For my money, Luke draws the best tentacles in comics today.

Anyway, I was absolutely thrilled with this piece, and it got me inspired to both write more Goldmask and to push the Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2 project along at a faster pace. Nothing to announce there yet, but let’s just say emails have been sent. Heh heh heh.

Oh! And speaking of Luke…

Thing 2: The Barrel & Hammer Interview

I actually had a chance to interview Luke, and writer David Barnett, recently in my capacity as an editor and contributor with The Beat. It’s always slightly awkward when I get invited to interview someone I know. Do I try to include some kind of reference to how we know each other? Do I mention it to them ahead of the email from the publicist? I always work through that stuff when this happens.

And eventually I come down on the side of: I don’t want to infringe on their new project by referencing past work we did together, so I send them a note behind the scenes and keep the focus entirely on their work in the interview. I suppose it could add a little something if I conduct the interview with more familiarity than usual, like you see on late night talk shows or the 2 million (and counting) celebrity-hosted podcasts these days.

But I feel like I’d come off closer to Chris Farley on SNL, asking remember when…super funny bit, but probably doesn’t read well on the page.

Anyway, check out some awesome design work by Luke that they let us unveil, and make sure to read our interview too!

Thing 3: Why I STILL Write About Comics

That bit of awkwardness around interviewing people I know speaks to another question I’ve been grappling with of late: Why do I still write about comics?

To be totally transparent, I don’t get paid to do it. The Beat’s finances are unhealthy (we don’t gate any content, and comics publishers rarely support industry sites by buying ads), and with a full-time day job and a partner who earns, I don’t feel like I need to be paid. It does, however, make me feel at times like I need to justify — mostly to myself — why I spend so much time doing this.

As the site’s Reviews Editor, I am responsible for anywhere from 7 - 10 posts a week. These posts include regular features and columns that other folks write, including d. emerson eddy’s excellent Classic Comic Compendium. Some of them I simply format and schedule, while others require heavy edits from me. On top of that, I do a lot of checking in with folks, or making books available to them, and I try to build and nurture individual relationships with every one of the reviewers. Oh, and I write at least two posts a week myself.

It’s a lot, and it’s time out of my nights and weekends (I work full-time at another media job, too), time I could be spending elsewhere (probably reading other things, or, sigh, lost in the glow of my phone screen). There’s a few reasons I still do it though, even though my priority is my creative work. They are in no particular order:

• Free books: look, this one speaks for itself

• Being a good comics citizen: Back in 2013, I attended the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop in Portland, Ore. I was writing literary fiction then, really working hard at it too, and the workshop was an incredible experience. One thing that has always stuck with me, was the workshop leader encouraging use to be “good literary citizens.” This means if you want others to read and support your work, you should reciprocate by also contributing to the community. That’s how I see writing for The Beat.

• Fame: I can barely walk down the street, lest someone start screaming something like “oh my god it’s that one guy from The Beat.” It’s ridiculous.

I should mention to, that The Beat’s editor, the inimitable Heidi MacDonald, wrote this week about Comics Journalism Being Dead. That conversation is one that comes up often in comics communities online, and I sat it out. I don’t have anything to say about that. I’m just going to keep doing this until Heidi shuts down the platform, and even then, you’d probably start finding reviews again in this space.

Anyway! All this is to say that as I continue to spend more time on evolving my creative projects, the writing about comics thing is increasingly a question. (I do have other stories too about covering books and panels featuring people in the industry who have or are currently ghosting me about work I’ve done, but that’s a subject for another newsletter…)

Thing 4: Brooklyn-bound…in more ways than one

As is presumably clear by that little promo image I made above, I’m going to be in Brooklyn next weekend! Tabling at The Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase, selling my comics.

I’ll have copies of all three covers for Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1 — by John McCrea, Raul Allen, and Nick Cagnetti — as well as my 2021 one-shot comic, Next Door.

The show is at Industry City, and it’s free! If you stop in and mention you subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll give you $1 off one of my books or $5 off either of the prints I’ll be selling…your choice! If you ask nicely, I will also show you some of the WIP in progress from my next comic…but SHHH.

Oh, and I’ll be debuting a print by Russell Mark Olson of the Ape Wraith character from the book, check it out below…followed by the aforementioned personal life chaos from this newsletter’s start!

So the chaos. It’s not all that juicy (sorry for the misdirect!), but me and my little family are in the process of moving to — you guessed it — Brooklyn. It’s a lot and the dust is nowhere close to settling yet (we are, in fact fully engulfed by dust at the moment). I’m sure I’ll have more to share about all this in next month’s newsletter, which will also be later in the month.

Thing 5: You really should watch (or re-watch) The Larry Sanders Show

I’m a big fan of re-watching long-run shows with short episodes, series like The Simpsons, Modern Family, and 30 Rock have all scratched that itch for me in recent years. You can throw them on, have a sandwich, read a book, and drift in and out, chuckling at funny moments from familiar characters (did I just explain the concept of a rewatch? sigh).

I’d been looking for something to watch of late aside from cable news, because it’s awful and everything is on fire. I had watched a DVD set of The Larry Sanders Show many years ago, in college, but it only had a sort of Best Of selection of episodes. So, I started watching it in full lately.

And I think this show is an absolute pillar of ‘90s comedy, up there with The Simpsons and Seinfeld in terms of both laughs and influence. In fact, I think it actually might be more influential than at least Seinfeld, in how it sparked an entire style of snarky, too-real comedy, as well as a trend of Hollywood behind-the-scenes shows, which gave us Curb Your Enthusiasm (hell yeah) and Entourage (no thanks, bro).

The other thing I was struck by in re-watching this show is just how many episodes they did. A thing we talk about in comics circles these days is how rare the long-form comic has become. They’re still out there (Saga comes to mind), but they’re an endangered species. Friends, I think this is also true of TV shows.

The number of seasons that shows get hasn’t changed much, but now a series that runs for six seasons, as The Larry Sanders Show did, might scratch 60 episodes, if it’s lucky. This show did 90! And sure, not every episode is essential, but the series going that long is comforting, with each episode endearing its people to you just a bit more.

I think across culture right now we’re losing the value of familiarity in stories as everything becomes compressed, and we become so conditioned to consume entertainment in violent short punch videos.

Conclusion

To sum up — come see me in Brooklyn next weekend! We’ll hang out, it’ll be a great time. Until then…

Cheers, and be well!

-Zack Q.