You're Not Immune to My Fists!
Somewhere outside the realm of coherence and linear time lies the Akashic Library, its phantasmagorical shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What unknown esoterica shall we uncover there today? Read on, traveler, to find out . . .
Wow, I don’t know about you, but my April is just flying by. I feel like I’ve barely had time to read or watch much of anything (see the lists at the bottom for more details), much less work on my many and varied creative projects. Right now I’m focused on drawing the third issue of my comic book Lightning Man and, of course, continuing work on Swann Castle.
NEW SWANN CASTLE ARTWORK!
We are making three separate editions of Swann Castle using three different rules sets—QAGS, Troika!, and Old School Essentials. Each edition will have the same cover artwork, but different coloring, so that they will each have a distinctive look. Ace artist James Hornsby is still working on the other two, but here's the QAGS cover:
Evlyn Moreau has drawn a beautiful illustration of Sylvia Swann, matriarch of the Swann line and founder of Swann Castle, and it looks like this:
LIGHTNING MAN #3
I finally found the time to start drawing Lightning Man #3, and I’m serializing the pages as I go. Issue 3 begins here; if you haven’t read the previous two issues, start here.
In a previous newsletter I pontificated about the creation of Lightning Man #2; this time I’m going to talk a little about my goals for #3.
I’ve mentioned before that Lightning Man is a superhero comic that’s drawn like an indie comic. Based on its appearance, you’d expect it to be satirical, but no, it’s sincere. A digest-size superhero comic with minimalistic artwork.
My goal is to create a classic superhero story, like you’d find in a comic book series, yet I’m a busy guy and I only have so much time to draw comics. I have to streamline things.
A traditional superhero comic book series is very episodic. Traditionally each issue features a villain, usually a different one every issue, and also advances the ongoing plotlines, usually with soap opera elements mixed in. For example, look at the gold standard of the solo superhero genre—in the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man fights the Chameleon. Issue 2 introduces the Vulture, number 3 is Doctor Octopus, number 4 is the Sandman, et cetera. At the same time, Peter Parker is going to high school, pining for his crush and loathing his bully, trying to hold down a job, and struggling to pay the bills while his Aunt’s health is failing. Fights against colorful villains plus ongoing soap opera equals the Mighty Marvel formula.
This formula gets developed, expanded, and codified through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and eventually writers veer away from it, leading to the “decompressed” storytelling of 21st century comics. Writers these days take six issues to do what the old-timers would’ve done in one.
My goal in Lightning Man is compressed storytelling. I want to tell the kind of story that would have taken 12 issues of a mainstream comic in the early 80s over the course of 4 issues. And they’re small issues, just 5.5 x 8.5 inches! That means trimming out the fat and making deliberate choices about what to include.
The first issue was the origin story, like you would expect. Issue 2, though, avoided all subplots and supporting characters and was just an issue-long fight scene. In a traditional series you’d get a big fight scene against a different villain every issue, but I don’t have time for that, so I’m giving you this scene to stand in for all the others. The rest of the big fights from the first six months of Lightning Man’s career will be alluded to and glimpsed in snippets.
After an issue-long fight scene, I’m behind in terms of overarching plot and soap opera. So issue 3 gets all of that, the scenes that would’ve been interspersed among the fight scenes for 8 issues or so. There’s going to be teen drama, backstory, a crossover with another superhero, clues about the source of Lightning Man’s powers, new characters, all that stuff.
Issue 3 starts 80 years ago, during World War II. The second scene takes place “Six months ago,” then the next is “Five months ago,” and so on, counting down. It’s kind of a montage of the important things that happen in that time period, like I’m picking and choosing scenes from the full year’s worth of Lightning Man comics published in an alternate timeline.
Hopefully this will be a satisfying reading experience and you’ll feel like you’ve really come to know Lightning Man and his world after a relatively small number of pages. We’ll see how it goes! I’ve drawn 12 pages so far, of an estimated 24.
HUZZAH, I HAVE BOOKS AVAILABLE THROUGH KINDLE VELLA!
You can read the entirety of my occult detective novel The Lobster-Quadrille on Kindle Vella. If you like hardboiled detectives, men with lobsters for heads, Nancy Drew, occult conspiracies, and/or the works of Lewis Carroll, go ahead and start at the beginning.
There are also 26 chapters available of my science-fiction adventure Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation. More will be coming in the near future!
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST TIME
Boy Maximortal, Rick Veitch
Avengers: Acts of Vengeance, John Byrne, Paul Ryan, Tom Palmer, and various
MOVIES I’VE WATCHED SINCE I WATCHED GODZILLA (1998) IN JANUARY
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
Black Adam
Speed Racer
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
Super Mario Brothers
PODCASTS I’M INTO NOW
Blank Check
If Books Could Kill
The Time of Monsters
TV SHOWS I’VE TOTALLY OBSESSED OVER
Star Trek: Picard Season 3
Man, Picard Season 3! I have a lot of thoughts but they pretty much all involve spoilers, so I won’t get into them here, I’ll just keep droning on and on to my friends and family. But, if you ever enjoyed Star Trek: The Next Generation, you should check out this season, even if you missed the previous two. It’s the big grand finale to the TNG saga we’ve waited 21 years for.
Check it out, and I’ll get back with you in May.
Your Pal,
Leighton