I really don’t know!
Chapter 103: Back in the saddle again...
Life / Work updates!
Stuff to preorder!
The final, final tour diary!
Hi!
Hope your weekend is going well. I’ve had a fun enough week. Friend to all fans of good comics, Mr. Jason Aaron was in New York City this week and invited me out for a drink. Or rather, to watch him and some other people drink. Jason is one of those people whose work both inspires and makes you feel inadequate in comparison, so you kind of hope he’s a jerk when you meet him. Note to aspiring creators- the phrase “at least I’m not a jerk” is very helpful when dealing with professional envy. Alas, I’ve known Jason for years and he is about as kind and generous as they come, so getting the chance to hang out again was, as always, a total joy… which is rude of him.
Mr. Garth Ennis also came out for the night. As a person who wrote 27 (26?) issues of THE PUNISHER, sitting at a table with two of the all time great Punisher (and comics in general) writers sure reminded me that I have a long way to go to being the writer I want to be. I get that sounds a little depressing, but it’s not. I left the bar energized and inspired to make comics, and make better comics. I feel really fortunate to be surrounded by creators and works that inspire me and push me every day. I honestly hope I hold onto that feeling for the rest of my creative life.
In other news it’s been unusually warm here in NYC. Or maybe it is usual, but since it never got usually cold, the arrival of warmth feels unusual. I celebrated by going to the park and reading CRISIS OF INFINITE EARTHS while I let the sunlight bleach my bones. It was nice but now I’m back inside and on the grind.
But what does that grind look like? Well I’m glad you asked. I’m hard at work making a bunch of new books with a bunch of amazing collaborators. The first of which you are going to be seeing snippets from very, very soon. We’re figuring out the best way to talk about the creative process and what we’re making without spoiling the things. I know we promised a lot of behind the scenes access on these books, and that is coming for sure. But we don’t want to offer that access at the expense of getting you a final product that you can feel totally immersed in. Spoilers, or asking people to be excited for too long, are both things that can really drain the enthusiasm readers have for a project. So we are being excitedly careful and carefully excited to show you stuff. I think we’ve just about cracked it though so… now you get excited. More news coming in the next week.
In other comics you should be supporting news, two good friends of Ashcan Press have new books that are on Final Order Cutoff this weekend. That means you need to tell your shop you want copies now or risk making everyone, yourself included, sad.
I could tell you about the books, but I’m lazy and they would say it better than me anyway. So here is Gerry Duggan explaining the upsettingly funny GIANT KOKJÜ-
And here is James Tynion explaining the upsettingly upsetting W0RLDTR33-
I’ve read both. I loved both. You should preorder both.
And the thing nobody has been waiting for except for my obsession with completing projects- The final, final installment of the WILDC.A.T.S. vs ROGUE STATE tour diary! If you remember our last cliffhanger we were in Washington D.C., trying to get away from the Secret Service or find a good vegan sandwich spot. I can’t remember.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19th.
We left D.C. with our vegan sandwiches and headed down to Richmond, VA. Every since I was a wee little one hopping in my friends tour vans to go down to shows in RVA I have always played this song somewhere along the way. This time was no exception.
We pulled onto the street VELOCITY COMICS is on just 10 minutes before our signing was supposed to start. Unfortunately the Richmond PD decided to block off the street right in front of us for… well, they wouldn’t tell us why. They kept looking at rooftops like something exciting and/or terrifying was going to happen but it never did. So eventually I hopped out of the car and jogged down to the shop while Pizzolo was stuck in Sniper Alley or whatever the hell that was.
Despite my deep love for Richmond, I’ve never signed in the city proper and wasn’t sure what to expect. But I was greeted by a big crowd of really excited readers, so that was a nice surprise. We ended up signing everyone’s stuff and then hanging out and shopping in the store for a long time after. They have a great balance of mainstream and indie stuff and I spent too much money. Again. But it was a blast and I hope to get back there before too long.
But, like every night of our trip, it was time for me and Pizzolo to debate whether we would continue on towards our next destination or drive home for the night. Keep in mind that it was 5pm, we were 6 and a half hours from home, and home is 9 and a half hours from where we had to be at 11am. For those of you who aren’t into math, going home would mean we were driving for 16 of the 18 hours until our next signing. You’d think this would end the debate. It did not. But reason prevailed and we headed south to North Carolina.
My goal was to stop at one of my all time favorite restaurants in the world, Parker’s BBQ in Wilson, NC. I know I’m just a dude from New York City and nobody should take my opinion on BBQ seriously, but NC has the best BBQ and Parker’s is the best in NC. I can’t even describe why they’re so good, but they are. And NC vinegar BBQ sauce is the greatest invention humanity has ever come up with and you’ll never convince me otherwise. So, I’m not going to say we sped all the way to Parker’s, but I will say we made it there 10 minutes before closing! Hooray!
I took a picture of the front of the place where you can see the waiter who wouldn’t let me in the door. Boo! But posting that seemed sorta mean. I worked a retail job so I know that showing up to a place right before they close is the worst. But, conversely, we almost died so I could eat some BBQ so… It’s complicated.
With that failure fresh in our minds we figured why not add one more and headed to a nearby Sheetz to eat some knockoff computer sandwiches. I have spoken at length here before about my love for a WaWa computer sandwich, which means Sheetz is my sworn enemy and I curse them when given the chance. So this was a humiliating and painful turn of events. Now is the time when I have to confess that the Sheetz sandwich was pretty decent and their milkshake selection… was kinda better. I know. I am shocked and ashamed by it all. But I don’t lie (much) in this newsletter so I wanted to bare my soul here for you.
Feeling as satisfied as you can from a meal made by a robot in a gas station, we used an app on Pizzolo’s phone to book ourselves a hotel room and went to crash out for the night. When we got to our hotel we found out that despite taking the reservation and charging our card, they did not have any rooms. So they sent us to another hotel to try there. And if it seems like I am repeating myself that is because twice on this trip we have booked hotel rooms only to arrive and have the hotel not have a room for us. And twice Pizzolo has used an app on his phone to get something and it completely shit the bed. This might be why I am anti-hotel, and app, and ever leaving my house. But we got our rooms and I got to get a few hours writing in before I passed out. Truly a day of high highs and low lows.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20th.
Last day of tour and it was a busy one. We made our way over to ULTIMATE COMICS. Other than a couple trips to the wonderful Heroes Con, I’ve never signed down in NC so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I’ve known Siena from Ultimate for a while and they are awesome so I had high hopes. I was not let down. A big, clean, and well organized shop with a great staff and really enthusiastic customers. We did our signing, took the tour, bought some comics, ate some donuts, and hit the road because time was tight.
Our next stop was ACME COMICS in Greensboro. Again, another shop that I had known for a long time, Jermaine the owner is one of the great champions of comics, but this was my first time getting to visit. We were going to be early but we saw this car on the road and made a joke about following it to see what this person’s deal was… And then we missed our turn and ended up accidentally following this car for 10 minutes. Worth it.
Acme was a ton of fun. Seeing how much thought they put into what they promote and how was really fascinating. And they bought me a bunch of different chocolate milks. I’m pretty much a pushover and if you buy me chocolate milk I’ll sign in a dumpster, but Acme was a really fun and cool shop.
From there we had to hustle down to get to SSALEFISH COMICS in Winston-Salem. Bret, who owns Ssalefish, was one of the first comic shop owners to ever go out of his way to support my work and I am forever loyal to him. A real champion of new voices and indie comics, so I was very excited to get to hang out with him. Only he got called away for business and couldn’t make it. So now I will have to go back sometime. But that’s okay because Ssalefish was as great a shop as I expected. We signed some books, hung out with the staff, maybe accidentally encouraged a dude to shoplift, but then bought a bunch of stuff to make up for it. So all in all, a great end to a very long 2 weeks of signings.
The adrenalin crash of doing your last signing on something like this is very real and Pizzolo and I were both exhausted. But I was determined to get some BBQ before leaving town though so we stopped into some place whose name I don’t remember and I got a sandwich and some hush puppies. Next to the register they had this picture hanging up. That’s nice…
Wait. What?
Oh. Well, isn’t that sort of an upsetting title. Anyway, the sandwich was good. Pizzolo used the Burger King app to get a Beyond Burger because it’s hard to be a vegetarian on the road in NC, and they put bacon on it and didn’t give him any ketchup. This seemed fitting. Apps suck. We got home a little before 5am. I slept for a few hours and got back to work.
As a special bonus for the end of tour, I agreed to sign stock of WILDC.A.T.S., JOKER, WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? and other stuff at the MIDTOWN COMICS warehouse. What does signing at the Midtown warehouse entail?
7,000 books. I signed 7,000 books. This is just the first batch. I had to do like 10 tables like this. 6 and half hours of signing my name with no breaks (that was my choice. They are very lovely and accommodating.) My god. I couldn’t fully close my hand after. Do me a favor, and if you’ve ever wanted a signed book from me, order them from Midtown here so all that hand pain wasn’t for nothing.
And with that, our signing tour came to its glorious end. And was it all worth it? Well, we got to get out of our houses, promote the books, thank the shop owners who support us, and eat lots of gross stuff for two weeks. But none of that is the real reason we do it.
The real reason is getting the chance to meet you all, the fans who make this all possible!
I’m just kidding. I did it as an excuse to spend a stupid amount of money on comics. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
That’s it for me.
Stay safe. Take care of each other. Spend too much money on comics!
-Matthew Rosenberg
NYC 3/19/23
I really like your informative, personal style of writing, it’s very refreshing to read. Thank you.
PS liked the weather in New York part too 😎
Oh hell yeah, Velocity was my store when I was going to college in Richmond. Good times great memories.