♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
-------
2021 -- beyond.
BLACK BEACON #1 has landed.
Another new comic launched, and it’s exciting, and exhausting, and I’ll always appreciate every single person who steps up to read my crazy stories.
We got a 9/10 review at AIPT - they particularly loved the two leads, Niko and Bar. That’s really nice to know.
We also got a 4/5 review on Lotusland - wherein the artistic genius of Sebastian Piriz is celebrated.
I’m really proud of this comic - Seb and I have cooked up something very big and strange and completely worthy of the inclusion in Heavy Metal Magazine. This thing is metal and epic.
It’s going to be 6 issues, so if you’ve missed it, speak to your LCS about getting #1 brought in, and then ask them to hold #2-6 as they drop so you get them fresh on week of delivery.
It’s been interesting to see this one be a softer launch than EVERFROST was - and interesting to wonder why. Not having a finalised PDF to send to retailers hurts, not being able to guarantee print dates hurts. We’d already launched in the magazine, so wanted to push that, but also knew we’d get single issues so wanted to push more for that. I felt like maybe it split our focus on it. This is all fairly inside baseball, but it’s worth considering.
As someone who’s launched 8 Kickstarter campaigns, and multiple titles in the direct market through stores, and I have growing success in all those fields, but not yet a titanic take off, I’m constantly thinking about what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve for next time.
To those who have reached out to me to say you loved the start of BLACK BEACON, thank you. The support and feedback of so many of you always warms my heart.
---
ETERNAL RERELEASE
Black Mask is rereleasing ETERNAL, my graphic novella with Eric Zawadzki and Dee Cunniffe through comic shops again. It’s available for preorder now.
If you missed it the first time, now’s the chance to get on one of the greatest comics, and teams, I’ve ever worked on.
This is also a chance to support a small business in your area while you buy what is guaranteed to be the best present you’ll give this holiday season.
I love this story of Vif, a shieldmaiden, who kills a sorcerer and from there a whole bigger set of problems comes her way. I put everything into this script over 3 years, and Eric drew the hell out of it, with Dee bringing it home with the most gorgeous colours.
---
Big Moments.
I’m reading THRILL ME by Benjamin Percy, a book of essays about writing, and in one chapter he talks about set pieces and moments that capture the audience’s mind completely. When I think of the ones that resonate in my mind, I go to: Indy running from the boulder, Andy Dufresne standing in the rain with his arms out, the werewolf running old mate down in the London Underground.
The more I think about them, the more I try to consider them in my own writing. Do I have big memorable moments in my writing? I’d have to look, but I’d also have to defer to my audience on that one.
I can think of the silhouette funeral pyre in ETERNAL, it really stands out, but hopefully every story I write has one, and hopefully even every issue.
Thinking about it has me considering this next comic I’m plotting out while waiting to hear back on its pitch status. I’m consciously trying to unclutter the narrative, give it a clear line from start to finish, and in doing that I’m trying to consider two things:
Moments of character interaction and introspection, and
Big moments.
I usually aim to put as much into each page as I can to give the reader as much as possible, but with this one I want to aim to give them space and tone and scope.
This one is more ETERNAL and HEADSPACE than some of my more recent stuff, so we’ll see how I go with it. I find it’s always helpful to try to keep as many plates spinning on the one project as you can so you can consider it in a bunch of different ways.
---
ASD&D.
The school club has started adventuring. My new group had a blast and were awesome. They’ve been tasked with a mission to find a lost pet on a forest island and so far they’ve navigated a few traps and I’ve been able to see how they each approach problems.
I will say it forever, you can discover so much about a student from just one session of D&D with them. More parents should play with their kids.
-------
PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
HAPPY HILL on Kickstarter - the latest launch from ComixTribe, Joe Mulvey, Rich Douek, and the team. This spectacular horror comic is so good, I got a sneak at the issue, and you definitely need to go all in on this one.
Did you know orange is a fruit name, and we named the colour after it? - I had no idea, and I’ve been asked this dozens of times by students, so this blew my mind. I love the etymology of words.
-------
GRIST FOR THE MILL
This week has absolutely disappeared on me, days folding under the next with alarming speed. I’ve continued reading THRILL ME, and I’m two-thirds through Ondaatje’s WARLIGHT and am absolutely loving it. TED LASSO continues to absolutely delight. I read the latest DAREDEVIL, and considered how good it is, but also wondered if it’s anywhere near as good as the best creator owned stuff, and realised the answer is no. But I’ll always appreciate good time with Matt Murdock and Elektra.
-------
Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
-------
POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
Having a brain oscillate between “You’re not doing enough” to “You are exhausted, you should slow down” to “Here are a few new awesome things to do” is exhausting.
I don’t even have a solution. I just feel like that He-Man character with the three faces and you’d push down on him and the faces would change. Except my actual face doesn’t emote properly like a human, so you don’t really know. But inside, the faces are just whirring around.
Now I’m thinking about my face, it’s like I took Anti-Botox and it got frozen into a frown.
>:|
Your reflections(?) are always a treat. I appreciate them tremendously.
Your inner thoughts are so relatable! Haven't got around to BLACK BEACON butnit is on my list for sure. Can't wait to check it out! 🙌🍻🔥