Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 270
Are Ya Winning, Son?
HELLO FROM PALM DESERT
On vacation with the wife. Watching Tubi and eating vegan cubano sandwiches. Best life. Hope you’re doing well. Let’s get to it.
NON-COMICS PATRICK NEWS
New single off the new Drug Church record dropped today. Check it out.
A LIL TREAT
A piece of a piece from Marc Schoenbach.
Coming soon.
WHEN THEY WANT YOU TO WIN
A friend whose taste I trust got a preview of an upcoming series. His review: “art is fine, but there’s nothing there.” Review from critics who have also received the preview: “another hit! This book has it all! Adjective! Adjective! Adjective! Praise!”
Now, until I read it, I have no opinion. But I will say that nobody who works in comics couldn’t see this coming. And the reason for that is: it’s one of their guys we’re talking about here. Everyone knows which creators are in the good graces of critics and who, basically, can’t be. And everyone knows that if you do the right combination of public moves before a launch, you increase your chances of the book being lauded.
When I entered comics there was a lotta… what’s the term I’m looking for… palace intrigue, maybe? Lotsa dudes tryna out-maneuver each other for the spotlight, the consideration of editors, or goodwill among critics. Guys would wake up not tryna write the best comic they could, but one-up each other in the online ally game or glaze-an-editor competition. Maybe it’s still like that and I’m just too old or found a space in comics where I don’t have to think about it. Back then I didn’t engage, but I did watch. And my takeaway was it’s pretty ‘easy’ but a full-time gig.
The interesting part of the equation is how your work is read based on your signaling beforehand. The intent of your book matters more than the craft to many reviewers. But as there’s no way to determine intent, it’s based on what you chose to publicly back on social media five months prior. It’s ‘the conversation.’
Which brings us to a related topic…
WHEN THEY WANT YOU TO LOSE
Katy Perry can’t make anyone happy.
She’s a relic in some regards, perhaps downgraded to a remnant. She was a booby no-substance popstar of a certain era. Just a capable singer with a marketable look, really. I say this with little judgement, as that describes all pop music to me. So, yeah, someone who never had ‘it’ but also sold tens of millions of records. It happens.
She started to age out of the tongue-in-cheek-I’m-clearly-a-product pop thing and (being charitable here) may’ve developed as an artist. And that can work, see Madonna’s first three incarnations. But Perry went in a Hillary Clinton pink pussy hat women’s march direction and, for young people, felt like a devilish practitioner of ‘white feminism.’ She likely did not lose the 35-year-old fan who dances to ‘California Girls’ at weddings. But she did lose the kids and, with them, social media. And with social media, the critics.
This is a thing that doesn’t get discussed in a real way. Is it true that social media represents a small, possibly deranged, slice of the market? Yes. But does it capture critics and shape their reviews? Also, yes. And that’s how you lose the conversation. Critics fear being out of step. And so, you are made a laughing stock for doing the same thing you did to great success just a decade ago.
So now Perry’s trying to resuscitate her career, or more acutely, her relevance. And ain’t nobody hearing that shit. Kids have their own worthless pop ephemera now in the shape of Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Get the fuck out, grandma! If you stick around, god help you, the critics now have an Approved Target. Being mean about Chappell Roan won’t fly until she’s had her first flop or racism. But Perry? The crosshairs are glued to you, girl.
The point is, nobody wants her to win. Sometimes you can win if ONLY the powers that be want to crush you. It’s being reported that Tory Lanez just achieved a BILLION streams on a song with zero playlisting. He was one of the biggest figures in his genre when he was accused of shooting Meg The Stallion. Prior to that incident, he woulda been on so many playlists you could expect him to be omnipresent. But, unsympathetic figure that he became, he lost the media. And, under that pressure, lost the streaming platforms.
But people like his music. So, without any of the artificial enhancement he used to receive, he still won. But if his support was weaker among fans, the effort to keep him out woulda succeeded.
Perry is in that space now. The fans are shaky, social media is cruel, and the media is rooting for her failure. She can’t win.
And that’s how it goes. People who don’t realize they’re part of a mission will nevertheless embark on it. There’s no collusion in the criminal sense. Cultural voices just catch a vibe and follow it. And when they are against you, they are against you.
BACK TO COMIC BOOKS
The Point is that we can’t know if we’re being promoted the BEST books. Because so much of what goes into promotion isn’t about what you’ll eventually hold in your hands. It’s about wanting some people to win and others to lose. It happens in all mediums and markets, but comics are a small industry with luxury good pricing. Meaning, when you ignore online chatter and check out a streaming show, there’s little cost to you. Not so with comics. You may be hesitant to take a chance on 22 pages at $4.
I don’t have a solution here, I just think people who take news media at face value should consider how people in the business see it. Which is to say, we know it’s fake. When the review sites go crazy for a book, it’s usually being killed in the creator group chats. Is some of that haterism? Sure. But some of it is the acknowledgement that we ALL know how this goes, even the guys getting the attention know. Usually they know best!
We’ve all survived multiple ‘critical reappraisals’ of Moore and Miller. And each time the Tory Lanez rule is applied. People actually want Moore and Miller books. So even the most concerted effort to “well, actually, they were never good” them just does not work. It’s a bit like cancelling Morrissey. Music press hates him, but he shaped a few million people’s idea of ‘real music.’ So, good luck. But do you see how it applies broadly? Nothing you read should be assumed to have no agenda. And when everyone is being dismissive in the same current-moment fashion, maybe that is the agenda. To remove whoever, for whatever (possibly forgotten) reason.
Just something to think about.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER
I see so many guys who are just confused about what it is. You’re not getting called by Marvel or DC. Spend less time thinking about Gorilla Grod and more time thinking about things you can own in the literal sense, and the more meaningful sense of “make lasting decisions.”
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
You can tell I’m traveling with my wife, because there’s very few forces on this world that could get me to watch a television series.
But we did. A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder was fun British youth stuff. I’m not entirely sure who the intended audience was, but I made it to the end and that’s something. The final reveal went VERY hammy, but up to that point the performances carried me through. I’ll never understand the British love of dance parties. When I think of the people of the UK, the first image that comes in my mind is dewy faces and large pupils. And definitely wearing something stupid.
In other media that is sorta trash sorta fun, we’ve got what I suppose is now a streaming classic. I think it was during the pandemic I read that The Snowman was the most-watched thing on Netflix whatever month. And how it was a bit perplexing because it wasn’t a success in theaters and isn’t particularly good. Now having seen it, I can confirm that last bit. Though I still understand the appeal. Lots of landscape shots of a weird place and attractive actors playing cops. Fine.
In my Andy Sidaris watchathon, I’ve jumped around a bit. I believe I’m now in his classic era. Picasso Trigger is the closest his films have gotten to a James Bond energy, and it’s mostly fun. Hovercrafts and jet skis explode, nothing really makes sense, and the martial arts look like they’re preformed at .5 speed. If I was an alcoholic who didn’t have work the next day (our rating system for this type of movie), I’d give it 3/4 thongs.
THAT’S IT
That’s all, reader. Hope you had a fun 12min of reading. Hope you get something outta these little memos. Hope you get a vacation soon. This will be my last for a long while, I think. Do for self.
You don’t wanna know what the headline almost was
Appreciated the Stones' article; looking forward to the release of PRUDE.