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Like I said the big thing this month is going to VanCAF. The rest of the month is mostly keeping my nose to the grindstone.
This month’s full moon movie is The Wolfman again. This time the remake. While watching the original Wolf Man, myself and other folks in the discord talked about some of the stuff that was changed in the remake (stuff like the remake is twice as long.) So I figured doing a back to back would be kinda fun. So if you wanna join, we’ll be watching it May 5th at 6pm PST. Join the discord if you want.
As always I’ll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:
I’ll definitely doing something like this for The Better to Find You With. As I’ll get to in the next section, I got a lot of stuff on my plate. It will probably be some time in the fall.
I spent a lot of April still playing catching up on things. I was really backed up on my work for Seven Seas. I think I got it handled now, but Blue Moon is still not done. I think that has to be my primary focus this month. I was hoping to get the current chapter of You are the Chosen One last month, but that didn’t happen. It’s penciled so for the next few Fridays I’ll post the pencils of the rest of chapter.
By the time those go up, I’ll hopefully be done with Blue Moon and can give You are the Chosen One more attention. I hate to do it, but I have to put something on hold. The City Between being free means it gets me more new readers/attention and You are the Chosen One takes longer. And after I write Blue Moon, I should probably make sure the next batch of You are the Chosen One script are ready for drawing.
So here’s my to do list/priority:
Write Blue Moon
Keep up with The City Between
Freelance thing that is NDA
Clean up Murky Water to make a book
Finish Chapter 3 of You are the Chosen One
Review next few chapters of You are the Chosen One
Anyway, that’s quite a lot.
I barely had time to read or watch new stuff this month. So kinda a short list this month.
Darling by Olivia Stephens – Darling is a Western Horror about a black woman who’s living as a werewolf to escape the racism of 1800s America. She meets a black man on the run and the two have an instant connection Olivia art is excellent and rendering makes every page look both beautiful and haunting. It’s one of the best werewolf comics I’ve read. You should all go back it here.
Love is Hard for Otaku – This is one checked out because Mangasplaining did an episode on it. They had a kinda mixed opinion of it, but I was curious to look into it myself. It’s about a gal who’s a big nerd but is hiding it from her day job because her last boyfriend dumped her for being too nerdy. A nerdy guy friend proposes they date each other because since they are both nerds she won’t have to worry about him dumping her for it. There is a manga and an anime. The manga is a little rough. The pacing seems to be kinda wonky. The anime does a better job landing the jokes, mostly because a lot of the jokes involved references to anime. So the joke works better when they can copy the scene from Evangelion shot for shot, rather than translation the animation into a comic. I don’t 100% buy the characters as a couple so I’m on the fence about continuing to watch it.
Nope – This was something that was on my I should get around to seeing this movie since it came out. It was streaming so I made a point to watch it. It’s less than a year old so I won’t go into details about the plot. But I really liked the point it makes about random chance and nature. I also really liked the relationship between the two main siblings. It was a good mix for conflict, frustration, and affection.
Thanks to everyone who came to Emerald City and stopped by! While I did recover from my sinus infection before going, my throat/voice didn’t come back until like a week or 2 ago.
This month I’m redoing the Fame and Misfortune live reading. If you don’t remember, when I did it in February my mic was broken. I have a new mic! So take two of the live reading is happening! Tune into my twitch on April 22nd at noon PST.
This month is also the release month of The Lizard Prince and Other South American Stories. This is the last Cautionary Fables and Fairytales volume. Iron Circus told me they will get the warehouse at the end of the month. Then it can start going out to backers and stores! Also, I want to give a shout out to my pal Matt Wilson’s Zoop campaign, Imposter Syndicate. It’s about folks who are hired to take over supervillian mantles after a supervillian dies or goes to jail. It has 11 days left to fund. Also this month’s full moon movie is The Wolf Man, the one for the 40s. If you’d like to join we’ll be watching it on April 6th at 4pm PST. Just click here to join the discord.
As always I’ll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:
March kicked my ass. Between Emerald City and being sick, I had a lot to catch up on. Both from Seven Seas, Iron Circus, and my comics all had a stack of work to finish up. Honestly, I’m kinda depressed about the fact that I still haven’t been able to finish Blue Moon. While Spike is understanding about the delays (given that organizing crowdfunds for her is part of the delay), I’m frustrated at the lack of progress. I’m also kinda frustrated with my art lately. Last month I mentioned I might have to put You are the Chosen One on hiatus after the current chapter, but I think I might switch to every other week. It’s only way I’m gonna have time to push myself on it the way I want. Regardless, I’d rather wait for Chapter 3 to wrap up before making that schedule change. Until then. I’ll just be tired I guess.
But because I don’t know any better, I started learning Japanese from Duolingo and Rosetta Stone. I appreciate that they are small enough lessons that I can do them little bit by little bit. Anyway, while working this is what I’ve been watching and reading:
History of the World Part 2 – I basically grew up on Mel Brooks movies. I’ve seen all his movies before graduating high school. So when Hulu said it was making a History of the World Part 2 series, I had to watch it. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but had to check it out. Like many sketch shows, the sketches are hit or miss. But when it’s funny it’s REALLY funny. Johny Knoxvill plays Rasputin in a jackass parody that shows all the way Rasputin is killed and it’s so much funnier than it has any right to be. It’s definitely worth a watch if you like Mel Brooks.
Palm Springs – This is another comedy where I didn’t know what to expect. Groundhog Day but starring Andy Samberg didn’t strike me as super original but the trailer looked funny, so I put it on while drawing. It was not only funny but much more heartfelt than I expected. Andy Samberg’s characters starts the movie as having already been in the time loop for a long time. He has to relive a wedding he’s a guest at over and over. The movies starts when the sister of the bride gets trapped in the timeloop with him. Having two people in the time loop gives it more interesting dynamic than the usual timeloop story. Both characters’ different approach to the timeloop adds push and pull to the relationship. And it is just really funny.
Tár – Right before Emerald City Comic Con a youtuber I like, Maggie Mae Fish, made a video about this movie. And how it examines how people abuse power. The basic summary of the movie is Tár is a conductor at the top of her field and she keep abusing her power, mostly to sleep with/date/groom young attractive women that work for her. It’s an interesting movie because if it was about a man it would be a cliche. But because Tár is a woman, the movie can focus on the details and specifics of her abuse of power. There is a lot of attention to detail that helps the movie work on another level. I think if I say anything more, then I’d end up getting into spoilers/would basically be writing an essay about it.
Wolf Pack – I thought this was a sequel to MTV’s Teen Wolf. And it is not. It has the same show runner and effects team, so it LOOKS like it should be connected to Teen Wolf, but instead it’s much more serious. Which is kinda a shame. The show is kinda stiff in its seriousness. There are interesting bits here and there, like all the werewolves only get one werewolf power unless they are all together. But in its attempt to be series, it also tries to throw in one too many twists and then ends the show by taking a sharp turn into ableist messaging.
Witch Hat Atelier Volume 1 by Kamome Shirahama – Last month I mentioned I’ve been listening to the podcast Mangasplaining. This and the next pick are the first of what will probably be several manga I check out based on that podcast. I had been recommended Witch Hat Atelier before and just put it off because time. Mangasplaining reviewing it was the final push I needed. They basically mentioned that magic in this series is 100% a metaphor for art. And appropriately, the art is just so beautiful that it’s inspiring. I think it and Ghost Cage were part of what made me think I need to take the time to level up my art.
Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui – This series I read a bunch of before the pandemic and then the library stopped being up to date on it/interrupted me checking em out regularly. If you aren’t familiar, it’s about dnd style adventurers exploring a dungeon and experimenting with cooking the monsters they kill (so they don’t have to go back for supplies). It’s almost over so I went and grabbed the books I hadn’t read yet (like 5 I think). This one is really cute and I’ve liked how the plot has developed from the original premise to something with more complicated.
Ghost Cage by Nick Dragotta and Caleb Goellner – I picked this up because I know both Nick and Caleb. They had the first few issues at SDCC and I made a note to grab the trade when it’s out. The premiss is this little robot guy has to fight personifications of what humans use for power (above is Fossil Fuel). The art is the real star of the show. It looks cool as hell and it is the star of the show. The paneling is really rad and interesting. Like I said with Witch Hat Atelier, it left me inspired to try and up my art.
Backpacking through Bedlam (Book 12 in Incryptid series) by Seanan McGuire – The Incryptid series is about a family of Cryptozoologists. This books picks up right after a semi cliffhanger from the last book. It’s kinda hard to talk about it on its own. I liked it but I kinda wish it and the book right before it were one book.
That’s everything I’ve been from me this month. I hope I can get a little more time to focus on stuff.
Hey everyone! Hope you had a good February. I’ll be at Emerald City Comic Con this weekend! Cautionary Fables and Fairytales will be at table 20815! There is a nice map up top (I took Kory Bing’s image of our booth because I didn’t have time to make my own.)
Emerald City is the big thing this month. But Failure to Launch is still crowdfunding! It goes until March 9th. Me, Spike, and Amanda will do a special Iron Circus Geekshow to close it out. That will be Thursday March 9th, at 6pm PST. Grab it while you still can!
Last month I was a guest on War Rocket Ajax. I was promoing Shards of Reflection and the Fame and Misfortune live reading. But really we mostly talked about videogames.
I got a bad sinus infection last week. So I haven’t really had time to work on Blue Moon. It’s getting to the point where I think I might have to put You are the Chosen One on break again. I don’t want to, but right now it’s the comic that takes the most time (mostly because it’s in color). I’m gonna see how much I get done this month when it comes to Blue Moon. Then I’ll decide. If it goes on break, it will be after the current chapter is done posting (in July).
Getting sick really threw off my exercising. I’ll get back to it after Emerald City. Kinda a double whammy of sickness and then con to mess up the routine. It’s a shame because I was getting used to/forming a habit until I got sick. But sick meant I watched more stuff. Last month this section was kinda long. Maybe I should post these on my blog more frequently and just link to those posts? Anyway here’s what I watched and read:
Posthumous Education (book 8 in The Utterly Uniteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred the Vampire Accountant) by Drew Hayes – The vampire accountant series is one I always grab as soon as it comes out. It stood out to me because most urban fantasy books are about magic cops or magic detectives. The series as a whole are episodic short stories and I like that they are mostly small stake conflicts. Like this volume the main character is teaching a business class at a supernatural college. The first story is about him trying to convince students how important learning basic contract knowledge is, not just for dealing with humans but also the fae and really any supernatural that makes deals. The series as a whole has bit about how higher ups abuse these legal tricks to control the inexperienced. I’m definitely gonna keep up with the series because small scale stories like this are harder to find.
Woke – This is a hulu show that is loosely based off the K Chronicles by Keith Knight. I didn’t know much going in and wanted to see how Keith’s work was turned into a TV show. I ended up really enjoying it. The first season is about what an artist’s responsibility to the world. Like if you have an audience, how much do you have to use it for talking about important topics vs using it for escapism? And then how does commerce tight into an artists work. It was very funny and clever. It also uses Keith Knight’s hand letterer for all the captions, text messages, and another another thing that needs a pop up label. It gave the show a unique look that helps tie it more to the comic it is based off of.
Baby Driver – Another thing with a unique look was Baby Driver. I like Edgar Wright movies but never got around to see Baby Driver until now. Basically, when it came out I was only interested in it because Edgar Wright was the director. Like everything I heard about it made me think that it might not be for me. And my instincts were right. While Baby Driver was a very pretty/stylish movie, the story and characters kinda fell flat for me. I might revisit it if I want to mimic it’s specific look in an illustration, but for now it just made me want to rewatch Hot Fuzz.
Puss in Boots: Last Wish – To continue the line of stuff that is stylish and looks interesting, Puss in Boots: Last Wish is much better than it has any right to be. I mostly saw it because everyone was telling me it was much better than you’d expect. That is 100% true. The usually Shrek style was dropped in favor of something that is more stylized like Into the Spiderverse. The whole cast is after a fallen star they can make a wish on is the main driver of the story. That’s a simple plot that allows for a lot of cool action and slapstick humor. So they can put the new style to good use. Then since the plot is so simple, there is also room for the characters to grow and change. Which means, unlike Baby Driver, you have a very strong sense of who everyone is and why they are involved in the story. Maybe I like it so much because I had low expectations, but it was very surprising in how good it is.
The Banshees of Inisherin – My favorite stories are ones that are funny and sad at the same time. The Banshees of Inisherin is just that. I think it’s also a great example of how you can make something that seems small feel like the most important thing in the world. If you don’t know, it’s about two men in a small Irish town that have been friends for years. The starting incident is one telling the other he doesn’t want to be friends anymore. The other can’t accept that. I like that while you watch these two men argue about whether or not they should be friends there is an underlying heart and sadness that isn’t spelt out. The man who doesn’t want to be friends says the other man is dull and he is wasting his life listening to the other guy. So he is clearly wrestling with how short his time is on earth. And for all his desire to do something “important” with his life, he is spending a lot of it arguing with this former friend now. And the other guy is so upset that he is bringing his donkey into his house. The donkey is making a mess of his house but it’s something for him to cuddle while depressed and lonely. Both situations are a combo of sad and funny. This is a movie I’ll probably think a lot a bit and will revisit.
Aggretsuko Season 5 – I have some mixed feelings about Aggretsuko’s last season. I really liked the first 3 seasons, but the more the show pushed Retsuko and Haida as a couple the more I lost interest. So season 4 and now season 5 giving him more scene time made me lose interest in him. It seems like a shift to try and justify him as a love interest. Also Haida’s brief bit of being homeless felt like something the show wasn’t prepared to properly address. Like the show wasn’t to be sympathetic, but gives reasons for why the homeless characters are “stuck” that way. So it wants to be sympathetic while blaming the homeless for their situation. And then that story line is kinda tossed aside for Retsuko to run for office. I like Retsuko running for office, but didn’t really like that she was strong armed into it. She has been repeated pushed into important plots each season. I wish the last season changed that. It would have been a nice way to end a series of her being so passive. Like the whole show has been realizing her unhappiness with the system and seeing others also unhappy under it. I would have liked her to make an active choice to try and change the system. And then maybe tie the homeless plot line into that more. As is, the two plot lines don’t mesh with each other super well.
I’ve also been listening to the podcast Mangasplaining. It reviews manga and guides people through a wide variety of series. It makes me want read more manga. But only so much time is in the day. Either way, there might be more manga in these write ups. I at the very least should reread Akira (it’s been like 15 years).
Thanks as always for your support this month. Have a good one everyone.
Hi everyone. Hope you all had a good January. Lots of things coming up this month!
Firstly, as the title says Failure to Launch’s crowdfunding has gone live.Failure to Launch is a light-hearted, educational tour of (so far!) unrealized technological and societal advances promised in years past, but which never came to be. What could have been, but wasn’t. It tells the tales of planned utopias in space, wild inventions, attempts to improve society, robot pets, and predictions of armageddon! History is often written by the winners, but this time join us in spotlighting those who didn’t let failure stop their dreams. I edited it and drew a story. My story is titled Paradise Within the Reach of All Men. It’s written by Ryan North and io9 posted a sample!
Also while not in February, it’s early enough in March that I wanted to mention it now. March 2nd-5th I’ll be at Emerald City Comic Con. They haven’t sent a map yet, but I’ll try to post it in March’s newsletter.
Also, The City Between has a new storyline starting. It’s up early on my Patreon, but will start posting on my website this month.
This past month I did my best to work on Meredith McClarren and I’s graphic novel Blue Moon. I’m behind on writing it because I’ve been a little buried with editorial work for Iron Circus and Seven Seas. A lot of my free time this month will go to trying to finish that one up.
On the editorial front, I’m putting the finishing touches on Failure to Launch. I’m also getting the ball rolling on a new anthology about committing crimes. It’s called Perfect Crime Party. That will be fun to get the ball rolling on. At Seven Seas I’m editing the manga for one of my favorite recent animes, Life of an Ordinary Guy reincarnated as a Fantasy Knockout.It’s a very funny parody of fantasy books and romantic comedies. I recommend checking it out the anime or the manga once it’s out.
Staying on top of all that and exercising every morning has been pretty rough. But it’s getting easier. I had trouble sticking with it after SDCC and ECCC being so close together last year. So doing Emerald City Comic Con will be the test on if I can stick with it. I’ve mostly been watching stuff while on the treadmill.
Here’s stuff I watched and read this month
My Love Mix Up vol 6 by Wataru Hinekure and Aruko – I mentioned this in my newsletter a year ago. But My Love Mix Up is one of my favorite regular reads. It’s very cute. The bisexual main character starts the series with trying to figure out his feelings for two crushes (one guy and one girl). Now that it’s been going on awhile the series has moved on to the main character navigating dating another guy. I like it because the character conflicts are mostly about them figuring out their own feelings rather than miscommunication. I find people needing that time and space to sort out their feelings and thoughts really appealing. Like the love interest is dating the main character and hasn’t had a crush or feelings for anyone before. He sometimes comes off as detached or disinterested in they relationship. So compared to the heart on his sleeve main character, the conflict doesn’t need miscommunication. Because if someone needs time and space, that’s a conflict that can only be resolved with said space and time.
The Night Eaters by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda – I picked this up because I like Monstress by the same creative team. The art is beautiful just like Monstress. Currently, I think I prefer Monstress because that hit the ground running. But The Night Eaters was mostly setting things up for the series. The main characters are twins that don’t understand their immigrant mother. They have a good dynamic and I like their back and forth as they learn their family’s supernatural secrets. I’m gonna grab volume 2 and maybe now that groundwork is laid it will really knock volume 2 out of the park.
Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire – This is the newest volume of The Wayward Children Series. If you don’t know it, the series follows kids that had a portal fantasy adventure and came back. Mostly the kids are called to their respective fantasy worlds because those worlds fix the kid better. I always like this series and end up grabbing the book the day it comes out. This one follows a girl who ends up in an in-between world which is where lost things magically end up. It is better for her because her home life has gone to hell and it’s a sanctuary for her. She doesn’t realize what she is giving up to stay though. It has some good thoughts and observations about how people treat children. All the Wayward Children protagonists have rough home life, but this one starts especially rough.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – I loved this version of Pinocchio. I always like Del Toro’s designs and the stop motion animation was lovely. I especially liked the design for Death.
Watership Down Mini Series – I also watched the Watership Down Mini Series that came out a few years ago. While the acting was good, I think it feel for the trap that happens a lot with cg animation. They rabbits look too realistic and that kinda robs them of personality. The visuals didn’t really sell the horror of the book or the old 2nd movie.
First Kill – This and the next thing on this list made me think about how quickly netflix cancels stuff extremely quickly. If you aren’t familiar with it, First Kill is the teen lesbain vampire romance series they put out last summer and quickly canceled. It follows a vampire and a vampire hunter who fall for each other while their families are fighting one another. It is EXTREMELY bad and not in a fun way. The whole show is very poorly thought out and seems slapped together. While it wants you to think Romeo and Juliet with the two leads, it is established that after being bit a human becomes devoted to a vampire. So one member of those pair has their freewill compromised. It is then brushed aside. And the vampire girl doesn’t want to kill, but is told she has to. Why? Well, she just has to. We see other vampires feed from willing donors and not kill them, but it’s never established why she can’t just do that. The vampire also has to keep keep the fact that she is a vampire secret but then it turns out the whole world already knows about vampires. I could go on, but all the examples of what’s wrong can be summed up as a lack of thought being put in to anything. And at the end of the day it’s also boring. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to think you were getting gay version of Buffy or True Blood and instead getting this.
That 90s Show – I watched a lot of That 70s Show as a teen. And I’ve been watching a youtuber named Jose do retrospectives of different sitcoms. After watching the That 70s Show one, I decided to check out That 90s Show. Overall, That 90s Show is just okay. I think the new teen actors have a decent chemistry, are unique, and their jokes are funny. But they don’t really have time to explore/find their feet. Way too much time is spent on cameos for the cast of That 70s Show. The set up for the show is that Donna and Eric’s daughter Leia is spending the summer with her grandparents Red and Kitty. So Donna and Eric being in the first episode as well as Red and Kitty all fit in the show fine. But the problem comes up when it turns out the single mom next door is dating Fez and her landlord is the guy Fez had a rivalry with. So now instead of sticking with the teen main characters, we are spending all this time rehashing Fez’s joke from That 70s Show. And when Leia likes a boy with the last name Kelso, both Jackie and Micheal invade Kitty and Red’s kitchen to repeat their usual fight. Something like this happens once per episode. And it’s a shame because I think the teen characters holding their own would have better served the show. It left me wondering what season 2 would be like, but since it’s on Netflix it will most likely never get that chance.
Watching all those sitcom retrospectives and listening to the Always Sunny Podcast (the crew of always sunny are rewatching their old episodes). It made me think about how sitcoms usually don’t find their feet until season 2. Nearly all the shows we think of as changing the landscape of television had poor ratings the first season. Sitcoms rarely have complicated premises and live or die on the chemistry of their cast. And you don’t know what does and doesn’t work until you actually make a couple of episodes. While dramas/dramadies are also in a rough place in a landscape where things either take off immediately or get canceled, seems like sitcoms are getting get the worst of this cancel happy time period we are currently in.
That’s just something that’s been on my mind lately, especially when shows I really like such as Inside Job have ended up on the chopping block.
Thanks everyone! Have a good month and thanks again for your support. I’m gonna start doing an art round up after each newsletter. So enjoy and have a good one.
Last year, I was focusing on restructuring some stuff. Last year, I shifted how I interacted with the internet and social media. I did successfully keep up with this newsletter each month, (which I didn’t keep up with in previous years. Now that I’ve stuck with it, I realized it was a bit rambly and disorganized. It made me get a little stuck now and then. So I made these little section breaks/headers. I think it will also allow you all to job to whatever parts of the newletter interest you the most.
Jumping into the New Year, I’m happy to announce that You are the Chosen One will be returning to updates on my Patreon. Since Patreon is not very good at letting people read comics, I’m posting some PDFs of each chapter. Then people can read them in one go. So now is a good time to jump on and catch up with You are the Chosen One. Please back my patreon!
Beside reworking the ordering on my newsletter. I’m figuring out the new social media landscape. In a couple of past newsletters I mentioned hiring help posting on social media sites. Twitter still being in the middle of imploding really pushed me to work on that and follow through on it. So if you’ve noticed my tumblr or facebook has been more active, that’s why. Now that my new assistant and I have decent system for the bigger more established sites, we are gonna work on a system for newer ones like Cohost, Pillowfort, and mastadon.
Once that social media stuff is sorted, I’m gonna start working on cleaning up my twitch. I need to sit down and add some features like a bot that autoposts in the chat some links. Maybe make a little pngtuber icon.
Meanwhile, I’m prepping the final bits and pieces of Failure to Launch, the anthology I’m editing for Iron Circus. The crowdfund goes live next month, so there is a lot of tiny things that need to get sorted before things go live. But the book is great! I’m excited for people to see it.
It got me thinking that would be fun to do a live reading of my City Between comics. So I’ve been organizing some friends to read different characters in Fame and Misfortune. I haven’t set a date yet, but after reading it, I’ll answer reader questions. Please post any readers you have on this public patreon post. Next newletter I’ll have a date the stream is happening, and I’ll post it on youtube after.
In the mean time, I posted this last year but reviews for books do help them do better on various sites algorithm. So if you have a moment give some reviews to my books on Amazon or on Goodreads.
Other plans for this month are to try to build some habits that will help me with my new year’s resolutions. Like I wanted to get back into exercising regularly. I fell off it half way through the year. The only stuck with it about once a week. So I gotta get back on the work out horse.
I also still have a shelf of graphic novels I’ve bought but haven’t read yet. So I’m gonna try to do one a day, or at least one a week. I’ll post about my favorites here.
I mentioned last month that I was mostly drawing. So it was a fairly chill December (ba-dum-tish). But if you might have missed me and Spike streaming on Christmas. We ended up raising $300 for NARAL and had fun playing some Rimworld.
I was also thinking about putting each months City Between pages and an art around up at the end of each month’s newletter. Would that be something you’d all be interested in? Or would it make the newletter have too much scrolling.
