On And Off And Way Way Off
You ever have those days where you know you’re just ON? Like things are just falling your way. For example — there’s no traffic in a place where there’s always traffic, you find 20 bucks in your jeans, you drop something and manage to catch it before it actually hits the ground…you stop a catastrophic spill before it happens. Simple stuff like that. But it makes you feel sort of weirdly (temporarily) superhuman.
And then there are the other days.
And they’re not the worst days ever or anything, but you’re just OFF, y’know? The same way you sometimes feel ON, you now feel OFF. You know the day. You start by stubbing your toe on the bed frame and then later you spill breakfast on your shirt and you forget your phone at home, maybe lock your keys in your car. You know the day.
I have been having that day… a lot. In just the last few weeks a series of annoying “off” things: catalytic converter stolen off my car; tripped and sprained my ankle at the auto repair; cats shatter a lamp that breaks into… roughly a billion sharp little shards to be cleaned up; my eye twitch is back!; find out I have a food sensitivity to eggs (which are, maybe my favorite of all the foods!?!); try to go to an appointment but have a dead car battery; Adam falls on some wet steps and injures his knee; my new glasses are a failure — need new glasses now; The Monarch has an annoying eye infection…so now we gotta do drops in his eyes twice a day; all that plus a lot of little stubbed toe type of nonense.
Nothing catastrophic, it’s all stuff that can be handled with a bit of time and attention (assuming Adam’s knee is okay of course) but it’s also all added up to a lot of little frustrating headaches and worries that quickly pile up into a mountain and suddenly feel very overwhelming.
So I have no idea why we have weirdly on and weirdly off days, but it’s always mystified me how you can be feeling like a low-grade superhero one day and a complete disaster area the next with no real reason for the switch. Maybe it’s just the world craving balance? Like you REALLY gotta pay for those days that you’re so ON that you are able to subvert spills with superhero like reflexes?
Seems like a bit of an overcorrection if you ask me.
Anwyay, I’m fine, and not trying to complain or needing sympathy, I’m just sort of out loud pondering a mystery that has always perplexed me. You guys have this too, right? Very ON and and very OFF? I guess the only thing weirder than it existing at all is if I’m the only one. I’m not… right?
Announcements!
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I’m not sure if this TOTALLY qualifies as an “announcement” maybe it’s more of a DEBUT? But this is the banner we have that fits best I think. Meredith turned in her cover for BLACK CLOAK #3 last week and I am SO IN LOVE WITH IT. Here’s your first look!
I was thrilled (no pun!) to see Black Widow make a short list of Best Comics of 2022 so far from THRILLIST. But as excited as I am to see BLACK WIDOW there, I am even more excited to see ND Stevenson’s exceptional Substack I’M FINE I’M FINE JUST UNDERSTAND make the list.
This is the first I’ve seen Substack work make the jump to a list like this, but I doubt it will be the last. ;D
If you’re into the Substack thing (and clearly you are at least a little bit since you’re here!) I urge you subscribe to ND Stevenson’s. Sometimes the comics are just a funny pick me up, or a heartfelt observation, and sometimes they’re something that will rock you to your core. A lot of people are doing great and interesting things on here but Stevenson’s Substack is must-read stuff in my opinion.
There were a lot of very nice things written about the ending of BLACK WIDOW last week, too many really to link to all of them, and most of them were a bit bittersweet and don’t say anything we don’t already know, but I really appreciated the attention it got from all of you. I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to respond to each of your individually — it all became quite overwhelming, which was weirdly nice. Mostly I’m sorry we weren’t able to keep it going longer, and I hope we’ll still get that unconventional ending we’re trying for. Fingers crossed!
Here’s a very fun and informative little round up of all the CAPTAIN MARVEL trades so far (can you believe we’re up to 8 volumes!?!) It’s wild! Thanks to all of you for your support, I never in my wildest dreams imagined we’d get this far.
I also did a fun interview with the always charming Dave Richards at CBR talking about our upcoming CAPTAIN MARVEL arcs.
It also includes some never before seen art from both artists for our upcoming Trials Arc - Juan Frigeri and Alvaro Lopez. I’ll include two of the pages here, but there are two more at the link:
You guys aren’t gonna like this, and I know that because I HATE it.
Paper shortages have pushed back CAPTAIN MARVEL again.
So we went from one skip month (but at least a month where you guys got a CM annual) to TWO skip months. It’s really brutal. The only real bright side is that so far we’re not having to have a break right in the middle of an arc, so hopefully that holds. Right now they are trying to keep CAPTAIN MARVEL #39 for it’s original 6/8 date, but I expect it will inevitably move too. : /
BLACK CLOAK CHAPTER 4 - 4/25/22
CAPTAIN MARVEL #38 - 6/1/22
CAPTAIN MARVEL #39 - 6/8/22
Panel from CAPTAIN MARVEL #38 by Juan Frigeri and Jordie Bellaire:
Panel from CAPTAIN MARVEL #38 by Alvaro Lopez and Jordie Bellaire:
Panel from BLACK CLOAK CHAPTER 3 (out Monday! Read the first chapter for free here!) by Meredith McClaren:
In Process Panel from THE CULL #1 by Mattia De Iulis:
We saw Monarch’s crazy sleeping styles last time. So let’s give it up for my boy Clivey. Clive is a more traditional sleeper for the most part, but he still makes some weird (and very cute) choices:
That last one was taken just after we watched one of the worst movies we’d seen in A WHILE, so I like to think this pose was a commentary on his feelings about the film. And y’know what, Clive? Hard agree.
Okay, that’s it for the update post! I’ve got something fun coming on Friday I hope. Take care until then! <3
~Kelly
I can't say I haven't been there so I hope you have a consistent streak of On Days soon! 🤞🏽🤞🏽 (I wonder if Nat ever had Off days? 🤔🤔 Hopefully not while out superheroing at least) Here's also hoping we haven't seen the last of your Nat in some form or another (I also would kill for a Kelly Thompson BW novel like the ones Margaret Stohl wrote some years ago) Can't wait for more CM, extra delay notwithstanding. I'm sure it'll be worth it. Good luck with your cat's eye problem! Pet health is no joke 😔😔 (Also hope that knee issue isn't serious 🤞🏽🤞🏽)
Golly now I have to know, what was that really bad movie you saw?