What Makes You Beautiful

First up, welcome to the boat load of new subscribers to the newsletter. I’m assuming most of you are here because of the shout out the excellent and talented Ganzeer gave on his newsletter Restricted Frequency last week.

A bit of a quick station ident then?

My name’s Dan Hill and I write and edit comic books. Lately, I’ve been concentrating more on the latter (more of that in a second) though. I’ve had a number of shorts come out for various anthologies, including the Eisner nominated To End All Wars and Alterna comics published my one shot with artist Andrew Herbst, Go Home late last year. My second one shot, Disconnect, with artist Gav Heryng, is in the late stages of art production as we speak and covers the psychological implications of modern drone warfare. We’re hoping to have art completed by September. But, hey, never count your chickens in comics, right?

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As I mentioned above, I’ve been concentrating on editing a lot lately. It’s something I enjoy incredibly and get a great sense of learning and accomplishment from. Like most things, people end up enjoying I kind of just fell into it.

The current project I’m attached to as editor is Beautiful Canvas from Black Mask Studios by Ryan K Lindsay, Sami Kivela, Triona Farrell and Ryan Ferrier.

Issue #2 dropped this Wednesday and is picking up some great reviews. As with the other issues, there is some beautifully presented back matter discussing the influences on the series. This time around Ryan and I are discussing Rian Johnson’s, Looper. I always have great fun doing these back and forth discussions with Ryan and end up with a new way of looking at the film/comic/creator being discussed. Check it out!

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I went and saw Dunkirk yesterday and I was a little bit floored. Nolan has matured into an incredibly precise film-maker who treats us to spectacle on a grand scale. In that regard, Dunkirk is nothing new. But it still somehow feels like something more, an end-point that he’s gradually been working towards, a focal point of his qualities as a film maker.

The movie comes in at a lean two hours and moves along at an incredible pace. The tension (and Zimmer’s ticking clock of a score) starts almost immediately and doesn’t let up until the film’s final moments where Nolan then removes sound and score to amazing effect - an exhalation that has been a long time coming.

There are large parts of the movie without dialogue. Actions speak louder than words when you are literally fighting for your survival. What is there to say when all you want to do is get off the sand and get home? This is less of a war movie and more of a disaster/survival movie. As such, the German forces are kept entirely off camera. We see their planes, of course, hear their artillery, hear in hushed tones of their U-boats, but we never see a human face. Instead ‘the enemy’ (as the title card coins them) always lurk just off frame, threatening to strike like some kind of elemental force at any moment. They are everywhere and they are nowhere.

Nolan, always one to play with perspective and time, carries on that tradition here too. Not only do we flit between three different viewpoints (Land, Sea, Air) but three different time frames. It takes a little while to get used to the chronological geography, but once you do, Nolan begins to exploit it to great effect, juxtaposing shots of men trapped in the flooding hull of a ship at night with a sequence of a lone pilot attempting to break open his canopy before his plane sinks beneath the waves in the midday sun.

Some reviews have mentioned the lack of depth in its characters but the film somehow still manages (Cillian Murphy’s character doesn’t even have a name, for example) just presenting us with the characters and showing us their ordeal whilst giving stock to the idea that they are all just part of a much larger canvas. Every person involved in the events had a story to tell, their names all lost to time, a bullet, or the ocean.

If you like Nolan’s previous work, if you like spectacle in your movies in an era of rote CGI and set-pieces then go and see this on the largest screen you can find.

Oh, and for the record, Harry Styles is perfectly fine in his part and acquits himself well.

Don’t @ me.

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This is the section of the newsletter where I barrage you with a bunch of links that I’ve read and consumed during the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

• I’ve yet to see We Are Still Here but, man, I really want to see Mohawk after reading this review.

• A lot of people have been enjoying Jon Bois’ 17776 over at SB Nation. It’s cool to see his work reach a much wider audience. Do go and check out his earlier works including [these]https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/6/3/5772796/nba-y2k-series-finale-the-death-of-basketball) pieces on NBA Y2K. His series Breaking Madden is also excellent.

• As most of you know the Game of Thrones producers announced plans for a new show Confederate recently. Here is the awesome Roxane Gay on the problems of a ‘what if slavery never stopped?’ narrative when vestiges and new forms of it continue to exist in modern society.

• Everyone’s talking about Dream Daddy.

• Nolan talks to Esquire. Choice quote:

“Adam Grant: Rumor has it that you don’t allow phones on set. Ever. Is it true?

Christopher Nolan: Yes. There’s a mass belief that if you’re texting, you’re somehow not interrupting the conversation—you’re not being rude. It’s an illusion of multitasking. I started filmmaking when people didn’t expect to have a phone on set, when it would’ve been seen as unprofessional to pull out a phone. Phones have become a huge distraction, and people work much better without them. At first it causes difficulty, but it really allows them to concentrate on what they’re doing. Everybody understands. I’ve had a lot of crews thank me. With a set, we’re trying to create a bubble of alternate reality.”

• NY Mag profiles Zoe Quinn. Despite the hate, despite the trolls and daily harassment, she’s still going strong.

• The Ringer breaks out the love for Fincher’s greatest movie (come at me) Zodiac.

See you all in two weeks (if you aren’t wildly clicking that ‘Unsubscribe’ button already).

Until then…
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