Issue #45: Collective voids, Brexit shitscape and a positive message for the kids
Updates
Curriculum Issue #2 is up and running which means a change in creative team.
This time around we have Danny Djeljosevic on script, Gwenaelle Johnson on art, Mark Dale on colours and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on letters.
This issue follows the gang as they discover they’re not the only occupants of the icy hell-scape they find themselves in, venturing beneath the planet’s surface itself.
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The last week also marked my first prose submission, a horror short about grief and obsession (we’ll call it Project Void for now). I’ve been dabbling with prose for a while, but this marks my first effort at taking it seriously.
I’m under no illusions that this isn’t the start of a long and winding road, nor that I’ll be scoring a ‘hit’ first time out of the gate, but it was extremely empowering to develop something, finish it, and submit it.
Obviously it’s a whole other kettle of fish compared to comics but the two feed into ways that can only help me be productive in both.
Ryan often talks about having a motto or phrase to encapsulate the year ahead. I find it a useful bit of advice that focuses your efforts as the year winds on, a reminder, a mini-manifesto for the things you want to achieve.
But, there’s also the manifesto that emerges after the fact, the one that becomes clear when you’re at the tail-end of the year and you’re looking back at all of the lessons you’ve learned, your failures and successes. So this year my message to myself, and to you is:
Do not limit yourself.
You can take this as a call to not limit yourself by medium, genre of tone. Or you can go bigger and think about all the limits you impose upon yourself as a person.
Either works.
Recs
Corey J. White, the author behind the excellent Voidwitch Saga stories, has a new project worthy of your eyeballs. MechaDeath Magazine, via Oh Nothing Press, is ‘44 pages of hypercondensed cosmic action-horror & occult mechawarfare’, with words by Corey, art from Septian Fajrianto, 6VCR, Megan Mushi, Daniel Comerci and design by Trash.Been.
It’s a glorious looking ‘zine that’s worthy of your time and eyeballs and the first issue is available for free via the link above. Whilst you’re there check out some of Oh Nothing’s excellent t-shirts too.
Also, I have to give a quick shout out this week to the movie Calibre, written and directed by Matt Palmer. Set in the Scottish Highlands, the thriller follows two childhood friends as they go on a hunting trip. Tragedy ensues and the film continues to tighten its grip from there. It’s an effective, straight-shooting thriller with some amazing locations and camera work.
Palmer also brings in some social commentary about isolated communities fallen on hard times after their initial glory days, a highly relevant theme in our post-Brexit shitscape. But the majority of the film’s effectiveness comes in its constant ratchething of tension from the get go and sterling work from Jack Lowden (also great as the downed pilot in Nolan’s Dunkirk).
The film premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival back in June and a week later was on Netflix for all to see. On the one hand I’m happy that movies like this have the chance to find a large audience, but I can’t help but feel the movie has been lost amid the content void that is our collective watch list.
Rectify that. Go watch!
Links
- Modern China is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre argues LitHub.
“Guo Boxiong is a retired general in the People’s Liberation Army. When Guo was investigated for corruption, they found so much cash in his home that they couldn’t even try to count it with a currency-counting machine. They had to weigh it by the ton. They needed a truck to haul it all away.”
- Overcooked and the service it provides so couples can argue. Note: Overcooked 2 is out now and provides just as much mayhem and catharsis.
“After all, hearing a neighbor yelling at their significant other to do the damn dishes because the steak is burning, or groaning in exaggeratedly agonized frustration about missing ingredients or boiling rice, might give pause and even cause for concern. The vile utterances that have escaped my wife’s mouth while playing Overcooked might make one question the steadiness of our marriage.”
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There is something apocalyptic, maybe even biblical (or both), about the Earth giving up its dead due to climate change.
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Autumn Christian on ‘How to Become Great’.
“When you become that person, who gets comfortable with losing just because you don’t want to feel afraid. With the risk of sounding like some self-help guru, become great.”
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Nice profile on the strange twilight of Seymour Hersh’s career.
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The Atlantic put up this piece on DARPA and all of their crazy plans and projects since their inception. I wrote about DARPA for the back matter in the back of Headspace, so this stuff is extremely my jam.
See you all in two!