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Donny Cates hasn't had a new comic book on shelves in nearly two years. It's not because he didn't want to. It's not because he hasn't been coming up with ideas. It's because in early 2023, he almost died - twice. What happened before, during, and after is something that has been reported, misreported, gossiped about, and passed around as Cates himself has come out the other side of it.

Although he hasn't written a new, published comic since the culmination of those tragic events, Cates has slowly been re-emerging in his public, professional life. He's made appearances at over six comic conventions since it all unfolded, and I myself spoke to him at the most recent Comic-Con International: San Diego and New York Comic Con. With the distance of time and space between what happened and where we are now, Popverse caught up with Donny Cates in April at Chicago's C2E2 to talk about several things, including what happened and how he's doing, if he was up for it.

And he was.

During the conversation, Cates tells us his speech is "still really bad" and his hands "totally shake" when he sits down to write, but what we found in our hour-plus discussion at his Artist Alley table at C2E2 2025 was someone who has been through a lot, has learned a lot, and has a lot more he wants to do in comics.

To relax Donny Cates' restless flight

In early 2023, Cates was involved in a near-fatal car accident when an Uber he was riding in was hit from behind by a truck. The writer was in the backseat with his laptop open, and then, near-instantly, his head was plunged forcefully not only into his open laptop, where he's written some of his best work, but also the middle console of the car he was riding in. At the same time, his car was then rammed into a vehicle ahead of them.

"Yeah, it was a rough road," Cates tells Popverse's Dave Buesing. "For me, I teleported six months after it happened."

Cates woke up in a hospital ER with a shattered orbital socket amongst other injuries, and internal bleeding in his brain - which, as someone myself who experienced a similar accident in September 2022 (brain bleeding and all), is traumatizing. My injury wasn't nearly as severe as Cates's, and injuries caused by the accident led to other issues.

"I got a subdural hematoma in my brain. My brain swelled up so much that it made my spine separate; I got an infection in my spine, and they had to operate on that," Cates says. "And for the better part of the month, I reset my memory every day."

While some reported that Cates was "missing six months of his life,"  Cates says that's "not true" and is an oversimplification of the serious issues he was (and is) dealing with.

"For about six months, I lost like every day, and had to reset the next day," Cates tells Popverse. "And my memory is still dog shit to this day. It's fun to read my own books and be surprised by them."

The books of his he was reading were not only his published comic books, but also his scripts and pitches for various unpublished books for Marvel, Image Comics, and others. On one hand, he was reading what he had created with relatively fresh eyes, but on the other hand, he was also returning to common tasks and intrinsic facts of his life he could no longer remember - and had to relearn.

"But that's been a struggle. Everything’s been rough. Re-learning things like tying my shoes, like who my parents are, their names," says Cates. "I was also going through a divorce, so waking up every day and learning I was divorced. I had a lot of help. My girlfriend Amy was there every day. She was wonderful."

The spirit of comics (or Lighted streets on quiet nights)

While it wasn't the only personal issue he was dealing with, according to Cates, the car accident served as an inflection point into the troubles he was going through - a culmination that, as he came out the other side and out of the hospital doors, he had a way forward. In some ways, it was a blank slate. For us comic fans, you could equate it to a reboot of a fan-favorite comic, and like that, Cates had fans and allies - personally and professionally - to help him find Donny Cates again.

"But it put everything on hold. I lost all the books I was on, and just gotta restart," says the writer. "Luckily, the industry was wonderful. It was very sweet. I could get the time I needed."

"It's humbling," Cates tells us as we do this interview on the showfloor of Chicago's C2E2 2025 amidst fans lining up and waiting (patiently) to meet him. "It's also very, very heartwarming to see the outpouring of love from the fans. Everyone's been very kind, and it's good to see that they haven't gone anywhere. Because I got canceled by gravity."

Over the past year, Cates has slowly re-emerged in the comics scene with convention appearances, participating in the online community, and, of course, writing comics that haven't been announced yet. But with news of his accident being reported (and misreported) by some, and unattributed rumors of other issues being propagated by certain outlets, Cates says that re-engaging with fans with the facts, speculation, and conjecture about what he's been going through has put him metaphorically back in that accident, back in that hospital bed, and back into his traumas.

"It's rough because their experience is so different than mine," Cates says, referring to those who come up to him as his personal life became public news and gossip. "I sit and I talk to all of those that come, and for them it's their first or only opportunity to talk to me. So everyone likes to ask me about the accident. And they’re being very sweet. But it is something that I have to relive all day, every day."

"It's weird when things that happen to you become public," the writer continues. "I didn't get into this industry to get famous. I wanted to make comics. So, like, this idea that my personal life, my divorce, that was in the news and stuff… It's very fucking weird. It's a very weird experience walking into a place you've spent your entire life. Comic cons. I've been doing this since I was 10. And you walk in here and don't know what people know about your personal life and stuff, it's very weird."

While their have been nuggets of truth in some of the reporting about his personal life over his past few years, there's been some things we'd call "gross" and Cates diplomatically calls "a lot of that shit."

"I've heard so many fucking things about what I did or what I didn't do. And some people think I'm way cooler than I am," says Cates. "That I was driving the car running from cops, or I crashed a boat, or that I was shooting heroin under a bridge, and worshipping Satan. I was like, 'Man, I wish, that sounds fucking rad.' I got hit on an exit ramp and went to sleep. It's not that cool."

Prior to the accident, Cates made a surprise, fourth-wall-breaking appearance in his creator-owned series Crossover at Image Comics with Geoff Shaw. While that was within his control and the boundaries he set between his personal life and his professional one, the facts, rumors, and gossip about his accident, his marriage, and other details became the basis for reporting led to that bled into casual conversations with fans.

"But it is a weird thing that people feel comfortable casually walking up to you and saying, 'How's your rehab going?' 'It's fine, thanks," Cates admits. "In a way, you’d want the lowest part of their life to be, not the most public in the world, but I guess that's the price you pay for writing Venom."

When asked if there was anything particular he wanted to correct in the 'record' that is the internet, Cates says this:

"I didn't crash the fucking boat. And I'm not shooting heroin. And what else did I read? I didn’t get into a fight with the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel about comics," says Cates. "My ex-wife didn't put a curse on me. That's out there. We're all friendly. She's fine. I'm fine. I guess the thing I want them to know is I'm far less interesting than they actually think I am."

"Or I’m lying.  And I'm shooting heroin on a boat and worshipping Satan," says Cates with a laugh.

In between the bright lights & the far unlit unknown

"At the height of all that stuff with Marvel and everything, I was very well off financially, and, with divorces and hospital bills, that tends to not be the case," says Cates. "I never cared about money. I spent it on friends. I do it for the memories. You do it for experiences."

Cates says that after he woke up from the accident and was able to have lucid, frank thoughts about his life, he began to "realize that the money and those memories are gone."

"At my highest point, I was writing eight ongoing series. It was a script due every two days. I can't fathom doing four right now," Cates says. "It's a symptom of time and age, too. I’m not the young ingenue of comics anymore. I'm not the bad boy of comics anymore. I'm 40! Like, how old is this industry that I was the cool young kid?"

"It is surreal to the point of: is this a simulation? You have to find different ways of perceiving and enjoying life."

As part of his healing process, Cates has been participating in sound therapy. You can look up the clinical definition of it, but for Cates who has an intense connection to rock music and some definite skill when it comes to drumming, it's connecting and reconnecting memories based on specific bands. For us here during C2E2 2025 in Chicago, it was the band Rush.

"And like this trip right now, I pick a band and listen to nothing but that band, okay. And so when I listen to that music later – Rush – I’ll be taken to the Chicago thing," says Cates. "'Subdivisions' is one of the best ones ever. Subdivision. Don't ever read [Neal Peart, the drummer/lyricist for Rush]'s novel, though. He wrote a book called Ghost Rider. It was after his whole family died. It's real dark."

When asked what the biggest thing he's learned after all of this, Cates says it's about being present.

"Being in the moment. Learning to love what you have, being grateful for things," says Cates. "If you know that, like right now, what I'm doing with you, I will probably 99% have no recollection of having talked to you or any of the words I said. So I'll have to find a new way to exist in every moment."

 You can read Popverse's full interview with Donny Cates here.

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.