SPECTATORS - The First 300 Pages
Plus, be published in an upcoming issue of SAGA?!
Greetings from Albuquerque!
Brian here, visiting family in picturesque New Mexico. I’ve been working on a few different comic scripts during this trip, so when I wasn’t forcing my Canadian in-laws to endure postseason baseball (Go Guards!), I spent much of the weekend surrounded by balloons, of both the word and hot air variety, wocka wocka.
And this gasbag just sent artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon and letterer Fonografiks the penultimate script segment to Spectators, our serialized graphic novel that the three of us plan to finally complete later this year.
(Yes, we still hope to eventually release a print edition of Spectators, but if you want to be among the first to experience our explosive climax, I hope you’ll continue to join us here every Monday to watch us complete these remaining scenes in “real time.”)
My accomplished collaborators have already finished the first 300+ pages of our unconventional ghost story for adults, which you can read for free across the last 127 weekly vignettes still available in the Exploding Giraffe Archives.
BUT… if you’d like an infinitely more convenient way to read/download/own Spectators, we’ll attach PDF and CBZ files of our entire NSFW story so far to the end of this message exclusively for you generous paid subscribers in The Tower.
Along with the pride that comes from knowing you helped underwrite the completion of our sophisticated smut, membership in The Tower also gives you multiple opportunities to win fabulous prizes, including this invaluable original Spectators artwork hand-painted by the legendary Niko Henrichon:
We’ll be giving away that gorgeous page to one random paid subscriber, no participation in our weekly chat threads required (though your fellow giraffes and I would always love to hear from you).
If you’d like to be entered in that and all future contests, help us finish Spectators, AND unlock the last three years’ worth of exclusive bonus material, membership in The Tower is a whopping 50% OFF our already crazy low price for the next week only:
We hope to wrap up Spectators by the end of 2024, so you’ll probably want to opt for monthly membership over an annual subscription, but we appreciate however you might contribute, and we’ll pause any/all future payments after our final installment (when we’ll also provide you lovely members with a “digital collection” of the completed graphic novel).
I’m enormously proud of this wholly independent comic my friends and I have been able to create with your support, so thanks very much for tolerating my pledge drive nonsense one last time.
And thanks for the kind words about my nasty little Kids Rule O.K. story with artist Chris Burnham in the first issue of the latest volume of Battle Action, an anthology of new work celebrating classic British characters.
I learned that an international shipping delay may have prevented copies from reaching most North American comic shops last week, but it sounds like the book will finally be in U.S. stores later this month, maybe as soon as Wednesday.
This oversized comic looks incredible in print, so I hope you’ll pick up a physical copy, but if your local retailer doesn’t happen to carry this UK title, you can purchase a legit digital edition of the book from the 2000 AD Shop.
Anyway, I promised to send signed copies of this book to some commenters from last week’s discussion about “favorite British films,” and our intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe randomly selected a few, starting with Tower member Ben:
As an 80s kid, I’ve got to go for A Fish Called Wanda. Tight, smart, hilarious writing and a staggering number of great performances, with a direct line to the classic Ealing comedies thanks to director Charles Crichton. It also gives me a feeling of cosy nostalgia as a UK kid because, thanks to the no frills direction, low budget and appearances by actors like Stephen Fry and Geoffrey Palmer, it feels like the best possible version of one of those sitcom feature-length special episodes that shows like Only Fools And Horses or One Foot In The Grave would do and which got repeated annually for a few years running.
Joey G. added:
By “movies that blew open my teenage movie mind” I’d have to put Brazil in the one spot, though with time and age A Matter Of Life And Death and The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp are up there. 28 Days Later was another one that blew my mind also from a technology used perspective with the use of digital video at the time.
During my wife’s pregnancy and through maternity leave she watched one movie on repeat, one of those unanticipated choices, a movie I drove two hours to see a preview screening of with the filmmakers: Hot Fuzz.
And finally, Paul recommends a film I’ll be adding to my queue:
So many great British films already mentioned but to link in to the spooky Spectators I have to nominate The Innocents. Not only a great British film but a great (if not the best) ghost story committed to celluloid. Beautiful and genuinely creepy.
Thanks to everyone who contributed, and Genesis will be reaching out for winners’ mailing addresses soon.
Before I left town, good pal Brad Meltzer was nice enough to send my young readers his latest collaboration with the awesome Christopher Eliopoulos:
I can’t recommend this volume enough, especially because it gives me an opportunity to link to a favorite old piece about the Stephen Hawking artifact in my weird collection:
In last week’s dispatch, Tower member Catie M. mentioned that she’s been searching for a particular issue of Thor she’d once discovered in her grandmother’s basement, and fellow giraffe Mike R. was happy to help, writing:
I *think* that she may be looking for Defenders #4 when Valkyrie gets more definition - https://screenrant.com/best-valkyrie-marvel-comics-thor-love-thunder/ - I haven’t read my copy in 30 years though.
Catie confirmed that was indeed the issue she’d been hunting for, Mike, so for your kind assistance, Genesis will be sending you a signed copy of Saga #69.
Speaking of which, you still have just the rest of this month to pick up shirts/prints featuring Fiona Staples’ provocative cover artwork to that issue from The Official Saga Threadless Shop:
I’m working on an upcoming installment of “To Be Continued,” the letters page that appears at the back of every issue of Saga, and while my dearly departed friend Hamburger K. Vaughan detested any kind of electronic communication, newly promoted correspondence-hound Milkshake (who’s currently buried in a massive pile of your Questionnaire responses) wanted to extend a one-time offer to you members of The Tower: a chance to submit your letter to Saga without having to find/buy/lick a goddamn stamp.
If you have a question/complaint/whatever for the creative team behind Saga, and wouldn’t mind potentially seeing your words printed in the back of a future issue, please post your letter directly to this week’s chat thread:
We welcome your thoughts on this latest season, but also love missives that are wildly off-topic! And if you’re willing to share, be sure to tell us where in the world you’re writing from.
Please note that this channel of communication will be open for just one week. After that, Milkshake will once again only accept physical letters mailed to the analog address at the back of each issue of Saga.
For now, if the ‘Shakester chooses your message for publication, you’ll also be awarded some fun swag from the aforementioned Saga Threadless Shop. And as Tower member Adam R. recently attested:
Was complimented on my Saga T-shirt the other day (Chapter 34 - Ghüs fishing). I heard a hushed “great Saga shirt” while in a throng of people ogling the work of Alphonse Mucha at the Art Gallery of NSW. Thanks, fellow art lover!
Who doesn’t want a magical garment that will instantly connect you with cool new friends?!
So get to work on that letter you’ve always thought of sending Saga but could never work up the energy to drop in a mailbox. Your entry might even receive Milkshake’s highest honor, a trip to the Almighty Prize Drawer.
Tower members, stay tuned for your gigantic high quality PDF/CBZ files of the first 300+ pages of Spectators after our modest paywall.
Everyone else, have a wonderful week, and Niko and I will see you back here next Monday evening with more free Spectators.
Peace,
BKV