Dread the Hall H / Line Capped - page 1 (Jimmy Kucaj)

I first met Jimmy Kucaj at Heroes Con in 2024 when I was strolling through artist's alley and his open portfolio caught my eye. I'm generally someone who can always find something positive to say about any young artist's work, but as I was leafing through the examples he had brought, it quickly turned from the normal "I like what you did in this one panel" type things into "wow, you're talented, I mean like really talented". He had a great sense of composition, both for individual panels and pages as a whole, and a knack for drawing a wide variety of characters (including children, which is one of those things that even experienced cartoonists sometimes struggle with).

I ended up buying a page from a pitch story he had done, and as I was making plans for Heroes this year, Jimmy's table was on my list of ones to visit.

Since I'd first met him in 2024, he has landed two gigs with Image: a story in the holiday-themed horror anthology "Dread the Halls", released last Christmas, and a second story in this summer's follow-up "Dread the Hall H", another horror anthology, this time with the setting being San Diego Comic Con.

With SDCC having come to a close, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share this one. It's the opening page from Jimmy's story in the book, "Line Capped". Although I've never attended the show, I think he did a great job of capturing the crowds and barely controlled chaos of modern conventions. And I love how he managed to nail the expressions of the main characters in the bottom panel, even in a minimal amount of space.

Not only is he an incredible artist, Jimmy is as friendly and personable as he is talented. He is one to keep an eye on and I hope he continues to see opportunities with the big publishers.