TL;DR (Too Long, Don’t (Wanna) Read)

• I’m on a Break!

• Letters from the Void has Almost Arrived!

• Crit One 4 Raised $808!

• Into the Gutters: Who Inspires Me

• Gutter Buds!

  • Something OId: Flood! A Novel in Pictures

  • Something New: Go back Loogie #1-2

  • Something Borrowed: Assorted Crisis Events

  • Something Blue: Fangirl Down

WHAT’S THE WORD?

Word - a speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use; a brief remark or conversation; order, command; something the writer put here as a placeholder because they’re tired.

I’ve Been Doing Nothing And Will Continue Until Mid-April

In a previous Guts N’ Gutters, I talked briefly about the book Rest is Resistance and how I believe it’s important to have time where you stop doing all creative pursuits and just be. The US is already riddled with constant urges to “hustle” and work harder than anyone to achieve our dreams, but we’re human, not machines, and we can’t work constantly. Choosing to rest is an act of protest and good for our craft. I’ve finally found the time to choose nothing.

What will I be doing during this time?

Well, unfortunately, I can’t completely disconnect. I have to fulfill Letters from the Void and Crit One 4, but if I waited until those are complete, I’d never take this much-needed break. A coworker of mine put it well when I talked to him about this conundrum: “Sometimes, you just need to plan to be less busy”. So, I won’t be fully unplugged, but intentionally less busy and that’s good enough. Finishing those campaigns doesn’t need my constant attention.  

In between those things, I’ll be catching up on reading the great comics I haven’t gotten to, listening to new music and old favorites, and checking out a bunch of books on graphic design from the library. I find studying and learning new things incredibly relaxing, especially when I can take my time to do it, so I’m very excited to dig in. Yes, I’m a dork’s dork for the new subscribers.

Because of this rest period, this month’s article is more content than thoughtful piece, but I hope it will still be interesting and fun. Thanks to you all for your support and well returned to our regularly scheduled, overly-analytical nonsense next month!

Letters From The Void

I have received the proofs and the print order is on the way!

Crit One 4 Was A Smash!

Crit One 4 raised $808, which was over twice our goal! The zine has been released digitally, and print copies are on the way!

INTO THE GUTTERS

Inspo Corner  

Recently, I posted on BlueSky about my ten biggest inspirations. Since I’m taking a break and wanted something simple for this month, I took that post and expanded on it. I hope you enjoy!

Matt Kindt

Easily my favorite creator, Matt Kindt’s work has yet to miss in my mind. I love how his work doesn’t use comics just as a means to tell a story; he also uses it to artfully explore the medium. He’ll include storytelling bits in the gutters of his work, use other visual media in an epistolary way, and even fake comic scripts, like in one issue of MIND MGMT: Bootleg. Kindt even goes so far as to consider the comic as a book in his creation:

“I really just want the tactile part of holding the book to be part of the story. The smell. The thickness of the page. The inside covers. Your interaction with the book is the “bigness” of it.”  

• From AIPT

Others have called him a postmodern cartoonist, and I agree with that label. Kindt reminds me to always think about what’s possible with comics in my writing.

John Cameron Mitchell (William S. Burroughs by Proxy)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is one of my favorite films/musicals/stories. It speaks to me on such a deep level that I don’t know if I can convey how much I love it to anyone. Mitchell, as a huge Burroughsian, blends memoir and fiction so tightly that it’s impossible to say if it’s either or both. In many ways, it feels like opening up the author’s skull and being thrust into the surreal hurricane of his psyche, while staying a few inches away from reading a personal diary. I’ve yet to figure out how to do this myself, but I strive to unlock this puzzle.

Beyond my feelings, Mitchell’s specificity is my favorite thing about his writing. His characters are often terrible people, but they’re so fleshed out and unique that they feel real, and go through stories tailor-made for them. You can’t help but love them despite their flaws. Hedwig is his most recognizable work, but truly, I recommend listening to his audio drama Homunculus so you can see what I mean.

Art Spiegelman

It’s here that you might see a trend in the creators I admire. Like Kindt, Spiegelman is a favorite of mine because of how he pushes comics and cartooning to its extremes. Reading his work is more than witnessing an experimental comic; it’s like seeing a monk whose reached nirvana show what’s possible in the universe. Spiegelman understands comics so thoroughly that the reader can’t help but feel enlightened, while at the same time recognizing that his story is about Ace Hole Midget Detective. I read a book that used the ideas of “high brow” and “low brow” from pop art to explain how the creator of Maus is somehow “no brow”. His ability to have highly intelligent, emotional work that is also completely absurd breaks the idea of high and low art. It’s an idea I seek in my own work, and I hope to display more in the future.

Jeff Lemire

Lemire is a lot of people’s favorite writer, so I likely don’t have to argue his case to many of my subscribers. My first encounters with him were from Black Hammer and a lesser-known series of his called Family Tree. His ability to write interesting family dynamics hooked me immediately, and I like that his characters are always dysfunctional but incredibly relatable. This will be another theme that pops up again and again in my writing. I like messy characters, especially queer ones, and aspire to write memorable casts like Lemire.  

Naoki Urasawa

“Wow, Luke. You just started reading Urasawa this year, and he’s already made the list?”

Yeah… I can’t help it. Naoki Urasawa is the kind of creator I want to be. His stories are complicated and thoughtfully paced, but still human. This man somehow managed to write a story that’s part teenage girl slice of life drama and part government kaiju cover-up without sacrificing the charm of either. He’s a master craftsman at characters and exploring a theme through every angle. I’ve loved digging into his stories, and I look forward to revisiting them for years to come.

Rian Johnson

I have a mostly finished essay that I might unleash one day about Rian Johnson’s mixing of theme and form in his movies. I adore how he structures his stories to mimic the themes of his films, but I’ll save the details for that maybe future essay. It’s a holistic view of storytelling that I love and really shows that even the little things that an audience doesn’t directly perceive should require the same amount of thought.

Tessa Bailey

I’m sure most of my subscribers aren’t romance readers, so this name may be unfamiliar. Change that. Do it now. Go read a Tessa Bailey book.

Jokes aside, Bailey is one of my favorite writers, period. I love how she constructs the couples in her books. My wife went to one of Bailey’s book tour stops, and the author stated that she writes her couples non-chronologically, first giving them a past that will inform their decisions, and then giving them a future to work toward. Once she had that, then everything in the middle (also known as the book) could be written. Bailey’s thoughtful approach makes great characters, even side characters, to whom the reader can easily relate. Plus, Bailey is great at giving men emotional journeys that don’t hinge entirely on their woman partners.  

Frannie Choi

Choi is my favorite poet, and her work inspires all my pursuits, even my comics. Like Spiegelman, her work breaks the high/low art dichotomy by referencing pop culture while also being deeply thought-provoking. Her creative structures and ease at morphing between formal and informal language just amaze me.  

Mike Mignola

Again, I don’t have to argue Mignola’s accolades to many of my subscribers. What I love most about Mignola is how Hellboy is a culmination of everything that he loves. It’s a work only he could make. Drawing from the pulp character John the Balladeer (did you know Hellboy was inspired by a wandering bard?), folklore, gothic fiction, and the art of Frank Frazetta would seem like a random combination of things, but it’s what makes Mignola’s work stand the test of time. Plus, as a design nerd, I like how Mignola views the cover art and comic pages as a feat of design. I could go on, but I’d be here all day.  

Clem Robins

Robins is a letterer who these days seems ashamed of his work. His website used to be a hub for essays on comics and hosted some of my favorite pieces on the craft of lettering. Sadly, they are gone and the notes I took when I first read them are all that remain. Today, his website is dedicated to his religious paintings.

I first fell in love with his lettering in Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles and have drawn on that series a lot in my own lettering work. While most lettering advice suggests clean, ellipses shapes, The Invisibles has intentionally misaligned letters and creative balloon shapes. Robins said in the previously mentioned essay that lettering should seek to be beautiful first and consistent second. For Morrison’s series, the beauty was in the anarchic nature of the story and characters, so Robins' work reflected that. I seek this kind of intentionality in my lettering as well and continue to return to Hellboy, The Invisibles, and 100 Bullets as references.  

GUTTER BUDS

SOMETHING(S) OLD

Flood! A Novel in Pictures by Eric Drooker

In his February newsletter, Gerald Von Stoddard explored the age-old discussion in comics of the importance of art vs. writing. Gerald listed this book as an inspiration for him, and I love reading books that others find meaningful. I requested a copy from my library and read it in a less than an hour, but I’m still thinking about it. Though the title says “A Novel in Pictures,” there are actually a few words in there, but it’s mostly art alone. Though the silent nature of the book leaves much up to interpretation, to me, this seemed like a story about the quest for meaning and the lengths one will go to feel happy. It’s a book, I’ll definitely be revisiting and if you’re reading Gerald, thanks for the recommendation!  

SOMETHING(S) NEW

Check out these campaigns by friends, colleagues, and things I just thought looked cool:

Loogie #1-2

Meet Loogie.

She lives in wasteland that is dangerous, weird, and full of trouble… which is exactly how she likes it.

She's chasing after some ancient technology that literally fell out of the sky. But there's just one problem.

Everyone else in the Brink wants it too.

That means scavengers with nothing to lose, aristocratic tech-knights with something to prove, and an invincible golem that doesn’t care about either.

If Loogie is going to claim this prize, she’ll have to fight for it.

SOMETHING(S) BORROWED

Assorted Crisis Events

Less is more when describing this book. I went into it blind and think I had a richer experience for it. I’ll simply say that it’s a commentary on the idea of multiverses, using incredibly inventive comics storytelling, and if you’re a fan of things like Ice Cream Man (moreso in technique than in tone), then I can’t recommend this enough.

SOMETHING(S) BLUE

Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey

I warned you that the “Something Blue” section would sometimes be random. This is neither blue-colored nor sad, so deal with it (JK don’t be mad, I really just needed something to recommend here). Tessa Bailey was on my list of inspirations, so I won’t talk more than I already have about her, but this book is a great example of everything I talked about. I’m sure not everyone is a romance fan (but why? Don’t you like fun?), but regardless, I think everyone should give this one a read.