DOWN WITH THE KING
We Stay Busy
LET’S GOOOOOOOO
REGICIDE #1 is available for order! Call your comic shop today and tell them you’d like a copy. This one is for BERSERK fans, Between Two Fires lovers, maybe even X-Files people. It has a classic monster-of-the-month vibe while sending the protagonists on a bigger journey.
Ludovic Lalliat is doing KILLER work here. European style for sure, but completely approachable to American readers.
The covers on this one are exceptional. I’ll post the Atomcyber variant here and the Kerbcrawlerghost variant at the bottom of this newsletter, giving you ample time to bow out if NSFW material isn’t for you.
ALSO
TIGRESS ISLAND issue #4 has a very narrow order window, happening RIGHT NOW. If you want this one, you’ll have to call your shop this weekend. As the series reaches its conclusion, we want to make sure readers have the option to jump on late. If you’re one of those people, put in the call!
PAGES IN MY INBOX
I never pretend to know what might be a ‘hit.’ But I believe this project from Leonardo, Marco, Matteo, and I might have all the makings! More on it soon!
THEMES
WARNING: This will feel familiar. You are not having a stroke.
Changes on the executive level at Marvel. Guy Who Has Been There Too Long is being replaced by Movie Guy. Change was necessary, and truly GWHBTTL survived more causes for termination than Putin, so hold your tears.
I don’t see this as a good thing for Marvel. I hope to be proven wrong. The prevailing wisdom about MG is that he’ll bring Marvel movies/TV and Marvel comics closer in line. This could wrench the comics even further away from anyone’s idea of expressive and unique works of art. The idea of “maximizing transmedia synergy” just does not excite me, as an actual reader of comic books.
But what do you want? Change was overdue. Marvel executives and editorial have been operating like they’ve got lifetime appointments. In every field on Earth, minus statework and maybe the most crooked of NGOs, continued employment is contingent on continued performance. Why would comic books be any different? This is what happens when short-term solutions meant to prop up quarterly reports come home to roost.
Marvel will either become tighter-assed and bore its readers into a catatonic state, or we’ll all be pleasantly surprised. Time, the revealator.
What’s more interesting to me is the way creators and readers respond to this type of news. Fans are typically happy for any head-chopping, and creators are trained to hold their tongues. The exception to that rule are creators who have reconciled they are permanently outside the gates. Guys who know. That’s an interesting type of person. Often talentless, sure. But much more self-aware than the hacks who believe their moment writing SPIDER-MAN is just a well-worded email away.
The other guy living on the outskirts of Corporate City is former-hire-turned-outsider. These are dudes who didn’t make enough of an impression to get hired after their heat wears off. Or difficult fellas. Or dudes who got so much work at one time that they are too well known a quantity to readers and editors.
Rob Liefeld may qualify as one of the Difficult Fellas. He’s had plenty to say about the layoffs.
I think the silence that we get from creators inside the gates of corporate HR is pretty fucking lame. It shows a complete lack of self-worth and self-actualization. Do you think Frank Miller would be scared in this way? Exactly who do you look up to in this thing we do?
It’s ok to say, “they need to shake things up.” In my view it’s ok to say, “I think they need some new ideas.” These are polite, professionally acceptable, ways to convey you think there’s some bums in the building. And it need not reflect on your overall relationship with the company. You don’t have to jump out with your fiercest criticisms, but you can be a real, live, adult with a brain in your head.
I get that editors can be petty. I understand why not saying anything is always a ‘smart’ move. But you’re creative people. You’re not supposed to be smart all the time. You’re supposed to have some passion. Blood in your veins. It’s natural to occasionally pop off. The fact that you don’t has me concerned. I’ll defend you, for what it’s worth. Defending guys who say shit that gets them in trouble is my calling.
“Marvel needs a facelift. Wishing the best to everyone who is moving on to other career opportunities. There’s no reason Marvel can’t inspire the same excitement DC is at the moment. If both publishers were operating at their fullest capacity, the market could experience a wider upswing and build towards a larger sustained readership.”
That’s you saying, “the underperformers are out, let’s see what the new guys can do.” Corporate yourself up if you need to, but don’t dodge reality.
PIRATES!
The best of the comic book piracy sites went down last week. It kicked up all type of feelings.
I let this one die down before I offered any thoughts, mostly because my take is too mild for the first wave of Really Feel A Way commentators.
‘Research’ indicates piracy can up sales. But this is far from conclusive. And I have the exact opposite relationship with it. If I walk into a comic book store and see a new issue #1 I’ve never heard of, I buy it and read it. If I see it on a piracy site, I read it and never buy it.
But I don’t care at all about the “does it help or hurt” arguments. People are gonna do what they’re gonna do. I steal when the layers of inconvenience to making a purchase tip my personal scales into “I’ll get you next time, dawg.” See: a long line at Whole Foods.
What I don’t do is intellectualize or agonize over these decisions.
My colleagues in comics can’t help themselves. I read all talk of “systems” this week. The publishing system. The distribution system. This came almost exclusively from creators who benefit directly from those systems and readers who refuse to abandon those systems.
“There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism” is the “I was only following orders” for Kardashian socialists. It’s a post hoc rationalization for doing things that make you happy. You want nice things. So you buy nice things. Or you steal nice things. Because you want nice things.
You do not have to. You could live in the woods. Never let anyone tell you you can’t. I promise you, if your ambition was to leave this capitalist world behind there are still avenues of egress. You can do it. I believe in you. Do not approach real conversations about ‘systems’ with the presupposition that the only way to be fulfilled is to skim cream from the top of those systems. Don’t assume the only way to happy is to create chaff for multinationals. You can disappear today if you had the courage of your convictions. If this sounds ridiculous, you do not have actual change in you. Nice Things are steering you.
Confronting the lowered quality of life that comes from not buying or stealing nice things is too much for many of us. It’s like failing a sanity check in Call of Cthulhu. So instead we get all types of asinine college-brain justifications. “I work within this system but still call it to account!” As if the DISNEY CORPORATION is the same thing as the liberal arts college your parents paid for. In the latter case you could withhold your tuition, thus applying pressure. “Holding to account.” But as a creator, the ONE point of leverage you have over these monolith entertainment companies running ‘the system’ is your labor. And you never, ever, consider withholding it.
Does this mean you can never complain? Sorta, yeah. It does mean that. Because this is not a citizenship you were born into. This isn’t a social norm you struggle under. You elected to seek employment with the type of corporations sci-fi authors write cycles of novels about. You stay there because you make a quarter-million dollars reanimating other men’s creations.
AND I AM NOT JUDGING YOU FOR THIS.
But you seem to be judging yourselves. This silly dance of “yeah, man, I’m with YOU, the people who pirate my books!” is the type of vomit populism you get from bad politicians. You exist in a fairytale world where the profit motive is somehow divorced from your position at a MULTINATIONAL COPORATION with 800k shareholders.
I have no problem with anyone working for Disney or Warner Brothers. I do, however, have a problem with the doublespeak some of those employees can’t resist. You are a rank capitalist. Embrace it. You don’t care if people steal your work because you don’t believe the consequences of it will impact you before you move onto another stage of your career. You’re short-sighted self-dealing, like the rest of us. Accept yourself.
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
Sprawl is a wall-runner FPS set in, y’know, one of those cyberpunk inspired misery megapolises. It’s perfectly a good time, but not terribly inspiring. I think cyberpunk settings in general may just leave me flat. Nevertheless, RECOMMENDED.
Cleared Hot is what someone like me, a console gamer of the 90s, considers a ‘video game.’ It’s directly inspired by the Strike series of games and it’s fun in exactly the same way. 4hrs of your time. Play it on a plane. You don’t have to assume a new identity and devote years of your life to it. BIG RECOMMEND.
I always thought myself above Hammer Horror. I never understood the appeal. Looked dry and tacky to me. But just throwing on a few of these films the past months has given me a new perspective. Countess Dracula was a fun riff on The Picture of Dorian Gray. RECOMMENDED.
FROM THE DESIGN FOLDER
I’m trying to recreate this energy for my own version of a house ad. I’m blessed enough at this moment to have enough titles coming that it feels necessary. And, frankly, it’s just fun. Autumnbelleflower has been shooting me some material I think will be put to this use.
THANKS
Appreciate everyone for this year myself and my co-creators are having. Really in your debt. See you next week. Do for self.
NSFW LOOK AWAY QUICK
I warned you!