March 13, 2025

newsletter >> 03

:: politics. Another hasty rewrite? Of course! When I started writing this one in February, the world was, incredibly, much different than it is now. Who could’ve guessed that the ramblings of an unstable man in the president’s seat could screw up the least of all things, my newsletter.

(To sum up: Trump has been threatening tariffs on Canada in order to stop the flow of fentanyl, even though it’s about annexing Canada for its critical minerals (same with Ukraine.) Our Prime Minister, former PM and Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau, stood up to the threats and came back with tariff threats of his own, and inadvertently consolidating Canadians everywhere and unifying them in a moment of national unity. Like a large Voltron, composed of 13 provinces and territories that sort of disagree with each other about most things.

(This also comes at a time when most of us are getting ready for a federal election. The CPC has been rattling their sabers and getting ready to announce this for months now, mostly because they had a hot hand that was suddenly lost because they’ve modelled themselves after Trump. The CPC lost a massive lead and has divisive moron Pierre Polievre squaring down against former governor of the Bank of Canada, former governor of the Bank of England, former deputy minister in the Department of Finance, former UN special envoy for climate action, former chairman of Brookfield Asset Management former banker with Goldman Sachs and PhD in Economics from Oxford, Mark Carney. Yet despite Carney’s credentials, we’ve seen capable people lose to massive idiots, so this is still anybody’s game…which I hate.)

Anyways, this long ramble is all to say that I’ve had a lot on my mind and have been watching far too much news. Let’s move on to something else!

:: cold. I was fortunate enough to get to view Liz Whitmere’s Cold (2023) last month, featuring Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp, Letterkenny), Sean Baek (Killjoys, Alphas) and Peter Keleghan (Ginger Snaps, The Newsroom!) The Q&A with Whitmere and the rest of the crew after the viewing was really enjoyable, explaining the impetus behind the film and also teasing further development. I’ll be sure to share more info as it trickles in. If you haven’t seen Whitmere’s horror short film, you should treat yourself and view it online.

:: film. Are superhero films just makeover movies? I don't know, but I'm starting to suspect that they are.

:: quote. “In human society, discrimination is created as policy by leaders intent on preserving their advantages where separate statuses are legislated. Moreover, these social distinctions result in people becoming mutually hostile to each other, splitting into factions, and supporting the authority of leaders who try to single-handedly stop progress in its tracks.“ From The Legend of Kamui, by Shirato Sanpei (Drawn & Quarterly, 1964, 2025) Pick it up at better bookstores everywhere.

:: drawing board. On deck right now is Dinosaurs from Outer Space no. 36, which should be appearing in Owl Magazine’s June' issue, so right now my mind is drinking pina coladas while my body is shivering from the cold. Oy!

Incidentally, I’ve also been working on ways to help speed up my drawing techniques while at the table. If you’re on Bluesky and you find that interesting, you can read over my thoughts and comments here. If not though, you can read an article by Ryan Estrada on how he speeds things up. It’s pretty interesting, and both of them share a similar starting point, in that after a while, we both recognized that our workflows had patterns in them and that there was no point in repeating the same meaningless work which took away time that could be spent doing literally anything else. Which brings me to…

:: superzine. A lot of Superzine issue 2 has been assembled, but I’m still missing a feature story, so I’m working on that right now. I think the featured essay will be on The Mask of Zorro (1920) and how Douglas Fairbanks Sr.’s persona not only helped out the finances of United Artists (which he co-founded with Chaplin, Pickford and Griffiths, in case you didn’t know), but also helped inspire Superman and Batman. Wow!

:: eric