Melbourne This Weekend!

Plus: Deer Editor, reading, and The eXistenZial Void™

♫ Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere. ♫

The Sun Rising, John Donne

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This newsletter goes through what I’ve been up to in my writing - I have to account for myself and what I have to show for my efforts recently. Have I been productive, or not…? A map of my brain, so to speak, and here be dragons.

2024 -- dig it.

Melbourne Oz Comic Con This Weekend

Don’t want to bury the lede - I’ll be down in Melbourne this long weekend for Oz Comic Con!

Ah, one day I’ll find a good photo of me for a con. One day. First, check out the other good photos and people who’ll be at the show.

But if you are on Naarm land, please pop into the show and say g’day. It’s been like 5 years since I’ve been down to Melbourne for a show. I’m bringing the whole family crew and am really looking forward to making it a time. It’s also my birthday long weekend [the old royal birthday public holiday is always very close to my day, so I claim the whole weekend] and I’m really looking forward to trying out a few secondhand book stores in Melbourne’s CBD, as well as finding odd foods to throw into the kids after our hotel buffet breakfasts, and just general wanderings and such.

I’ll also be bringing along some comics to sell, the main ones I’ve never had out in Melbourne, so keep the peepers locked onto these wondrous chunky tomes of my additions to the ninth art:

DEER EDITOR - the trade finally came into existence in the last month, so I have a stack of antler noir from me, Sami Kivela, Lauren Afee, Jim Campbell, through Mad Cave Studios to distribute throughout Melbourne in exchange for coin or card taps!

A FISTFUL OF PAIN Hardcover - this kung fu sister/dragon showdown masterpiece of Louie Joyce’s art and my words landed last year, so it brings me great pleasure to take a box down south to the erudite arts appreciation hub of Australia [the world], Melbourne.

I’m thinking of keeping the table stripped back and just having those two beats, instead of the usual smush of other single issues and such. It’ll make flying and family bags easier, too.

Beyond that: I’m just excited to hit up Melbourne again and take in the city and the sights. Maybe even some of the local comics, wherever I find them on the show floor. If you are around, I look forward to saying g’day and having a chat about how things have been.

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Deer Editor - The Trade

I can’t even stress how good this is to have the crazy comic Sami and I cooked up so so long ago finally out wrapped up into a trade collection, and what a beautifully designed and created collection it is.

As always, this marks the end of a long road, from inception to playing with ideas and scripts to getting it onto the page to finally [via Kickstarter and a dormant period of being stubborn and waiting and landing the right publisher and worldwide release] the tpb.

This one has always been special to me, and to push it onto my shelf of RKL writings was a poignant joy.

Mostly because I had this feeling it could be the last thing I ever slide onto that shelf.

Although, I still have two series not collected, but surrounded by talk of possible collection, still - yes, there is some hope for EVERFROST and BLACK BEACON, but not the kind of hope that ever keeps me up at night with the thrill of possibility.

Then there’s a short comic I just saw inks on, so there’ll be that.

Plus, I just got a thumbs up on another submission of a very different kind that I cannot talk about yet, but it’s this small rad little project and it made my heart do a little flutter of excitement.

So there’s a chance there’ll be more to the RKL Shelf. But it felt like ol’ Bucky was the end of an era. Those days of hustling so hard I nearly broke my [insert proof of hard hustling here] might be over, and they’re definitely on some kind of hiatus. Which is something I honestly thought I’d feel worse about, but everything in moderation, and a season for everything, and [insert pithy quote more aimed at helping me than you, sorry].

Life does its thing, and I’m enjoying a lot of it, so I’m going to keep following it. While keeping some plans - I have things on which I shall tinker - and keeping family at the centre of it all.

Plus, the TV deal I’ve long had, and keeps getting silently renewed as they try to crack the code for small screen success, just got renewed once more and that’s always some good approval for the heart, and a wink and a prayer into the old skyrocket.

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Been reading and watching a few things.

THE BLOODY CHAMBER by Angela Carter - I’ve taught ‘The Werewolf’ so many times, and it rocks, so I’m finally reading the collection it’s from. There are some great stories in here, and a few that haven’t landed with me, and some I realised would benefit if I went in with knowledge of the base story it’s riffing on. In total, a good time, but ‘The Werewolf’ might end up remaining the high point, but maybe just because I’ve analysed it so much I enjoy it down to its very dot matrix dna on the page.

SHOGUN S1 - have nearly finished watching this with one of my kids as we tap away at half an ep each morning with some exercise. I’ve been digging this. It keeps unfolding, and I know there’ll be more intrigue, and I’m keen to see how they’ll wind it all together at the end.

OBLIVION SONG Vols 1 & 2 - this pseudo-post-apocalyptic story alternate reality jam from Lorenzo de Felici and Robert Kirkman is good. I find Kirkman’s books just always enjoyable/easy to read. There’s something here not quite popping for me, but it’s not taking it all away, and de Felici’s art is quite stunning in so many moments.

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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.

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Who is Ryan K Lindsay?

I’m an award-winning Australian comic writer. I’ve been published by Black Mask, Dark Horse, ComixTribe, Mad Cave, IDW, Heavy Metal, Vertigo, and a few more. Kickstarter has been a home for many short comics. I often get to collaborate with great mates, and this brings me joy.

I write about balancing this creative game alongside a full teaching load [currently College English and University Intro to Creative Writing] and a lovely family load and the forever melting brain that is modern man. I think about a lot of stuff, I still don’t know if it’s the right stuff. ymmv.

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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE

I’ve finally discovered how to use Google Keep as a daily to do list/task place and it’s helped my brain at work so much.

After 21 years of teaching where I just scrawl a new daily list each morning - and often build it from an A$ sheet with subheadings that has a list of things for various jobs I have around the school [that gets updated weekly onto a new sheet] I’ve mastered Keep.

My trick, and I don’t know why this works, or only works now, or whatever - it’s to put a daily header and drag stuff into it.

W17 Wed

• Mark 3 papers

• Type meeting notes from JL AI

W17 Tues

• Set Creative Writing Task 4

And other such boring shenanigans. I tick them off as done, I drag up to a new day as needed, and I park in other subheadings when they aren’t urgent. Then I never lose/forget them, and I get to bask in there being about 300 completed tasks since the term began. Which is 24 work days, which is about 12 major items a day :|

Genuinely - it seems stupidly easy, but it finally clicked into place. Also: I can have links with each heading if needed to a doc or site.

Ha, nearly typed “hyperlinks” like some kind of old man. I’m not old, I’m just inching towards…my mid-40s? What th–!