2024 Happened!
Let's take a look back
Hey kids and kiddos,
Welcome to Inservice Insights, the new Inservice Comics & Records newsletter! This is going to be a monthly space to discuss indie comics and music, trends, creativity, process, and more (though this particular note will be a look back at 2024). Thanks for opening the email!
“Who are you and why are you emailing me?”
If you’re reading this, it means at some point you’ve ordered a comic or music from me, Nick Friesen, founder of Inservice Comics & Records, located in the geographical centre of Canada (and for that, I thank you). In 2024 we celebrated 10 years as a record label, but we’ve also been putting out comics since 2022, and many of these comics are about music, so it only seemed natural to expand the Inservice brand.
This past year we released a number of books, including my 152 page full colour graphic novel American Youth, the two volume music comic anthology The Setlist, as well as a number of floppy comics and zines.
On the music side of things, we released The Setlist companion album (cassette/digital) made up of songs by some of the cartoonists who contributed to the anthology, Tail Slates (cassette/digital) by Olivia Sea, and A Tribute to Matthew Good Band: Underdogs (cassette/digital), featuring artists from across Canada covering each song from 1997’s CanRock classic album, Underdogs. In other tribute album news, our 2023 release, A Tribute to Transistor Sound & Lighting Co, hit number one for two weeks in a row (January 29, February 5) on 101.5 UMFM here in Winnipeg, so that felt nice.
Physical copies of our comics and music can be ordered via the Inservice website. (Please note that Canadian orders will not be shipped until Canada Post resolves its strike - we stand with the postal workers!)
What’s coming up in 2025? I’ll be launching a Peanuts-style daily strip on Webtoon Canvas and Instagram, Abigail Anxiety, which will be funny/sad, and a new graphic novel, Big Shiny Tunes, is in the works for a fall release. I’ve also applied to/will be applying to a few Canadian comic shows this year, I can’t wait to get back out there! There are also a few other secret things from a few other creators that I can’t mention yet, but it’s going to be a good year.
To cap it off, I was voted Winnipeg’s Favourite Visual Artist in the 2024 Uniter readers poll, which is another nice thing. I’m glad the work is reaching people! I also conducted a number of interviews throughout the year about Inservice releases, all of which can be listened to below -
Inside the Panel Podcast (2024)
True North Country Comics Podcast (2024)
Winnipeg Free Press Interview w/Sheldon Birnie (2024)
One Great History – Winnipeg’s Comic Book History (Guest Host) (2024)