Happy Thanksgiving, if you recognize and/or celebrate such things!
Brian here, and this year, I’m just doing a low-key dinner with the nuclear family instead of our usual Friendsgiving gathering of Cleveland ex-pats and other Californian “orphans.” Are you traveling this week?
I’m still in the middle of my writing retreat/slots-playing bonanza, so my lazy ass got to sleep in late and wake up to multiple new Spectators pages from the hardest-working duo in comics: artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon and letterer Fonografiks.
(And if you’re just joining us, you can catch up on our full story so far for free anytime with our handy Exploding Giraffe Archive.)
As our ghostly protagonists continue to float up, up and away from the possible nuclear apocalypse unfurling on the world beneath them, Sam and Val briefly pause to note something unfamiliar, not the gargantuan futuristic tech looming high in their atmosphere, but the two young/old spirits playing atop it…
Speaking of that double-page spread (what we call a large image that stretches across two splash pages) of those Pilgrim kids playing on Niko’s hi-tech “scrubber,” last week, Exploding Giraffe reader Jason Salumbides asked:
Also I have a question for Niko. How big is the paper you use to create some of those art pieces? Because that last page of Spectators was amazing! I remember watching a video of Geof Darrow and he was showing off one of his original comic pages and the paper he uses to get all that detail was huge! Anyways keep up the great guys! Love the comic!
Thanks, Jason! Niko says that this particular spread was a whopping 18 by 23 inches:
And here’s an incredible video that Niko made of ALL of his hand-drawn double-page Spectators spreads to date:
Breathtaking, right?
By the way, if you’d like to purchase your own piece of full-color original Niko Henrichon art, gorgeous pages like this one from Marvel’s Strange Academy Presents are available from Niko’s art rep at Essential Sequential:
AND, Niko also gives away a super-rare original page of his invaluable Spectators artwork every single month to a randomly selected paid subscriber in our monthly or annual paid tiers, yet another benefit of becoming a member of The Tower, so we hope you’ll consider joining us!
The website Goodreads just announced its opening round nominees for Best Graphic Novels of 2022, and Saga Volume 10 had the good fortune of being included in this year’s extraordinarily diverse selection of awesome titles.
Thanks very much to the judges for this honor, and if you’re a reader who votes in such things, feel free to click the above link and help us in the race to see who will lose to Lore Olympus.
Over the weekend, I asked Tower members what was the last work of fiction, good or bad, that made you uncomfortable, and we ended up having quite the intense and illuminating conversation. You are an extremely thoughtful bunch, and I’m grateful for how much I’ve learned from our semi-private chats this past year.
Anyway, I won’t delve into some of our more personal discussions, but I did promise to give away signed copies of a few of the (relatively) controversial books I was lucky enough to collaborate on over the last couple decades…
…so our intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe will send some unexpected pairings of those graphic novels to these three randomly selected commenters, with their “uncomfortable fiction” included for your consideration:
Morgan H.: “You couldn’t have picked better timing to ask this particular question as I just finished reading Tender is the Flesh, which is set in a world where all non-human animals became infected with a deadly virus...so eating human meat became legal. The main character works in a slaughterhouse. It’s very graphic and disturbing and clearly trying to make a point about modern factory farming.”
Bryan Weatherly: “The thing that immediately popped into my head is the game Metal Gear Solid V, specifically the missions involving child soldiers. There’s a little something in each of Hideo Kojima’s games that triggers some sort of visceral response in me. The trip to the incinerator in the beginning of Death Stranding also comes to mind.
Phil Brand: “The Trees by Percival Everett is currently my favourite book of the year. My ignorance of the sheer scale of lynching in America made me uncomfortable. One unforgettable chapter just lists the names, and the anonymous, of those lynched in recent history. True horror.”
Intriguing selections, thanks so much for sharing, pals. Genesis will be reaching out for your mailing addresses soon.
Finally, for this week’s closing question, I thought we might focus on the upcoming American holiday, and contemplate the many ways in which we should perhaps be more grateful for…
…nah, fuck that shit, let’s keep talking movies!
So far, we’ve tackled the cinema of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but what was your favorite film of the aughts?
As always, this Monday thread is open to all readers, so I look forward to seeing you in the chat.
Safe travels,
BKV
The Royal Tenenbaums still might be my favourite movie. The extreme versions very familiar family relationships, the failed attempts to find something you lost in your childhood home, some really great jokes, it's got it all!
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. For me, there was nothing like it at the time. I also really enjoyed The Departed & Dark Knight.