The Inaugural Newsletter

In which I Introduce myself and shamelessly recommend preordering my book!

I’m finally pulling the trigger.

Yup.

I’m starting a newsletter.

I guess until now the imposter syndrome has been too overwhelming and I thought I had nothing to contribute to anyone’s inbox…maybe I still don’t. But too bad, here it is!

My plan? Obviously a big part is to update about and promote my upcoming books. Let’s not pretend it isn’t.

But I thought maybe talking about my journey from guy who makes middling superhero fan art for social media clicks to fully-fledged full-time professional scribbler of kids books may be of interest to some, although by no means is my story typical - I got very lucky…blessed even. Also, I had some very awesome people in my corner without whom none of it would have happened. I will dive into that in the next newsletter.

Also I’m thinking of doing a kidlit recommendation each newsletter…I was going to do this on tik tok and youtube, maybe I still will?

Right, anyway, some housekeeping first then into it:

Shoutout to Jarrod from the

Exit Zero

substack (and soon video podcast with yours truly) for helping me figure this whole substack thing out.

Next the obligatory social media plugs:

You can follow me on Instagram, X (I still want to call it Twitter), and Bluesky - my username is mikehartigan

Facebook is www.facebook.com/cartoonsbymike

Youtube is www.youtube.com/@mikehartigan

TikTok is scribblesbymike

and of course I have my website which I try to keep updated at www.scribblesbymike.com

Phew! OK all done with that stuff.

So for this first one I will keep it short…ish.

When all is said and done and the dust settles on 2025 it’s going to have been quite a year for me. It’s been just over a year since I packed in my day job and went full-time author/illustrator (I’m still not sure what my correct job title should be but that fits well enough). It has been a steep learning curve working for … me … and a busy time, but come November I will have TWO books out in the world. And for a guy who a couple of years ago had resigned himself to never crossing over to doing this professionally and staying in the mind numbing world of customer service, this is kind of a big deal. Like I said, a lot of things fell into place and there was definitely a right place/right time/right person element. But here we are.

And it’s all thanks to a little girl. A little girl in a pink frilly dress to be more precise. This August sees the launch of my debut graphic novel SUPER UNICORN PRINCESS from the good folks at Simon & Schuster Children’s UK. I recently got my advance copies and to say I am happy with how it turned out is an understatement. I, like a lot of artists I think, don’t like to look at my work once I’m done. So for me to say I love how this turned out really is something. I love it. And even more exciting is that before the year is out I will have Spanish, Greek and Dutch versions to sit alongside it on my bookshelf. (There’s early talk of other languages which I will share when I can).

The book will also hit stores in the US in 2026, so American friends keep an eye out (I think you may be able to get it digitally this year via Amazon/Kindle).

There is other exciting plans for the launch in August which I will share when I am allowed.

You can preorder HERE

Then in November my second book comes out - which I had the honour of co-creating with the great Franco Aureliani (with too many credits to list but include SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES, YOUNG JUSTICE, BILLY BATSON and the MAGIC of SHAZAM, SUPERMAN OF SMALLVILLE and TINY TITANS).

CHASE SPEEDINGTON and the LAST DRAGON’S BREATH is coming from Papercutz. Chase is a character I first created 13 years ago. It’s a whole story how Franco got involved and how we ended up with the finished product, but Franco really shaped the characters and loose idea I had into something really fun, with a bigger cast of characters and a world for Chase to play in.

You can preorder HERE

It’s been a lot of work, a lot of drawing, a lot of hours, and little sleep. But totally worth it to finally be in the privileged position of saying I’m a published author. I don’t take it for granted that’s for sure.

And if kids connect with what I am creating then I get to do this for longer! And I can’t wait to start hearing what they have to think.

I would start some recommendations at this point of the newsletter but I think I’ve blabbered on enough for this first one.

If you have any specific questions or things you want to see in this newsletter feel free to let me know and I’ll try to cover stuff that you want to hear about!

Right, I’m off to get back to work on the second Super Unicorn Princess book! Thanks for joining the Scribble Squad and I hope you’ll stick around!

Imagine. Draw. Create.

-Mike