Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 304

Sometimes I Write Slow Sometimes I Write Quick

HOLA. SORRY, STILL IN THE HABIT.

Hello, all. Hope you’re well. I’m in another situation where I have no desk but I must scream. A card table would do, honestly. But I’m persevering today and hope you’ll join me in that. Here’s some thoughts on comic books:

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GEHENNA: NAKED AGGRESSION

Issue one and two are up for order right now, as if you didn’t know!

Kezie has Gehenna in a provocative pose here.

Call you comic shop. Today. Now. Thank you.

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HOW TO READ

There’s a book coming out from Image any day (maybe now?) called FREE PLANET. It’s by Sitterson and Dougherty. I caught Sitterson on the Image Instagram pumping the book and was struck by something he said.

It was to the effect of “this is a book that demands considered reading. You’re meant to take your time with it.”

I take him on his word. And I urge you to check it out if that sounds like your thing. This isn’t actually about his book, I just thought it was an interesting place to start on intent.

FROM HELL, I believe, is a book meant to be read slowly. I go back and forth on how much or how little the reader is meant to hover over Eddie Campbell’s panels. It’s all expertly composed, but it is also intentionally mushy and gestural. So… fast or slow. Hard to say. At first glance, panel 5 on the page below looks like it was drawn exclusively to convey the dialog. But then you notice the handwashing in the back. That’s not worth hovering. Panels 7-9 are so evocative I could look at them all day. So, forget what I sad a few sentences ago. I’m now convinced you’re supposed to stare at every aspect of this book.

The dialog is surely meant to be considered. There’s so many threads in the book. Not all of them reach the end, but even the dangling ones are part of the whole. You’re meant to soak it in, but also soak in it.

Compare that to something like BLACK LAGOON, which even on dialog-heavy pages, is meant to be sprinted through [right to left].

There’s no right way to pace a book. Obviously it’s story-to-story, team-to-team. And of course creators cannot stop you from reading their work however you prefer. But as long as we’re declaring our intents, I thought I’d make ours clear:

Read GEHENNA: NAKED AGGRESSION at a breakneck shonen manga pace. The story is in ‘real time’ and it’s meant to move from action-to-action in as direct and uncluttered a fashion as possible. What passes for a B-story is not built to slow you down. It’s all GO.

And then, when you’ve finished an issue, go back and appreciate Maurizio’s work without dialog, or even story context if you choose. Every panel is a world unto itself. Matteo Vattani deserves credit for that as well.

Maybe someday I’ll write something you’re supposed to chew thoroughly before swallowing. But even my denser work, like NOBODY IS IN CONTOL with Paul, isn’t meant for slow intake. Not a judgement on books that do it differently, but for myself I want the act of reading to be, if not effortless, at least frictionless. Pour it over your head rather than wade in it. I won’t be offended.

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JAPANESE HOLDOUT CONTINUES THE WAR

This name will only mean something to a few of you. And some of you only because I write about him every few years. Through a vintage tweet, I was reminded of Seth Simons this week. And, damn, he’s still Seth Simons.

This is the guy whose ‘journalism’ resulted in Shane Gillis’ exit from Saturday Night Live. Comedy was his beat as an entertainment reporter, and he had a profoundly mid-2010s lens attached to it. Reporting on comedy happenings on the coasts from his perch in the midwest, he was a minor boogeyman during the cancelation era. Did you say something that could be construed as offensive to… someone… somewhere…? Seth had his ravens watching. And you would be called to answer for your crimes against humanity.

He started to lose whatever relevance he had immediately after it became clear Shane Gillis prolly wasn’t the great Satan that Simons painted him as. But he continued to leverage whatever clout that incident had afforded him among online Karens.

That went away after a (seemingly bullshit) allegation against Seth himself. A second-hand rumor that he’s a ‘sex pest’ was weaponized against him. Many such cases. History is one Maximilien Robespierre after another.

While he was still fighting off that (again, seemingly false) allegation, he finally hit the iceberg. He had been baited into reporting false information by a source he didn’t bother to vet. So while Seth was out dropping what he thought was bombshell reporting about ‘conservatism in the NYC comedy scene’ he was actually regurgitating completely fake news. Which was the source’s intent. He was a fan of that scene and wanted to destroy Seth’s credibility as a journalist.

Which he did.

And then everyone sorta forgot about him. He didn’t have the bylines anymore. Nobody was seeing his work unless they were seeking it out. The perch in the midwest seemed further and further away.

Which bring us to today. When I saw a tweet of his from 2019 and remembered he was a human being who existed at one point.

So I did what my mind does. I needed to know where he was now. Got my answer on the front page of his blog:

Still Seth.

When someone has already lost and is in that state of glitching impotence that this guy is, decorum insists you do not bully him. And mostly people do not. Which I think has to sting. When your life is for attention, and you receive none, what are you then?

I am grateful that era is done. But it’ll be back. The scold brain is just a personality type. It emerges across cultures and epoch. The eternal Torquemada. The Always Wertham. All I can do is celebrate this short window of my life when the moralizing impulse is contained to feckless blogs where gutless worms writhe without impact.

Related, here’s a link that appeared in my inbox:

This is the same brain as Seth. The same type of soulless loser who needs life wiped down with a antiseptic pad before they can crawl through their existence.

“Anything bad?”

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SOME VIDEOS I FOUND INTERESTING

None from me this week, but some things I consumed.

I think it’s funny when geniuses get turned down from working in the turd mines. Here’s one such case. A blessing it went this way.

Moving on. Every time Ditko comes up, in any context, the conversation is never about the layers of self at the bottom of a worldview. It’s only about the merits of the worldview itself. Comment section brains really can’t get over Ditko subscribing to a philosophy. Even as the content creator here tries desperately to dignify Ditko as an individual, viewers have to make his entire existence about objectivism.

Next up. This one will feel pretty foreign if you’re in the states. Maybe a bit more real if you’re in Canada. And certainly unavoidably germane if you’re in Australia. There’s things we can’t talk about because bad people have talked about them. And I don’t think that’s a way to live. The host here asks some basic questions about the utility and impact of *perhaps* overusing Welcome To Country, which is analogous to land acknowledgements in other places. You don’t have to agree, or really even have an opinion. But it’s worth considering the larger idea here, which is on what basis are conversations forfeited? ‘Optics’ isn’t the best answer.

Check this out. Goran Gligovic who I’ve worked with on RUN THE DUNGEON, has been getting rave reviews for his pieces in this edition of Black Sword Hack. RPG people are already fans, but comic art folks should take note.

And finally. What I’m listening to as I type this.

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DESIGN FOLDER

I’m always looking for ways to make a white cover work.

This isn’t one I woulda thought of myself, but damn if it doesn’t hit. If an artist I worked with ripped this 1:1 it would be the best-looking cover on the shelves that week. Boobs or no boobs.

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OH MY

It’s time to go. Hope you have a nice week and order GEHENNA: NAKED AGGRESSION before the window closes on that and you’re left embarrassed. Take care of yourself. And do for self.