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THIS WEEKS BLOG

*this weeks comics are below the blog!*

Michigan Convention appearance

and

COMANCHE!

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SEE US AT GRAND RAPIDS COMIC-CON!
NOV.14-16TH GRAND RAPIDS, MI
COMICS-AUTOGRAPHS-SKETCHES-LIVE

As you full well know, my policy on mass emails is to make them worth opening in some way shape or form, beyond just a plug.

HOWEVER...this is a rare instance where a plug is required and I don't have time for much else. There's comic below to make up for that, and I'll be brief.  Well...let's all just see IF I can actually put out a simple plug and not trail off into some unrelated topic.

As I've mentioned the last two times I'll be at Grand Rapids Comic-con this weekend AND will be doing a discussion panel on how to make work that doesn't suck.

Eh...the approved description is thus---

Saturday, November 15 • Grand Gallery Overlook D • 1:15 p.m.

Understanding the Importance of Awesome: Making Work That Connects

This isn’t just for aspiring pros - it’s for creators who want their work to truly resonate. Douglas Paszkiewicz (Arsenic Lullaby, Mad Magazine, Eisner/Harvey nominee) offers no-nonsense, practical advice on transforming good work into unforgettable art and storytelling. Learn how to dig deeper, when to break the rules, what to research, and how to create work that connects with your audience on a lasting level.

I've been doing a good amount of "how to" on making comics, telling stories, researching, and just getting your creative skills in gear in these emails. This is not altruism on my part. One, I thrive on competition, so the more good work being put out the better I like it. and TWO...I'm tired of everything sucking.

I'm a person. I like comics an movies and music. and I'm not interested in consuming the same stuff over and over until I'm old and gray. Be it literally the same stuff (like watching Deadwood for the 78th time) or figuratively as in the same tired old plots tropes and archetypes.

I want new stuff that's good.

In the last five years I can count two movies that were actually good. Nobody and Everything Everywhere all at once. That's it. That's pathetic, and tedious. Well...I guess I liked Prey also.

But I can't say it was "good". I put it neck and neck with Predator 2, as in - I liked them, but wish they were better.

Prey was pretty flawed, but I could forgive most of it, because if you think about any of them too hard they fall part. The things traveling the universe for a challenge and it picks   a species several thousand years behind it in technology and weighs 200 pounds less? That's like me hunting a three year old from the stone age.

MORE than that, the entire time I was watching it I was wishing they had chosen the Comanche as the tribe that fights the Predator, because THAT would have been a fight. Or maybe not. My money says that the second confrontation by a Comanche raiding party with a predator would have ended in 30 seconds and the result would be the predator looking like a pin cushion and staked down in the desert for the buzzards.

Then I looked into the movie and that apparently WAS supposed to be a tribe of Comanche. Which is horsesh*t. It was set in the Northern pains in 1790s. The Comanche were all the way in another time zone, fighting the Spanish army.

(cue Vietnam war era music) "It ain't me. it ain't meeee. I ain't no fortunate sonnnn. no no."  

Hmm, I bet it'd be fun to juxtapose the whole script from platoon with the Spanish in 1700s...

Or maybe Platoon is the movie to do this with, we take William Dafoe's character and replace him with...

No no no...Stop it. You said this was going to be short and no one who signed up for a newsletter about a comic book, gives a f*ck about the historical inaccuracies of the portrayal of a native American tribe in a 5yr old movie about a space monster. Nor whatever road you were gonna go down with that idea.

...I'm just saying that

NO

...please just let me talk about the Comanche, I listened to 4 hours of a podcast about them yesterday and I have no place to dump this information.

Why did you listen to 4hrs of talk about Comanche?

I don't know. It was good though.

The Comanche woulda f*cked that predator up! They would have lost the first round because of his invisibility b*llshit. But the second time they would have just watched for it's footprints (seeing footprints being a skill they expertly honed so they could track down Spanish fur traders...they'd have no problem at all seeing the footprints of a 400 pond monster) and then skewered the f*cker.

Stab stab stab! war cryyyy! stab stab stab! 

They had 15ft long spears for killing Buffalo. NO way one predator, who thinks they don't know where he's standing, is gonna fight that off.  Them circling it on horseback and stabbing away!

What's it gonna do? shoot off his one spinning disc and try hitting them with his slow ass laser tracking thing? After all was said and done, one of them would have been wearing its head for a hat, for sure.

Whoever wrote that movie don't know nuthin about Comanche, I'll tell ya that much. They shoulda listened to the podcast I listened to. It also could have used some nudity.

She coulda been topless in a a few scenes, it wouldn't have hurt nuthin'.

You're an idiot.

It's for historical accuracy, Comanche women only covered their breasts as punishment/a sign of shame.

Really?

(shrug) I don't know. But they coulda just said that as an excuse for some nudity. they murdered every other historical aspect. At least let me see some boobs outta the deal.

...And now you're down the road of objectifying women. Real smart.

It's for historical accuracy, I said.

You just admitted you made that up.

Oh...yeah. But, see, the thing is...

You think that actress would appreciate you drawing boobs on her picture?

...no.

Not those one's for sure, but it's hard to draw boobs with a mouse. I don't have one of those fancy pen pads. That was my third try. That was the best I could to with a mouse. You want me to try to draw a wiener on the Predator to balance things out? You think It'd look all scary? I bet he'd just have a little one. His whole vibe reeks of overcompensating. Every time you watch a predator movie just think he's doing all that because he has a little one.

What if...of all the sentient life in the galaxies, mankind had the biggest wieners?

Enough...how about the convention? Maybe talk about the comics you'll have? Since that's what you're supposed to be using this email for. Selling comics.

Fine...Come see me this weekend at Grand Rapids Comic-con! I'll have two collections of Arsenic Lullaby with room on the back to get a sketch, AND a single issue which has a chapter of the new series coming out soon! 

And here's this weeks comic (below)...It's even slightly on the topic I just tried to discuss. Sort of, not really. It's the second Tex Buckaroo story. He's a character I had a lot more to do with but haven't gotten around to it. I like drawing him and he's fun to write AND he's a nice contrast to most of the A.L. characters, because he's actually having fun. I even had a few "buddy stories/adventures" in mind, with his adversary from this one.

The downside that keeps having me picking something else to draw is that the concept is outdated. Does anyone under 30 even know who the Lone Ranger was, or seen the shows, or know that was a whole TV genre? Maybe...but the concept that the host of a kid's t.v. show could go his entire life, and even remain fondly remembered... without the general public finding out he was a total scumbag is something new generations couldn't even get heads around.

Anyways...

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 Protect your art from AI with Glaze or Nightshade

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 Protect your art from AI with Glaze or Nightshade

 Protect your art from AI with Glaze or Nightshade

 

Protect your art from AI with Glaze or Nightshade

SEE US AT GRAND RAPIDS COMIC-CON!
NOV.14-16TH GRAND RAPIDS, MI
COMICS-AUTOGRAPHS-SKETCHES-LIVE



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