Hang on, did that header say Part Twenty-two?!
Brian here, eternally grateful to my collaborators Niko Henrichon and Fonografiks for their relentless dedication to our story over these past several months.
We had more visitors to Exploding Giraffe than ever last Monday, so if you’ve just downloaded the first sixty pages of Spectators, welcome to our weekly serialized installments, where you’ll be able to watch the three of us continue to create our planned 300-plus page graphic novel in “real time.”
For the last few days, Niko and Fonografiks have been hard at work on today’s vignette, as our spectral protagonist Val continues to spectate an underground mixed martial arts competition in our distant future, where a tragedy is unfolding across two planes of existence…
As always, if you’re reading this on your cellular telephone, I’d suggest downloading one of the above files (DRM-free and yours to own), so you can enjoy every detail of Niko’s hand-painted artwork on a larger screen later.
Either way, Spectators will continue next Monday, with three new pages of sexual deviance and/or the old ultraviolence.
Say, have you checked out the teaser and/or official trailer for Amazon Prime’s upcoming adaptation of Paper Girls yet…?
Pretty cool, huh? How perfect is that casting?
Selfishly, I think this was my favorite moment:
Huge thanks to Amazon and all of the lovely creators behind this series for rightly crediting fellow Executive Producer Cliff Chiang and yours truly as equal co-authors, which felt like a small but important step forward for our medium that we hope will help benefit other creators.
Still, I love that many commenters were just upset that Paper Girls is referred to in that above teaser as a “graphic novel” rather than a “comic book.” Never change, my fellow permanently aggrieved comic nerds!
(Seriously, thanks to everyone who raced out to their local comic shops to purchase a copy of Paper Girls: The Complete Story, which, let’s face it, while perhaps not an “original” graphic novel, after being serialized across thirty issues of old-school comics, is now an “actual” graphic novel, no? Fight me in the comments, nomenclature obsessives!)
Anyway, all eight episodes of this terrific show will be available July 29, and this coming Friday, I’ll be sharing details about the various Paper Girls panels/signings/screenings happening at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, including a special gathering exclusively for you generous paid subscribers in The Tower (and other cool opportunities for you Tower members who can’t make it to the show this year), so stay tuned.
Looking for more gorgeously illustrated comics?
My dear friends at Panel Syndicate have just released the newest issue of Blackhand & Ironhead, from mighty writer/artist David López and killer colorist Kike J. Díaz.
This is a superhero story unlike any other (truly), and you can download all five issues of this planned six-issue series right now, for any price you think is fair, including $0.00… but whatever you pay goes directly to the creators, so thanks to those of you can toss them some silver for their beautiful work.
And now, the one thing you actually care about: PRIZES.
From our post about the making of “To Be Continued”, the letters page at the back of each issue of Saga, my mail-dachshund Hamburger K. Vaughan promised to pick a few commenters to send some junk from the Almighty Prize Drawer, and the old boy has randomly selected:
Caleb Gilbert
Megan Hurley
Todd Coffin
Apologies in advance for the envelopes stuffed with randomness you three will eventually be receiving.
Finally, from last week’s post, it’s time to give out these epic Saga Starter Kits, one for a brand-new subscriber to Exploding Giraffe…
Danielle G.
…and also a kit for one of our loyal existing members, who was kind enough to help spread the word about Spectators:
Nurse Dan
Thanks to everyone who joined/commented/shared, and congrats to our winners. If we don’t already have your address on file, our semi-fictional intern Genesis the Exploding Giraffe will be in touch for it after they get back from their latest safari early next week.
One last thing before I go, are you reading anything else here at Substack that you’d recommend to the rest of us?
This isn’t a paid ad or anything (I love that the company gives us total creative freedom and never tells us what to post or not post), but I’ve been having a great time in this autonomous wonderland, and you can check out some of my favorite Substacks at this link.
Recently, I’ve been loving everything at Jen Bartel Club, which toggles between extraordinarily thoughtful posts from this master artist about subjects like Ukraine and Roe V. Wade, and “spicy images” like these:
Jen’s ‘stack is often not safe for work, but if you were a square who didn’t like the naughty stuff, you wouldn’t be reading this, right?
You all a bunch of perverts,
BKV
I tried following the link to see the substacks you are following, but it says the page is private. Can you please update it? Thanks!
Hi, I paid the $250 founder fee and still haven’t received access to The Tower and I’m not sure how to get you my address to ship the gifts, thanks.