SPECTATORS - Part 87 (and SAGA!)
Win a signed copy of this week's SAGA vol. 11
How was your hopefully long weekend?
Brian here, just back from a quick getaway to scenic Cayucos, California, where Elder Child snapped these lovely photos (whose nominal fee for use here I had to haggle over like J. Jonah Jameson):
Speaking of fairly compensating creators, thanks as always to you generous paid subscribers in The Tower for underwriting today’s relatively hopeful—though persistently NSFW—new pages of Spectators from hard-working geniuses Niko Henrichon and Fonografiks.
If you were lured to Exploding Giraffe for the first time by the promise of signed Saga, please stay tuned, and you mature readers can catch up on the first 200+ pages of this serialized graphic novel about sex and violence (and the different ways we “consume” both) in our Archives. Thanks for being here!
Well?
Our unconventional ghost story continues next week.
Here’s the only picture I took while on vacation, in case you were wondering what my family probably thinks of me:
Hey, it’s my fictional family, co-created with the phenomenal Fiona Staples! Our eleventh volume (collecting Chapters 61-66, plus Fiona’s recently unearthed first sketches of The Will and Lying Cat) will be at your local comic/bookstores THIS WEEK, with eye-popping logo/cover dress by our own Fonografiks.
If you’d like a shot at winning a signed copy, we’ll be giving away several to randomly selected paid subscribers. And for the next week only, joining your fellow giraffes in The Tower has never been cheaper…
Along with helping Niko, Fonografiks and me complete Spectators, your membership unlocks all past, present and future exclusive bonus content, including today’s never-before-seen script to Saga Chapter Sixty-one.
And I just found a few of those rare prints signed by the elusive Ms. Staples, so I’ll include one with each of our first few lucky Tower winners, cool?
I’ve been working on Saga with Fiona since 2011, and this is my favorite volume yet (largely thanks to some brilliant ideas of Fiona’s), so I hope you patient trade-waiters enjoy. We’re hard at work on next year’s new chapters, and we’ll update everyone with our schedule asap.
There’s a new character coming your way that I think some of you might have very strong feelings about…
Thanks to you current readers who upgraded to a paid membership last week, especially Andy Lucus, who was randomly selected to receive that bullet-stopping Ex Machina Omnibus, now on stands for your holiday shopping.
In last week’s chat thread with you Tower types, reader Joshua Leto was nice enough to write:
I’m thankful this week for an online group of commenters that seem to simply enjoy one another’s comments and questions. Thank you all for a batch of contributions that always seem quite generous and kind. (Maybe there are dozens of edits, deletions, and warnings behind the scenes, but this group seems to be pretty great, so I doubt it.) And thank you Brian and Niko for setting the tone overall for such a sweet community.
Thanks, JL, and no edits/deletions/warnings necessary yet, I’m happy to say. I realize that Spectators can sometimes be a… confrontational read, but our readers are nevertheless some of the kindest and chillest humans on the internet.
With that in mind, our Question of the Week: If you were a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy!, for which charity would you play?
You need not be a celebrity nor good at quiz shows to answer, and no offense taken if you prefer to keep private where you do your end-of-year giving, thanks.
Speaking of our incredible readership, if you live in the Los Angeles area, I strongly encourage you to check out The Shape of the Night, an immersive experience from a group that includes one of my absolute favorite writers (and longtime Exploding Giraffe subscriber) Eva Anderson.
I have no idea what to expect, but I’ve loved everything Eva has been involved with in the past (and this outing requires a waiver!). A few tickets are still available, so maybe I’ll see you there?
But if you’re not in L.A. (and even if you are), you can enjoy the work of another faithful Spectators reader, stand-up comedian Gavin Matts, whose confident, original new special is easily the darkest thing I laughed hard at all year.
You talented jerks fill me with intimidated awe.
All right, that’s enough shilling from me, but Tower members, stay tuned for your exclusive script to the first chapter of this latest Saga arc, where you can see how much my shorthand with Fiona and Fonografiks has evolved since some of the earlier scripts I’ve shared (read: how much heavy lifting those two do with my “economical” writing).
I think I redacted most of the major spoilers for future storylines from this document, but if I missed any, please keep ‘em between us, okay?
Everyone else, have a wonderful week, and I’ll see you back here for more free Spectators next Monday night.