SPECTATORS - Part 31
Plus, BKV reviews Swedish House Mafia?
Just kidding, friends at Prime Video!
Brian here, and if you haven’t seen the sad update I shared over at my dumb Instagram, the wonderful Paper Girls adaptation unfortunately won’t be continuing at Amazon.
It’s a heartbreaker I’m still processing, but for now, I’ll just say that I’m more grateful than ever to all of you here at Exploding Giraffe for your ongoing support of new stories like ours.
In this week’s installment of Spectators (as always, for “mature readers” only, please), Niko Henrichon and Fonografiks reveal a bit more about the mysterious spirit Val encountered…
How beautiful is Niko’s character work?
Spectators is still 100% free to read online, so thanks for letting your more eccentric friends know that they can catch up on our first two “digital collections” here and here!
A ton of you were kind enough to join The Tower as generous paid subscribers last Friday, perhaps intrigued by the hopefully not-too-disappointing revelation of the true identity of the Skeleton, an ancient Bat-baddie I created with artist Marcos Martín.
In our “private chat” over the weekend, Tower commenters were debating the greatest villain in comics, and not surprisingly, Joker narrowly edged out Doctor Doom (have those two silly geese ever met?). Still, this week’s randomly selected winner of a few signed books had another character in mind.
Lucky reader Steve Cleff writes:
So this won’t win, but no villain ever scared me like Baron Karza from the Marvel Micronauts run by Bill Mantlo. He seemed more ruthless and more powerful than any other villain I read about as a kid and the feeling of dread the heroes of that book had at even the mention of Karza’s name just stayed with me all this time.
You were wrong about not winning, but right about this deep cut villain, Steve! Congrats, and our intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe will be reaching out to you for your mailing address shortly.
I’ll be honest, I don’t remember much after I got the official Paper Girls news on Friday, but according to my phone, I somehow eventually ended up at a soccer stadium near Exposition Park, where I apparently saw a band (?) called Swedish House Mafia.
It’s a bit of a blur, but I think there was a lot of rain and dancing, so I’ll go ahead and call it the greatest concert of all time. Or at least since Olivia Rodrigo.
A much-needed ablution, so thanks to whatever benevolent forces got this old-timer inside the golden circle.
How about you, get into any trouble over the weekend?
I’m gonna go eat some pie for my late lunch, but I hope to check in with you in the chat soon.
No punch backs,
BKV
The Paper Girls news last week was a hard blow (and not the good Spectators kind of blow). I'm truly very sorry. I hope it can find a new home. For now though, I'm happy to blame Bezos for any and all decisions I disagree with relating to Amazon. So fuck that guy.
I also ended up at a concert this weekend. Last minute decision to see Florence and the Machine with my significant other and a good friend. It was good salve for the soul. Dancing and howling in an outdoor venue under a full moon. This old lady stayed out past her bedtime.
It is a bummer, but I still hold out hope that it can makes it's way back around sans Amazon. They are bastards.
I too enjoyed some loud music this past weekend! My wife and I went to see Tenacious D this past Sunday in philly and it rocked 🤘 the highlight was the phallic shaped castle background they used for part of the show with an open gate that closely resembled a vagina.