***If this email looks jacked up in your email window,
click
here
to see it on the website***

THIS WEEKS BLOG
*this weeks comics are below the blog!*
Michigan Convention appearance
and
COMANCHE!
Was this forwarded to you from a
friend?...you can subscribe to get your own weekly updates
HERE
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...

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

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

Protect your art from AI with Glaze
or
Nightshade
Protect your art from AI with Glaze
or
Nightshade
|
ARSENIC LULLABY ONLINE STORE
TEMPORARILY OPEN
10.00 off second print with coupon code- 2prints2 |
|
FIND A COMIC BOOK STORE NEAR YOU
COMIC SHOP LOCATOR
Save
on shipping, find other comics you didn't know
existed...maybe find a bargain. Click on the link
and punch in your zip, code, it'll give ya the
closest place |
|
SUBSCRIBE TO THE A.L. Email updates
Get a weekly(ish) email from the
writer/illustrator of Arsenic Lullaby. Some
week's it's a sneak preview, or a long rant, or
news about new projects before we tell anyone
else.
HERE |