GLAAD to be back!
Award Season with Captain Britain, and the return of the 'Stack
I’m back! October’s trip to NYCC and subsequent COVID threw me completely off track, and by the time I was caught up enough to write to you folks, it was the holidays, and then I was thrown off schedule again.
Then before I came back, I wanted to make sure I got things together to send to my Founder and Yearly backers. If you’re among the Founder and Yearly backers and you haven’t gotten an email from me to confirm your shipping address, comment below and I’ll make sure I get you in on this shipment of physical rewards. (I find packing comics very nostalgic, takes me back to my retailer days.)
Also, if I’m being honest, I always need like, a solid month of hermit time this time of year. I live in a sunny place that doesn’t get below 40 at its coldest, but I’m a sensitive girly and it’s a loud world. January hits and I turn into a bit of a Victorian maiden who sticks to moderately exciting novels and classical music. My affection for my typical morbid bullshit and screeching discomfort just craters, and I save my excited gasps for reruns of Antiques Roadshow and anything that’ll fetch more than $10,000 at auction. (They had that wooden chair in the hall for years and never knew!)
And now, as a reward for giving myself that quiet time, I’m feeling super creative. It sucks when the advice is right, but it’s true - if you’re in search of your creative mojo, turn off the noise and fill the tank. Less doomscrolling and more reading. Fewer reels and more movies. I get it - I get sucked into my phone too - but it is the unfortunate truth you can’t write if you don’t read. Don’t be Garth Marenghi:
Anyway, it felt like a good time to come back, because not only is CAPTAIN BRITAIN: BETSY BRADDOCK out in stores, she got nominated for a 2024 GLAAD Media Award!
The timing is fantastic, as the book is finally out in trade paperback form at comics stores everywhere. If you’d rather just place an order online, might I recommend you do so from a local store that does shipping, like Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood, CA! We’re so proud, and the other nominees are great, so I’m not expecting anything besides the joy of recognition, which has been great. And for you Betsy superfans, Phenomenocity artist Phil Sevy and X-Men writer and great pal Steve Foxe have her showing up in the pages of X-Men Unlimited:
So check that out!
Over with my DC girlies, Catwoman is deep in the threats and throes of NINE LIVES. If you didn’t get a chance to check out CATWOMAN #61, it’s one of my favorite issues I’ve ever written. NINE LIVES is a connected arc, but each individual mission is a lethal one-and-done. If you’ve just got time for one good Catwoman heist, you can check out any of these issues for a fix. And in CATWOMAN #62 —
Selina does a turn on the SUICIDE SQUAD.
And it’s Harley’s party in HARLEY QUINN #38 and she’ll CRY IF SHE WANTS TO.
How great is this Sweeney Boo cover? Is there anything better than Selina feeding a bite of Harley’s rainbow cake to Power Girl’s cat, Streaky? Natacha Bustos joins us for three great issues as we kick off a new arc with Harley. No more multiverse, now we’re in for a whole new mission that’s Gotham City to the core, working alongside…villains?! Well, at least Harley’s being productive…
Plus…she puts on a favorite old look…
Here’s some stuff I’ve been enjoying lately, maybe you’ll enjoy it too:
TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY. Need I say more? Like a lot of people, I’ve spent a lot of time lamenting what True Detective, a show with great promise, actually does with their premise. This season, starring Jodie Motherfuckin’ Foster and incredible fighter-turned-actress Kali Reis, is everything everyone’s been asking for since season one. A cast of great actors alongside newcomers all coming together for a great ensemble in a super creative location that brings so much to the story.
BETWEEN TWO FIRES by CHRISTOPHER BUEHLMAN. I started this one last year but didn’t really pick it back up til January and just sunk in. Everyone I’ve spoken to has called it ‘Medieval Blood Meridian,’ which seems accurate, but I hadn’t read Blood Meridian. So now I am. And it feels like it’s having something of a revival, which, hey - love that for the author. If you have a novel you’ve read recently that you can’t get enough of, comment below with your recommendations! I’d love that.
I saw IRON CLAW last month and it’s stuck with me intensely. I can’t believe it got so snubbed by the Oscars, I genuinely would have been 100% behind a Zac Efron Best Actor campaign. Not only a great story, but it ties things to the present in a way that’s just an amazing testament to healing. The movie got a real reputation as being brutally hard to watch - which it is - but the ending is such a powerful statement on healing from generational trauma and patriarchal violence.
This half finished bit of concept art I’m working on for a new idea:
Stay weird, talk soon, Happy Valentine’s Day-
-TH 2.13.24 18:57
Can we expect some batcat action after the nine lives event?
Congrats. But I have to know! Where is my girl Scandal?! Is she back home with her wives and her kid? Why was she helping her dad in the first when she hates him? It’s been months the anticipation is killing me!