<p>A programmer friend of mine once described his job as like banging your head against the wall all day, every day, with brief interruptions of euphoria. That most days consist of staring at your work frustrated and saying to yourself "Why the hell isn't this working?" Why is it crashing? Why is it giving that error? Why is it behaving like that?</p><p>Searching and searching and searching through the code, making tweaks and trying them out, making more tweaks and trying them out. Getting frustrated and giving up and coming back. Re-writing whole sections, reverting to earlier versions, on and on and on, until you hit on the one approach, that didn't feel like it was going to be any different than any other, just snaps into place and the damn thing works.</p><p>It feels deeply, almost absurdly good when it finally works.</p><p>That's how I spent the last two years finishing the first draft of <a href="https://www.matthewbogart.net/eternal-september/" rel="noreferrer"><em>Eternal September</em></a>.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-width-wide kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-14.05.40@2x-1.png" class="kg-image" alt="Comic panel of two characters in an empty room with scattered boards and a tipped stool. One says, “Oh heck yeah,” while the other points and says, “Look at that!”" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="990" srcset="https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-14.05.40@2x-1.png 600w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-14.05.40@2x-1.png 1000w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-14.05.40@2x-1.png 1600w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-14.05.40@2x-1.png 2000w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">A panel from "Eternal September"</span></figcaption></figure><p>For those just joining: <a href="https://www.matthewbogart.net/eternal-september/" rel="noreferrer"><em>Eternal September</em></a> is one of two graphic novels that grew out of a bigger, messier project about early internet culture, friendship, and what we share online. That original book was too unwieldy to work, so I split it into two separate stories. This one has been in development for... longer than I planned. Much longer.<br /><br />I’ve been stuck in versions of this loop before, on other books, long before <em>Eternal September</em>. I wrote about one of those earlier struggles years ago. <a href="https://www.matthewbogart.net/URL-TO-POST-A/">You can read that here.</a></p><p>The story just wasn't coming together the way I needed it to. The climax wasn't as emotionally powerful as I knew it could be. Character motivations became convoluted. You sympathies were in confusing places. The solution to problem A created a new problem in area B, and on and on and on and on.</p><p>With my collaborator Jesse and I we tweaked, and re-wrote, and analyzed, and adjusted endlessly. For months on end. Until the moment when—and I didn't know it at the time—I tried the last set of changes. What if I take this approach to this scene? Combined with this change we made earlier... </p><p>Now I don't care about sports, but I've been to several football games with my dad when I was younger, and the only way I have to describe this is to make a sports analogy.</p><p>I made a tweak after years of making months and months of tweaks, and suddenly it was like a break opened up in the defensive line, and I could see an open space that led all the way to the other end of the field.</p><blockquote class="kg-blockquote-alt">I could see my way from the moment I was writing all the end of the book.</blockquote><p>Everything that needed to be set up was set up. Everything you needed to understand in order to make the climax pay off you understood. Everything that needed to be true in the state of the world—which character knew what, what character was where—was all true, was all correct.</p><p>I ran as fast as I could.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-width-wide"><img src="https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/2026/01/IMG_6170-1.jpeg" class="kg-image" alt="An open laptop displaying a script sits on a dark table surrounded by books, papers, a ruler, and a water bottle, suggesting focused writing work." loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1203" srcset="https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/IMG_6170-1.jpeg 600w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/IMG_6170-1.jpeg 1000w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/IMG_6170-1.jpeg 1600w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/2026/01/IMG_6170-1.jpeg 2000w" /></figure><p>I spent hours just <em>sprinting</em> through the script, just <em>bounding</em> towards the end. And when I wrote, for the first time, in two years, a line that <em>ended</em> the book, when I had in front of me a complete first draft, I literally cried.</p><p>The script still needs revisions, of course, and then there's the small matter of drawing the entire thing. But a little while ago, for the first time in ages, I have a complete draft that works. I know what this story is. </p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-13.49.30@2x-1.png" class="kg-image" alt="Comic panel at night showing two characters running down a street. One laughs and asks, “How’d it go?” The other runs ahead, replying, “Amazing!”" loading="lazy" width="1594" height="1188" srcset="https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-13.49.30@2x-1.png 600w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-13.49.30@2x-1.png 1000w, https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/2026/01/CleanShot-2026-01-17-at-13.49.30@2x-1.png 1594w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">A panel from "Eternal September"</span></figcaption></figure><hr /><p>I don't know if there's a lesson here exactly. I don't know if I can tell you what the magic adjustment was, because it was so specific to this particular tangle of problems that it wouldn't mean anything to anyone else.</p><p>What I can tell you is that the breakthrough didn't announce itself. I didn't have a moment of clarity where I thought "this is it, this is the one that's going to work." It felt like every other attempt I'd made over the many months working on this —tentative, hopeful in a tired way, probably wrong.</p><p>And I can tell you that I'm grateful I didn't give up on the attempt before the one that worked.</p><p>Because that's the thing about creative work that nobody warns you about: the only vantage point where the path is clear is from the finish line, looking back.<br /><br />It sucks. </p><hr /><div class="kg-card kg-cta-card kg-cta-bg-yellow kg-cta-minimal kg-cta-has-img "> <div class="kg-cta-content"> <div class="kg-cta-image-container"> <a href="http://patreon.com/matthewbogart"><img src="https://www.matthewbogart.net/content/images/2026/01/Patreon-Logo-Transparent-4112376714-1.png" alt="CTA Image" /></a> </div> <div class="kg-cta-content-inner"> <div class="kg-cta-text"> <p><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">If you want to follow along as I figure out what comes next—whether I move into revisions on this book or start drawing its sibling story first—</span><a class="cta-link-color"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Patreon supporters</span></a><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> get behind-the-scenes access to the decision-making process, plus early looks at whatever comes next.</span></p> </div> <a href="http://patreon.com/matthewbogart" class="kg-cta-button " style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"> Visit my patreon </a> </div> </div> </div><div class="kg-card kg-signup-card kg-width-regular kg-style-accent" style="display:none"> <div class="kg-signup-card-content"> <div class="kg-signup-card-text "> <h2 class="kg-signup-card-heading" style="color:#FFFFFF"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Join my newsletter</span></h2> <p class="kg-signup-card-subheading" style="color:#FFFFFF"><a href="#"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Join my newsletter</span></a><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> to get weekly dispatches on my creative process—the wins, the struggles, and everything in between. I share what's working, what isn't, and the decisions I'm making as I move forward with Eternal September and other projects.</span></p> <div class="kg-signup-card-fields"> <input class="kg-signup-card-input" id="email" type="email" required="true" placeholder="Your email" /> <button class="kg-signup-card-button kg-style-accent" style="color:#FFFFFF" type="submit"> <span class="kg-signup-card-button-default">Subscribe</span> <span class="kg-signup-card-button-loading"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" height="24" width="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24"> <circle cx="4" cy="12" r="3"></circle> <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="3"></circle> <circle cx="20" cy="12" r="3"></circle> </svg></span> </button> </div> <div class="kg-signup-card-success" style="color:#FFFFFF"> Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. </div> <div class="kg-signup-card-error" style="color:#FFFFFF"></div> <p class="kg-signup-card-disclaimer" style="color:#FFFFFF"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.</span></p> </div> </div> </div>

Back when I was in high school in a small Catholic school in Ohio—I'd taken all the art classes that were offered and still wanted more. So they let me design my own independent study. I'd get shuffled off to the art annex and work, usually alone, while my teacher, Mr. Frank Daniel, would check in a couple times each period. The room was full of art supplies and filing cabinets stuffed with old student work from years past. At one point, Mr. Daniel told me I could go through it—help him clean out. I was sorting through drawings when I found it. A page of figure studies. Maybe two dozen people jumping and twisting through the air. Just an exercise in understanding the human form. And I knew immediately who had drawn it. I'd seen hundreds of this artist's drawings. His style is incredibly distinctive— especially the way he draws bodies in motion, a specific energy. I brought the drawing to Mr. Daniel. "Who drew this?" I asked. "Oh, _that._ That's old student work." he said. "Was his name Mark _Bagley_?" I asked. "Oh! How do you know Mark?" he said. * * * Famed comic artist Mark Bagley recently came out of retirement to reunite with Brian Michael Bendis for Bendis' big return to Marvel comics in Avengers #800. The variant Cover for Avengers 800 At the time I was discovering a drawing that he had done in high school wedged in a cabinet in _my_ high schools art annex, Mark was drawing one of the biggest books in the comics industry: _The Amazing Spider-Man_. He's drawn countless issues across multiple titles. If you read superhero comics in the 90s and 2000s, you _knew_ his work. And Mr. Daniel had taught him years earlier at a different high school across town. He and I, evidently, had the same high school art teacher. I ran the drawing through a scanner—this was back when getting an image from the real world onto your computer still felt kind of like magic. I can't find the file anymore, but I remember we did a crappy printout on my home printer and brought it to show my local comic shop. They put it up on their wall with a little sign: "Rare Mark Bagley Art." Years later I met Mark at a convention and told him this story. He got genuinely excited and asked me to thank Mr. Daniel for him and he drew me this. I've never seen Mr. Daniel again or Mark again, but you can see some of Frank Daniel's art here, Mark Bagley's art here, and mine here. I think about this stuff a lot while working on my graphic novels—the weird connections, the unexpected threads that weave through the creative world. What a weirdly connected place this is. If you want to follow along with my strange paths through making art, you can subscribe to my newsletter below, or [support me on Patreon.](http://patreon.com/matthewbogart ) Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

A decade late, here are the final sales numbers from my ComiXology Submit experiment: 5,699 copies, $443 earned, and why I'd never do it again. (aside from the fact that it's been discontinued)

At the start of this new year here's what has me most excited about tabletop gaming right now.

A technique for figuring out what actually needs fixing in my comics once I’m out of the weeds.

An update on new comics, a look at where to find signed & sketched in Incredible Doom books and limited slipcase sets, a roundup of recent projects, videos, and comics community news. Good stuff.

"The Chairs' Hiatus Companion Book"—28 pages of bonus comics and illustrations from multiple artists—is now included with the Revised Edition. Here's what's inside and how to get it.

A good time to grab something for yourself or a friend — signed Incredible Doom books, prints, and more, all shipping free.

I made a fun short about how artist Steve Lieber uses his studiomates as reference in his and Matt Fractions’ series “Superman’s Pall Jimmy Olsen". If you like this, I did a whole _half-hour-long video_ with interviews with both Fraction and Lieber. You can _get copies of the new hardback of this book_ signed by Steve and several studiomates including myself.

I've been thinking about _this interview Conan O’Brien did with Jon Stewart_. They were talking about their early TV years — those first shows where every week’s ratings felt like life or death. The pressure made the job miserable. Stewart said that a few weeks into _The Jon Stewart Show,_ he could already tell it was doomed. "We knew this thing's going down. But I had your experience of like, this is my shot. Like, this is it. My name is on [a show]. This is a manifestation of who I am as an artist, as a person. If it gets rejected, _I_ am rejected. I wasn't sleeping. I was really miserable. I was drinking like a motherfucker. All those different things. And one night in my insomnia, 3 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning, I just remember thinking, you're going to have had your own talk show with your name on it where you could do whatever you wanted [...]. **And people are going to say, did you enjoy it?** And I would have to say,_I hated it._ And I think it nearly destroyed me. And what a dumb fucking response. And that morning I got up and was like, _I'm going to enjoy the shit out of this_. Yeah. And I don't care anymore. Yeah. And it was revelatory. And it was such a, I felt it _physically_ , like that relief." The show was canceled soon after, but it's a good reminder for anyone currently doing their dream job — how’s it going?

A few days ago I got to attend the ribbon-cutting for the Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts (NWMOCA) at 322 NW 8th Ave in Portland. It was great. Back in the early 2000s my friends and I actually ran a small gallery in downtown Portland, so I have some small idea how hard it is to pull off something like this. The folks behind this new museum have created a massive, beautiful space with help from a really dedicated team. One part of the opening exhibit focused on Helioscope Studio, which was so neat to see. At the ceremony they mentioned Portland might have the highest per-capita number of cartoonists in the world. They showed beautiful work by so many talented people, and I was honored to have some of mine included. There was even a giant print of the Jimmy Olsen cover Steve Lieber drew, and all of us who appeared in the crowd on that cover got a photo in front of it. If you’re in Portland anytime soon and love comics, go check it out. It’s absolutely worth the visit.

Book pitches, project boxes, comics camp, and (trying) to learn to post without guilt.

A few years back, I put together a lightly revised edition of my first graphic novel, _The Chairs’ Hiatus_. It includes a handful of updated panels, some new pages, and small tweaks throughout — the kind of changes that come from looking at old work with a decade of hindsight. Until now, I’d only shared it as a little thank-you to mailing list subscribers, but I’ve decided it deserves a more permanent home. You can now find a downloadable PDF and notes about the revisions on my Patreon for all monthly members, or for a flat $3. You can also read the origional version for free here. Check it out on Patreon

A new fun podcast episode, exclusively for patrons.

I went behind the scenes with a couple of Eisner-winning comics creators. No big deal.

This week in my patron exclusive Creator Journal podcast: How drawing robots rekindled my artistic spirit, the unexpected benefits of bullet journaling, and a fresh take on time management. Become a member to join me on the journey of trying to create meaningful comics.