Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 296

Meow

Feb 23, 2025

THANKS FOR ANOTHER WEEK

Hello. Hope this week is treating you well. I’m settled-in 30min outside of Hobart and enjoying small-town life. Caught a convict-era metal tie while magnet-fishing, and am pretty confident I saw a ghost on my 5am dog walk.

Also been hanging with my new IT guy.

YOU WILL FORGET, SO IT’S OK

I’m comfortable sharing this piece from Pramono, as it’ll be a long time before this comic comes out and there’s no guarantee we’ll use it for anything. So we can’t really say I’m ruining any announcements, I don’t think. I just liked it and wanted to share.

Potentially for the newly-renamed title Ludo and I are hard at work on.

FAVORITE PANEL IN MY INBOX THIS WEEK

Ludo bringing the demonic monstrosities, now in color.

CHARACTER GOALS

I’ve had some suggestions from colleagues lately. Or, really, maybe a mild critique with some attached action items. Basically “your comic book titles suck.”

And that’s because I like marquee characters. Spider-Man. Golgo 13. Spawn.

I like characters that occupy the whole cover of the comics they’re on. I like characters so powerful their names are made into logos and mastheads.

I find the mangafication of American comics clumsy. We’re taking the superficial aspects and not borrowing any of the actual hooks. The ‘long title’ thing is a trend, and trends are gross by nature.

“But those titles tell you what the comic book is about!” they tell me. These are friends who want good things for me. They want me to sell comics. But, man, I just think it lacks any type of swagger.

I also think the premise is not entirely solid. The film Deliverance wouldn’t be more accessible and ‘clever’ if it was called Vacationing Salarymen Fight For Their Lives.

And I know they aren’t exclusively talking about me going with a long title. Anything that is more descriptive is a win, in their eyes, over how I do things currently. But, again, I just don’t feel any confidence in those titles. Nothing about them makes me feel like they wanna stick around.

And I know this because I’ve done it! SHOPLIFTERS WILL BE LIQUIDATED, my series with the very talented Stefano Simeone, was intentionally self-terminating. Those titles aren’t for franchises. They’re for fun little dalliances.

And I’m not suddenly above those, certainly. But my goal is Dylan Dog. My goal is the Shadow. The Spirit. Characters big enough to BE the comic book.

Someone recently told me “you think Tynion wanted to call his book SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN? He woulda preferred to call it SLAUGHTER (that’s the character name, as I understand it) but he’s smart enough to know retailers and readers need some fucking clue as to what the book is!”

Might be right. Tynion’s no dummy.

So, this is just me bitching a bit. I don’t necessarily deny or doubt what friends are telling me. And I do, ultimately, exist in a market that is indifferent to my claims of being a “confident swagged-out creator and true artiste.”

Just bitching.

MEDIA CONSUMPTION

I’ve spoken a lot about the Mike Baron era of THE PUNISHER, so I won’t go long. But I don’t know if I’ve posted any thoughts about the associated graphic novels. I don’t even know how many there are. But once a year I’ll trip over one I’d long forgotten.

THE PUNISHER: EMPTY QUARTER is so Baron it hurts. Action movie nonsense with some insensitive cultural commentary. At one point in the story, Punisher is offered a woman, a boy, and a goat as potential sexual partners for the night. It was a different era.

And it was also a different era of coloring. This book looks 90% fantastic. Bill Reinhold is on art duties and either this is his finest work, or colorist Mark Badger was able to bring out the best aspects of his art that other colorists failed to.

It’s so damn moody and evocative. The story is just a succession of Baronisms, which I recognize are matters of taste. But the art, particularly the colors, are unassailable. Worth checking out if you haven’t thought about this one in a few decades.

Also worth checking out is last year’s Immaculate. A movie I expected nothing from and got some effective atmosphere, capable acting, a few creepy moments, and a great soundtrack.

Is it essentially Jurassic Park but Jesus? Yeah. But, fun. I would recommend this one as a double-feature with Azrael, as they arrive in different places on the idea of motherhood.

JPG FROM MY DESIGN FOLDER

This one is currently on auction and I hope I win it. Never seen the movie, very much doubt I’ll ever bump into this porn film from 1971, but, man, what a cool design. I will fully be stealing this design, and, strictly speaking, I could prolly steal the thing wholesale as I doubt very much the film has an owner in 2025.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK

GEHENNA: NAKED AGGRESSION is at Image and has its store date. A lot to look forward to! Will be pumping it as soon as we determine the best place to announce it. It’s a real problem in comic books at the moment that announcements are falling on deaf ears.

One online magazine that used to run series announcements with preview pages told a mutual friend, “some of those links got zero clicks.” Zero. On a site with thousands of hits per day, comics got not a click. I’m grateful for outlets liek Variety announcing things, but because of the magazine’s topic and format, it’s more effective at reach producers than new readers. New titles don’t have a ton of places to make themselves known.

Do Not Siege Walled Cities