Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 284

Bird is the Word

I’M NOT BUILT FOR THE FARM

Everything is a bit too fragile for my tastes. The birds are always one chance encounter from death. I’m sure their species was never world-beaters, but what we’ve done to them through domestication has really rendered them feeble. Every morning is a potential horror when I open that coop.

Other than that, everything is great. Have holiday plans with my family and then hopefully back to Australia.

Been in my feelings about comic books this week. Hit an above-average store, picked up some books, and thought about how much I enjoy the medium and the ritual. And then got a little sad because there doesn’t appear to be a ton of enthusiasm in the market. We’re overdue for something. Everyone agrees on that. What exactly, we can’t seem to agree on.

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MUSCULAR TALENT

Here’s a sliver of a cover from Karl Kerschl.

GEHENNA solicit coming soon.

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IF DONE RIGHT, MY COMICS TEACH YOU NOTHING

A thought I had while reading a painfully on-the-nose corporate comic: If comic books are no longer read by children, why are comic book creators so hung up on trying to teach moral lessons?

Does anyone have an answer? One could say it’s a convention of the mainstream (let’s not say ‘genre’) and creators are merely pantomiming a tradition they don’t understand. But… they’re so willing to throw out every other expectation. So why hang onto this one?

I don’t think the “they’re on autopilot” thing quite holds water. They are making conscious decisions about what aspects of comics tradition to throw in the garbage, so we can assume they’re equally conscientious about what they hold onto. “They’re just following orders” has an air of menace, surely, but maybe it’s accurate? Is it the editors mandating a tired and tedious morality into books aimed at 45-year-olds?

Is it possible this has contributed to the acute resentment and broad antipathy directed at comic writers? Maybe. Because no one likes to be told. It’s annoying having someone you don’t respect tell you how to live. And because we’re all online all the time, it’s impossible to respect ANYONE. All our foibles and failings on display. And, God, how we love to talk about being broke. How is anyone supposed to take guidance from an able-bodied adult who can’t feed themselves? What ‘lesson’ could that person ever impart?

We’re not winning the kids. And, frankly, even if we somehow had a mechanism to reach them, the preachy stuff would not hit. Kids like subversive. Transgressive. Aggressive. So, what is there to lose in dropping the lectures and just providing COOL SHIT for a readership dying for COOL SHIT?

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THIS ONE IS DARK

Still drowning in local news via Youtube. This is a sad story, clearly. But interesting for how tropey it is.

Cliches exist. Stock characters are real. The bon vivant artist taking patronage from an older man fixated on her. The mentor living modestly while her protégé jets around the world on some stock broker’s dime. It’s all so… pulp.

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YOU’RE A CORPORATE ASSET, HARRY

Won’t go long on this one. HBO made a statement about JK Rowling’s involvement in the upcoming television series based on Harry Potter. In essence, '“her views are her own. We’re happy to have her working on the show.”

People, as you would expect, responded. Some favorably. Others in opposition. Rowling’s views, as processed by the obsessively online and partisan, are either malignant and transphobic or sensible advocacy for women’s spaces. With no middle ground.

So, this “hey, we’re working with her, ok?” statement from HBO kicked up lotsa feelings and declarative sentences. And I felt they all missed the point.

People who work in finance, retail, medical, manufacturing, clerical, managerial, and so on, can think what they want about this. But CREATORS, people working in fields like comic books with deep and troubling histories of corporate misappropriation of creator IP, must see it through a specific lens.

It is a good thing that the creator of a thing is involved in the continuation of the thing. Now whether Rowling is angel or devil is entirely up to you. Boycott the show or watch it in accordance with your values. But it MUST be celebrated that a faceless corporation was not able to or willing to divorce a creator from their work.

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DAN SLOTT ON SUPERMAN?

That’s the rumor. And, all I can say is, “who cares?” Slott is nobody’s idea of a genius creator, but it would be wrong to deny what he’s good at: stewardship of corporate property. He’s the guy dusting the uninspired and nondescript sculpture in the lobby of a pharmaceutical company’s headquarters.

So, who cares if he goes to another legacy IP?

Well, it’s an ill portent in the respect that it seems DC isn’t looking to fill creator vacancies with new blood. I want the guys Slott’s age to reach retirement doing the thing they love. But I don’t think handing a custodian the reins in a moment when we need innovators is wise. The message is “more of the same, because you like same, yeah?” And we really don’t. The status quo is not working for comic books. And specifically corporate comic books will not pull themselves from the morass of old-thinking until they purge some of the old-thinkers.

That said, as always, best of luck to all involved. Maybe Slott surprises us.

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IS THERE A VIBE SHIFT? PROLLY. DOES COMICS CARE? EH.

Here’s a video I made about it.

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MEDIA CONSUMPTION

I’m always looking for the comics equivalent of the trashy exploitation films I watch. And, well, I found it.

Obviously there’s precedent. During sales booms we typically get some amateur work on shelves, and that’s where we find the proper B-movie aesthetic. I did not expect to find it during lean times, however. This is a proper gem.

KILLTOWN is not a ‘good’ book. When I say ‘amateur’ I mean that it fails on most levels. But I also mean that there is an undeniable charm. It has personality. And that puts it above many of its contemporaries. The story is basic crime-revenge material. The art is years from professional quality. The dialogue is what you’d expect from a Redbox movie about giant sharks. It’s not ‘good.’

But it is worth reading.

Going from amateur to veteran, we have the latest from John Acrudi. This is CONVERT, with co-creator Savannah Finley. When I describe something as familiar, it’s not an insult (until it is). We all work in genre and we accept genre is an iterative process that goes on after our deaths. A familiar setup is not a crime, provided it goes someplace exciting (or delivers something standard with great craft).

CONVERT is familiar if you’ve read sci-fi magazines. And familiar if you’ve watched films like The Martian or even Annihilation. Stranded protagonist finds himself in a survival situation in an unfamiliar, odd, hostile, location. Now where does it go?

Misery. It gets miserable. And I don’t mean that as a knock. I mean that this breezy 22 pages was giving me sympathy pains for a starving man. And every time I thought, “seen this before, John” the book then casually takes us deeper into a bad situation.

And then there’s a cliffhanger for the next issue that promises the misery has a story purpose and perhaps, eventually, a silver lining. That said, I’d be fine if it didn’t. I’m not sure what Acrudi is going through, but I could do for some more books with this tone.

Moving on, Morgan Fairchild is a strange-looking woman. Weathermen in big markets have a distinct look. Top porn performers have a distinct look. But even people without public-facing jobs fall into it. Ever meet an auto mechanic with Auto Mechanic Phenotype? As in, he was designed by nature to do this exact task and, more than that, meet your specific expectations of that role? It applies to every career to some extent.

Morgan Fairchild has soap opera face. Which tracks as she got her start on soap operas. It’s almost distracting, but The Seduction makes good use of it by casting her as a nightly news anchor. Works well enough. This movie, however, does not. It’s a stalker film that borrows mostly from Cape Fear. But… also very stupid. The second half of the film has Fairchild flipping roles with her harasser, and that’s always got potential. But The Seduction struggles with where to go long and when to go brief.

Next up, a movie I’ve prolly ‘watched’ four times and never really gave my full attention until now. Phantasm. What can be said? This is the strangest of the horror classics. Premise alone is just so damn weird. The Tall Man works as a mortician on Earth so he can harvest the bodies (souls?) of the dead and employ them as dwarven slaves on another planet? Did I get that right?

I get it. I understand why this one resonates so many years on. You can’t just be this casually weird and not inspire admiration among new generations of weirdos. I’m now gonna force myself to watch the others, despite, by all accounts, a precipitous drop in quality.

More comics on the docket for this afternoon, including that Titan Comics CONAN book I’ve been meaning to check out. But I should get this newsletter out before I get tied up.

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THAT’S IT FOR ME FOR ANOTHER WEEK

Hope you have a strong week that keeps you productive and happy. Do for self.