Brian here, disappointed that I wasn’t able to make it back to my folks’ place in Cleveland to witness the totality, but I caught as much of today’s solar eclipse as I could from my rooftop here in the uncanny San Fernando Valley, and it was still pretty boss. Even our neighborhood’s incessant leaf-blowing paused for everyone to marvel at the celestial ballet for a few quiet seconds.
No special glasses needed to behold today’s installment of Spectators, brought to you by artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon and letterer Fonografiks, both of whom will apparently have to wait until 2026 to catch a full eclipse in their part of the globe. Sorry, pals, but maybe we can watch the next one together…?
If you’re new to Val and Sam’s spectating, welcome, and feel free to catch up on their entire story so far (still for free) over in the Archives.
Presuming Niko and I don’t stray too far from the original outline, we have roughly seventy pages of Spectators remaining, and my favorite moments are still to come, so thanks for sticking with us on this steady march to our graphic novel’s grand finale.
Like a lot of us, I’m still processing the untimely death of Ed Piskor, but I didn’t want to overlook another important comic creator we lost last week, Mark “Doc” Bright,abrilliant artist and co-creator of characters including Quantum & Woody.
There’s a great remembrance by his friend and collaborator Christopher Priest over at Bleeding Cool, including the wild story behind Doc’s iconic painted cover for this issue of Marvel’s Transformers:
My deepest condolences to Mark Bright’s family, friends and everyone who loved his terrific work.
It’s been a rough fucking year for the comics industry (to say nothing of the rest of the world), and I’m sending much compassion to everyone who’s hurting.
Sorry I ended last week’s dispatch kind of abruptly, but I wanted to again thank André Lima Araújo for a very fun chat, and also give away my personal copy of the first hardcover volume of Phenomena, André’s awesome new trilogy of graphic novels with writer Brian Michael Bendis.
The second volume will be out later his month, but if you’d like a shot at winning Book One, please just let us know: Were you able to check out any of today’s eclipse? If not, what’s the last natural phenomenon you gawked at?
Intrepid intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe will randomly select one commenter to receive that hardcover tome, but I look forward to reading all of your field reports in our chat.
Speaking of André, he and I are both lucky enough to have our work featured in this cool-sounding gathering happening next week at the Civic Center Library for those of you in the San Diego area…
Please note, this meeting of Comic-Con Book Club will be on April 16th at 6:30pm! This group is for ages 18 and older and does require approval by application process. Applications are FREE to complete and will be available at your first meeting. This month, we will be discussing A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance Vol. 2 by Rick Remender and André Lima Araújo AND Saga Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Both titles are available as e-books on Hoopla! #comicconbookclub
Please let us know if you end up attending, and feel free to forward this to any interested parties in the area.
Either way, A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance is excellent, beautifully paced and well worth your time.
I finally resubscribed to Apple TV+ so I could check out Manhunt, the new historical drama created by my friend Monica Beletsky, and her show is even more wonderful than I’d heard.
Sharp dialogue, outstanding performances, and some genuine surprises (at least for this poorly educated doof, who had no idea about [multiple spoilers redacted]).
Highly recommended for history and homicide buffs alike.
I’m lucky enough to be friendly with/tolerated by some amazingly talented people, so for this week’s bonus nonsense, I wanted to celebrate a few of their more recent works that I haven’t yet raved about here (while also crassly flaunting my rolodex).
As always, you generous paid subscribers in The Tower will get full access to my ramblings, along with a small hint about an upcoming something I’m writing for a so-called mate.
Everyone else, be good to yourself and each other this week, and Niko and I will see you back here for more free Spectators next Monday evening.
Apologies if we happen to know each other and I haven’t yet read/watched/ingested something you were kind enough to send me!
My pile of stuff I’ve been looking forward to is vast and terrifying, but I promise I’ll summit it eventually…
Writing a satisfying final issue is even harder than writing a compelling first one, but Robert Kirkman has done both multiple times in his career, most recently with the last issue of Fire Power, his modern mystical adventure series co-created with the incomparable Chris Samnee (and featuring the unmistakable colors of Paper Girls’ own Matt Wilson).
Dig that variant cover by Cliff Chiang!
Sweet, original, and beautifully choreographed family fun from start to finish. Great job, gents.
Next up, innovative writer Cecil Castellucci recently announced this ingenious new project she’s launching over at Kickstarter with several killer artists, including Y: The Last Man co-creator Pia Guerra:
In an effort to come up with a truly ephemeral sequential arts experience, I am going to become a walking comic book where the pieces of the story will temporarily live on my right arm as I walk through the world. It’s a conceptual art piece! That will last a year!
I will be commissioning 24 artists to draw a sequential piece that star a character Maxi. The sequences will be prompted by me and be inspired by the sequence that comes before in a sort of exquisite corpse game of collaborative storytelling. Those pieces will be turned into a temporary tattoo that I will wear on my arm. The tattoos fade after about a week and a half, so every two weeks I will have a new part of the story continuing Maxi’s journey. I will also intentionally walk for one mile every time I get a new piece of the story so that Maxi is walking with me as I am walking.
I have commissioned Mads Ellegard Skovbakke to design the character Maxi that all the artists will be using for the piece. This way, though art styles will be different, there will be a uniform person that connects the pieces.
Meet Maxi!
The other artists that are game to contribute include some of my favorite artists whom I am lucky enough to call friends and collaborators. So far, they include:
So many talented creators. I ordered my own temporary tattoo template, how about you?
A longtime Exploding Giraffe subscriber, my new friend Mattson Tomlin is an acclaimed and prolific screenwriter who’s currently working on several ambitious new projects, including a badass new Terminator anime series, as well as a little live-action film called The Batman Part II with director Matt Reeves.
Somehow, Mattson also has time to write comics, and his latest collaboration is his best yet…
