He tricked me into going this way!
Chapter 128: What's the furthest place from SDCC?
SDCC plans!
Preorder our new book today!
Tyler sells more cheap art!
All my books out in July!
Mailbox- You can probably skip this part!
Mixtape- If you made it through the last part this is your reward!
Hello.
It’s mid-July, the time when the comics industry heads to San Diego, announces too much stuff, gives itself some awards, and hangs out by the pool. I have had a lot of people ask where they can find me at SDCC so I made this handy little map of where to find me all 5 days.
If you do end up going to SDCC have fun, stay safe, and grab something to eat at Hodad’s (meat-eaters) or Pokez (vegetarians). And go to artist alley. It’s an intense show for all involved, but running a table or booth is brutal. A friendly face goes a long way.
And someone bring me back some Mrs. Fields cookies.
I was supposed to send this out 2 weeks ago but my computer decided to give itself a lobotomy and I’m just now getting caught back up. This weekend is Final Order Cutoff for WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? vol. 2. It’s collects issues #10-13, around 150 pages of comic bookness for $14.99. Can’t argue with that. Since this weekend is the final order cutoff it would be a huge help to all of us who make the book if you preordered a copy. That helps stores know how many to order, helps us know how many to print, etc.
So call, email, text, message, or pop into your local comic shop today and tell them you want a copy for yourself and a copy for every member of your family, even the ones you don’t really like.
Don’t have a local comic shop? No worries. ComicShopLocator can help you find one.
Can’t find a shop that’s close to you? No worries. We have a lot of shops that we love who do mailorder around the world. Here are a few-
For folks overseas these great UK shops have preorders available-
If you want to get a copy from an indie bookshop you can use this site and credit the sale to a ton of different shops-
We always prefer that you support an independent business but every time I post something like this I get a bunch of emails asking about the big guys, so here you go-
And while you’re dealing with your local comic shop I’ll post this thing that I meant to post 2 weeks ago before my computer gave me the finger.
All this stuff is coming/came out this month. If you missed DC VS. VAMPIRES: ALL OUT WAR there is a nice hardcover of the first half. The Joker falls asleep and dreams about getting an office job in KNIGHT TERRORS: THE JOKER #1. The WILDC.A.T.S. continue to fall apart but might pull it together. And JOKER: A PUZZLEBOX is a really fun collection of stories told by the Joker that help unravel a murder mystery… sorta. So go to your comic shop today and grab them all.
In other news, last time I wrote a newsletter I talked about how Tyler Boss’s car got stolen with a bunch of art in it, it got found, it was totaled, a bunch of stuff was ruined, some wasn’t. It was a real rollercoaster. Tyler, being a person of tremendous grace and a known gentlemen, took the recovered art and decided it to sell it on the cheap so people who’d like to own original art but usually can’t afford it might have a chance. Then he was going to donate all the money to local Buffalo charities that provide outreach and opportunities to inner city kids.
The good news? You maniacs bought all of the original art in 10 minutes all while crashing his art dealer’s website multiple times. Amazing. And that means he raised over $3,000 for these charities. A feel good outcome from a shitty event.
The bad news? A ton of people reached out to Tyler (and me) saying they were sad they missed out on the chance to buy some original pages. I don’t want to speak for Tyler here, but I will because he doesn’t read this. I think we both agree that art is at its most important when it is accessible to more people, not less. Economic status should not preclude people from having access to good art and nice things. With that in mind, and also because so many people were such sad sacks about it, Tyler put some more pages up on the cheap. There aren’t any WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? pages, but there are pages from the story we did in the RAZORBLADES anthology, as well as from his story in the LAST PODCAST ON THE LEFT book.
There are also still 5 pages left from 4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK that aren’t on sale but are still a steal. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
And of course there are still a bunch of WTFPFH? pages. And more coming every day (except weekends.) The only reason I mention all this is because while Tyler is very kind to have sold a bunch of art and given all the money to charity, he is also really stupid because he still has to buy a new car. And car dealers don’t take variant covers.
And while you’ve got your credit cards out, the amazing artist Courtney Menard is selling a few sets of all the connecting Map covers for WTFPFH? #1-6 that she drew. These were all incentive covers and some were pretty hard to track down. So if you want a set, here’s your chance. She also had her car stolen recently, so this would help out a lot.
And if you’re extra nice and send her a note about it she might sign them for you. (And since she is married to Tyler, he might also. No promises though.)
We are once again going to our little mailbox to answer your questions. Got a question for team Ashcan Press about… Well, anything really? Leave a comment or shoot us an email.
Our question today comes from Zack J and is hyper specific in a way that amused me.
Matt, quick question. For your TALES OF SUSPENSE you named the chapters after mewithoutYou songs. Do you think "IT'S ALL CRAZY, IT'S ALL FALSE, IT'S ALL A DREAM, IT'S ALRIGHT" was a bold but successful departure into Neutral Milk Hotel style folk rock or were you frustrated that the band seemingly abandoned their post-hardcore roots?
This is a good question that will interest none of my readers Zack. Let’s dive in. There are two things artists can do as their careers progress. They can either stick to what they do forever and risk fatigue and boring their fans, or they can reinvent and challenge themselves and risk breaking what worked and alienating fans. It is a rare and beautiful ability to be able to know which kind of artist you are. Nobody wanted Ramones to start doing free jazz influenced opuses. Conversely nobody would care about Stanley Kubrick if he just made Fear and Desire over and over.
While staying the path and changing things entirely are both scary prospects, obviously change is the more terrifying of the choices. So, first and foremost respect to Mewithoutyou for reinventing themselves (a few times). With that said, I grew up loving bands like Quicksand, Jawbox, Lungfish, Farside, Fugazi, Into Another. Bands with hardcore roots whose musicianship pushed them into more complex sounds. So early Mewithoutyou really scratched an itch that never quite goes away for me. I love those early records.
But the real answer to whether they made the right choice by evolving is actually answered before they released “IT’S ALL CRAZY…” The first track on “BROTHER, SISTER” a few years earlier is the uncompromisingly beautiful and complex Messes of Men. While it obviously owes a lot to the earlier stuff, it was maybe their most complex and dynamic song to date, both lyrically and musically. It was the first hint of what was to come, and other tracks on that album take them further down that path. And it’s brilliant and beautiful and some of my favorite stuff by them. So when you ask about “IT’S ALL CRAZY…” I think it was a resounding success and will go down as the reason the band really matters, but it shouldn’t be viewed as separate from what came before and after. It was just frightening prospect of the gradual artistic evolution fully realized.
At some point on here maybe I will talk about how I put out a record for Mike from MWY’s old Straight Edge hardcore band and how they had to break up horribly right after the record came out. But I’ve bored most of my dear readers enough. Go read my TALES OF SUSPENSE run if you haven’t. It’s probably way out of print, but it’s a fun one if you can find it.
Blame Zack for this one.
That’s it for me.
Stay safe. Take care of each other. I promise to talk less about bands you’ve never heard of next week.
-Matthew Rosenberg
NYC 7/16/23
I, for one, am here for all the band talk. If I haven't heard of them, I want you to talk MORE about them so I can learn.
Where to go and what to do in NYC? For new residents? Thank you? Thank you!