SPECTATORS - Part 109
Plus, Niko returns from Lake Como with a new Artopsy!
How are you holding up this Memorial Day?
Brian here, and one of my favorite contemporary writers about the subject of war is Redeployment author and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay (and not just because he was once kind enough to mention that he read Y: The Last Man while serving in Iraq).
I don’t always agree with every aspect of his occasional opinion pieces for The New York Times, but Klay’s recent “How Should We Honor the Dead of Our Failed Wars?” is a barnburner:
I watched a lot of Marines go off to Afghanistan, a war that I could have gone to but that I chose to avoid. Mostly, they were young. That’s the thing Hollywood most often gets wrong about war when they cast grown men to portray America’s finest killers. Look at a Marine infantry platoon, so many of whose members joined at 17 or 18, and you see boys. Boys who haven’t grown into cynicism yet. Some find it in the middle of their tours. Some keep that idealistic flame burning through multiple deployments. And some die before it can be extinguished.
For so many of the kids I saw, their mission mattered to them, and so their mission should matter to all of us when we remember their deaths. And the mission was a catastrophe. Memorial Day should come with sorrow and patriotic pride, yes, but also with a sense of shame. And, though it has faded for me over the years, with anger.
That entire essay is definitely worth a read.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep pouring my own sorrow, shame and anger about the real world into weird-ass make-believe like Spectators, beautifully brought to life by artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon and letterer/trusted copy editor Fonografiks.
This week, spectral protagonists Val and Sam watch the young soldiers of tomorrow converge, as a viral new terrorist movement threatens to reignite the old Cold War (read our archives anytime to find out how the hell we got here).
To be continued next week, when Niko (who has an extraordinary new Artopsy coming up momentarily) will also be giving away this gorgeous page of his hand-painted original artwork, normally only available for purchase over at Essential Sequential:
Each of you generous paid subscribers is automatically entered in these monthly art drawings, no additional participation necessary, though we do love catching up with you members of The Tower in our weekly chats, thanks again for being here.
Every panel of the aforementioned Y: The Last Man was inked by legendary pro Jose Marzan, Jr., who has an excellent Substack of his own:
In that latest installment, Jose discusses inking co-creator Pia Guerra on Y #20, maybe my favorite issue of our entire series, which somehow came out 20 years ago, when this old man was still in his 20s.
Subtle and evocative work from one of the best to ever wield a brush. Subscribe to his page for more.
I love that Image Comics does stuff like this:
Exclusively at your friendly neighborhood comic store this Wednesday, a new printing (for only a single buck!) of the oversized first issue of Paper Girls by my friends Cliff Chiang, Matthew Wilson and Jared K. Fletcher:
I’m still sad that the wonderful Paper Girls adaptation didn’t continue at Amazon, but Cliff and I have heard from so many viewers who’ve since sought out our comic to learn the fates of KJ, Mac, Tiffany and Erin, and we’re especially grateful to those readers who may have set foot in a comic shop for the first time.
If that’s you, there are many more kick-ass titles for all ages/interests out there, so please ask your retailer for a few suggestions whenever you pop in next.
Finally for me this Monday, as I revealed to you lucky members of The Tower before anyone else…
Battle Action
Garth Ennis assembled a lot of my favorite humans (including writer Torunn Grønbekk) for this second collection of new work honoring the beloved old anthology, and every single story is a winner.
I have to admit that I wasn’t terribly familiar with these characters or concepts before I heard Garth going on (and on) about them, but after he sent me some of the classics to devour, I now appreciate them with the zeal of a convert.
Between us, please, I might even attempt to sully this venerable British institution with my own Yankee writing someday. Stay tuned…
I’m proud to share that the day of sullying has come, and it’s come hard.
Impossibly awesome artist Chris Burnham and I finally got to collaborate, and we have a mean-spirited little story called “The Septic” in the first issue of this new Battle Action anthology, coming in August from Rebellion Publishing.
I’ll be rambling more about this in the weeks to come, but you can read about the project’s origins over here, where Garth nakedly attempts to flatter me into writing more of his favourite characters:
“Happy days: more Battle Action. This time we’ve got more stories, more brilliant writers and artists—some from last time, some new—and more of an emphasis on Action, with half the ten stories featuring characters from the older comic,” says Ennis (for the uninitiated, Battle Action came from the merging of two other British comics magazines, Action and Battle). “Batt Hookjaw, Kids Rule OK and Death Game will be joining Dredger and Hellman, with Battle’s El Mestizo coming in alongside Major Eazy, HMS Nightshade, Nina Petrova and Johnny Red. New bods include John McCrea, Steve White, Tom Foster and, indeed, the one and only Brian Vaughan.”
“Getting Brian on Kids Rule OK was a particular coup; I personally think he’s the best writer to get into the business in the last thirty years, and his love of British comics gives this a nice sense of things coming full circle. I secured his involvement at great personal cost, namely a cheeseburger.”
It was a very good cheeseburger.
Stay tuned to future installments of Exploding Giraffe for more about that meal and my unexpected detour into British comics…
…but for now, I gratefully give the wheel to my esteemed partner Niko Henrichon, who’s back from the sophisticated salons of Lake Como with a magnificent bounty just for you.
Peace - BKV
Hi, everyone!
Let’s talk a little bit about the Lake Como Comic Art Festival. I had the chance and privilege to be a guest at this year’s edition, my first time. From what I heard and what I saw online, I knew the festival was a prestigious one with a lot of comics’ biggest names attending every year, but I didn’t really pay much attention to it. It seems like a lot of the guests are recurring. When my presence was announced, many people wrote to me to let me know how cool it was that I was going. Maybe it was a bigger deal than I thought?
By looking more closely at the guest list, I had to agree it was indeed a pretty big deal. The quantity and quality of cartooning talent that was present there was kind of overwhelming. The site of the festival, Lake Como, is also an absolute beauty. It’s situated at the foothills of the Alps mountains.
The inaugural reception happens in a gorgeous Italian villa on the border of the lake.
I was told the visitors were limited to a total of 500 and they apparently had to pay a very costly fee to enter the festival. They limit the number of visitors to allow for a certain access to the creators. In the end, most of us didn’t get overwhelmed at our table and had a decent amount of readers/clients that were there for serious reasons. The principle of the event may not be the most democratic, because of the entry fee, but the result is rather enjoyable and also pretty good for business.
When taking breaks from commissions and signings I had the chance to witness the excellent drawing skills of fellow artists. Being there with Jason and Morag from Essential Sequential, I was surrounded by other creators represented by the same art dealer.
There was David Finch on my left, Matteo Scalera on my right and Mahmud Asrar of the right of Scalera. Pretty cool, huh? All of these guys are as great artists as they are nice people. I had my return flight on Monday evening so I spent the morning/early afternoon visiting Como city itself with Mahmud Asrar.
Let’s take a look at a few drawings I made just before and during the show…
The most complex piece is this X-Men composition on A3 format. When I’m asked for a subject like this, I take the time and make a layout for it.
I wanted to try something a little different and do a little more ink before painting on this one.
Next up, a little timelapse of the inking, followed by several more full color commissions…