I am well-versed in all the customs…

Chapter 160: Last Night a DJ Stole My Stuff...

• The Inescapable Knowledge of the World Around Us!

• What Do DJs Do Anyway?

• Other People’s Books!

• The Mailbox!

• The Mixtape!

Hey.

Hope you’re having a good week. Whether you’re getting ready to have a big meal with family or friends or going to be by yourself, I hope that it is stress free and lovely for you. And if you’re not American have a good Thursday. And, as someone who had a retail job at one point, I wish all of you out there on the retail frontlines a week full of customers who know what they’re looking for and manage to put items they don’t want back where they found them.

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Last week, when I happened to mention a charity doing work trying to feed people in a warzone I had more unsubscribes than I’ve ever had before, so common sense tells me not to talk about real world issues here. But common sense is for cowards. Also, maybe we got rid of all those folks so now we can talk about whatever and make fun of them behind their backs. I guess where I land is that it’s my newsletter so I’m going to talk about the stuff that’s on my mind sometimes. >shrug<

I have complicated feeling about the holiday this week, and events around the world don’t make that any easier. I find it harder and harder to compartmentalize my place against the larger world around me. I know it’s something we all have to do or we’ll be crushed under the weight of it all, but celebrations and holidays seem to only cast a spotlight on this for me. I wouldn’t say I “struggle” with holidays, thats not fair to the folks who do. I just have a harder time getting in the “holiday spirit” than I used to. And I fucking love stuffing, so you’d think it would come naturally to me. I don’t have a solution for… feeling like part of the world. But I guess my feeling in writing this is to lend my voice to those that have an unease at all the suffering they see around them. I also know that I am in a privileged place where I can do some good for people, but also use things like this newsletter to help share the good that others are doing. So sometimes I will be trying to do that. If that’s not your cup of tea, I appreciate you hanging with me anyway.

With that in mind here are a couple organizations doing good work helping people. If you feel so inclined, give them some support.

The White Feather Foundation does work supporting indigenous cultures around the world through things like disaster relief, food and sanitation projects, and legal defense funds for tribal lands.

Family Promise provides support for families without homes or families at risk of losing their homes in the U.S. They provide safe emergency housing, as well as various training programs, and direct support by paying back rent, security deposits, and landlord mediation.

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Onto more cheery topics.

Some fucking EDM DJ ripped me off!

This week I came across a listing for a song called “We Can Never Go Home” by a person (or people?) named Joevasca. I didn’t make up the term, in fact I half lifted it from Thomas Wolfe and Pretty Girls Make Graves, so that’s no big deal to me. But it’s not the title that bothered me so much, it’s the art.

Here is the listing on Spotify. I’m not going to link to the song because I respect you all too much.

Look familiar? No. Well here is the 3 connecting covers for WE CAN NEVER GO HOME #1-3 from the great Rick’s Comic City-

Yup. They grabbed the issue #2 cover by Amancay Nahuelpan, clumsily stretched it out, erased his signature and the Black Mask and Rick’s logos, and added their name. So not only did dude steal Amancay’s art without paying him, but he stole our logo that Michael Walsh designed.

I’m not really mad. I grew up in punk rock, where stuff is “borrowed” all the time. So I have some sympathy here. Hell, the Operation Ivy logo is lifted from a Mike Zeck Spider-Man cover and the Samhain/Danzig logo is from a Michael Golden Crystar cover. One of the difference here is that those bands redrew, reworked, and modified element of those comics. They didn’t just use the whole cover (including the fucking logo). Another is that those things were done by bands playing in basements and legion halls, with no idea that they’d be making things that would be seen for decades on websites run by global mega-corporations. Actually I have no idea what Danzig thought at this or any other point in his life. But the point remains. None of that is not the case here, since I think this was specifically thrown together for Apple, Spotify, Youtube, etc. Not great.

The other key difference is that this song sucks.

Anyway, I don’t really care for the sake of our book. It’s funny and weird. But I’m not super into people stealing Amancay and Michael’s work. That sucks. So if you run into Joevasca DJing the opening of a supermarket or some kids bar mitzvah, tell him he owes those guys some money.

And if you’re in Tennessee, visit the excellent Rick’s Comic City. Tell ‘em Joevasca sent ya!

New Comic Day! That means recommendations from yours truly. Before we jump into stuff in comic shops, let’s start with a cool project on Kickstarter.

Friend of the newsletter Ryan Cady has a kickstarter going to make a physical copy of his Webtoon series WOLFSBANE with artist Morgan Beem. Wolfsbane is a badass comic about werewolves and the people who hunt them, and this gorgeous looking collection is the first time the series will be in print.

There are just a few days left to grab yourself a copy, so don’t sleep on this.

Onto some of the cool stuff in comic shops this week-

BATMAN: OFF-WORLD #1 by

Jason Aaron

, Doug Mahnke, & co. When I started doing this 3 weeks ago I said I wouldn’t be promoting Big 2 books here because they have their own advantages and eco-systems of promotion that indie comics don’t get. Well, one month in and I’m breaking my word. But I had to make an exception here. Jason Aaron is pound for pound one of the best writers in comics. Doug Mahnke is a legend. They’ve teamed up to take Batman to space, and what better cause is there than that? Seriously though, this book rules so much. I could (and hope to) read Jason and Doug making Batman comics for the rest of my life. It’s a blast.

THE HOLY ROLLER #1 by Rick Remender, Andy Samberg, Joe Trohman, Roland Boschi, & co. Yes, this book is co-written by members of your two favorite bands- Arma Angelus and The Style Boyz. But that’s not why I’m recommending it. This book actually has a super secret third writer (his name is on the front cover)- Rick Remender. I am a sucker for all things Rick. DEADLY CLASS, LOW, BLACK SCIENCE, THE SCUMBAG, UNCANNY X-FORCE, all of it. And he may never love me the way I love him, I still want to shout about his books from the rooftops. Add in some gorgeous Roland Boschi art and you have a new series worth your dollars.

INDIGO CHILDREN vol. 1 by Curt Pires, Rockwell White, Alex Diotto, Dee Cunniffe, & co. I could go on and on about how fun this book is, but I actually sent you the first issue to read a few weeks ago. If you missed it, you can go back and read it here. There is nothing I can say to get you more excited for this book than the book itself. So go read it, then buy the whole thing.

INEBRIO HORSEFEATHERS in SCAMPER JUICE #1 by Tony Millionaire, Mike Carey, Jonathan Wayshak, & co. What is this exactly? Who the hell knows. It’s got a great title. It might be an absurdist take on Horatio Hornblower, it might just be a story about a platypus with a drinking problem, but if it’s got Tony Millionaire (DRINKY CROW) and Mike Carey (LUCIFER), you should probably buy it. And it’s published by Bad Idea so you can probably get it by trading a rock with your local comic shop or showing them a picture of a sheep or something.

LITTLE ROCK FILES #1 by Greg Burnham, Quinn McGowan, Marcus Williams, & co. An old-school, hard-boiled, detective story about dead kid and all the webs that spin out from there. This one is from the creative team behind the excellent TUSKEGEE HEIRS series and is well worth your time. Also, their solicit uses the term “Noirkansas” and I think you owe them money for that alone.

GRENDEL: DEVIL BY THE DEED Master Edition by Matt Wagner and Brennan Wagner. Is Grendel one of the best indie comics ever made? Yeah. Does Matt Wagner going back to the original story, reworking it, and adding 120 (?!) pages mean you should buy it again and fall in love with Hunter Rose all over again? Yeah. It’s a gorgeous hardcover of one of the best. This is a no-brainer.

SOMNA #1 by Becky Cloonan, Tula Lotay, & co. A spooky, erotic, supernatural thriller about witches, witchhunters, and temptation in the 1600s. Becky and Tula are both creators whose name on a book is always a seal of quality, but they are both clearly putting their all in to this gorgeous story. Grab a copy today.

We’re going to the Mailbox, but we’re going to make it quick because I got places to be.

Stressfully, our letter today comes from child supervillain Normie Osborn.

Normie takes his time and writes-

“What are page rates for letterers and artists? And colorists?”

Good question Normie.

It really depends on the person. Some artists get paid $40 a page. Some get paid $2,000. There are people whose name on a book sells a lot of copies, or brings in outside interest, or guarantees that the book will be on time and headache-less. Those things generate money and so their rates are higher. But the industry, like many, has hit real wage stagnation (and some backsliding) in recent years, so a lot of the people with the higher rates have both the resumes to justify it, and the precedent from previous eras to allow it. You also have to factor in that comics is a global business, and for better (?) or worse, companies often seek out people in different countries who can more easily live on lower rates. But at the end of the day, again, it’s all varied. So any answer I give is going to be pretty broad.

For artists somewhere between $40-$2,500 a page feels like a pretty normal range.

For colorists- $30-$200 a page.

For letterers- $5-$25 a page.

I am sure lots of people will take issue with this. I’m not saying I endorse any of the lower rates, but they exist. The honest answer of how much everyone gets paid in comics is “Not enough.”

Hope that helps. Tell your dad I miss him.

”They sing, ‘I'm in love, what's that song?’ Yeah, I'm in love with that song.”

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That’s it.

Stay safe. Take care of each other. Thankful for all of you.

-Matthew Rosenberg

NYC 11/22/23