HAVING A MOMENT
Hullo!
All right, we have comics releasing this week, a new IT’S JEFF season start up and lots more. Let’s go!
Shipping update! I know it seems like a miracle, but all orders have been shipped, again! Miracles are real!
And the webstore is updated through ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #6, out this week, and BLACK CLOAK VOLUME 2, out officially on April 1st.
The discount codes available from last week’s newsletter are still good through April 4th.
I always want to talk to you guys about things I’m watching (and reading, but mostly watching) and then I have so much I want to say and so I punt it because there’s never time and then I eventually end up saying nothing. So I’m going to try a sort of quick and dirty stream of consciousness thing and uh, we’ll see how it goes?
While it opened strong and ended pretty strong most of SILO Season 2 was very bad and I am incredibly frustrated by it. Common was always a sort of weak link in the show — both performance being weak and his character being paper thin and obvious — but the show was lifted by so many great performances (and well-written characters) — Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, Tim Robbins, Chinaze Uche, Avi Nash — that it was easy for that to be an outlier that in no way defined the show. But there are a lot more rough performances and paper thin characters in Season 2 though… a lot more. There are some lines… like, I just don’t even know how you get an actor as good as Robbins to say some of the lines this year. Yikes. Anyway, this was easily one of my favorite new shows of the last decade, and they made basically every error you can make in a Season 2… I hope they can pull it back from the brink, but they really squandered everything they earned in S1 and it’s hard to believe. I hope this isn’t another Lasso Situation.*
SEVERANCE S2 fared much better. Despite really liking the character of Cobel, the Patricia Arquette solo episode felt like a massively frustrating waste of time… and when there’s this much to excavate, wasting an entire episode feels like a crime. I’d say the same about the Ms. Casey/Gemma episode, but it was, in addition to being uncommonly beautiful, deeply DEEPLY horrifying in a way that feels like it matters more to the show than the Cobel episode. Anyway, Season 2 is not nearly as strong as S1 — but that is an insanely high bar — and one that few could clear under the best circumstances. I’m excited to see what’s next and hopeful it will take less time to arrive. Though given the state of *waves arms around at everything* maybe that is too optimistic.
PARADISE is… for people who do not have a problem with the most eye roll inducing needle drops in the history of mankind. Literally Another Day in Paradise is played multiple times so on the nose it feels like you’ve been hit across the face with a two by four. There are inexplicably a lot of really talented actors on this show. *infinite confusion shrug* Please make a better choice for your sci-fi viewing pleasure. We only have so much time on this earth.
I will also recommend for all of you again, THE EXPANSE, which is excellent sci-fi, and though it has plenty of darkness in it (I say this because I know a lot of us are mostly looking for escape in our media these days) I find it deeply inspirational. It’s also really satisfying to watch a politician with the catchphrase “Earth First” learn and grow, instead of just doubling down until the planet fucking blows up. AHEM. Anyway, THE EXPANSE. Watch it.
ANDOR is one of my other “favorite new show of the last decade or so” and with the Season 2 premier imminent I am… nervous. I feel like I can be more confident in ANDOR’s quality but it’s still a question until it isn’t, y’know? It was very much “meeting the moment” even before** we knew we needed it so badly. So I hope now that it’s SO critical, that it can do that again. Either way, if you need inspiration for fighting tyrants and fascism, I can’t recommend a TV show more than ANDOR Season 1. I hope Season 2 will continue that tradition.
I didn’t talk about ARCANE Season 2 on here yet. It’s excellent. Not as good as S1, but, like SEVERANCE and SILO and ANDOR that is an insanely high bar and I can’t fault it for not clearing. It’s an incredible series and I urge any of you reading this to check out Season 1 if you haven’t already. Meredith and I have talked a bit about the small overlaps in BLACK CLOAK (we’re both pretty inspired by ARCANE) but I’d also say that Vi really reminds me of Tessa (from my novel STORYKILLER) quite a bit, in a really fun way. I didn’t notice it as much in Season 1, but it was so shiny and bright I couldn’t not see it this time, maybe just because STORYKILLER’S been on my mind a lot this year?
Anyway. I don’t have time to get into these other Sci-Fi offerings in depth (noticing all of the above are sci-fi!) but someone asked for my recommendations for sci-fi TV shows and I gave (all of the above) plus these:
BODIES - absolutely fantastic series, so smart and cool (and based on a comic! woo!)
STATION ELEVEN — incredible series (which I hear is very different than the novel) it’s light on sci-fi in a way, but very deep in building an incredible world, fantastic performances and episode that makes me cry just thinking about them.
DEVS - so fucking cool. A little too smart for me… I had trouble with some of the science/tech/whatever you want to call it, especially as it all crescendos toward its end. But it’s terrific stuff and I’m excited about my eventual re-watch.
DARK — wildly brilliant and complicated, but the last season is frustrating/rough and not worthy of what precedes it, which is always a tough way to end.
THE PERIPHERAL — really underrated I felt, and cancelled too soon, so enter at your own risk, but super interesting and cool. I especially liked Jack Reynor in this.
BLACK MIRROR — always good, often too dark for my mood of late. I need esssssscaaaaappppe. (see also: THE HANDMAID’S TALE).
OUTER RANGE, THE GOOD PLACE, DARK MATTER — all smart and interesting and with something worth exploring.
THE OA — I don’t know that I can recommend it as it’s got an absolutely brutal “cancelled in the middle of our story” cliffhanger and it’s a—I don’t know how to describe it—”somewhat frustrating show” maybe? There are a lot of really beautiful brilliant ideas inside it and it takes such risks that I want to take care of it in my hands forever. But it’s also got a lot of problems, and that’s even before you get to the cancellation ending… brutal. But I also can’t not recommend it. I loved the experience of it. I have a real affection for Brit Marling’s stuff and having seen A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, it was impossible not to see how Marling had mastered things she was still trying to figure out back on the OA.
What I definitely WOULD recommend, is A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, which is a cool tech-y murder mystery story with this tender vulnerable beating heart wrapped inside it. A lot of that is down to a truly beautiful performance by Emma Corrin, who understands the beating heart of the thing and embodies it fully. If you like AMATEOTW, consider trying THE OA maybe?
But on the escape tip… if any of you are TASKMASTER fans either at my urging or just through your own excellent taste, as we wait in the seemingly inexorable void for the new season (it has Jason Mantzoukas!) to drop, my friends Josh and Rebekah recommended to me LAST TO LAUGH — which is a bunch of really great British Comedians (and actors/celebrities/whatever — but mostly comedians) playing a “game” hosted by Jimmy Carr and well… it’s an absolute delight. I wish I could have 5,000 episodes to watch so I didn’t have to feel anything but blissful laughs for however many hours that would be.
*A “Lasso Situation” is when I am deeply and horrifically wrong about some piece of media, as I was when I thought Ted Lasso might have anything of value to offer beyond a completely charming, smart, funny, and overall delightful premiere season. Sad forever!
**Before. Lol. Anyone awake knows we needed it before and always will, but I guess I just mean we need it EVEN MORE now, by like, factors of tens and hundreds and thousands?
Jeff’s latest articles and announcements. The boy is busy.
The second half of SEASON 4 of Jeff started up on Marvel Unlimited last week, kicking things off with one of my favorite episodes — “Finish Him!” — and you can read more about the new season here.
This is an incredible (and quite pricey) Jeff statue available for pre-order. He is small (about 3 inches?) and also limited edition (limited to 3,000) and thus limited to 2 per customer (actually that’s only on some sites? so IDK?) Bleeding Cool has more here.
I do want to say that while I’m incredibly glad Daniele Di Nicuolo is getting the credit he’s due for co-creating Jeff, it’s rough to see this statue not only using Gurihiru’s general design from IT’S JEFF, but being basically a literal image and pose from our very first strip “Pool Party” and not get credit. Feels… not great. I dunno. Maybe to make sure to show your support for them, by buying some creator-owned stuff from Gurihiru, or supporting their book that released last year UNICO?
Screenrant also did a write up for new readers of Jeff.
There has been a metric ton of really fun Jeff fan art — much like Absolute Wonder Woman actually. And just like Absolute Wonder Woman, I have tried to gather it all up and hoped to do some posts about it… I may still do that, but if I do it will be incredibly truncated, because I literally cannot keep up with it all. But I happened to see this one a couple days ago and well, it’s perfect.
This shop is selling PACKS of issue #1 of the forthcoming Jeff print comic — so that you can get all the covers. It’s not that crazy considering how people are about covers, but also, I’ve never seen this on one of my books before, so… seems pretty wild!
My boy is officially having a moment. And because he cannot be contained, expect to see more of him below in Sneak Peeks.
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #6 - OUT TOMORROW! This is called “The Lady or The Tiger” and is a 2-part story drawn and colored by Mattia De Iulis, who most of you know AT LEAST as my co-creator on the Eisner-nominated THE CULL, but maybe also from our work together on JESSICA JONES, or Mattia’s work on INVISIBLE WOMAN. Wherever you know him from, just know that we are in excellent hands:
I saw some concern about Diana’s beautiful nose (which I appreciate) so I posted this on Bluesky, in case you missed it, here it is again:
BIRDS OF PREY #20 — out next week! Sami Basri’s back for an exciting new 5-issue arc that finds the birds being hunted… how exactly does one hunt Big Barda?! Tune in to find out!
And look at these gorgeous Adriano Lucas colors on Sami’s lovely Canary. I am a big pain in the ass about comics coloring and we were so lucky to get Adriano when we lost Jordie (to ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN):
And actually… before we move on, I want to highlight how incredible our BIRDS OF PREY main covers have been. Maybe I’m extra sensitive to covers, given one of the ways I got my start (Drunk Cover Solicits Represent!) but we really had an incredible run, starting with an awesome 17-issue run of covers by Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire, who are, in my opinion, not only two of the best making comics today, but one of the best pairings in all of comics. They work together with near seamlessness, the collaboration always positive and pushing toward greater heights. Let’s have a moment — here are a few of my favorites —
BIRDS OF PREY #3 — I think issue 3 was when I knew the covers for the run were going to be really special. Because an issue 1 cover is always fulfilling some more specific (and narrow but not always in a good way?) parameters and so — for me — they rarely break out as the favorites of a run. But this. The distressed treatment, the hard color shift before the Wonder Woman figure and everyone else. The glow on that lasso looped around our hero. Brilliant stuff.
And then, not to be outdone, this gorgeous and insane Barda vs Diana (BOP #4), which is honestly everything I’ve ever wanted in a cover. The Kirby Krackle is just the icing on perfect cake.
BIRDS OF PREY #11, is an incredible feat — to get an entire team of characters on a cover AND a whole mess of Dinosaurs and an absolute SCENE — just incredibly smart work from Leo and then Jordie’s colors like some kind of modern looney tunes landscapes… I just am in awe.
Then to just HARD (but adorable!) SHIFT into BIRDS OF PREY #12 — a “cartoon” take on the characters, which pops perfectly. Shiny bright flat animation colors, just absolutely pitch perfect and completely different than anything that had come before.
BIRDS OF PREY #13, another terrific look at getting a large cast on the cover in an interesting way that still has scene and presence. I think Cass and my beloved Barda fare particularly well here. But the colors are really the star on this one I think — a neon explosion, shocking in its layers. The “off registration” style works in a really interesting way onthis one too.
By issue 15 we now struggle a bit with the need to keep Barbara clearly in the Oracle role — unless you want floating Oracle heads every issue (I do not, I am on the record of hating a floating head on a cover except in rare instances) — so you gotta be smart to design for that choice. Fortunately Leo is very smart and so you get instant classics like this one. Oracle as the mastermind behind her team. I also love that Jordie’s colors are so unexpected. I think we’re very used to seeing this kind of shot (on a cover or inside) with greenish tones — hell, we trend toward that inside the current book. But I think that’s why going against type works so well here. Doesn’t hurt that it looks great with her hair too.
BIRDS OF PREY #16 is, in my opinion, one of the best Cassandra Cain covers of all time. I absolutely adore everything about it.
BIRDS OF PREY #17, Leo’s final cover, exactly the kind of atypical team cover I love. And the kinds of atypical team colors I love. ;D
Then we got crazy lucky after losing Leo and we were able to get Dan Panosian for an incredibly cool connecting cover for 18 and 19:
And ANNIE WU! on board for our new arc 20 - 24 — which already includes one of my favorite Oracle comic covers of all time (and a super cute Cass and Sin to boot). I can’t show you 23 yet, but it’s definitely in the running to be one of my favorite Canary covers.
Also, Rian Gonzales has been absolutely killing it on her long run of variants starting at #14. She’s started a new “series” doing the ladies as paper dolls, as you can see here with #21 (Canary) and #22 (Barda). Very fun stuff:
Okay, enough wading in BIRDS OF PREY glory, onto my famous boy…!
IT’S JEFF SEASON 4, PART 2 — began last Friday! Huzzah! It continues for 6 weeks on Marvel Unlimited! All these strips are drawn by Gurihiru, absolute geniuses, I love working with them so much.
And a couple small teases from Mattia’s and my ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #7 - out in late April:
Look at her little face! Ahhhh!
Nice contrast. lol
AND becuase I love you, a tiny tease of one of my favorite moments coming up in Hayden’s and my ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #8 out in May:
I love her so much. T_T
“Mine.”
When we were considering getting cats and I was talking about it a bit on social media (mostly twitter and insta as I recall, back in the good old days when they were LESS nightmar-ish spaces) — people CAME OUT OF THE WOODWORK — to tell us to do it. Both people I knew and strangers ALL encouraged us to get cats, that we would never regret it, and it would change our lives in the most beautiful ways. They were all right, but the thing they ALL also said, was, if we were getting kittens and didn’t have any other animals, GET TWO, NEVER ONE.
Adam was initially super resistant to that idea. But I won him over. And we have NEVER been more glad we listened to that advice. There are a thousand things I love about these cats, but number one is how much they love one another. It’s pure joy and I don’t talk about it enough.
Take care of each other. Love you guys. <3
Kelly
Boy, that is really Absolute Diana with the nose and the eyes, just perfect. I am excited to see the rest.
I'm so excited for Andor. S1 is my fav of all the Star Wars things ever. I have hope S2 will be good too 😺