I’m Still Alive…

Sorry for the long hiatus! But I’m sure you’re here from my newsletter because you want more info about my newest comic, so let’s jump right into it.

TL;DR:

Cold Hands, Cold Heart #1 is out (for online reading, you’ll need to wait a bit longer so that I can make more progress on #2 first).
I’m sharing some photos of behind-the-scenes of how I made Cold Hands #1 at Punch Kiss Press in LA.
What to expect for the remaining chapters of Cold Hands and the future of the Infernally Employed series

Cold Hands, Cold Hearts Issue #1 is out!

Risograph comic zine for Cold Hands, Cold Heart #1; Tamaki is holding a large Mulberry Bayswater bag ;D

As you may recall, I’m working on an original series called Infernally Employed. It’s a modern retelling of a tale about Japanese folklore hero called Momotaro. Except in my series, he’s a slacker genius who’d rather hook up with his partner Tamaki Sakurai than write a single line of code, but through no one’s fault but his own, he finds himself working at tech giant Bettr because he needs the cash.

As some artists know very well, massive projects like writing a graphic novel are extremely daunting, especially if you’re making the leap from doing ~12 page minicomics.

So back in December 2025, I announced that I was working on a story that takes place before all of Momotaro’s shenanigans: Cold Hands, Cold Heart. In this story, we get the origin story of Tamaki Sakurai. They are a corporate consultant who flies in and out of the city of Cosmopolis to work at the offices of Bettr. However, they have no friends in this strange new city, and their subsequent loneliness unfortunately catches the eye of something malevolent.

Issue #1 is the first chapter of the story. Expect your usual Zoom shenanigans, animal BFFs, and a jumpscare at the end, all packaged up in a beautiful 13-page risograph comic!

Buy a copy of Cold hands, cold heart #1

BEHIND THE SCENES: The making of Cold Hands #1

I learned how to use a risograph duplicator and did the entire production of Issue #1 myself at Punch Kiss Press in Los Angeles!

It’s owned and run by Karina Richardson, who has a wealth of printing and binding knowledge under her belt. She taught me a lot in a short period of time, which helped me churn out 75 copies in 6h (although I only finished stapling/cutting about 50 copies before tapping out.)

Here are some photos I took of the process before my hands were too covered in blue ink and I was afraid I’d stain my phone case.

Printing the dark mauve ink layer first. This is being done on scrap paper to saturate the master thoroughly (i.e. the stencil in which risograph ink goes through) so that the print comes out all vibrant.

Then the blue layer goes on top, but as you can see I was careless about the orientation of my blue master (massive facepalm).

Finally got it right after a few master screwups.

The purples are achieved by layering some blue ink on top of the pink (riso ink is somewhat translucent, some colours more than others).

Folding the books – the covers and inside pages are stapled together before this step to maximise efficiency (protip from Karina).

First I trimmed all zines on one side, then moved onto another side. The side opposite the spine is trimmed last (another Karina protip).

I still had to trim each zine one by one, but the industrial paper cutter at PKP sped things way up.

Later issues of Cold Hands, and more about Infernally Employed

I am shooting for 4 chapters, 1 issue per chapter for the rest of the Cold Hands story. They will include in no particular order: predatory yokai, queer relationships, some undecided level of smut (I’m still practicing what I’m comfortable drawing but expect at least PG-13), a dose of narcissism and abuse, and Tamaki eventually crossing paths with Infernally Employed‘s poster boy, Momotaro.

Speaking of Momotaro, here is a scene with him and a buddy in what was originally the main and only story in Infernally Employed – when I thought I was just doing a single story as opposed to a series I’ll probably need at least a decade to finish.

Momotaro and the boys out on the lash: a go-kart pub crawl in the streets of Cosmopolis

I won’t give too much away, but the context of the scene is that Momotaro is a slacker genius who made a ton of money in his early age as an unintentional white-ish hat hacker, but the incident below causes his too-generous cash flow to dry up, which is what leads him to reluctantly working at Bettr.

Side note: I drew this for my final assignment for a class I took with Warrior Art Camp. If you ever want to seriously uplevel your artistic skills while doing too many hours of homework each week, I can’t recommend Warrior Art Camp enough! I don’t think I would’ve managed to create this story moment without the help of my amazing instructor, Michelle Fang.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you’re as excited to see more comics from the Infernally Employed series because I am enjoying the HECK out of working on it!

Comments

One response to “I’m Still Alive…”

Suzan Colón

2026-03-25

Holy AMAZEBALLS on that go-kart crash scene! If I didn’t already want to read the story (and I dooooo), I sure would now. I’m so glad this has turned from a single story into a THING. Cold Hands is gorgeous—thanks for the behind the scenes look at your Riso magic!