Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 217
LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED
Hello, all. Thank you for another week.
I played a festival in Lithuania on Friday. Here’s some footage from a previous year:
As you can guess, it leans metal and I wasn’t convinced anyone would enjoy us. My voice gave out fully and immediately, making it difficult to enjoy the moody treelined setting. But it seems like everyone else had a blast.
I’m in a AirBnB in Oslo at the moment. Reminds me of the Pacific Northwest. I appreciate all the green, but I could do for some warm sun.
Hit a great comic book shop called Outworld. It does the whole spectrum of nerd interest. Those shops are usually compromised. A jack of all trades is a master of none, etc. But I found the selection superior, especially manga.
But whoa-boy, the prices in this country are prohibitive. I spent entirely too much on trashy manga. Reviews to come.
YOUR WEEKLY STRINGER NEWS
I’ve been so encouraged by the people telling me they’ve picked up STRINGER. Paul, Wallace, and I don’t need the book to be an overnight success. But we do need to work our way through the printing. So keep chipping away, everyone. Pick up a copy wherever you can. I’m usually a ‘hit the comic store’ guy, but many of you are trade readers who order from Amazon and this time- that’s fine. Any which way you can grab this one, do it.
Photo courtesy of a satisfied customer.
WHAT COMIC NEWS?
I’ve been traveling, so I have no idea what’s going on in comics news. Presumably nothing. Everyone seems preoccupied with the WGA, and now SAG, strike. Things are heating up. A few quotes made it to press about the studios’ plan. Just what you’d guess: starve’m out. Outlast the writers’ ability to feed their families and then hand them a bum deal they can’t refuse.
People are pantomiming outrage, but what did they think a refusal to negotiate was? It’s not like giving the WGA members “time to think about it” was done outta consideration. It’s “your bank accounts will run dry, your spouses will leave you, and you’ll be left without a home, struggling with child support.” What else could it be?
To the few Hollywood people who read this, please, stop invoking the immorality of the thing. You can’t shame an executive making $20M. Think about it. You couldn’t be shamed if you were making that money.
Instead, just keep it relevant to American labor of every stripe: “The boss wants all the money. He can’t do the job without us. And because he can’t do the job without us, we’re gonna get more from him.” Get the money because you can. Not because it’s ‘right.’ ‘Right’ is a slippery concept. You’d be better off embracing the right of might and saying “we’re taking money because we want it.” We’d all understand.
I want the WGA to win because I’m a writer. I may never join that particular organization, but there’s still an element of self-interest. I do not care about the moral preening. And I don’t think the majority of Americans do either. Get the money for your families. Don’t confuse the issue talking about some other guy’s money.
And good luck.
JUST A THOUGHT ON UPSETTING PEOPLE
I’m seeing ‘censorship’ become the topic in comics, at least for a day. Maybe inspired by some of the library book bannings, etc.
I just wanted to reiterate that corporate censorship is censorship. Anyone who tells you the word only applies to government’s enforcement of laws is being intentionally obtuse and repeating things they read on Twitter.
The tactics by which you fight these strains is arguably different, but the disease is the same. If you believe censorship as a concept is narrowly restricted to laws, here’s a simple question: do you consider your ability to use banks a right? Tricky question. But I can answer it for you. Yes, you do. I have very few absolute libertarians in my readership. Most of you just want normal lives and normal lives require banks.
And, as we’ve seen, denying someone payment processing is the logical endpoint of corporate censorship. If the state has a monopoly on violence, then tech has a monopoly on the means by which you feed and house yourself.
If you really wish to be an anti-censorship advocate (careful not to say “free speech” as that phrase has been politicized and would require you to explain yourself to Twitter friends), then try making something worth censoring! Be a stress test!
Put yourself to the task. Create work that will get you yelled at. Just yelled at. Consider it training wheels towards the goal of legitimately challenging institutional power. Anything else is just a song and dance, wouldn’t you say?
MEDIA RECAP
I watched a ton of movies on my 35-hour air travel. Never caught BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF before. It’s very Euro comics and very action manga. Few movie comparisons jump to mind.
No idea what the actual story was, but it pulled off the vibe with aplomb. A bit long, but I was never bored.
OTHER FLYING THINGS
We’ll take a break from our usual BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT to talk HAWKWORLD. Not the well-remembered Tim Truman mini, but the really strange and uneven Ostrander, Truman, and Nolan series that followed.
This series is a charming pile of crap. It’s the wildest of sci-fi while leaning fully into cop-precinct-ensemble tropes. [The movie Alien Nation came out the year before, so maybe there was just something in the water.]
It goes from “this wouldn’t fly today” to “this is more interesting than most books today.”
There’s some 1980s cliches that creators would avoid in 2023. The page above features gang members doing scummy gang member stuff. I read it and thought “wonder if anyone would write this in current year?” In real life we know gangs are overwhelmingly intra-race organizations (white gangs; black gangs; hispanic gangs; etc), but in comics it’s become important to portray gangs as multicultural. This is to circumvent accusations of racism. It breaks immersion but keeps your head off the chopping block. It’s a goofy performance we all do. But it wasn’t a concern in 1989. At least to the HAWKWORLD team.
HAWKWORLD is more political (or perhaps philosophical) than the titles advertising themselves as such in 2023. It ranges from critique of the justice system to big ideas like the social contract. Sometimes at the same time. The thoughts are not complex but they are present. It feels like someone had an actual interest in the topics rather than a checklist to go down.
The thrust, at least to this point in the story, seems to be the Hawkman and Hawkwoman embracing or rejecting aspects of western culture. They are shifting, in their character-specific ways, to a less authoritarian mindset and questioning everything they’ve known. The Berlin wall was falling as these issues were written, so, again, maybe something was in the water.
I’m not sure I’m loving HAWKWORLD as I make my way through it, but I’m reasonably sure I’ll be glad I did it. And as a moment captured in art, it’s fascinating.
AND ON THAT NOTE
Goodbye. Hope everyone has a great week. Remember, LEADED GASOLINE issue 4 is still available for order. And in the meantime, make sure you pick up issue one at your local shop! And issue two when it arrives! And issue three shortly thereafter!
Stay healthy and become wealthy. Best to everyone. Do for self.