A super fun thing about working with Anna is her sketches and layouts are as good as finished comics art. It’s really something.

Anyway! Speaking of excellent artists, let’s start our 5 Things for August with everyone’s favorite, the monthly character commission…

Thing 1: The art

This month’s is by James Corcoran (website, bsky, instagram). I think I first became aware of James’ art through his collaboration with writer Fraser Campbell, Alex Automatica.

I was drawn in by the striking aesthetic. There’s a pulpy, throwback feel to it…but it feels like pulp comics art that also wants to punch you in the face. I’d call is Silver Age-y threatening grit, and so I was thrilled when James agreed to draw the werewolf priest, right out of Macabre Valley #1.

Check it out below…

I really enjoy seeing the many ways artists approach werewolves, and James brought surprising humanity and agility to his. Plus, the blood red roses scattered around really heighten the feel of the whole thing. It’s great.

Coming in September and October, we’ve got two more AMAZING artists on tap to draw this character, so you’ll definitely want to stay tuned for that!

Thing 2: We Won an Eisner!

When I’m not working on comics (or my day job), I help out at one of the longest-running industry news websites — The Beat. I’m the reviews editor, and I oversee 7 - 10 posts a week, depending. I also write my own reviews.

All that is to say that it felt really good to help The Beat win its first-ever Eisner Award at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. As Beat founder/Editor-in-Chief Heidi MacDonald said in her acceptance speech, “the Beat is many people",” and it’s nice to see our hard work recognized.

It’s also a perfect time for the industry to applaud The Beat. It’s started to feel as if websites like this one — which provide a daily resource for a wide range of comics news — are dying, beat down by corporate investments and AI. But we’re still here! Toiling for the love of it. There’s something rewarding about that.

And there certainly aren’t as many sites as there were even four years ago, with some of the mainstays turning into zombies, shambling along but dead and barely recognizable (IYKYK).

Anyway, the win was really great. We got to attend an awards dinner and sit among some of the most talented folks in comics. I don’t get paid to contribute to The Beat, but this was an experience I’ll value for years, drawing inspiration from it as I continue forward in comics (hopefully!).

Thing 3: Oh my god he admit it … SDCC is fun

But I wasn’t just at San Diego Comic-Con for the Eisners! That was the impetus for the trip, as I’d actually decided to sit this year out, since I’m headed to the U.K. comics event, ThoughtBubble, in November.

So yeah, I went to the show and I also worked for The Beat, helping out by covering panels that struck me as interesting. This is how I first got involved with The Beat, signing up to do the same in 2018 — and the rest is history.

This was a good SDCC too, one in which comics seemed to matter at the show (which is not always the case). I like to cover panels because they generally give you A. a breaking news rush (see my DC Comics coverage here and here), or B. a chance to get goofy writing about esoteric things you love (see my pieces about Bob Odenkirk, Elijah Wood being haunted, and a potential Beavis & Butthead/South Park crossover).

All this is to say I had fun at SDCC, both at the award show and doing the panel coverage. Most years, I get home and make a big theatrical show out of saying I won’t be back. I think it’s time to stop that — for better or worse, this show is a fixture of my summer, and I admit it.

Thing 4: Is social media working again? …eh, sort of

Another thing I noticed during SDCC and as I’ve been promoting Macabre Valley #1 is social media is working again — kind of.

At least, Bsky seems to be a decent means of reaching people for me, especially when combined with my personal and comics-centric Instagram pages. I was able to get a decent response to my posts about the Eisners, comics news, and my new project over the course of the last month.

This is purely anecdotal, of course, and I do think a social media spell has been broken to some extent for some users, leaving them less engaged as promises of social and professional rewards have vanished, replaced by toxic conversation and corporate-political manipulations — BUT I DIGRESS.

Point is that I think between Instagram and Bsky, the online comics community has largely reoriented itself and started to recover from the fall of Twitter, which while it had many (many!) warts, was one of the most thriving online communities comics ever had.

We’ll see how I feel when I’m done promoting my full Macabre Valley campaign (it’s not all about the money, but on Kickstarter it is a little about the money), much of which will take place on social media. But for now — I’m cautiously optimistic.

Thing 5: King of the Hill is back…and it’s perfect

Reviving a dead TV series is tough. I feel like there’s a momentum shows build, a magic that helps sitcoms in particular hit. I always think of Arrested Development as a show that had that momentum and lost it, coming back as a reduced version of what it once was.

This was on my mind as King of the Hill Season 14 came into focus this summer, roughly 15 years (!!) after the show ended. I’m happy to report, however, not only did I love the 10 new episodes of King of the Hill on Hulu — but I think it’s just about the most perfect show revival I’ve ever seen.

There’s a few reasons I feel this way. Being animated helps. You don’t have to grapple with schedules for cast, and you don’t have the odd thing of distracting the audience with how much everyone aged. This also worked for X-Men ‘97 last year.

And the new showrunner, Saladin K. Patterson, quite obviously took pains to capture the heart and spirit of the original show, which was always rich with heart and spirit.

But perhaps the biggest thing a King of the Hill revival has in it’s favor is this has always been a show in conversation with America. By the end of it’s first run, the show started to feel a little tired, as if it had exhausted that conversation.

King of the Hill, I always felt, was a satire to some extent of the Bush era, and when that era ended, it lost its way. So much has changed since then, politically, technologically, and culturally. This gave the show — which always had an anthropological bend — a lot to work with, and the creatives involved delivered clever storylines about polyamory, the ease at which people now believe conspiracies, the rise of soccer, and more.

There are 10 more episodes coming next year, produced at the same time as this season, and I can’t wait. Highly recommend checking it all out. There’s also quite a few big laughs in every episode.

Conclusion

In the months to come, I’ll have a lot more exclusive material from Macabre Valley #1 to show you here, along with new commissions and my usual recommendations for other media. But in the meantime, I’d really appreciate it if you follow our pre-launch page and consider backing us on Day 1! A strong start is everything on Kickstarter.

Cheers, be well, and please forgive any and all typos above!

-Zack Q.