I was really nervous about this page and the previous one because it’s an info dump and a lot of text. Perhaps it is too much, but I ended up rolling with it because it’s not something I’ve exploited very often in the comic. I’m not going to say the comic earned these text-heavy pages, but I hoped its uniqueness among the rest of the entire comic would cause a reader to pay attention instead of bounce off of them; basically, I’m doing this for a reason, and I’m putting this annoyingly long block of text over two pages in the mouth of the villainous Rich Jack. As much as he’s telling us the stories that define the characters in the comic, such a didactic diatribe is actually defining him and the kind of person he is. It’s not a conversation, he’s not listening, it’s not a back-and-forth. He is talking and we are listening––that’s how he lives his life.
We’ve got one week left in the preorder, and I wanted to start the week with a bit of an update and a NEW add on opportunity!
First, I want to thank everyone who has preordered the book so far! I can’t wait to get it into your hands! It warms the heart to see people coming out to support the book.
Secondly, I’ve had people asking about an option to include all the books with the preorder, so now is the time to request! For an additional $40 you can get a copy of the previous 5 books with your order––all signed!
Again, preorders END this Friday, 12/19! So, head to LongJohnBook.com today if you haven’t secured your copy yet!
The time has come to bring the story of Long John Walker to a close, in physical form! Starting today, Monday, December 8 through Friday, December 19, preorders are open to procure a copy of Long John, Volume 6 for a mere $20. Here’s what you get for your money:
- A copy of Volume 6, signed
- Mini-prints of Volume 6 art
- Exclusive access to a 2026 Kickstarter tier
- Long John Coaster
The print run for Volume 6 is going to be fairly limited, there to satisfy the long-time readers and collection-completing fiends alike. The bonus of jumping in on this preorder is that it also gives you access to an exclusive Kickstarter tier for when the one-volume version of Long John Kickstarter goes live sometime in 2026 (supporters will be contacted through a valid email address).
Furthermore, Volume 6 is on track to be the largest Long John book ever. With 59 pages of story content and incredible pinups from Melissa Pagluica (Monster Heart and Above the Clouds) and Jon Berg (SKAB) as well as original art and writing from series creator, D. Bethel, all line up to making this the biggest Long John book ever.
With the new chapter beginning to update on Monday, October 27, it seems like a fair point to reveal not only the title of Chapter 6, but also the cover for the upcoming book.
Admittedly, I have been very lucky over the last few books when the ideas for the covers for “Making Smoke” (volume 3), “Dead Words” (volume 4), and “Parting Gift” (volume 5) came to me rather quickly and early (or, at least, naturally) in the process.
The cover for “Sunza” was a last-minute swing to scrounge together a cover for a book that needed one. I discussed the ramshackle process for that cover earlier, but I can’t emphasize enough that it was not a thoughtful process. The cover for “Bird’s Eye” was also a kind of “time has run out” kind of thing and sketched out that idea in a moment of panicked inspiration.
The cover for the final Long John book is a mixture between the two extremes.
As of this writing, this cover didn’t exist at all three days ago. Part of the delay was surely the enormity of the occasion––the last book should have an incredible cover, right? However, I wanted to keep it of a theme with the design of previous books: simple, austere, interpretive. But I also wanted it to be celebratory and epic. So, I vacillated between ideas of simple graphical designs to a more “movie poster” style idea; however, nothing actually manifested in my sketchbook.

So, during an in-class writing activity my students were doing for a large portion of the class on Monday, I had my sketchbook and just drew shapes, quickly landing the image of the scythe with the banner tied to it and, after a few different ideas, Long John posed in the manner he is in the final image.
It was all really sketchy and I wasn’t sure if it would work, though. So, that night I took my iPad up to bed and decided to work it out. An hour later I had the cover image pencilled. I printed the pencils the next morning and had it inked before going to work. By the end of Tuesday night, it was colored and titled.
There was also a very light pattern I was low-key adhering to throughout the designs that I’ve never talked about before. I really view Long John as two halves, with “book 1” being Chapters 1-3 and “book 2” being 4-6; distinct arcs in their own regard. To that end, the color scheme of the colors of each book for each arc were designed around similar color schemes: Volume 1 & Volume 4 are red-coded, Volume 2 & Volume 5 are blue-coded. So, part of what stalled the design of Volume 6 was the unspoken desire to have it be orange/brown coded like the cover of Volume 3 was. But the drawing didn’t call for that, so I decided to break the pattern and I’m happy I did.
Looking at the gathered covers throughout the series, despite how seat-of-the-pants some covers were and how inspired others were, I’m really happy with the cover work I’ve done for Long John and, to me, are major parts of the tone and voice of the series overall.
As for the imagery, its meaning, and relevance, that’s for you to find out when Chapter 6 starts updating on Monday, October 27. Three pages will go up a week here on the website (with informative blog posts attached to each), but will also be posted to the Long John Facebook page, my Instagram profile (and its associated Threads account), and Bluesky.



