What have you done with those plans?
Chapter 36: Apps and Bats and stuff like that.
Money for Texas!
Batman, The!
Who doesn’t love an app?
More fun in Gotham City!
Stuff I didn’t write!
It has been a little bit since I updated, so this is the part where I usually say ‘this will be brief’ and then it isn’t. I’m not even going to bother with that this time. This will be long.
First of all, I wanted to give a brief thanks. Last month the Governor of Texas issued a directive that basically instructed Child Protective Services to view medical treatment of trans children as child abuse. You can read his vile letter here if you missed it. I could talk at length about how frightening and upsetting I find all this, but people far smarter and more qualified than me are doing that and you should take the time to read up on it if you’re unfamiliar. I found this to be a good conversation on the subject from both a legal and medical standpoint.
With that said I was pretty heartbroken to think about what it means to have it become illegal to seek medical treatment for your children or to have your very identity criminalized. Luckily amazing organizations like EQUALITY TEXAS continue to fight back. So I tweeted this the other day-
And our readers and the comics community, being the amazing people they are, bought over $1,000 worth of stuff from our store. It’s all shipping out now (except for the shirts which will be going out… soon?). So that money is all going to EQUALITY TEXAS. Tyler and I can’t thank you enough for reminding us that there is still some real kindness in this world.
In other news, I actually left my house! Yes, you read that right. The fine folks at DC invited me to the red carpet premiere and the afterparty for a cute little project they’re developing called THE BATMAN. It was my first time in a movie theater in over 2 years, so that was exciting. But since it was the premiere I couldn’t wear basketball shorts and an old SSD shirt so I had to actually get dressed up. Suffice to say there was a lot of shocks to my system that day.
I am happy to report that the movie is very fun and the opening 20 minutes alone are worth the price of admission. Or they were for me. But I got to see it for free. But even if I paid for it, worth it. The whole cast is incredible, there are some truly beautiful sequences, and there is a lot of discussion of which animals have wings which was a nice refresher. I haven’t been writing stories in Gotham for very long, less time than they’ve been making this movie by a lot, but I was very amused to see some of the ideas and themes I’m putting in my work also appear on the screen. It’s a fun balance of validating, funny, and weird. If you saw the movie and read my LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT story from last year you might notice a neat parallel.
I guess that’s what happens when you have hundreds of people working on thousands of stories about the same guy for most of a century. In a lot of ways Batman is the Infinite Monkey Theory put to practice. If you aren’t familiar there are a few variations but it basically states that if you took a room full of monkeys and typewriters and gave them infinite amount of time to punch keys, eventually one of them will perfectly rewrite the script of Hamlet. This has nothing to do with Hamlet or monkeys really, and everything to do with the concept of infinity. But the fun thing to ponder is that, logically speaking, before they make Hamlet they are very likely to write most of Hamlet and then tack on some Seinfeld. Or write all of Hamlet but spell it Mamlet. Infinity is a long time and you will get a lot of monkeys writing some of the most beautiful poems you’ve ever read, detailed weather reports for made up worlds, some of the funniest sitcom pilots of all time, some really offensive stand-up specials, and a whole lot of pure gibberish. My point is, that’s basically Batman except I am one of the infinite monkeys. The line of Batman writers stretches out 83 years behind me and infinitely in front of me, so we’re going to revisit some of the same stuff and get there in very different ways. But that’s part of the fun of it all. I should find out what the Hamlet monkeys page rate is though.
After the movie we walked over to the afterparty and the whole cast was there, along with folks like Jason Momoa, Chris Rock, Channing Tatum, Emily Ratajkowski, and lots of other people who seemed famous but I had no idea who they were. I just pretend they’re all Kardashians or wrestlers. I spent a large portion of the party looking for Barry Keoghan so I could corner him and talk at him about KILLING OF A SACRED DEER and GREEN KNIGHT but I never actually saw him, despite being told he was there. I did tell Paul Dano he was great, which he very much was. I did not tell him how much PRISONERS fucked me up. Which it very much did. A lot.
Anyway, it was a very fun night out especially for someone who hasn’t really been anywhere in 800ish days. I guess I really am an infinite monkey. Seeing movie stars is cool but I have to admit it was very nice to reaffirm my nerd cred by discovering I was much more excited to be in a room with Jim Lee and Frank Miller than with Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz.
In other news that isn’t about me but sort of is, the fine people who deliver this newsletter to you, Substack, have launched an App. And like going to Olive Garden with a fake i.d. that says it’s your birthday, you can get this app for free.*
What does the app do? Well it puts all your substack needs in one place and it… makes it… easier to… I’ll be honest here. It’s only for Apple devices right now and I have an Android phone so I am not 100% sure. They sent me some stuff to read about it but I skimmed it looking for my name and then closed the email. I have been told by people it’s great. And I have been shamed by those same people for not having an iphone, but that’s some classist bullshit. Either way you should get it so you can enjoy my newsletter with even more ease.
But there is no reason to read me ramble about this. You can find out all about it here. Go. Click the link. Download the app. Make fun of people who don’t have it.
*Full disclosure- I’ve never been to an Olive Garden. I just know they give you free appetizers on your birthday. I don’t know why I know that though.
This week saw the release of DETECTIVE COMICS #1052. The 10th chapter in our weekly tour through the horrible history of Gotham City.
This issue sees our sad little boy navigating the No Man’s Land with a special appearance by the frightening Huntress. And… ummm… Batman. As we approach the end of this little mini-event I can’t help but be blown away by the whole book. On our story Fernando and Jordie consistently put together one of the most beautiful comics I’ve ever had the pleasure of slapping my name on. Batman is a hard character in some ways because everyone has their own very unique and stylized take on it, so there is no ‘definitive’ Batman. There are so many artists that really put their own mark on the character and redefine what he is and can be for you as a reader. For me, some of the people who defined my Batman are Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, Brian Bolland, Kelley Jones, Darwyn Cooke, Jim Lee, Frank Quitely, and Greg Cappullo. There is a long list of others that I love, but those are the ones that changed the way I viewed Batman. And I feel really confident in adding Fernando Blanco to that list.
In addition to Fernando and Jordie, Rob Leigh really makes all of us look good with his lettering mastery. Lettering me can be tough, so I’m always impressed when people make it look easy. But besides our story, Mariko Tamaki’s tower is just so damn good. One of my favorite folks in comics, Amancay Nahuelpan, steps in to do the art for a few issues and it’s really incredible. I’ve loved Amancay’s work since I first saw his pitch for Clandestino years ago, and he’s done covers for all of my creator owned books. But watching him run around in Gotham is really a joy as you can see him level up on the page. The book is well worth it just to watch Amancay and Fernando solidify their places as some of the next superstar artists in comics.
In the world of stuff that I think you should read, I’d urge you to check out DIARY OF THE ASTRO-NUDES on Zoop right now.
Created by Ahmed Raafat, DOTAN is a single issue pulp sci-fi story that is just gorgeous. I love Ahmed’s art and he knows how to write a story that really lets his art shine and vice versa. It is a love letter to 1950s and 60s comics but with a fun modern sensibility and you should definitely grab yourself a copy while you can.
Well I think that’s it for me. New issues of WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? and DETECTIVE COMICS next week.
Stay safe. Take care of each other. Peace and freedom in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and the world.
-Matthew Rosenberg
NYC 3/9/22