• The Love as a Foreign Language Summer of Love tour!

• SDCC 2026 and Kickstarter News

• A Century of Mel Brooks

• Films I’ve Been Watching

Love as a Foreign Language’s Summer of Love Tour

I still can’t believe that Love as a Foreign Language is coming out in a few days! The new hardcover edition collects all six volumes and features both English and Korean dialogue with translations in the back. It’s a perfect book to read if you love travelling, because you not only get to get an experience of Korea, you also get to experience it in the 2000’s! It’s the very first story J. Torres and I ever worked on, and features colors by Wai Khan and lettering by Crank!

To help promote the book, J. Torres and I will be visiting four stores in Southern Ontario, so be sure to come on out if we’re in your neck of the woods!

We’ll be giving out free buttons to people that purchase at the stores as well. These are all (painfully) made by hand, from the buttons to the packaging! While supplies last!

SDCC 2026 And Kickstarters

If you’re going to San Diego Comic Con this year, be sure to check out the Oni Press Table (Table 1829) in the Small Press Pavillion, next to Giant Robot!

Also, here are some amazing people that will be at the show. Be sure to stop by their tables!

In Kickstarter news:

• Pro wrestler, comic creator and Podcaster Anthony Ruttgaizer’s Heroes of Homeroom C Volume 2 has about 5 days to go. Be sure to check out his campaign here and then share the news to help him get to his goal!

• Chris Schweizer’s (Crogan’s Adventures) campaign for The Outlaw’s Apprentice: Broken Blade has recently launched, and it includes a stretch goal at $40k where copies of Outlaw’s Apprentice will be given to every public library in Kentucky, as well as every public middle school and high school library in KY that requests one. A beautiful goal!

• Shelly Bond (Fast Times in Comic Book Editing, Vertigo, Black Crown) is about a third of the way through a kickstarter for her book, subCULTURE, a hardcover tribute to social disruptors through comics, essays and photos. More information here!

• Tiffany Babb (Popverse, PanelxPanel, AV Club) just wrapped up her latest KS for the fourth issue of the Comics Courier! Featuring articles by Armaan Babu, Hagai Palevsky, Kate O'Donoghue, Kathryn Hemmann, Samantha Puc, Shaenon Gaerrity, Tynan Stewart, Zack Quaintance, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, and Tiffany Babb, this fourth issue covers comics like Check, Please!, Big Mystery Case and Billy Bat. Looking forward to the fifth issue!

  Mel Brooks is 100

It's difficult picking out the best film out of Mel Brooks' catalogue. He's authored so many great laughs that one is really spoiled for choice: Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Producers…they’re all fantastic.

One thing fascinates me though, and that’s Mel Brooks’ catalogue outside of his comedies. The first time I recognized him being a part of a film outside his regular comedy zone was Solarbabies, a confusing SF flop featuring Jason Patric, Jami Gertz and Richard Jordan. Luckily for me, I was able to read through the interview with Mel Brooks about the film, a transcript from a bonus episode of How Did This Get Made between Brooks and Blake Harris of /Film.

Although the story itself is incredible and really should be read, or heard if you can find it, it got me to realize that Mel Brooks has also brought to the world some incredible dramas through his production company. Brooks was responsible for bringing Cronenberg's The Fly to life, along with The Elephant Man and The Doctor and the Devils. It takes a generous person with an enormous love for film to not just admire an early Cronenberg and Lynch, but to then take a chance on them and put their own producing muscle behind their work.

The first film that was made was the film Fatso starring Dom DeLuise, and the only film Anne Bancroft ever directed. Although the film received generally negative reviews when it came out, recent Letterboxd reviews seem to be generally more favourable. (TW: Eating, weight)

In the same interview, Brooks also talks about how the inspiration for Brooksfilms came from Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot):

"Billy Wilder said, "You're a magnificent director, but you'll never get a chance to do a serious film. So take your name off it, just take your name off it. Take Mel Brooks away, take the baggage away. Because if you did The Elephant Man, people would just laugh. There must be a funny trunk or something. Just make it Brooksfilms and produce them and supervise them. Kind of direct them from afar. And then you'll be able to follow your heart and do more serious or artistic films than the public will allow you to do as Mel Brooks. So thank god for Billy Wilder."

Also, Wilder's sensibilities are right: if Brooks had been more directly involved with The Fly, generations of people would likely not have taken it as seriously. There's a deep brilliance there.

In regards to Solarbabies, Brooks mentions that the film did eventually break even thanks to studios that needed material thanks to DVDs and streaming. And Brooks does say that the film taught him an incredible lesson in dilligence, reiterated through Bialystock:

"Leo Bloom says to Max Bialystock. And what are those two rules, Mr. Bialystock? "One: never put your own money in the show. And two...what's the second one? NEVER PUT YOUR OWN MONEY IN THE SHOW!!!!!!!"

However, there's another one that's a great takeaway that Brooks has with regards to persistence:

"...I think the world should know, the secret of this interview is never give up: there are unknown and unseen miracles that may save you."

To a century of Mel Brooks: soldier, comedian, actor, director, producer and storyteller. Here’s to you!

Movies Adapted To Video Games for the Amiga

And with that, we’ll see you in thirty!

- eric