Everything we learned from jacksepticeye's NYCC spotlight panel

At this year's New York Comic Con, Sean McLoughlin, aka jacksepticeye, and creative director Sophie Jackson, took the stage alongside their collaborators in the comics side of the multimedia multiverse known as the ALTRVERSE. This universe, and two of its starring characters, found their origins in 2016, as covered in Part 1 of our guide. In 2019, the ALTRVERSE canon as it now stands was launched - see Part 2 of our guide, focussing on the short films and live stream experience in this universe. But it wasn't until last year (covered in Part 3 of our guide) that Sean and Sophie's storytelling has leapt off the screen and into physical media through Bad Egg Publishing.

So, NYCC was the first time anything ALTRVERSE-related has been shared with an in-person audience, as well as the first time some of the writers and artists met the ALTRVERSE's creators. Into the ALTRVERSE, moderated by Tom Brennan, dived into the inspirations and trajectory of the two comics series, The Somewhat Incredible Jackie-Boy Man, scripted by James Asmus and illustrated by Megan Huang, and Void Silver. penned by Alejandro Arbona with art by Suzi Blake.

Main takeaways

Asmus talked how much he enjoyed the original skits his Jackie-Boy Man is based on, saying the videos were "So joyful and genuinely funny and authentic and had this lovely aspirational superhero... truly joyful and so much of what I love about imperfect superhero comics." And Huang added how she likes to show the range of emotions through "exaggerated movements" and differently coloured backgrounds from grey for sadness and orange for action, to "change the mood for the reader".

It was discussed that Marvin, star of Void Silver, had a much more fleshed out backstory
coming into the comics compared to Jackie, thanks to Sophie and the jacksepticeye fan community. Arbona said what really appealed to him was "inject[ing] a lot of humanity into all of this arcane magic." The emotional journey of the character was his pathway in, building on the magic system developed by Sophie, which Blake appreciated as well. The artist revealed she holds her cat at different angles for reference for the series' magical cat Higgins.

Sean revealed that the issue 3s are the midpoint of each series, "starting the ramp into what finale stuff will be", once again confirming their five-issue run. He also shared that the creative team had to regroup while working on these upcoming issues to make sure the stories were heading in the right direction, The A and B covers were shared for the first time at the panel (at 17 and 18 minutes in the recording) and later online:

"There's a reason we did Jackie and Marvin simultaneously and parallel [to] one another so it'll be fun," Sean said, hinting at the teams' larger plans for the whole multiverse. After a fan question about crossover, Asmus proposed that "the characters would have to wrap their heads around each other. The rules would have to bend or blend or break. So you definitely have to either find the perfect melding or you lean into, I think, the way these things ricochet off each other." It seems a magical and superhero crossover is on the cards!

In response to another fan question about coping with anxiety, food, specifically soup, seemed to be an agreed upon mechanism! The caring answers of the whole panel showed what thought and experiences they put into their ALTRVERSE work.

There was a massive audience cheer for The Overnight Watch teaser trailer which premiered in that room weeks before its Halloween release, which we covered here. "There'll be plenty of more games in the future," Sean said, words that drifted over the crowd but come as a big announcement.

As well as the panel, worth a full watch, the rest of jacksepticeye's comic con antics were covered in advance here. The NYCC-exclusive merch is still available on Bad Egg's store at the time of writing. Sean talked more in depth on the highs and lows of the convention on his second channel:

It seems the ALTRVERSE has many more fans than the world realised. Hopefully that won't be the case going forward. NYCC was just the beginning for the talented creative team sharing their sprawling and yet relatable narrative with the world.