TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE January/31 - SPEED REPUBLIC #1 launches this week!
New year, new job, new comic…same old me, though :|
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
-------
2022 -- bounce.
SPEED REPUBLIC #1 launches this week.
My latest comic lands in comic shops this Wednesday!
Artist Emanuele Parascandolo and I created SPEED REPUBLIC at Mad Cave Studios and we are excited to drop this intense car race across a dystopian Europe story into your beautiful minds this week as we begin this 5 issue miniseries.
I was on the Traversing The Stars podcast to talk all about it in a chat you might dig listening to.
I was also on the Part-Time Fanboy podcast with a great chat to hype the book, and life in general!
SPEED REPUBLIC got a lovely review at Pipedream Comics
And I was also on the Not Near Mint podcast/show, but that was more to chat about EVERFROST, though you can scope and enjoy that chat right here!
If you haven’t already preordered it, go in and ask your comic shop about it this week to nab a copy and we all hope you enjoy what has been a joy of a book to work on!
Look for these covers!
- - -
An end is a start.
The school holidays came to an end. The time of endless hours in the day, late breakfasts, maybe an extra coffee in the morning sitting out the back, it all has to end. But the purpose of that time is to recharge, let the brain cool down a little, and be ready to stand back up to tackle the new year. That’s always the plan.
I did my best to take advantage of my time off work, I always do. We watched many movies, went on many walks, and I read a lot of pages. My first day back was a series of professional learning workshops last Tuesday, and I survived, so I guess the holiday period did its job. I didn’t combust upon return.
I’ve spent the last week with my head deeply buried in the months ahead of me. I owed a publisher a revised/expanded pitch document, and once I delivered that I spent my mornings not writing comics but instead planning units of study for my classes. It’s not often my day job comes home and tramples over my writing time, but when it does I need to just commit and get the real work done. It’s been a week of that and the effort paid off because I feel far more focused, prepared, and excited about the coming semester.
Today is my first day of classes with a whole bunch of new students. This is the time to set the tone, make the connections, and begin building what will be an interesting year. I’m excited for some of the challenges and opportunities this new teaching setting will provide, and I’m certain a balance will slowly appear as I build more examples of work and quicker connections between what I'm doing, what I need, and what I’ve gotten done.
I often liken teaching to Indiana Jones running away from the rolling boulder. That rock is gonna drop and start no matter what you want, that’s Day One of the year. You can rop, hop, skip, dance, whatever, it might be graceful, you might stumble, but the rock’s gonna keep coming, and you’re gonna keep moving. Those are the two absolutes, and knowing that can sometimes be freeing. You just gotta get on with it and move in the moment, and hope and plan ahead that you can find ways to do it with flair so maybe you enjoy it along the way.
I’m a nerd, so I like figuring out how to make it a more fun experience, something interesting, even if just for me, but hopefully for the students, too.
- - -
The actual writing.
Like I said, a publisher wanted an expanded pitch/synopsis document. I tinkered with that, asking myself questions of characters and moments along the way, hopefully refining with my answers. It’ll probably be another week or two until I find out whether this gets picked up or not. If not, I have the next pitch in the chamber and ready to fire.
I’ve got The Seven Islands of Qoy pretty much ready to publish later this week, so will action that probably tomorrow morning. It’s my second solo writing rpg, after Welcome To Faraday dropped its suburban horror onto itch.io with very decent success.
I just proofed the letters for BLACK BEACON #6, which brings Sebastian Piriz and me to a close on our epic Heavy Metal story. I’ll let you know which issue it’ll be in when I know. Rereading it, I’m so so pleased with how this story all came together. Such a mammoth and satisfying ending.
-------
PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
FISSURE on The Other Stories podcast - my great mate, and editor on so many of my comics, Dan Hill just had a short story performed on The Other Stories podcast, and it’s a creepy little ditty that I absolutely loved. Check it out in your ears now!
THE GETAWAY - a solo writing rpg from Ken Lowery is a cracking read/resource. You are fleeing a bank robbery, what else can go wrong?
-------
GRIST FOR THE MILL
The old FANTASTIC FOUR movies - watched these with the kids this weekend. I enjoy both of them, not that they are exceptionally great cinema, but they are decent enough flicks that you can passively absorb them. Though I found myself not being so passive with these films, but rather analysing them with a feminist lens and finding them pretty lacking.
These are only like 15-odd years old, and they’ve aged poorly in ways that made me cringe in front of my kids. Sue Storm, played by Jessica Alba, just happens to get naked in both films, what a shock! Obviously, we don't see anything beyond her standing in her underwear, but it’s interesting to note that in both films this is seen as a shocking embarrassment for the character, whereas we are treated with a perve across the aisle with Chris Evans as Johnny Storm walking around a scene topless with only a pink jacket to cover his modesty, but it’s not portrayed in a way that brings shame to the character. Female nudity is a scandal, Johnny’s just a lad about town getting his kit off constantly.
Even my kids picked up on the sexist attitudes of Johnny Storm, as he’s hitting on every single woman who enters the frame [bar his sister], and he’s constantly got a different woman on his arm. And again, this behaviour is showcased as roguish, semi-charming, when in real life Storm is being a sleazeball and no one wants to be around that. Worse than his ways, it’s the way women are presented around him; whenever Storm is near the public a throng of women appear to instantly smile, giggle, touch, and lean forward to fill his mise-en-scene. It doesn’t speak very highly for them as “characters” which they aren’t, not really, they’re just set dressing for Storm.
It’s just interesting to note we get this kind of treatment in the Aughts, but cut to today and films like WONDER WOMAN and CAPTAIN MARVEL have paved a way for a new view of women in cape stories.
‘SALEM’S LOT - I finished my reread, with pages of notes, and I loved the Dickens out of this once again. More than I did when I was a teen. The kind of allegory Stephen King paints of small town gossip being its own kind of vampirism is fascinating. This strange balance between fear of the unknown, belief in what you hold dear and true, and the fact too much knowledge can also destroy you is a heady mix for a 1975 novel. I’m very excited about teaching this over the coming few months. I got a lot of thoughts, and some cool activities to go with it.
OUT OF SIGHT by Elmore Leonard - I started reading this as a brain cool off and I’m already 100 pages into it. I’m a huge fan of the Steven Soderbergh adaptation starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez and it’s interesting to note just how close Scott Frank’s amazing script aligns with the source material. Leonard has it all on the page, but you can see the inflection, the timing, the intonation, the camera, are all elevating it on the screen [a flick I’m dying to rewatch, and will do so once I’ve finished this read].
-------
Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
-------
POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
I have no real idea what this year is going to look like, on any front, to be honest. But I’m excited to tackle a bunch of things, and manage my options and expectations, and just work on enjoying it all with the people around me.
The start of the year is easier to find this kind of energy. Feel free to check in on me around late March and see if I’m wearing a flaming dumpster like a reflectatine hat and warding off bad omens with sobbing sigils.
But, until then, let’s kick start this year with some writing, some comics, some reading, and a good flow because you never know, maybe it won’t all fall apart.
Maybe, right? :]
My extended family excels at that sort of small town vampiric gossip, it really is draining.
The only King book I’ve read is ‘from a Buick 8’. After I’ve added ‘Salem’s lot’ to the list, is there any order you’d recommend reading his books in?
Also it was stressful reading your comparison of teaching to the boulder in Indiana Jones. I couldn’t shake the image of the boulder crashing through the back wall of one of his lectures, and Indy being forced to use his whip to Shepard the fleeing students to safety.
Excited to check out SPEED REPUBLIC. Always love your worlds (and characters) and I can't wait to see what kind of journey this wild ride is going to take us on!