DO NOT SIEGE WALLED CITIES - 260

Last of the V8 Interceptors

CHICKEN RUN

Hello, readers.

I’m still in Texas and one of the chickens has died. I feel like Edward Munny in Unforgiven. I can hear a child tell me, “three more hogs got the fever, Pa!”

(Hobby) farming ain’t easy. RIP Penguin the Chicken.

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WHERE TO START THIS WEEK?

First, did you know there’s a new series from ███████?

I didn’t. And I’m open to the idea that’s a failure on my part, but I think it more likely that the balkanized social media landscape and distributor shakeup and gun-shy recession-bunkering retail has made it hard to keep up. Discord; Twitter; Instagram; BlueSky (if you’re tryna prove a point). Am I supposed to be on all these, all the time? Some people are, but I don’t think they’re the ones actually reading books. So how am I to find new work from people whose WORK I’ve followed for decades? I now have to follow their SOCIALS as well? Does ███████ have socials?

This feels like the streaming thing. “Look how many choices of services you have!” But I don’t care about the streamer, I care ease of finding the movie I’d like to watch. Every step you put between me and that is a chance I’ll divert my attention.

If this was a particularly healthy moment in comics sales, I wouldn’t think anything about not knowing a new title from a classic creator. I’d be a shelf shopper, and experience the joy of every week tripping over books I didn’t know were coming out. But as retailers are not taking chances at the moment. Shelf copies aren’t a thing in many stores.

UPDATE: I’ve gone back and redacted the name of the comic and the creator, because in a very embarrassing turn, this book came out in DECEMBER. So not only did I not hear about it, I am a half-year late to hearing about it and I ONLY heard about it because I was at a shop that had it mixed into the new books. So, it proves my point, but also I feel silly.

And I still don’t know where to hear about new books.

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

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LAW OF UNINTENDED(?) CONSEQUENCES

Or maybe there’s another term for what I’m talking about. This is less “you didn’t account for downstream impact” and more “arriving at the exact opposite of your stated goal.”

I don’t think anyone would consider me a ‘man of the left’ because there’s a specific economics that comes with that. But by any standard, I’m a progressive. So, why then, do I hate media that sells me progressive ideas?

Because I’m not a fucking child, or a rube, or in search of beliefs, and I don’t need to be ‘sold’ anything.

Recent data on NPR listenership has revealed the media organization’s efforts at diversity coverage has backfired spectacularly. It was always a white-leaning audience, but is now WHITE white. And 20M fewer than it was a few years ago.

Another example would be the eroding support for Democrats among minorities. The push to make every conversation identity-focused did not have the intended consequence of bringing in more people of color to the party. Instead, people of color largely said, “we get it. Now can we talk about the economy?” [Also, when you pretend to care about people, you find yourself in sticky situations when those same people learn you don’t. Quite a gamble.]

And so on.

The latest is Ubisoft featuring a black samurai in their new Assassin’s Creed game. As many have pointed out, a game about a black samurai would not have raised an eyebrow in 2010. Maybe a few diehard racists would have something to say, but nobody who matters would care. Now, because people feel truly battered by ‘good intentions,’ that same announcement was met with eyerolls and ridicule. Because the choice doesn’t feel organic anymore. And we’re all quite tired of ‘studio notes.’

You’re getting further from the goal each time. Which makes me wonder if maybe your goal isn’t what you say it is.

I thought this guy put it better than I could.

Who is the dialogue in the screencaps above written for?

You get nods or boos, but never a breakthrough. Never a “it gave me something to think about.” Literally ever. Which means you’re not writing to generate joy and you’re not writing to make someone think. You’re typing.

The on-the-nose nature of this whole moment, the sincerity-when-it-suits-us-and-memes-when-it-doesn’t thing, it all fucking SUUUUUUUCKS. I think that’s what we’re not dialing into when we see a dude with a wall of action figures deride something as ‘woke.’ Tune out that noise and focus on the “wait, this fucking SUUUUUUUCKS.”

This is on my mind because I was listening to a post-mortem on the game Redfall, which came from well-respected developers but bricked completely and tarnished a whole legacy. I had never played the game. In this retrospective, it explained the central conceit is that the vampires are hyper-capitalists who own a pharma company.

Holy shit.

Read that again.

It’s ass. It’s lazy, tired, ass. But there’s a million ways to save it.

And none of them are in the story. If the game had been exciting and fulfilling, the simple-minded NFG story would get a pass. But the game was bad and it had no vibe, so now we have a clear-eyed look at the story. And THAT’S the commentary? Vampires = rich people?????????

I love tropes. And am happy dancing through cliche. But teenager-level didacticism? Fuck off.

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PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR THE GREATEST HATER

I love Brendan McCarthy.

This man co-wrote Fury Road (though, technically, he drew it).

You don’t get this type of withering, terminally-unimpressed approach to topics you’re supposed to be magnanimous about unless you are British AND an acid-casualty. The only competition is Julian Cope.

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THE HUNT FOR MANGAKA X

So I won’t give the man’s name yet, but I’ve been trying for a couple months to get a specific mangaka to draw a variant for an upcoming book. And for a long while I was left on read, so to speak.

But enough pokes later, I got the message I assumed: “brother, I don’t speak english so I can’t really do business with you.” And now we’re getting someplace. Because if language is our only barrier, I’ll call Japanese friends and get this sorted.

I am hopeful this works out. This man has done titles I really love and more than that is just an absolutely perfect fit for the title we’re doing. I am so fixated at the moment I’m tryna find the licensor to allow me to publish his old works in the US.

And it occurred to me while I was perseverating on how to make this all happen that I NEED PROJECTS. I called my wife and said, “any project you ever wanna do, let me know and I will do everything to make it happen.” Because projects are all there is. I don’t think about death very much. Don’t think about God, the afterlife, or the value of our time here very much. I don’t feel depressed. My moments of self-pity are seconds long. And that’s because I always have something I’m tryna finish. Something I think is so cool it needs to be done.

And this is, sadly, different than thinking about what could make so much money it needs to be done. But, perhaps we’ll see some overlap sooner than later.

Everyone hit your Sunday prayers for this artist agreeing to do some covers for the team. I think you’ll all love them and, if not, I will love them enough for everyone.

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MEDIA CONSUMPTION FOR THE WEEK

Comics first. VERMILLION, a one-shot short story by Brao published by Behemoth is a total throwback. It’s from an era where a publisher could go to press with something edgy and personal and b&w (though this is b&w&red) and still perhaps see a tiny return on that investment.

It’s an exploration of sexual assault and the feelings one carries around after. It’s drawn in a amateur-influenced (you’d know what I mean if you saw it) style and told in captions that are mostly Slipknot lyrics.

Simply put, it’s not like other books on shelves.

So, is it good? Well, I’m not sure that’s fully the point. And I don’t say that as a copout. It’s merely very PERSONAL and good or bad is almost immaterial. I found it worthwhile and interesting and that was enough for me.

Picked up CREATING COPRA with great anticipation. Like everyone in comics, I am very impressed by Michel Fiffe and I was interested to hear what he had to say on the topic of self-publishing.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t have as much to say as I would like to read.

The book is interesting, perhaps, for diehard fans of COPRA. But there is nothing approaching a how-to here. The overview may be helpful to some, but I think in his effort to not include info that will age poorly, he left both the nuts and the bolts outta this one. Still, fans should pick it up for the process.

Now onto movies. I am slowly getting through Destroyer, a post-True Detective gritty thriller starring Nicole Kidman in uglifying makeup. It’s raw and I like that, but I can’t help but feel like it chased a moment to slightly off-putting effect. I like what it’s going for so I’ll be a fan if the ending lands.

And now Furiosa.

I just wanna say, I hate film people. They make me puke the way they all wanna be critics. They all wanna capture a cultural moment in their hands as though it will turn to gold. On Thursday I saw a tweet from a… critic?… who said, “oh. Uh. Just saw Furiosa. Ok, well. Yeah. Moving on.” And we knew what that was. A scumbag. A person so desperate to be the first one with a ‘take’ that they their brain didn’t even process what they watched. Only their twitter fingers. This guy SO wanted people to ask, “oh no! What was wrong with it??” so he could be the first to dish whatever bullshit he pretended to find wrong with it.

I was skeptical of Furiosa going in because the trailers were terrible. They looked like a Resident Evil movie. Purely computer-made. And that was a little heartbreaking after Fury Road.

But I’m happy to report that while the movie was less ‘real feeling’ than Fury Road, the effects were so stylized that you just ride with the computer shit. [I am aware Fury Road had plenty computer-assisted effects, thank you.]

I enjoyed my time in the theater, but didn’t get the full scope of my feelings until this morning. Walking around a food coop, I suddenly got emotional about it. The movie was so full an effort that any quibbles I have with the storytelling are moot. It was so complete that anything I say is whispering into its armpit. When critics talk about auteurs, they tend to hover over less ambitious work. Small films mostly. And for good reason. Once you’re spending $200M, it’s unlikely you get the type of creative latitude an auteur would require. But Miller does.

Miller’s stories have so many stutters. I find it interesting. Characters leave, pause, and return. They move in one direction fruitlessly and come back. It’s weirdly too much like real life for me at times. The fantasy of ‘go, go, go’ isn’t where Miller lives. Everyone is going back and forth until one of those poles explodes and then there’s a new back and forth. I don’t know what it ‘means’ but I am struck by it in most of his films.

The movie was good.

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PEACE OUT, WEEK!

Alright, everyone. Hope you get some stuff done this week. If you’re depressed, get a project. Do for self.