Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 265
Wow. Lot's Of Dumb Bullshit, Huh?
GLAD I WAITED?
Happy 4th of July if you celebrate it. Or happy nondescript day off of work, if you don’t. Or happy wishing on the destruction of the American Empire, if that’s where your head’s at.
You see how easy it is to not care about other people’s views on topics like that? Go grill some veggie dogs.
I am trying to right the ship on the supposed Sunday schedule of this newsletter, but maybe it’s fortunate I fell behind this week. A lot going on, though I’m not sure any of it is a joy to ‘report’ on.
Well, let’s do it.
FIRST, SOME BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Lorenzo, co-creator of LEADED GASOLINE, and I are putting together something special. We’re sorting out exactly what to do with it once special thing is complete, but I thought it might be worthwhile to keep readers of this newsletter informed throughout. A behind-the-scenes on the creation of a comic, warts and all.
We had been working on a folk-horror title for a month before a movie with a very similar concept was announced. This never means you can’t do a thing, but sometimes it means you shouldn’t do a thing. Or you should at least wait until the dust clears.
So, we fell back to where my brain exists full-time at the moment. And that’s the exploitation genre. I think I’m having an uncontrolled reaction to the stifling creative climate of the past few years and just wanna do titles where there is good and bad, but both are pulled out to sea by larger forces, like the city or a conspiracy or random violence.
So, we started talking about a title that mixed ELEKTRA LIVES AGAIN and Ms. 45. A murder-revenge story set someplace cold with hot-blooded characters shooting each other. We’ve arrived at something that will be a joy to write. Here’s a couple concept pieces we’re dialing in.
I really love comic books. I know that’s prolly obvious, but it bears repeating. What one or two men can accomplish is absurd. It’s from nothing to something in an unmolested process that can bring out the best in all parties.
SHELVE YOUR FEELINGS FOR A SECOND
Neil Gaiman has been accused of sexual assault.
Two women. One’s claim is from the early 00s, and the other is from a few years ago.
If you care, go read what’s available about it. I’ll check back in on the actual allegations after all(ha!) the facts have been made public. In the meantime, I’m more interested in the public’s response to this.
The typical “this is disgusting, he should burn in hell, no, I haven’t looked into the facts at all, but he should die” content could be found, certainly. But it was counterbalanced with a whole vein of cope I’d never seen before.
“If this happened I am horrified. But this news outlet has a transphobe on the payroll, so I am in ‘wait and see’ mode and won’t pass judgement until we learn more.”
Over and over.
“This news is terrible, if true. But we have to remember that not every source can be trusted, and I see the podcast about this has ads every 20min and that feels like they’re just trying to make money off this. I don’t trust it yet.”
Have you ever seen such a thing? Where are my #METOO warriors now? How is this case any different than the 50 others that these same people have jumped to judgement on?
Oh, it’s because Gaiman is ‘just a sweet lil thing’ with an adorably nonthreatening British accent and a predilection towards meaningless platitudes? It’s because you like this guy and not the other guys?
Got it.
Now what about me? Because, unlike these people, I have a low view of Gaiman. I think he’s a pretentious fraud whose best work was 35 years ago now in the business of selling easy answers. So what am I to think? If he’s ‘innocent’ to people that like him, then what’s he to me?
In music I’ve seen maybe 30 false allegations play out. How someone survives or doesn’t usually boils down to the same shit we’re seeing here. Do people like you?
Ugly, stupid, bullshit. I’ll ‘wait for the facts.’ But not in the way where I’m holding my breath hoping my hero isn’t an asshole. Rather, just as an adult with a brain in my head.
THE BANK OF JIM LEE
Artist-turned-executive Jim Lee was in the news this week. Apparently his commission rates were put into the world and people pretended to be mad and then other people pretended to be mad at the people pretending to be mad.
The guy asks a lot for his art. Commissions are in the 5-figures.
Do I really need to comment on this? The market decides. The man could set his commissions at 9-figure numbers and it’s entirely up to him and those willing to pay it. Nothing to discuss. Nothing to be angry about.
Though, I gotta say, I did find it funny that some of the artists identifying as avowed socialists in my feed became hyper-capitalists in their defense of Lee’s prices. Market forces are great when we’re the tycoons, huh?
EXTREMISTS OR EXTREMELY TEDIOUS?
Comic writer Joshua Dysart got some Twitter conservatives mad this week when he drunkenly (his words) suggested that while he doesn’t think it’s a good outcome he has to imagine marginalized people will employ political violence soon.
I don’t have an American flag in my social media handles, I’m not triggered by high-school punk band level discourse, and I don’t think a drunk comic creator can instigate violence. I just found his whole spiel part of the same tired discourse I can’t seem to escape lately. Which is, “doom.”
Everything is the end of democracy. The end of civil liberties. The end of days.
And, regardless of if I believe that or not, I don’t believe the people telling me that believe it. Look at our body politic’s reaction to these existential threats. We allow unelectable candidates from broken parties while we bitch online. The Cuban Revolution, this is not.
I just spent 12 days in Europe, during which time I was pulled into political conversations of every stripe. Europeans love to wag their finger at Americans, even as they freely admit their problems are of the same variety and sometimes greater extreme. During one of these talks I had a bit of a realization about myself and my ‘politics’ such as they are.
While being lectured about the homeless problem in the US, I asked “yes, agreed. Very terrible. What should we do?” And got the reply, “these people need homes. You should provide them homes.” To which I said, “makes sense. How though?”
And I think this next bit will stick with me for awhile. From the other party, I got, “I don’t know, that’s the politicians’ job.” And who can disagree? That is their job.
However, they are incapable of doing that job. Demonstrably. And I don’t find any reason to believe there are more capable people willing to enter public service. So, put plainly, if I don’t know, and I’m smarter than these people, then why do I expect more for my tax dollars? Why should I believe that paying these people, or overpaying them, means good ideas will suddenly enter their empty heads? So all the “they should figure it out” and “that’s their job” talk is ultimately just throwing pennies into a fountain. There’s no return on this investment. No reward for this trust.
And the Dysarts of the world, who believe it in the other direction, where it’s not the politicians’ job to effect change but the citizenry, are just throwing their pennies into a different fountain.
If you’re reading this, you’re likely smarter than most congresspeople and perhaps a few Supreme Court judges. Have you ever had a boss who was dumber than you? How did that go?
CORPORATE PRODUCT = CORPORATE PRODUCT
It’s nice to see it in plain language.
I tend to still see DC as allowing more creative freedom than Marvel, but perhaps that’s just me hoping against hope. I know this is forbidden from the lips of mainstream creators and we’re all supposed to wait until we’re unemployable to utter it, but we need a hard reset at these publishers. An editorial overhaul and managerial come-to-Jesus about why comic readers actually buy comics. Please attend to it, publishers. Gutlessness brings nothing to the table.
OH THE HARD RESET IS INCOMING?
That’s what Dan Buckley of Marvel Comics promises.
But based on his quotes in the piece above, he’s offering nothing of substance. If you think a trendline that starts a decade before the pandemic can be explained as a pandemic problem, you’re lost. Unfortunately, I expect some real cane toad solutions to our beetle problem.
SOME VIDEOS THIS WEEK
When my future wife and I were set to travel Cambodia a few years ago, I went down a Youtube hole on the subject. I watched the surface tourist stuff, then the accounts of expats, then the fringe guys and weirdos.
One of the accounts I stumbled over was Steady Eddy’s Travels, though I don’t remember if it had that name at the time. Eddy was a congenial old fella who loved to see new places, have a pint, and pay to have sex with 40-year-old hostesses. He was so good-natured that his comments section had none of the creepiness you’d anticipate. And when Eddy was informed he was unknowingly part of a culture of western men traveling to Southeast Asia for sex tourism, he was aghast. In his view he was just living his life, having some fun on Youtube, and didn’t realize there was anything untoward about his lifestyle.
I found him so unassuming and benign that I couldn’t but help enjoy his content. He struck me as the type of near-retiree state worker I’ve met a thousand times in Albany, but with a comforting English accent.
Now I can’t pretend I watched every video of his the past few years, but he would regularly appear in my suggesteds and if the video indicated he was someplace I thought was interesting, he’d have my eyes and ears for a few minutes. Comforting to know this geezer was still traveling the world, doing his thing.
But it seems Eddy is having a hard go at the moment. And I found this video moving in whatever strange parasocial way. There’s some illness or cancer waiting for all of us, and I get in my feelings when I see some harmless old weirdo going through it.
Based on the comments, a lotta people found themselves suggested the following video. I don’t know why I’d be a target for such a thing. I enjoy science-fiction, but I’m not confident I ever search bar that phrase. And outside of the Steady Eddy video above, I’m not very into sad news about strangers. But, for whatever reason, this fell into my feed:
Watch if you’d like to have a human moment from a total stranger that brings you sadness.
Another guy who has attacked my feed, albeit with some English whimsy rather than profound tragedy, is this guy:
Like if Wallace & Gromit were expats living in Ohio.
Here’s a new one from me about the imaginary stakes some creators are operating under and how others are justifiably anxious about how their work can be received:
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
Asedio is a Spanish thriller where a slightly crooked cop is trapped in a tenement building with very crooked cops.
I love these tight spaces and contained ideas. The Raid or Dredd are good examples of “just put me someplace small with tons of conflict and let it play out.”
The film itself falls apart under the weight of its heavy-handed message about exploited migrants and poor immigrants. Not that the message is bad (it’s art, what message could be bad?) or that the setting/story/tone doesn’t work in concert with the message. But characters act dumber than needed to ensure we understand the ‘point’ of the thing. Like a slasher movie with too much ideological motivation. “Wait, why is she going that way?”
However, I thought the movie was worth watching for how deeply it is in love with the lead’s face. Natalia de Molina has strong features. And if she’s beautiful in every other role she’s ever played, and beautiful in real life, that quality is not sold in the same fashion in this film. The movie takes place in a lotta hallways and the shots are often tight to the characters’ faces. Her face, 90% of the time. And this really spoke to me. The way her nose cut hard shadows at all times. The way her skin looked gold in many frames. It all just brought me in and made me consider the film as a moving image rather than a story. It fit well with what I was discussing here a few weeks ago about putting character faces up front in comics. Sell the closeness with the imaginary person.
Again, not a great movie. Too didactic for its own story health. But still something you could enjoy. I think I enjoyed it.
WELL, THAT’S ENOUGH
Hope you have a happy and productive week. Go for a walk. Do for self.