Lecture Me
During Pride Month?!
ROUGH WEEK BECOMES ROUGH TWO WEEKS
I don’t like talking about animals in pain, but I will share that I’ve buried two neighborhood strays in the past 10 days. I wasn’t raised on a farm and I have no stomach for this type of thing. Makes me sad. I attempt to catch the last cat standing tonight. I don’t know what to do with him, but I will not bury another.
My brother-in-law did not make it, I am unhappy to report. He was in a band that a lotta people know so there’s been some kind tributes online. He wasn’t just supportive of me, he was proud and loved to tell people about the connection. We played very different types of music, and so he got a kick outta seeing people’s reactions. I will miss him and I am sad for my sister.
I attended the memorial for the neighbor I mentioned in last week’s newsletter. Local businesses sent their whole staff. I had to watch through a window from the sidewalk, that’s how crowded it was. This man was an actual “valued member of the community.”
When his son spoke about how Fridays were “triple-C night. Chips, Cokes, and chocolate” I had to choke back some tears. Normal things are very upsetting when the new context is never again.
Thank you to anyone who sent me nice messages about these hassles last week. I’m not great about that stuff. Appreciate it though.
THANK YOU
TIGRESS ISLAND #5 sales just came in and on behalf of EPHK and I, thank you for the support. The series was a major success by any standard, but particularly by the measure of two guys who just set out to make a cool book. The finale is worth it, in my opinion. Pick it up. Proud of the series.
PAGES IN MY INBOX
Leonardo’s work cuts no corners. Every panel is a place.
THEMES
An IDW editor called for her Bluesky audience to not buy (does that mean boycott?) the new John Byrne X-MEN: ELSEWHEN hardcover coming from Abrams or Clover or wherever. The premise of the boycott(?) was that Byrne is a transphobe and it was an insult for the preorder to go live “during Pride month??”
I don’t know what John Byrne thinks about literally anything. Outside of ALPHA FLIGHT, I don’t care for his work [this is sacrilege to readers over 55]. He doesn’t hold public office so his views also don’t matter in any material way. Further, he’s 75-years-old. Any view he has he’ll be taking with him in a few years. Is he a transphobe? I don’t know, I didn’t ask him. I’m frankly more concerned that he spent his last productive years doing nostalgia bait of corporate characters. That’s like a band ending its career on an album of covers.
The editor’s hypocrisy was pointed out when it came to light that her company -possibly her office- are also publishing Byrne’s work.
I don’t care about an editor’s ideas about… anything. Even less than I care about Byrne’s ideas. So they can have each other.
But as I was reading about all this nonsense, the specifics of “HR life” were rolling around in my head. It got me thinking about the employee who puts their company in a weird position, but didn’t anything overtly fireable. And it got me thinking about being that character. The one who thinks they are being defiant and righteous when the bosses think they’re just being a grandstanding asshole. Got me thinking about being on awkward Zoom conferences where the company can’t really say anything because they don’t wanna give the employee future ammunition. Had me reflecting on the lunches with friends where employee says things like, “they prolly wanna fire me but I’m too good at my job.”
I’m always looking for a way to turn whatever dumb news item into a story. But this is too mundane. It’s too typical. The Office without jokes.
I urge everyone to buy a pressure washer and see if they can start new, self-directed, careers.
THEMES II
In more straightforward “sir, the contents of your desk are in a box in the lobby” news, a guy who was a dickhead online is now more famous for toilet photography. He was on that intellectual/archival end of comics. Curator of the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum. Wrote books about comics, etc. And also a fucking dork who tried to police comic creators. He was heavy on suggestions on how people (not him) should conduct themselves.
And he was taking piss videos without consent. Set a camera up, Chuck Berry style.
The guy aggressively telling others how to live.
Piss vids.
There’s plenty of people doing dirt in the shadows, so I don’t subscribe to the idea that “it’s always the loudest ones.” But just like anyone else, I find this type of thing typical and obvious and, yeah, maybe indicative of something. Like the moralizing impulse is just the need to control.
Maybe the need to lecture is just about inflicting discomfort on a stranger.
PEOPLE I SPOKE TO
Australian Vietnam vet and eventual contractor. Flew for Air America into Laos. I asked how that woulda gone had he been shot down. “If you’re a liability, the US doesn’t wanna know ya,” was his answer. Said he was paid very well though, and as a young man he saw it as worth it. Doing just a tiny bit of research, it appears that job went to under 1000 total people during the war. And many of them must be dead now. I felt like I was given a rare interpersonal moment with history as we spoke.
He’s got another prostate surgery coming up.
A/V SEGMENT
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
I like the backdrop for this crime thriller. Australian brushfire arson. Anything lost in the investigation aspect is made up for by the vibes. I’ve started planning a few series with Australia as the setting. I see people treat it like America Jr, but it’s really got its own feeling through and through. RECOMMENDED.
I was not familiar with this game until the sequel arrived and the sentiment was “it’s that cozy X-Box era feeling we’ve all been missing.” I haven’t played that one, but I wasn’t engaged with the X-Box era and the style of gameplay is pretty unappealing to me. The Press X to whatever prompt just sucks. This was nobody’s idea of terrible, but I found the game a thing I rarely say: dated. VERY LITE RECOMMEND.
FROM THE DESIGN FOLDER
It’s unfortunate that you can’t do this anymore without it landing at least a little flat. The pastiche energy is too intense because nobody believes you’d just arrive at it organically. Sad!
THANKS
Thank you for another week. I’m off to my shift at the comic book factory. Do for self.
“the moralizing impulse is just the need to control. “
Damn. Well said.
So sorry for your losses recently. My thoughts are with you and your family and friends and neighbors.