SPECTATORS - Part 82
Plus, new process videos from Niko Henrichon!
Did you watch anything great this weekend?
Brian here, and my firstborn and I had an old-fashioned Hollywood outing, enjoying steaks at Musso & Frank’s before heading over to the resplendent Chinese Theatre for a showing of Killers of the Flower Moon, escaping the horrors of current events by instead exploring the horrors of our not-very-distant-at-all past.
No spoilers, but I’ll just say that, despite being 13 years old and/or two martinis deep, we both remained captivated for the film’s entire bladder-busting runtime (though I wouldn’t rank it nearly as high as this predictably maddening Rolling Stone list of every Martin Scorsese film).
Speaking of obsessive viewing habits, let’s rejoin our fellow perpetual audience members Val and Sam for some tense, NSFW new pages of Spectators, courtesy the endlessly talented duo of artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon and letterer Fonografiks…
Now that’s a cliffhanger.
In last week’s chat thread with you generous paid contributors in The Tower, we were discussing recent interesting encounters with animals of any kind, and our intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe randomly selected a few of you to win some shit.
Those chosen will receive both a signed copy of the second printing of Saga Chapter Sixty-six AND their choice of any of the cool new sweatshirts from our Saga Threadless Shop, including this audaciously anti-Robot design from the fabulous Fiona Staples:
You can also choose new “crest and back” options in multiple different colors and styles:
Our first lucky winner is reader Steven T., who revealed:
I have a family cabin in deep creek lake Maryland. It was dusk and I was on our dock relaxing fishing with a bobber just hanging out alone. The lake was super calm and serene. No wind just absolutely still. Sounds of crickets, sun setting behind the mountain that was just above the lake. It was just one of the most peaceful things I have ever experienced. I really was just taking in the beauty of the lake and my surroundings. I looked out about 4 feet or so in front of me out off of the edge of the dock. And just over the lake I see a little white moth just fluttering over the water. I watched in awe as this little creature flapping its wings daintily added the perfect touch to an absolutely perfect moment. I was at this time one with nature. At that moment nothing else mattered, the beauty of the moth was absolute…
Just as I was reaching a state of eternal bliss a motherfuckin bat just swept out over the water and absolutely wrecked that moth. I mean a midair fuckin assault happened 4 feet from my face. And that bat flew around me for what felt like forever and I could see the white wings of that dainty beautiful moth sticking out of that black assassin’s jaws as he flew around. I would like to think this is a metaphor for something. Like this moment was my dead kid on the train tracks. When I finally knew how flawed the world is in the face of such beauty. That nothing will be calm again.
But really it was just cool as shit to see that bat fuck up that moth with deadly precision.
Yes.
And loyal member Rachel shared:
In a recent trip to Mexico, I was snorkeling with my 13 year old daughter when a fish that resembled Flounder from The Little Mermaid swam up to us. It then started swimming by daughter’s side and would circle around her. At one point in went directly in front of her face and appeared to be making eye contact with her. I thought it was the coolest thing, however my daughter did not. I could suddenly hear her screaming through her snorkel and she booked it back to shore.
Thanks to you both, and Genesis will be reaching out soon for your sizes, mailing addresses, star signs, etcetera.
And next Monday, Niko will be giving away another gorgeous page of original artwork to one lucky annual subscriber, so you still have a week to join up and become automatically entered in the contest for this full-frontal masterpiece:
A reminder that Niko’s artwork is also for sale over at Essential Sequential, and we’ve got a special announcement just for you Tower members after today’s paywall.
Along with getting access to all of our exclusive blah, blah, blah, you paid subscribers directly fund our team’s ongoing work on Spectators, so we can’t thank you enough.
They hinted that it might be coming soon, and I’m excited to share that the penultimate issue of Friday from my friends/tormentors Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martín, and Muntsa Vicente is available RIGHT NOW for any price you think is fair (including nothing, if you’re skint at the moment) over at Panel Syndicate.
Speaking of Muntsa, I feel like I say this about her every issue, but this was truly one of the most exquisitely colored comics I’ve ever read in my life. (The writing and art ain’t too shabby either. Best cliffhanger yet, gents!)
Anyway, here’s the big brain behind Panel Syndicate to tell you more…
Hey, Marcos Martín back here again just a couple of weeks after our last newsletter, to announce the newest chapter of FRIDAY is out now! This is the eighth and penultimate chapter of the series so just one more to go. And we're hoping you won't have to wait so long this time since I'm already inking the first pages. Maybe even just as little as... three or four months? What can I say, I'm an optimist!
But let's not get ahead of ourselves and focus on this newest installment where Ed, Muntsa and myself will finally bring you the answers to the secret we've all been wondering about since the beginning of the series: Who killed Lancelot Jones and why? Yes, all will be revealed but that doesn't mean new questions won't arise...
Also, both Ed and I have been so swamped in work (ahem) we've brought in a very special guest to take care of this issue's afterword... and you'll never guess who!
Okay, it's Muntsa.
Anyway, head up to panelsyndicate.com and check it out for whatever price you want to pay, including zero!
Time for me to turn the controls over to multinational treasure Niko Henrichon for several of his awe-inspiring process videos, but I’ll be back with you next early Monday evening for more new Spectators and some fun surprises.
Peace - BKV
All right!
This month’s Artopsy will be about the creation of a commission. I’m not “officially” available for commission work right now, but I’m visiting my Spanish friends in Madrid next week for the Madrid Comic Pop Up festival from November 3 to 5.
If you happen to be around Madrid at that time, please come say hi. For that special occasion, I’m doing a small batch of commissions, so I’ll seize this opportunity to show you how I’m doing one of them.
On this one, I was asked to draw the classic villain Green Goblin on his no-less-classic flying thing. [Dammit, Niko, everyone knows it’s called a “goblin glider!” - Bombastic Brian]
I’m starting on a quick sketch that I could do on paper but I’m finding it quicker to do on the computer tablet. So here it is:
Similarly to my comics pages process, I use the printed sketch on the lightbox to draw my final drawing, which will go through the coloring process afterwards.
Let’s check out some time-lapse videos of each step…