BARKING AT THE GARBAGE TRUCK 3: Barking Up...Again
BARKING UP...AGAIN
Ok, I fell off hard. My bad. Law school’ll do that to you. This semester, I’m taking less credits, so I’m going to try to keep up with it. Looking at my document for this, it’s about a year after I gave the newsletter up, so I’m giving it another shot.
What’s happened in the time since I dropped off? IT TOOK LUKE: Overworked & Underpaid came out from Oni Press. Shelby Criswell and I released LEAF PEEPERS as part of our micro press COFFEE BREATH PRESS. I signed with an agent. I had a book picked up, and then I didn’t. (We’re sending it out on sub again in a few weeks.) I finished my first year of law school, and got to speak with librarians and readers at ALA in Chicago. My last drafted post was all about the MCR, Turnstile, Soul Glo show I saw with Bayleigh Underwood and her spouse (as of today!!!!), Britt in North Carolina when I went down to visit, but so much has happened, since then—there is much to discuss!
Almost forgot! I’m writing the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Halloween Special this year! It’s out October 11th and you can pre-order it from your local comic shop already! Here's one of my favorite of the covers, by Nathalie Fourdraine.
Also I started working on a bunch more projects. I think like…4 more, including Sonic. One of which you’ll get to see WAY sooner than the others, because we’re doing it through Coffee Breath Press.
It’s called THE SUMMER IN YOUR BLOOD. It’s a b&w summer camp slasher graphic novella with a slight supernatural bend that I’m really stoked about. The co-creator/artist is Desolina Fletcher, who contributed a short horror comic to the now Ignatz-nominated SHADES OF FEAR anthology. Micah Myers, who I teamed with for IT TOOK LUKE is on letters. Emmett Nahil, editor of LEAF PEEPERS is editing once again. And Shelby Criswell is doing book design. They did this logo! Check it out!
We’re getting everything squared away for a mid-late September Kickstarter launch, so stay tuned for that. I’ll send out an email blast when the prelaunch page goes live. Maybe I’ll even throw in some not-yet-seen art to make up for bugging y’all more than once this quarter.
MEDIA I HAVE TO SCREAM ABOUT:
Mattie Lubchansky’s BOYS WEEKEND (Pantheon)
I was really struck by Mattie Lubchansky’s BOYS WEEKEND. In one sentence, the plot is this—a transfemme person is invited to their college best bud’s bachelor party on a floating Las Vegas-esque trash city in the middle of the ocean…as the best man. Lubchansky crafted a hilarious libertarian hellscape for us to follow the main cast through. There’s a cosmic horror business cult looking to bring about the end of days, too. I found it to be heartfelt and incredibly well-cartooned. Lubchansky is one of the best physical comedy cartoonists we’ve got right now, and that really shines through with this. Above all, it’s funny. Check it out.
Knocked Loose's UPON LOSS Singles Folk Horror Music Video
I usually try to talk about an album or something when I do this. Here’s the “or something”. The Upon Loss singles by Knocked Loose were released alongside a really killer folk horror music video that encompasses both songs. I’m gonna link that here. It’s 7 minutes long for the whole thing, and as my friend Lauren said, “This is how a band should sound and how a music video should be.”
The music’s hard, and the lyrics are harder: “A rat to most, to me less / true colors shown / and I’m not impressed” is an all timer line for when you’re thinking about the worst motherfucker you know.
Until next time!
— Mark