Matthew does such wonderful takes on superheroes, and it was an honor that he’d take on our character. I love the over-sized head and the Kirby crackle, the latter of which ties in wonderfully to the story that Nick and I told with this character (and maybe into the new story that Nick and I are currently working on…ahem).

Anyway, I absolutely love this piece. And you should all follow Matthew Dow Smith on Bsky, where he shares such a great mix of comics advice and process materials from the projects he’s working on.

And now for something very different…

Thing 2: Richard Corben’s Masterpiece, Den

I almost included Den on my list of Top Comics of 2025 (below!), because the restored version of the fifth (and final) volume came out this February, but given that these comics were originally made decades ago, I thought better of it.

Instead, I want to share my recent review of Den Vol. 5 on The Beat, and talk about Richard Corben more broadly. Because my cluttered brain loves a list, I want to do this by naming my three favorite Corben comics. I just consider Corben one of the greatest comics artists to ever live, and think anyone reading this newsletter would also love his work.

One caveat is that given my age as someone whose comics knowledge skews 2000-and-later, there’s definitely recency bias in my picks. From what I understand, Jose Villarrubia — who restored Den — is working to restore many more older Corben works. So could be my picks are entirely different a few years from now.

Anyway, onward to the list!

Hellboy in Mexico

Now, Hellboy: The Crooked Man is probably the most well-known and critically-acclaimed Corben Hellboy story, but my personal favorite is Hellboy in Mexico.

It’s one of the rare Hellboy stories where he makes a strong personal bond with another character. It’s got an incredible dusty, luchadore-heavy setting, and the mythos it’s drawn from involves zombie turkeys.

It’s a must-read, in my opinion.

The House on the Borderland

William Hope Hodgson's 1908 novel gets a Corben adaptation here. It’s a wonderfully-weird project, the type of art the medium produces from time-to-time that reminds you of how powerful the silly combination of words and drawings can really be.

Kind of wild that this came out via DC Comics, albeit through the Vertigo imprint. There’s a hardcover edition that’s out of print, but absolutely worth snapping up, should you come across it

Ragemoor

Teaming with writer Jan Strnad, this was my first non-Hellboy exposure to work that felt like full Corben. I think the catalog text for this one really says it all:

Ragemoor! A living castle, nurtured on pagan blood, harborer to deadly monsters! A fortress possessed of its own will and ability to change itself, with the power to add and destroy rooms and to grow without the help of any human hand. Its servants aren’t human, its origins are Lovecraftian, and its keeper must fend off the castle walls from the terrible race of worm men!

Living castles and worm men…what else could you want?

Thing 3: Urasawa and Mystery Stories

Now to go from one mast of comics to another. I’ve been reading 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa for the first time. Urasawa’s Astro Boy modernization, Pluto, is one of my all-time favorite comics, and this one has been on my list for a while.

Originally published in English from 2009 to 2013, the entirety of this book is available in 11 good-sized volumes. I think I’ve held off because I knew it would consume my life, which it has — I’m reading this thing basically any chance I get, all day in my spare moments.

It’s not interesting to say Urasawa is great and 20th Century Boys rules (although it is true), so what I wanted to explore briefly instead is how Urasawa powers his comics with mystery.

He’s just so good at knowing what to give readers to get them intrigued and oriented, while at the same time withholding crucial information to keep this pages turning. As a creator myself, it’s a skill I envy and hope to somewhat emulate myself in my next project, which seeds a lot of long-term unanswered questions (again, small preview on that below!).

What I’m particularly captivated with in Urasawa’s work, is the way he often withholds character design reveals, patiently building to them and having characters act as stand-ins for the readers as the mystery mounts. He does it essentially three times with Pluto. And he does it throughout 20th Century Boys, as well. There are even reveals long before the eventual reveal.

In the sequence of pages below, he slows down the reveal, slows it down again, and then slows it down even more…even though it’s a little ridiculous for Kenji not to see The Friend’s face on the stage immediately. It’s so good. He basically has the reader dying with anticipation over the course of a dense, four-page tease. Check it out…

That goofy masked face is not even a thing we’ve familiar with, but it hits so hard! I’m not entirely sure you can do this so well in the type of indie comics I make, because funds are so limited and each page costs the project, but I’m definitely willing to try.

I’m thinking of ways to patiently tease like this over time, without dedicated a full multi-page sequence. Should be good…

Thing 4: My Top Comics of 2025 Recommendations (so far)

Okay! Now on to some more recent comics I’ve been reading. These are all releases from the first three months of the year that have really done it for me and will likely be under strong consideration for my Top 2025 list overall come December…

Bowling With Corpses & Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown

This one was an easy choice — it’s a new folklore-driven world created by Mike Mignola, who is colored here by Dave Stewart and lettered by Clem Robins. It’s got all the Mignola hallmarks, but it’s also fun to see a legendary creator with nothing to prove pushing himself to do something this ambitious.

Read my full review!

Raised by Ghosts

I loved Briana Loewinsohn’s new memoir-ish comic, Raised by Ghosts, which had an aesthetic that felt to me like Wes Anderson operating in the Grunge Era. It’s set in a time period just ahead of when I came of age, but it felt like a glimpse into the lives of all the older brothers and sisters I knew. It’s also bold in its approach and wonderfully personal.

Read my full review!

Tongues

Anders Nilsen’s new book, Tongues, is moody and grandiose in equal turns. It’s a gigantic book that uses ambiance well. It’s a retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus, and as the cover somewhat implies, it’ll throw you into the mud and then clean you off with its precise linework and stunning imagery.

The Ultimates

The Ultimates, which is primarily by writer Deniz Camp and artist Juan Frigeri, is one of those superhero comics that reminds you how it used to feel as a kid when a new issue of your favorite title would drop, and you had to read it ASAP. It’s the engine behind the new Ultimate Universe project at Marvel, and it’s doing a wonderful job with compressed episodic storytelling that also fits into a bigger picture.

Fifth Choice

Finally, Julia Gfrörer’s new book of short comix really blew me away with how bold the storytelling was and how willing the pieces were to make the readers feel, even (or especially) when it came at the cost of explaining. I thought the pieces were also arranged well, making for an anthology that read as a coherent whole.

Read my full review!

Thing 5: Bigger Than Life (1956) dir. Nicholas Ray

And now for my non-comics item…I was in New York recently and finally caught a movie at the Film Forum, which is one of those NYC places I’ve heard about for years. It is an art theater even by New York standards, started in 1970 and still financed today primarily by philanthropy (it’s a non-profit).

I was in-town to see a Knicks game with friends, and the venue was running a Tales From the New Yorker film series to commemorate the 100th anniversary of that magazine, showing films based on its articles, cartoons, poems, and short stories. It was a surprisingly eclectic line-up, ranging from In Cold Blood to Brokeback Mountain to Addams Family Values, all introduced by New Yorker staffers who curated the fest.

The movie I saw was on the obscure side: 1956’s Bigger Than Life, directed by Nicholas Ray (who most famously directed Rebel Without a Cause, as well as the all-time great Humphrey Bogart vehicle, In a Lonely Place). It was introduced by New Yorker film critic, Richard Brody, who emphasized just how influential Ray — and this film — were to the pioneers of the French New Wave movement, including Jean-Luc Goddard.

To be totally honest, I picked the film in part because the timing of it fit well into my trip, but I bring it up here with a strong recommendation, because it ties directly into the main subject of last month’s newsletter, the films of David Lynch.

Bigger Than Life is proto-Lynch. It’s based on an article in The New Yorker, in which a man has a mystery illness, and the experimental treatment that doctors prescribe gives him psychosis. That’s the base plot, but Ray makes it about much more. It is, essentially, about the financial and status pressures of American suburban life, and the darkness that lies beneath the shining veneer, waiting to come out with a slight provocation.

In this film, the man’s health suffers. But the rest of his life is so fragile, that just a short bout with psychosis puts everything around him at risk — his employment, relationships, financial well-being, etc. That’s a lot to chew on, and Ray’s direction does so with what felt like truly subversive choices, given the straight-laced ‘50s time period when this film was made.

Bigger Than Life is a dark and surprising film. In particular, there is a scene within which the lead — portrayed by James Mason — comes to blows with his best friend, portrayed by Walter Matthau as circus music blares from a left-on TV. It’s a surreal combination of high-stakes animalistic violence and everyday kitsch.

It felt Lynchian to me, both in its interest of what lies beneath American life, as well as the way it combines story, visuals, and sound to make you feel something primal that you can’t quite articulate nor understand. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

If you’re interested in Lynch, I highly recommend tracking this one down. It’s not streaming anywhere, but it has a wonderful blu-ray edition via the Criterion Collection.

Conclusion

As promised, I do have some news about my next project. It’s a full first issue, completing one of the stories in Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1. The entire creative team from the first piece is returning, and the artist has completed roughs and layouts, with final inks underway.

We are likely to have the full thing done this summer (at the latest) ahead of a campaign in very early fall, so that the book can get to you all ahead of Halloween, which is a bit of a hint as to which story we’re expanding.

And here’s another hint, one of my favorite panel sequences from the roughs/layouts…

Amazing. I love it so much, and can’t wait to share more about it when the traditional promotional timeline strategies allow.

That’s all for now though. For more hints and teases, be sure to check back to this space next month, when this newsletter gets back to the usual first-Tuesday publication schedule.

Cheers, and be well!

-Zack Q.