BARKING AT THE GARBAGE TRUCK 1: I Begin Yelling
Hey everyone! I’m going to give you a little rundown on what this whole thing is (mostly) about— comics.
My name’s Mark Bouchard, and I write comics. I love horror, and it comes through based on the projects I choose to work on. I’ve written two graphic novellas—a body horror book about crunch culture called IT TOOK LUKE, which we funded via Kickstarter in 2020, and a horror comedy about a cabin in the woods called LEAF PEEPERS, which we funded on Kickstarter in 2022. LEAF PEEPERS is being released to backers, and in select comic shops in mid-late August. IT TOOK LUKE received a second life thanks to the folks at Oni Press, and a hardcover edition titled IT TOOK LUKE: Overworked and Underpaid will be hitting bookstores and comic shops in October of this year.
I have four projects that I’m about to start pitching around. One of them is called THE GUTTER KING— it’s a YA horror that features a trio of teens contending with a walking void that lives on the CTA blue line. I’m working on it with Val Halvorson (art, he/him), Gab Contreras (colors, she/her), and Becca Carey (letters, she/her). I’ll be keeping info about the projects pretty close to my chest, but I’m definitely going to be sharing some panels here and there. Speaking of which— a peek at THE GUTTER KING.
Another thing I'm going to be doing with this newsletter is highlighting some media I think deserves a spotlight. I'm going to try to talk about a comic, an album, and a movie in each newsletter, but sometimes I'll just hit two of the three. I'll always recommend a comic, though. Don't worry about that. Here's what I'd like to highlight this time around:
ISOLATION (2005)
Written and directed by Billy O’Brien, this 90 minute banger evokes ALIEN and THE THING, but takes place on an Irish dairy farm. The creature the cast of the film (ft. Ruth Negga) is fleeing from is a fucked up fetal cow. I’m not going to use this as a place to evangelize the movie, nor am I going to tell you any more about it— I don’t want to give any more away. It provides excellent commentary on the nature of factory farming, which really stuck with me. 5/5, for sure. It’s on Tubi now for free. If you’re a fan of either of the movies I comped it to, seriously, check it out.
I’ve been a casual SOUL GLO fan for a couple of years now, but this release cemented me as a front-to-back listener. It took a listen of the album with the genius page open for me to really get into it, but when something clicks, it clicks. Predominantly hardcore— but with some rap tracks sprinkled in, most verses on the album are delivered at a blistering speed, and I fuck with it. My favorite tracks on this one are GODBLESSYALLREALGOOD and Coming Correct Is Cheaper. A few screamed lines from the former really stuck with me— ”If I could talk to sixteen-year-old me, I’d be like, “You’re too young to get this / but you need to be flexible with all your future visions/ Everyone around you is showing you their true intentions / And you’ll just have yourself to blame if you don’t learn to listen””. I’ll hopefully be going to see SOUL GLO open for My Chemical Romance and Turnstile later on this summer with Bayleigh, who drew IT TOOK LUKE. Can’t fucking wait. Fingers crossed.
Liz Suburbia’s SACRED HEART (Fantagraphics)
This book is phenomenal. It's one of my favorites, evidenced by the fact that I recommend it and gift it to everyone. Just bought one for my kid sister yesterday, in fact. The premise is simple— it’s a town full of punk teens, no adults, no parents. More and more of the teens keep turning up dead, while drama swirls around our protagonist, her best bud, and sister. Liz Suburbia’s cartooning is fantastic. She’s an excellent storyteller. Here's the thing— there are so many pieces of media that brand themselves as ‘punk’ and just come across hollow and vapid. Not SACRED HEART. This is the real shit, whatever that means to you. It came out in 2015, but you can totally order a copy from your favorite comic shop. I bought one for my kid sister on the Silver Sprocket webstore literally yesterday, so it’s definitely in stock there.
Shit is fucked right now. If you have some extra cash, throw it towards The Chicago Abortion Fund. They do great work.
Until next month.
-Mark