Game On for a Special Avatar Character

With the holiday season upon us, I’m overdue for a new edition of this newsletter. There’s a lot to celebrate. Besides Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year, there’s the slightly fictional Na’vi sturmbeest festival to ring in this season.

That’s because AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, the third and biggest installment in director James Cameron’s epic saga, just hit theaters, and with it renewed attention on the franchise.

Readers of this newsletter may remember that I’m writing a new, six-issue series for Dark Horse called, AVATAR: TIPPING POINT with art by Salvatore Porcaro, colors by Michael Atiyeh, letters by Michael Heisler, and edited by Judy Khuu, Freddye Miller, and Rose Weitz. The story and the characters we created are officially part of the Avatar canon – which brings me to the cool reveal of this particular newsletter!  

News recently broke that one of those characters – an RDA officer named Tyler Bukowski, who is the antagonist of our story – has made the jump to a video game! Old Tyler is a now a major villain in Ubisoft and Massive’s new AVATAR: FRONTIERS OF PANDORA – FROM THE ASHES video game expansion that landed on our planet on December 19. The developers and Lightstorm Entertainment included me in the character development process – which proved a career first and a career highlight for me.

I have come to love the guy. Here are some notes I jotted down very early in the comic pitch process for Dark Horse:

 “What Bukowski is not is another lone wolf like Quaritch or a black-and-white military mind like Armore. He has spent the last fourteen plus years learning all he could about the Na’vi and Pandora to prepare for this post. Over that time he’s developed a respect for the natives. In his heart, he believes the moon is big enough for both peoples… if they can just be made to see reason and bend a little bit. 

“He has no choice: Bukowski left his family behind on a climate ravaged Earth and he must find them a new home for their very survival.”

Say hi to my baby when you play the game.  

NYC Comic Creators Band Together for a Good Cause 

I made a vow that I would avoid discussing politics in this newsletter that I’m about to break. Not because I’m not public with my left-of-center views and my opposition to the rising tide of authoritarianism in our country. Rather, I opt to express them elsewhere, like Bluesky, and reserve this space for communication about what’s coming up in my comic work. That’s the reason, after all, most of you have subscribed.

This felt like a good time, however, to plug very specific advocacy initiative of which I’m a apart. A few months ago, my incredibly talented friend and fellow comic writer, Greg Pak, and I co-founded a group called Comix Action. It’s brought together a number of other New York City-based comic writers, artists, editors, and retailers in service of community action and standing up for democracy. Building community is essential in these dark times.

We organize periodic mutual aid and activist events in which we encourage any locals who are interested to join us. You can stay plugged into our updates by signing up for the Comix Action newsletter via this link.  

Well, that’s all from me this time around. Happy Holidays, good people!