Hey, Brian Vaughan here! Niko Henrichon and I have been floored by the response to our new serialized graphic novel Spectators. If you signed up for a subscription at any level after reading our, um, explicit opening pages, THANK YOU.
You can revisit past installments of Spectators over at our Substack home Exploding Giraffe anytime, always for free, and you’ll have Niko’s gorgeous but harrowing next scene in your inbox on Monday.
Bonus posts like this one will normally only go to our paid subscribers, a group we’ve given the totally-not-a-pyramid-scheme title of The Tower (what a group of giraffes is called!), but for this first outing, we wanted to open the floor to any/all readers who feel like delurking long enough to ask us anything, or just to introduce yourself. No pressure, but you should be able to post a comment to this thread with the below link-button-thing:
And if it’s not prying, a question for YOU: What, if anything, do you collect, and is there a “heart” of your collection?
Until recently, I wasn’t really a collector. I’ve always been obsessed with comics, but I think the physical objects themselves should be read and enjoyed until the staples fall out, not slabbed like Han Solo in carbonite.
But I did fall in love with original comic book art way back in the late 1990s, after I was gifted this page by Walter McDaniel, a fantastic artist I was lucky enough to collaborate with on my otherwise best-forgotten first solo credit for Marvel Comics, Ka-Zar Annual ’97, with great inks from Rob Stull:
I’ve been fortunate enough to amass some other personal treasures over my career, but this hobby didn’t really become a full-blown obsession until the pandemic. Like a lot of other middle-aged Dads of Privilege trapped inside for too long, I went from Swedish-death-cleaning away most of my worldly possessions before Covid to once again feeling compelled to surround myself with stuff I love.
And I fucking LOVE comic art, with its oversized pages of magically immersive narrative. I wish I could explain away this midlife mania as (just) nostalgia, but I’m into any eras and all good visual storytelling from the 1900s to Peach Momoko, with a particular affection for old-school hand lettering.
Look, I realize that possessing artwork of any kind is a ridiculous luxury, especially for a writer whose own artistic talent peaked in fourth grade:
Some brilliant untapped IP there. But yeah, I still can’t draw to save my life, so I feel like a particularly unworthy “caretaker” (the hobby’s polite term for “owner”) of some of my artistic heroes’ hard work.
Nevertheless, if you Tower-types are interested, I’ll occasionally share a few examples from my modest collection, though I promise these bonus dispatches won’t always be braggy editions of Would You Like to Come Up and See My Etchings?
For now, if YOU have ever thought about acquiring your own piece of comic art, all subscribers at our Annual Level will be automatically entered in a monthly drawing to win an original page of Niko Henrichon’s sumptuous artwork from Spectators. And those of you generous enough to join at the Founder Level will each receive an Exploding Giraffe Prize Package that includes a signed, limited edition copy of my never-before-seen script to Saga #1, and more importantly, one of these glorious FULL-COLOR SKETCHES FROM NIKO:
Look at how much detail the madman is putting into each of these alleged “sketches”?! Get ‘em before his hand gives out.
We’ll start mailing out prizes sometime in March, so become a Founder now if you want to be included in this first wave, especially because I’ll also be tossing in some of my most valuable personal back issues for our early adopters.
Okay, sorry to end all “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine,” but your (completely optional) contributions truly do underwrite the creation of what we hope will be our biggest and boldest story, so sincerest thanks again.
Next week (for Tower members, at least), I’ll be talking about my favorite graphic novel of the last five years. Any guesses? Take a shot in the comments, and correct conjecturers will get some swag!
Have a great weekend and don’t die,
BKV
I bet your favorite graphic novel of the last 5 years is something by Tillie Walden.
I love collecting comics (including raw, HC collections, and slabs), original art (when I have the coin to spare), 1st print/editions of non-comic books I enjoy, and love notes from my wife (the amount of new items added on a weekly basis to the previously mentioned collections seems to directly influence this last collection).
Your favorite graphic novel of the last five years is… Upgrade Soul.