocodile”. “Common People” is heartbreaking, well-paced, well-written, and beautifully acted by Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd. Season 7 justifies its existence with this episode alone.
Adolescence
Kat: Adolescence follows a young British boy who is suspected to have killed one of his fellow classmates. What I loved and sometimes was even a little frustrated by was that the show decides to focus on how Jamie and the people around him react to the murder instead of seeing the act or how the consequences play out.
The show could have easily gone “the serial killer” route - that the evil is just in him, but what makes the series work as well as it does is that it focuses on that Jamie is just “a normal boy”. Jamie has anger issues, that’s why he killed this girl. Not because he had a thirst for murder.
The superb acting carries this series with countless monologues and intimate scenes to make the audience really live in the moment. I liked getting to know the detective, Jamie’s father, etc., but I also do wish we received a little more closure for Jamie. There’s the iconic therapist episode as the penultimate, but that’s the last time we really see Jamie. By the end of the show, we understand what happens to Jamie through his family, but the ending is a bit more avant-garde than I expected.
Adolescence is an emotional show that’s easily digestible with its tight episode order. I’m sure this won’t be the last we see of Owen Cooper!
Phil: A tight four episodes, each filmed in one take, makes for an absolutely gripping and horrifying short series from Netflix.
I’ve always been one to appreciate a long one take. But I think the brilliance of the one take format of Adolescence is how it makes you sit through the “boring” moments that a normal drama would skip over. We don’t cut from the arrest of thirteen-year-old Jamie to the police station. No, we sit with his family during the car ride to the police station. We watch him go through intake and processing. We feel the sick uncertainty that his family feels as they get more-and-more information about the crimes that Jamie is accused of. It’s incredibly effective and really puts a pit in your stomach while you’re watching.
I give the highest of compliments to Episode Three of the series — which I think is one of the best hours of television we’ve gotten in recent years. The entire single-take episode is a conversation between Jamie and his child psychologist. It’s not their first session, so you can feel the familiarity between them. But the writing is just so clever in the way it breaks down both characters’ walls and lets them subtly betray their true feelings as they navigate all the pretenses of their conversation. It’s absolutely captivating. I recommend the series for this episode alone.
And while I think Episodes Two and Four are the least exciting of the miniseries, both have unique perspectives to offer — the former with regard to just how unruly, mean, and out of control teenagers can be as a whole, and the latter in its tackling of how a family deals with tragedy in the long-term. I might have rather spent time with the family of the victim if I were making the calls, but I can appreciate a lot about every episode that we got.
I would definitely recommend Adolescence to fans of one takes, dark dramas, and intensely conversation-driven narratives.
Girls5Eva (Seasons 1-3)
“And if we didn't do it?”
“We would just be four financially stable women who would lie awake at night…wondering what it would have felt like.”
Phil: Something you might not know about me: my favorite TV show ever is NBC’s 30 Rock. It’s my comfort show. I love the humor, the characters, the absolutely ridiculous plots. I’m not exaggerating when I say I watch an episode almost every day — usually in the background while doing something else. I just love it.
Another thing you might not know is that Sara Bareilles is one of my favorite musical artists. I love every single one of her albums (The Blessed Unrest is ✨✨✨). I love her as a performer (seen her twice in Waitress, where she absolutely killed). In any given room, I’m probably the biggest Sara B. fan around.
/preamble
Girls5Eva, for those unfamiliar, is a musical comedy which stars Sara Bareilles and is executive produced by 30 Rock alums Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. It follows a 1990s “One Hit Wonder” girl group that gets an unexpected chance at a comeback. And the series continues the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” trend of what I like to call “30 Rock”-style absurdist comedy. Suffice to say, this is a show that’s kind of made for me.
I actually watched the first season when it premiered on Peacock in 2021 and quite enjoyed it. And after my (I-lost-count)th rewatch of 30 Rock, I finally sat down to binge the entirety of Girls5Eva (watching Season 2 and 3 for the first time) over the last few weeks.
If you’re fan of either 30 Rock or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, then you should really check out Girls5Eva. It has that same rapid-fire absurd comedy that permeates those shows — only channeling the comedic style more-and-more as the series progresses. But it also has a ton of heart and some really fun music. All four leads of the Girls5Eva girl group are funny and engaging in their own unique ways — with special shout out of Paula Pell’s Gloria (a middle-aged lesbian navigating the end of her only real relationship) and Renée Elise Goldsberry’s Wickie (the “larger-than-life” star of the group) who are the breakout characters of the show, in my humble opinion.
The first season of Girls5Eva culminates in one of my favorite finales in recent memory (from which I pulled the quote that leads this section). It’s just a beautiful, heartfelt moment that is so well built-up-to throughout the season. It honestly brought a tear to my eye the first time I watched it.
And while the rest of the series never reaches the same emotional high as the season one finale (for me), it’s all worth watching and a lot of fun. It’s a shame the series didn’t get one or two more seasons to conclude its story. But even where it ends in Season Three is a satisfying enough conclusion to put Girls5Eva in my “comfort show rewatch” line-up for years to come.
Comics
Let's discuss some comics we've enjoyed recently!
As always, we’ll spotlight an Indie Book, a DC/Marvel book, a Live Kickstarter book, and a Webcomic!
Indie Comics: The Last Boy (BOOM! Studios)
Kat: Since Peter Pan is public domain, there have been plenty of retellings. It’s hard to make these stories truly stand out in a sea of others BUT The Last Boy really drew me in because of its distinct and fresh storytelling.
Dan Panosian and Alessio Avallone reverse engineers the “never growing up” theme to not only show Peter Pan stuck in his ways, but the world around him changing. What does Peter Pan have to fight if Captain Hook is retired from being a bad guy? Can Wendy use escapism as a viable tool to create a career for her own independence? Panosian and Avallone explore this and more in a well-rounded premiere issue that makes me want more from a franchise that I thought had already said everything it needed to.
Marvel: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Kat: Christos Gage is the master of superhero adaptation with his work on the Spider-Man PS4 comics, the Spider-Man games themselves, and even his stint on TV shows like Daredevil.
Gage is back at it again, and this time with Eric Gapstur on interiors to tell a tie in to the newest Disney Plus TV show, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. The series feels more like the lost episodes of the series as it explores villains and slice of life moments that the show otherwise wouldn’t have time to breakdown. The art style is a grounded version of the show’s abstract animation. If you’re a fan of the cartoon, then this is a fun palette cleanser for your pull list!
Webcomic: The Violinist and the Nerd
“This is the love story between a hikikomori videogame programmer and a violinist.”
Phil: A BL romance webcomic between former classmates who end up as neighbors — Aki Izumi (the Nerd) and Demian Clare (the Violinist). It’s a briskly paced romance comic with a pair of very likeable leads and lots of very cute moments.
The series explores plenty of interesting topics — including demisexuality, introversion, and failure to be “the best”. And the relationship between Demian and Izumi is compelling right from the first panel that the pair share together.
While I usually prefer a bit of a slower-burn romance, it’s also very refreshing how quickly this pair realize their feelings for one another and begin to act on them. And it gives the series the opportunity to take its couple to a lot of interesting places past its short first season.
While the first season is in traditional Manga-styled black-and-white, later seasons are colored and look absolutely fantastic. If you’re a fan of cute romances that move quickly and feature beautiful Manga-style art, then you’d be hard-pressed to find a much better webcomic than The Violinist and the Nerd.
Read “The Violinist and the Nerd” on Webtoon!
Kickstarter: NO SAINTS NOR POETS #1 (of 6)
“An Adventure-Romance Comic Full Of Love Triangles, Sea Monsters, and Illegal Motor-Gondola Races.”
Phil: I constantly talk about how I want to see more Boy Love on Kickstarter. So imagine my absolute delight to see a Gay Adventure comic from the incredibly talented Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli (the latter of whom we’ve collaborated with on several covers now for our own comics).
A Swashbuckling Adventure comic about delivery men on motorized gondolas fighting for the future of their half-sunken city of Serena. It’s an incredibly compelling premise — one that reminds me (in a great way) of Disney’s Atlantis. And the preview promises lots of exciting action!
Couple that with some sexy covers, and you’ve got an easy sell in my book! Can’t wait to check this one out!
Back “NO SAINTS NOT POETS” here!
In Closing
Thanks so much for reading this newsletter! We hope you’ll check out our work in The Loud House “Loudest and Proudest” this May — and our work in later volumes as they release!
Don’t miss out on your chance to grab our C2E2 2025-Exclusive Trading Card for a limited time on our website. And be sure to check out our Bi Visibility and Like Father, Like Daughter Kickstarter campaigns as well!
Subscribe above for biweekly updates on our future projects!
Buy Lifeline Comics on our Website!
Current Kickstarters:
Bi Visibility #1: A Bisexual Anthology - “Bi”-ke Shop Reprint (Ends TONIGHT)
Like Father, Like Daughter: The Five Stages of Grief #1-2 (Launches 4/21)
Next Cons/Events:
Free Comic Book Day Signing at JHU on Staten Island (5/03)
New Dorp Comic Con (Staten Island, NY) (5/10)
Anthology Open Submissions: Witching Hour (Witch Horror Anthology)
Congratulations on writing for The Loud House!! That's awesome news! It was great meeting you at C2E2, I'm glad you had such a wonderful time in Chicago. There's still plenty of restaurants for you to check out. Lol Thanks for another great newsletter!
Congratulations! LGBTQ+ content, I’m guessing…