Michael Bay All Day

More than just shameless Kickstarter promotion, I swear

Hi. I’m Danny. I write comic books and this past Sunday I tried sesame oil on air-popped popcorn to some success.

This Month’s Soundtrack

Just in time for spooky season!

A couple months ago I decided to listen to the entire discography of Blue Oyster Cult because I heard a song that wasn’t the usual ones that sounded kind of awesome. Imagine my surprise to find out they’re a proggy proto-metal band. Also they randomly put a new record out and it not only fuckin’ shreds, but has a killer cover.

Anyway, they did the soundtrack for a 1992 direct-to-video movie called Bad Channels, and this weird little gem by an avant garde comedy metal band called Sykotik Sinfoney was on it. Total underground thing that broke up before they could officially put out their album. I read they just released it on burned CD-Rs sometime in the 2000s? Weird.

So I’m Launching A Kickstarter Tomorrow

It’s happening! The Kickstarter for Survivant #2 goes up on Tuesday, 10/25, running up to Black Friday in November. Survivant #1 is available through the campaign for those who never copped the first issue, including a tier to get both #1 and #2.

The campaign also features the return of what I call the Shitpost Tier, where I draw the stupidest shit I can think of. I also made a dumbass graphic to accurately convey the vibes and some of my best work in the medium:

I’m super nervous about it! Maybe even more than when I launched the campaign for #1 with no promo and barely got to my funding goal. We’re coming off of the Rubber Match campaign, which ridiculously exceeded expectations, so if this falls short of its goal I’m going to be inconsolable.

On the bright side, the book’s well into production, so hopefully that’ll inspire some confidence and I’ll be able to deliver it pretty swiftly compared to the first one, which got severely fucked by COVID.

The page is already up, too. Depending on when you look at it, it’ll either be the pre-launch page with a “Notify Me” button or a full-ass campaign with $70,000 already pledged, probably.

Comics Work

Constantly struggling to maintain the work/non-paying work balance, but on the bright side I’m like 19 pages into the first draft of Survivant #3.

I enjoy writing a lot, but the worst part is working through an issue and wondering if you’re wayyyy off-base and fucking up royally, so much that the draft is unsalvageable. It’s really ideal to have something workable on the first try, y’know?

My favorite advice on writing came from this essay by Anne Lamott (an author I haven’t otherwise read) called “Shitty First Drafts.” If you google it you can download a PDF of it, but the premise is basically that you gotta power through and get to the finish line so you can look at the whole picture and figure out how to fix it.

I’m sure the script is fine, but it’s easy to doubt the destination when you’re on the road, or something.

In other news, I saw some inks/colors on a project that’s actually being published. That felt good!

We’re Doing A Signing??

Republic of Lucha is a store/gallery/event space devoted to lucha libre located in Pasadena, CA and owned by two of the legit best wrestlers in the world, Rey Fenix and Penta El Cero M (a.k.a. Pentagon Jr).

Kira Okamoto, the artist of Rubber Match, already designed an awesome shirt for Rey Fenix, and Republic of Lucha was cool enough to not only carry Rubber Match in their store, but also invited the team to do a release party on Saturday, November 12, 2022.

Kira sadly won’t be able to make it, but Elizabeth and I will be there to do a signing and an interview on Republic of Lucha’s YouTube channel. There will also be some exclusive merch, which is very exciting. Hopefully some of you can make it out to the event!

Michael Bay’s Ambulance Almost Made Me Cry

Nobody’s going to believe me, but Ambulance (AmbuLAnce?) is an amazing film that strives to be a modern-day Die Hard and pretty much succeeds. Like the everyman action classic, it’s got lots of solid character work and zingers in addition to the requisite Bayhem.

Aside from that, one thing that really struck me about Ambulance was how absolutely steeped in Los Angeles the flick is. Way more than some phony shit like Paul Haggis’ Crash. It’s obsessed with LA geography — the neighborhoods, the highways, everything. There’s a bit where the cops are like, “oh fuck, we gotta stop these guys before rush hour or it’s going to be a shitshow.” The ambulance at one point hauls ass through the Staples Center parking garage. And, of course the LA River.

I don’t live in LA, by the way, but I’ve ventured up north from San Diego enough times that I could really appreciate it.

At first glance, it’s easy to watch the trailer and write it off as some sort of police-based propaganda (I don’t really like the term “copaganda,” can’t really explain why, too buzzwordy?), but it’s far from it. It’s totally procedural because you follow the situation from a bunch of perspectives — LIKE DIE HARD — but the movie pretty obviously takes the stance that militarized cops are worthless (seriously, they accomplish nothing in this movie) and the only thing that saves the day are people doing the right thing.

I won’t give it away, the ending nearly made me cry. For real, though. I’m not really a person who cries at movies. I mostly get emotionally overwhelmed rewatching things I really love, like Ratatouille or Kung Fu Hustle. But after about two exciting hours hanging out with a few people in a speeding ambulance, getting to the big emotional climax was INTENSE.

It’s also SUPER EXCITING, full of practical car stunts and the sort of thing that people who are sick of CGI superhero movies claim to long for. Also, the cinematography is expectedly bananas, with some seriously wild-ass camera movements that were clearly drones zooming around at top speed. Real hot-blooded stuff.

Loooooved it.

Everything Is Flammable: Elizabeth grabbed a bunch of Gabrielle Bell’s books from the library, so her stuff’s become our big deep dive after Tom King’s Batman run, because we contain multitudes here at Creep Castle. To be honest, I was prematurely iffy on it when I saw it was going to be diary/memoir stuff because I can’t always abide reading all about a cartoonist’s wack-ass life unless it’s dramatic like Blankets or Persepolis or real dirtbag quotidian like American Splendor. Flammable is closer to the latter, but there’s some subject matter in there that’s new to me, like the process of buying and setting up one of those small prefab cabins.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack: Had this on DVD for over a decade, but finally got around to it a couple day ago. Unaware of its reputation while watching it, but apparently people consider it one of the best Godzilla flicks, especially of the Millennium Era, and it definitely lives up to that. It ignores all other Godzilla media except the 1954 original and the 1998 American version as a passing reference, and it deals with some heavy themes in the vein of the original. The action in it’s really great, and the human stuff is solid, too. Would recommend it to anyone who was into Shin Godzilla for the political themes.

Wynd: Currently on Volume 2 of this fantasy series by James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas. I’m not versed in much fantasy outside of Lord of the Rings, which I love, but I really feel like this is a fantasy comic that doesn’t feel blatantly derivative of Tolkien and also a YA genre comic doesn’t feel totally slight and undercooked.

My preferred JT4 comic, though, is Department of Truth. That thing is HOT FIRE.

Amsterdam: I feel like people are going to believe me less than the Ambulance thing, but I thought Amsterdam was great. People on Twitter tried to shit on it via that one clip of someone getting hit by a car (thanks for the spoiler!), but this movie was a blast. It’s super funny and the plot is hectic to the point of convoluted, but I think it works if you fall in love with the characters and buy into the mystery. Was surprised to find out that the core of it was based on reality, albeit extremely loosely, which I think is the best way to do it.

Don’t Worry Darling: Didn’t give a shit about the behind-the-scenes drama, just was really stoked for this movie based on the trailer. The Mad Men dystopia was really fun to inhabit for a couple hours, and some the trippy shit was very cool. The thing crashes and burns after the big reveal, which is hilariously on-the-nose. I haven’t heard anyone talk about it because I don’t know a single person who goes to the theater anymore, but I’m sure people compared the movie to Wandavision.

From Hell: A rewatch for me, a movie I hadn’t seen since probably high school when I was obsessed with it. Full disclosure, I hadn’t read the comic yet at the time. I still think it’s pretty good as a Ripper mystery thriller, albeit kind of silly at times. Was very surprised on the rewatch to see what carried over from the comic, like the shoutout to the Gull’s architectural tour of London with some lines about Cleopatra’s Needle. The most revealing change in the adaptation is that Abberline has premonitions when he does opium (lol), considering the comic opens years after the investigation, with the psychic telling Abberline that he was faking the whole time.

So Alan Moore’s In The News Again

And the dead-end writers vs. artists debate. Cool! By which I mean boring!

Anyway, cold take. I feel like every time the writers vs. artists thing comes up it’s always some random bozo nobody’s ever heard of. Every interview I’ve read or podcast I’ve listened to with an actual professional comics book writer usually involves a bit where they make sure to stress that they suck and their collaborators rule.

Here’s a take so cold that Leonardo DiCaprio died in it. Patrick Zircher became the main character of Comics Twitter a few weeks ago for bemoaning male superhero character designs for being too “metrosexual,” an outdated term for men who are attracted to skyscrapers. He attributed a proliferation of slim body types, fashionable outfits, and cool hair in cape shit to the decline of masculinity in modern culture (or something??), but I think dude just needed to realize that artists younger than him are really into anime.

I almost forgot! Speaking of artists, my collaborator on Big Fucking Hammer, Diana Naneva, drew a Peter Pan comic called Lost Boy, the first issue of which is currently funding on Kickstarter. It looks great, but I wish the writer put Diana’s name on the cover. I’m still gonna contribute to the campaign, though.

Sports

I know not everyone reading this newsletter is into pro wrestling, but I’d recommend this one as a hilarious, general interest sort of thing.

This is a match from New Jersey-based Game Changer Wrestling, one of the more popular indie companies these days, between Invisible Man and his brother, Invisible Stan. In other words, there are no actual human beings in the ring except for the referee, who’s equipped with special sunglasses that allow him to see them, and whose reactions are the only indication of what the invisible wrestlers are doing

The result is not only very funny and clever, but also a fascinating look at how much the referee and the live crowd contribute to a match. With zero wrestlers involved, it’s still a blast to get into. Like any pro wrestling match, all you have to do is believe.

My daily paying gig involves writing about wrestling for TheSportster, a sports website owned by the same company that owns Comic Book Resources. Here’s everything I’ve ever written for them — lots of informative Top Ten pieces that have me doing a ton of research into the history of the sport.

I figured I should share an article every now and again. One of my favorite recent topics was Japanese wrestling pioneer Rikidozan, who’s a fascinating figure in general. He’s a Korean immigrant who kept his nationality secret in a country that was hostile to Koreans, but who made wrestling a phenomenon in Japan thanks to matches where he vanquished evil wrestlers from the West — an irresistible concept in post-World War II Japan. On top of that, he’s responsible for modern Japanese wrestling, as his disciples founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, both popular companies that in turn influenced Western wrestling.

Also? Totally involved with the Yakuza. The book Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan is a really great read overall, but there’s a section that basically lays out the foundation of Japanese pro wrestling, with some wild stories about Rikidozan himself. My memory’s a little rusty, but I recall a story of a card game at Rikidozan’s place with his wrestlers working as armed security guards, and I like to imagine young Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba just walking around an estate with shotguns like goons in an ‘80s action movie.

Anyway,