This Is What We Do...?
So. I know we’re all in various stages of trauma response right now — I personally am of the “flight” variety — which IMO is also the most cowardly trauma response and one I spend a lot of time trying (and largely failing) to drum out of myself — but sometimes you just gotta let yourself feel it. So I’ve been processing… and trying to get a hold of myself. I’m a fairly cynical and negative person and so I sometimes forget that I am also powered largely by hope — and when someone comes around and grinds what feels like the last faint glimmers of hope into the dust with their boot heel… it’s easy for me to get lost in fear and despair. And maybe it’s okay to be lost for a minute, so long as you can find yourself again. Get back up.
I don’t know that I’m there yet, but I’m trying my best. And for the good of us all this is going to be an extremely upbeat newsletter. Or so I say now. LET’S SEE HOW IT GOES!
First up. We’ve had a massive influx of new subscribers — WELCOME! We are very excited to have you. Thank you for finding us! This is a lovely little community and I hope you can feel at home here. I’m sure many of you found me in your exodus from Twitter (I’m planning to delete most of those posts and sit on the account with the bare minimum of activity to keep the account from being taken over). And if you didn’t also already make your way over to Bluesky, I highly recommend it. If you have managed to cut the cord to social media, more power to you (and I’m a bit jealous), but if you’re still hoping to find something akin to Twitter, for my money, Bluesky is the place and it’s really been blossoming beautifully in the last week. If you do head over, please find me there:
Related to new subscribers and exciting things, I’m going to be guesting on Scott Snyder’s very cool Substack Writing Class - TOMORROW (Thursay 11/14) at 9:30 ET.
You can read more about it in Scott’s newsletter below — but the class is called COMICS WRITING 103: RE-INVENTING SUPERHEROES.
Please consider tuning in!
In absolutely incredible news (that I am clinging to in these dark days!)… ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1 was the #2 selling comic in ALL OF OCTOBER. Only getting beat by the fantastic ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1.
Thanks to all of you for making that incredible feat possible. Also worth noting — SCARLETT #5 made the top 25 for the month. Huzzah!
Also of note — I added a few cool limited edition Sozomaika ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1s to the Webstore, also last week’s BIRDS OF PREY #15, and the brand new SCARLETT Trade.
For Subscribers, here’s a digital code to the webstore for 10% off your order. Just enter SOMETHINGGOOD at checkout. One code per order please.
FYI - There’s a paywall at the bottom of this post, and beyond that a BETTER digital code for Paid Subscribers.
If you’re still on social media you may have seen more JEFF MARVEL RIVALS (releases December 6th!) news — he got a fun “dolphin costum” skin for the game — which is a direct riff from Issue 10 of IT’S JEFF (with a pink twist). Very fun, and honestly, brings me a lot of joy that the creators are such fans that they would draw from the stories directly. Warms the dead cockles of my heart!
And if you STILL have any doubts about what a star my boy is about to be, look at the freaking Marvel Rivals home page:
I did a fun interview with Jed W. Keith at FreakSugar about ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN.
And also a CAPES & LUNATICS PODCAST, a SPLASH PAGES podcast and a FOCUSED ON COMICS Podcast.
Things that are keeping me alive right now and that you might also enjoy…
I need comforting media right now. So re-watching THE EXPANSE has been big. On the surface it’s perhaps a strange choice — a far flung future (2350) in which Earth made a lot of fucking mistakes and basically destroyed the planet and have expanded humanity onto both Mars and “The Belt” as a way to survive. But it’s still a beautiful and hopeful universe to my mind, in part because the heroes at the center facing impossible odds ARE true heroes. The kind of good guys you hope to find in the best fiction… and if you’re lucky, the real world too.
It’s also an incredibly diverse series, with women of color in some of the best and most important roles. It’s comforting to see a far flung future where women and people of color still have all their rights as every human being should. The world of THE EXPANSE has tons of horrible and terrifying (and very realistic) problems — for example the Belters who live in space — when they protest things (working conditions/lack of healthcare, etc.) can have their water and air rescinded by Earth… truly bleak as hell, and pretty prescient I think. Most worldbuilding in THE EXPANSE is done with this kind of care — excellent comparables and metaphors to our own current problems — making them feel all the more relatable (and terrifying and prescient).
But at the center of it is the core idea — which I think most comic book superhero fans are pretty attached to — the idea that a few good people doing the right thing, even in great darkness, can hold the line and save the world.
I don’t know, there’s probably an argument for it being a too dark vision of the future, and thus not uplifting, but it just feels realistic for me? And right now, surviving to 2350 with humanity still largely intact and with their rights, if still deeply flawed, seems both ambitious and hopeful. But your mileage may vary. I’ve recommended the show here before, but for anyone that likes more realistic Science Fiction and incredible characters, I highly recommend it… again. lol
*Note: I have not read the books. I confess I deeply want to, but I am so in love with the show, I just don’t think it’s an option for me, given the changes I know about — for example my favorite character, Drummer — is actually a combination of a few characters in the books. And that’s… a hard to shift to for me. I attach HARD. It’s possible I’ll read them someday but it’s not in the cards for right now. But more power to you if you want to read the books instead, I have no doubt they are fantastic!
At night Adam and I have been doing a lot of TASKMASTER re-runs (there’s also a current UK Series 18 and Australia Series 3 going on now — but I need more than just two hours of this show a week right now I’m sorry to say).
I won’t get too into it, since if you don’t watch the show it will all sound like nonsense. But I urge anyone that needs to inject something fun and distracting into their brains to give it a try. The combination of comedians (mostly) and challenging mind games that reward lateral thinking and creativity is sorta magic. Early seasons (sometimes) struggle a bit, like any show, as it defines and refines itself, but even in the least successful seasons, I’ve never regretted a minute of the time I’ve spent with this show.
If you’re interested, I don’t want to say start with the best season (because then your expectations will be extra high) but also, life is short, so yeah, start with the best — two of my favorites are UK Series 14 and UK Series 15, which both have fantastic casts with no weak links (imo).
You can find most episodes on YouTube.
I read a few books last week because my mind couldn’t bear to be unoccupied without spiraling and comfort television I’d seen before wasn’t yet enough of a distraction to keep me… anchored to the earth? That sounds dramatic, but it’s how it feels, I suspect it’s not much of a reach and many of you will relate.
Anyway, the first two books I read were good (the last book in a trilogy that I liked but did not love; and a new book that was recommended to me that I also liked but did not love, just not really my thing).
BUT the novella I read is the book I really came to tell you about. It’s a little weird, so if you’re not into weird, maybe skip it, but I found it both absolutely beautiful and strangely soothing and powerfully inspiring for the moment. THE EMPRESS OF SALT AND FORTUNE by Nghi Vo.
I didn’t clock this when I bought it a few years ago, or when I picked it up to read it this week, but it won a Hugo (among other also impressive nominations and wins) and I have to say — DESERVED.
I also discovered it’s one of 5 novellas that are part of a collection called THE SINGING HILLS CYCLE SERIES and I will be picking up the other 4 immediately. The actual paperback is also quite beautiful if you care about how things look and… we’re comic fans, so yeah, we do. lol
I will say that reading it, in this political… climate, and with so much ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN on my mind and in my heart, it felt almost like destiny to read it right now. Like of all the dozens upon dozens of unread books in my house that I picked this one at this time. I dunno. I’m not religious or particularly superstitious but it was hard not to take reading this book right now as a sign to… well, stand back up and fight, whatever that looks like.
I’m grateful for whatever fates brought it to my hand in that moment. Also I’m in love with it, and it’s been a minute since I’ve been that in love with a book. And I’m grateful to remember what that feels like, especially right now.
I’m not going to try to summarize it or review it beyond that, but I will say that the write up and pull quotes I found on Bookshop.org were excellent and might give you a more accurate idea of what you’re in for, as opposed to my sweeping statements about fate personally handing me this book in this specific moment. lol
I read some great upcoming comics that I want to shout out real quick:
My fantastic partner-in-crime on ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN, Hayden Sherman, has a new Batman book (BATMAN: DARK PATTERNS - DC) with writer Dan Watters and colorist Triona Farrell. It is dark as fuck, but very cool. I’ll be honest, the first time I tried to read it, I had to stop, as it was just too dark for my frame of mind, so maybe approach it with caution. But once I came back… WOW. The start of a truly terrific and deeply dark Batman tale. This out February 2025. I think FOC just passed, but worth calling your shop if you’re interested. One bit of warning, if you have trypophobia this might be a tough read due to the villain (and his kills).
I also got to check out Ram V and Evan Cagle and Francesco Segala’s excellent NEW GODS #1 (Dec 18th - DC) this past week, and I really enjoyed it. It’s complex and smart and weird and interesting and beautiful and I can’t wait for it to all unfold. Bonus points for Barda obviously and double bonus points for a minor BIRDS OF PREY reference. :D
Last but never least, I got a peek at James Tynion IV, Elsa Charretier, Jordie Bellaire, and Aditya Bitikar’s THE CITY BENEATH HER FEET #1 (DSTLRY) and it is everything you would expect from this team — smart and cool and effortlessly beautiful. Excited to go on this ride.
All right. Now what you all really want. The SNEAK PEEKS.
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN is very hard to show pieces of for two main reasons. #1. Hayden’s absolutely fantastic and innovative art, especially his intricate layouts, don’t always lend to being clipped from their places and shown without context. I have so many weird shaped panels in my files! lol. #2. There are a lot of cool things we’re trying to hide. More than anything I’ve ever done, I feel like the reading experience on this one is so critical, so it’s really hard for me to show things out of context. But because I love you… here are two from ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #2 (11/27/24)…or rather 1 new one, and 1 that you have seen before but now in color!
BIRDS OF PREY is easier. Here’s a panel from BIRDS OF PREY #16 (12/4/24). I think we’ll all relate to in these angry times:
Oh, here’s one I put up on Bluesky this week. Also highly relatable in these times. We all need a Barda:
IT’S JEFF is VERY easy to “sneak peek.” Jeff is very built for these times. A salve for the weary soul:
“Food Crimes” is one of my favorite stories we’ve done in a while. Hee hee. This one also heavily features Gwen. I’m not sure when Season 4 will begin, but my guess is it maybe won’t start until the New Year?
I posted this one to Bluesky over the weekend and it was a big hit, I think you can see why:
Hat tip to editor Sarah Brunstad for the idea of the suit, which I cannot BELIEVE I didn’t think of first. Thanks, Sarah! And here’s another one from that same story — I love the subtle shove of the briefcase into the shrub:
For BLACK CLOAK #10 (out 11/20/24) I decided to give you a larger peek — because I love this bit so much and it is the closest I feel I’ve come to a “Studio Ghibli” moment in my career and will now be trying to do it all the time? lol
When Meredith drew and colored this page, I realized that my new dream was for BLACK CLOAK to one day be a Studio Ghibli movie… like, it kinda works great? It would be a weird choice for them, but also really interesting? Listen, I know it will NEVER happen, but it’s good to have dreams! WE ALL NEED DREAMS!
Speaking of Ghibli — Adam and I are finishing up our Great Ghibli Watch/Re-Watch — and I plan to do a big post about what an incredible experience it has been. I highly recommend it for anyone struggling in dark times. Ghibli films have such a perfect quality of talking about real very horrifying truths about the world, but doing it in a way that still has hope. Where you can see the beauty and the meaning, even through the pain. I posit it’s good for every soul and should maybe be “required reading” for being human. We’d certainly all be better for it.
Okay. This became INSANELY LONG. Thanks for those of you that stuck with it. OH! The Code! Here’s that paywall, Paid Subscribers — see you on the other side for your extra sweet webstore code.
For everyone else — Good Night, and Good Luck.