ISBN 978-1-0696926-0-3
6x9 inches / black and white / 92 pages / $20
Spring 2026 / North American rights
From writer Dino Caruso comes the story of a recent graduate’s first social worker job and all the characters he meets along the way. Told in four parts, it’s illustrated by
Cecilia Latella, Joseph Velasquez, Lucas Benedine, and Andre Belusci with tones by Paul Little and letters/cover art by Shawn Daley (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Usagi Yojimbo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
Dino Caruso is a comic book writer from Hamilton, Ontario, where he lives with his wife and two boys. His comics have been published by Caliber Comics, Markosia, Antarctic Press and others. He's had many short comics appear in anthologies from a variety of publishers.
dinocaruso.ca
From the author -
I started writing the script for this story about twenty years ago. It was one of the first long-form projects I had ever undertaken. That original version bears little resemblance to the current one, but the bones were there if you looked closely enough. Once I had gotten the script into fighting shape, I set about finding an artist. I was immediately drawn to Cecilia's fantastic storytelling and illustrating skills. She completed the first twenty pages and they were amazing, but then, for a variety of reasons, the project stalled, circumstances changed, and the whole thing lay dormant for a considerable amount of time. When I was ready to continue, my understanding of the story had changed, and I had a thought to split it into four distinct chapters, each representing a slightly different narrative vibe for the main character, Drummond. I thought that a different artist for each chapter would convey that different vibe really effectively. I was super fortunate to find three more outstanding collaborators in Joseph, Lucas and André.
Having Paul and Shawn's gray-tones and lettering appear throughout the entire book helps keep a consistent look, while still having that sense of differentiation in each chapter.
The creation of this book took a long time, and obviously I would have liked to have completed it sooner in my life. But having said that, I feel like the timing of its completion is really interesting because I find myself approaching an interesting transition in my life, and this story is all about transitions and how the main character deals with them (rightly or wrongly). One of the first things that he says in the book is "What the hell am I supposed to do now?" Even thought I'm a lot older than he is, I still find myself asking the same question.
This is a fiction story, but a few of the events hew relatively closely to things that actually happened to me. I hope that anyone reading
UNDERPINNINGS is able to relate, make some connections, and find some truth of their own within its pages.
