But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!
Chapter 151: Planning things and taking time to not plan things...
Our Creative Retreat!
New Comics This Week!
Mixtape!
Hello again.
Hope you’re having a good week. We are hard at work here in the Ashcan Labs making new stuff for you to read… soon. But in the meantime, I thought I’d talk a little bit about some stuff that happened the other week. Our little WTFPFH? comics creative retreat.
My intrepid partner in crime, Mr. Tyler Boss, came down to New York for 5 days of planning, scheming, and bullshit. But then it snowed a lot in Buffalo so the Bills playoff game got pushed to Monday, which meant that Tyler was too busy nervously pacing for the hours leading up to the game, too busy anxiously standing in place for the hours of the game, and after the game was a real question mark. I know Tyler well enough that I know I don’t want to be around him when the Bills lose. So, long story short, we lost a day. But that’s okay. We’re nothing if not adaptive.
Starting Tuesday morning at the crack of 1pm, I made my way out to Williamsburg to sit in Tyler’s hotel room for 10 hours and plan. Early on in the development of WTFPFH? we realized that we wanted a book that was more reactive. Let me explain what I mean by that, because it might just be pretentious gibberish. We had big plans, we had a story, and we had a beginning, a middle, and an end. But we didn’t exactly have all the little stuff that goes in between which is, ya know, the actual comics. Normally we’d just sit down for a while and I’d outline the whole thing. But comics is a marathon, not a sprint. And I’ve never actually done either of those things, but it seems like running a marathon would be really boring. So if Tyler and I were supposed to stay excited and invested and able to put our all into this thing, we’d have to find ways to keep adding new ideas, and the easiest way to do that is to not put in all the ideas at the start.
More than just keeping us interested, I really believe in the urgency of comics as I call it. The idea that I think of something and write it down, Tyler takes a month or so to draw it, and then 2 weeks to print and ship, a week to distribute, and that idea is on shelves. It’s a staggeringly impressive way for us, the creators, to communicate with you, the readers. I think comics does a poor job of taking advantage of this, and I’d always like to do better myself. And while WTFPFH? isn’t exactly a book about current events (or is it??), there is still an urgency to be had. But what that looks like is sort of hard to explain.
When I’ve talked about this in the past people take it to mean that we listen to the audience, read reviews, and tailor the book based on that. We don’t. I mean, we do listen to the audience and sometimes we read reviews, but it doesn’t impact the book for a very simple reason. Our job is to give you something that feels personal, and intimate, and something only we could make. If we were taking all your thoughts and hopes and notes and putting them into the book, then it wouldn’t be that, and it would probably be awful. Art by committee is never good.
But where the reactive nature of what we’re trying to do comes into play is in ourselves. This book was conceived of before Covid, before we got new dogs, before we lost loved ones, before we moved to new cities, found new inspirations, got sick of things we used to be into, before other ideas came out that were close to ours, etc. In short, a lot of life happens when you work on something for years and years. Because of that we are not the same people we were when we started making the book and we want the book to reflect those changes. So we are reactive, fluid, and hopefully the book is better and more honest for it.
With all that said, I can’t tell you a lot about what we did at our mini-summit because that would be spoilers. We did discuss the fact that the first time we did one of these I ended up with this note in my ideas file and neither of us really knows what it means-
Obviously that is a great fucking idea. But I ‘m not sure what the idea is.
As mentioned, I can’t tell you much but I can give you a couple interesting tidbits from the meeting.
I had a fried chicken tikka sandwich and it was the fucking best. Really made the hotel room smell wild though.
Not only were we working on WTPFFH? but we continued working on another secret project that Tyler has started drawing, and we began work in serious on a new book that he and I are co-writing for another artist to draw. More news on all of that a little later this year.
The next arc of WTFPFH? is by far my favorite. Starting with issue #20 this book gets real crazy in the best way.
On the second to last day Tyler was sketching on his iPad and I was excited to see what all our ideas were conjuring up in him. Here’s the transcription from that part of our summit.
MR: I think all that stuff will really work well. Are you sketching out the new character designs?
TB:
MR: Oh, that’s… not what we were talking about. Okay. We should try to… What are you doing now?
TB:
MR: I didn’t mean you had to erase it. Maybe we should take a break… What now?
TB:
MR: Oh, no. You beautiful fucking maniac. You’ve done it!
As you can see Tyler started to lose his mind from being locked up in a hotel with me for the better part of a week. So we decided to let inspiration be our guiding principle on the last day and we abandoned the desperation-and-still-chicken tikka-scented hotel room to go tour the Whitney Museum.
No better way to get excited about making things than looking at things other people made. I was really in love with the Henry Taylor exhibit.
I don’t have the vocabulary I want to describe his work, but there is something very raw about standing before these pieces. They feel intimate and powerful, like they come from a place of overwhelming emotion. And that transports you. I find myself dwelling on things that were hard to shake. I left the exhibit determined to find more of that in my work.
We left the museum and wandered in the snow for a while until we grabbed a table at the White Horse Tavern to work on this new thing, reenergized. The White Horse Tavern is one of the oldest bars in New York and is famed as a hang out for folks like Dylan Thomas, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Bob Dylan, Hunter S. Thompson, and more. It is also famous for throwing Jack Kerouac out a lot. But most importantly they have a really great blue cheese burger. Also they will let you sit there for 4 hours and talk about what a comic should be and what it shouldn’t be.
All in all it was a great week and a great reminder of how fun it is to sit down and create things, but also how important it is to take the time to not do that too. And Tyler only went a little crazy.
It’s still Wednesday! That means it’s New Comic Book Day! Here is some stuff I think is cool and you should check out.
UNDER THE INFLUENCE by Eliot Rahal, Stefano Simeone, & co. A story about dangerous cults, cults of personality, and the fake layers upon layers our new reality operates. A fun and weird read that keeps you guessing.
MISS TRUESDALE AND THE FALL OF HYPERBOREA by Mike Mignola and Jesse Lonergan. A story of the occult, time travel, and… you know what? It’s Mike Mignola, so you know it’s good. And Jesse Lonergan is easily one of the most interesting newer artists in comics. There is literally no reason you shouldn’t be reading this.
WALLER VS. WILDSTORM by Spencer Ackerman, Evan Narcisse, Jesus Merino, & co. I am a big fan of Spencer work outside comics and Evan’s work both inside and out of comics, and Jesus was my partner on JOKER: PUZZLEBOX, so obviously this was a must read. But it’s a Deathstroke/Waller/Wildstorm comic and that is a lot of my favorite stuff in comics so my excitement for this has been through the roof since it was announced, and it did not disappoint for even a second. Smart, politically conscious, badass interpretations of some of the most vile portions of the DC Universe. A total joy.
SINS OF THE SALTON SEA by
, C.P. Smith, & co. Easily one of my favorite comics of last year. A fucked up heist tale slams into a horrific cult story to create something entirely new and stunning. The twists in this one are unforgettable, the character work is pitch perfect, and you always have to respect a crime story that pulls no punches. A must read.ZODIAC by Ai Weiwei, Elettra Stamboulis, & Gianluca Costantini. When modern artist and activist Ai Weiwei makes a comic, that alone should get our attention. But this book, which blends biographical stories with legends, lessons from the zodiac, and puts it all incurrent political and social context, you’re left with a fascinating look into the mind and life of one of modern art’s most important figures, in a story that could only be told through the medium of comics.
STRIKERS by Kiel Phegley and Jacques Khouri. A fun, heartfelt, and sweet story of underdogs coming together. Who doesn’t love a feel good sports story? Probably a bunch of people, but those people are monsters. A great book for young adults or old kids. Give it a read!
Jamming on 70’s glam rock this week. Join me.
And we’re done.
Stay safe. Take care of each other. I bet that hotel room still smells like a Mumbai KFC.
-Matthew Rosenberg
NYC 1/31/24
Glad to hear on the WTFPFH plans!
Keep on crushing it. My 8 year old and I just finished Strikers - we both loved it. Family comics fun time. Check.