Yeah?
Chapter 162: The Wednesday email is actually arriving on Wednesday...
Schedule changes!
Art teases!
Wild cats!
Kick starts!
New books out this week!
The Mixtape!
Hey again. Brutal title for an email this week, but that’s going to happen.
I’m going to start off with an announcement of sorts because I like being dramatic. Going forward this Wednesday newsletter will probably be bi-weekly. Now this is Comics™ so we use bi-weekly to mean both twice a week and every two weeks… because we’re dumb. But I mean once every two weeks. There will be exceptions, mostly we will stick to that plan though. But there is a good reason, I promise. We here at Ashcan HQ are hard at work on a ton of new stuff. And as we get closer to being in a place where we can show it off and talk about it, it begins to take up more and more time. So while the weekly check ins are something I enjoy, I am busy making things to share with you all, and that is the priority.
I am sure you are all worried about having Ashcan Press withdrawals, but fear not. Soon I will begin sending out updates on those secret projects (as well as issues of them to paid subscribers), so those will take the place of the weekly updates. Sorta.
Here are a few teases of the stuff you have to look forward to from us in the coming months.
It’s going to be pretty fun, if I do say so myself.
And fear not podcast fans. Ideas Don’t Bleed will remain a weekly project.
, , and I are committed to living up to our motto,“inane interviews with interesting people often.”
Out this week from yours truly, the second volume of my WILDC.A.T.S. series with Stephen Segovia, Elmer Santos, Danny Kim, & co.
I’m really proud of this series. WildC.A.T.S. has been one of my favorite comics since it began, and the legacy of the series was something that weighed heavily on me. Trying to find the balance between nodding to the old and building something new was brutally hard and incredibly fun. All that is to say, if you haven’t read it, maybe grab a copy at your local comic shop.
It’s Wednesday. That’s new comic book day. But before we get into all that, I wanted to shine a lot on a current Kickstarter project I feel like you should all be checking out
THE ROMAN STARS vol. 2 by friend to all Iván Brandon (VS., DRIFTER) and brilliant artist V. Gagnon (The Heart Hunter) is up now. They made their goal on the first day and now it’s all about getting this gorgeous book into as many people’s hands as possible. That’s where you come in. You have hands. (Apologies if you don’t have hands. But you still should check out this book.)
If you missed the excellent volume 1, have no fear! Now you can get both from this kickstarter with a beautiful slipcase! Oooh. I love a slipcase. Books, like people, deserve (little) houses.
Now onto this weeks comic shop offerings.
HELEN OF WYNDHORN #1 by Tom King, Bilquis Evely, & co. Tom and Bilquis’s SUPERGIRL book was one of the best things I read least year. Full of compassion and fury, brutality and love, it really is a special book. Now they’ve teamed back up for a sword and sorcery that owes as much to CONAN as it does to NARNIA and Morrison’s ANIMAL MAN. A gorgeous, engrossing start that is sure to take you places you don’t expect and emotionally mess you up on the way. A must read comic.
“From the Eisner award-winning and bestselling creative team of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comes this Gothic sword and sorcery epic that's Conan the Barbarian meets The Wizard of Oz.
Following the tragic death of her late father C.K. Cole, the esteemed pulp writer and creator of the popular warrior character Othan; Helen Cole is called back to her Grandfather's enormous and elustrious estate: Wyndhorn House.
Scarred by Cole's untimely passing and lost in a new, strange world, Helen wreaks drunken havoc upon her arrival; however, her chaotic ways begin to soften as she discovers a lifetime of secrets hiding within the myriad rooms and hallways of the expansive manor. For outside its walls, within the woods, dwell the legendary adventures that once were locked away within her father's stories”
(I love alliteration as much as the next guy, but I’m not sure “elustrious” is a word. Everyone who works on this book is smarter than me though, so I’m just going to pretend it is.)
NAPALM LULLABY #1 Rick Remender, Bengal, & co. I would never tell him this, but I am a big Rick Remender fan. There is a fierceness to his work that I just love. And Bengal is such a brilliant artist. Their last series, DEATH OR GLORY was one of my favorite things either of them ever did, so I had high hopes for this superpowered cult story and they were all more than exceeded. So fucking fun.
“The bestselling creative duo of RICK REMENDER & BENGAL reteam for NAPALM LULLABY, an all-new, ongoing dystopian epic with a special double-length first issue!
A child with unimaginable power is raised to believe he is God by a cult of zealots utterly confident in the moral authority of their religion. The Magnificent Leader has imposed his will on humanity and created the ultimate theocracy. Join them, or be cast out to suffer with the masses.”
RICK & MORTY SPRING BREAK SPECIAL #1 by James Asmus and Dean Rankine. While I’m not the world’s biggest Rick & Morty fan, I am the world’s biggest James Asmus fan. His sense of humor shines in this one and it is a super fun read.
“IT'S SPRING BREAK, FOR RICK'S SAKE! Slap on a Speedo and slather on that suntan lotion, because the omniverse's most dysfunctional uncle/ nephew combo is about to catch an unhealthy dose of extra-solar radiation in an absolutely gargantuan, absurdly overstuffed 64-PAGE GIANT! Aw yeah, spring break! Rick, Summer, and Morty have ventured offworld to a planet where young, sexy vacationers from around the universe come to party, cut loose, and compete in the annual Spring Break contest! While Summer has just enough self-respect to avoid vying for Ms. Spring Break, Rick doesn't! And he's all in on winning Mr. Spring Break. But little do our heroes know that winning the Spring Break competition comes with a steep "reward," and if the winner refuses the reward, well, it may just unleash a swift and vicious class war between the exploited and exasperated locals and the pampered and unprepared spring breakers.”
VENGEANCE IS FOR THE LIVING #1 by Keenan Marshall Keller, Alex Delaney, & co. I know a lot of fans of Keenan’s THE HUMANS series from a few years back will be excited. A grindhouse revenge story that pulls no punches. Elegant in it’s simplicity and overflowing with confidence, this is a fun one.
“Shelia Knox awakes from a two week coma to find her life torn apart. Her children have been savagely murdered. Her husband is missing. Her hand completely mangled and her throat slit to within inches of her jugular... Leaving her with nothing left to live for. A 4 issue mini-series overflowing with gritty exploitation action about the power of anger/loss and the clarity of vision that vengeance can provide.”
ADVERSARY by Blue Delliquanti. I always find it strange that there are so few comics that directly tackle the pandemic. I’ve seen more movies that deal with it than comics, which is wild. Anyway, Adversary is a drama set in the real world and it does a great job conveying all of the anxiety, uncertainty, hopes, and fears of the modern relationship.
“Minneapolis, 2021. Curtis is newly out, single, and ready to take his life in a different direction. Anton is an enigmatic young man who recognizes Curtis from their pre-pandemic lives. One casual drink leads to a charged relationship layered with unspeakable needs. A graphic novella about connection and failure, grief and responsibility, and the effect of world-changing events on the soul of the individual.”
TENDER by Beth Hetland. A personal and intimate work of body horror/thriller that explores the cultural pressures and biases against young women. It is a smart and unnerving work.
“A psychological thriller about a woman obsessed with her vision for a picture-perfect, curated life. Carolanne wanted a perfect wedding, a perfect husband, a perfect family. She carefully performs her own roles (gal pal, bestie, girlfriend, wife, and expectant mother) and manipulates those around her to try and get the results she wants. Her desire to control the uncontrollable ultimately becomes her undoing. When things don't go her way, she exerts dominance over the one thing she does have total control over: her body; until that "betrays" her. After suffering a horrible loss, Carolanne spirals into a literal, all-consuming delusion causing her body to produce symptoms of a hysterical pregnancy - because of her slicing off bits of her own flesh and eating them. Chicago cartoonist and educator Beth Hetland's graphic novel debut is a brilliant psychological thriller that tears down the wall of a genre - body horror - so often identified with male creators. Heady and visceral, Tender uses horrific tropes to confront women's societal expectations of self-sacrifice despite those traditional roles often coming at the expense of female sexuality and empowerment.”
I guess that’s it for this week. Go buy some comics.
The first two Waxahatchee albums are about as close to perfect albums as you can get. Fully “listen on repeat all night” type of albums where every note and every line hits so hard. So anytime there is a new Waxahatchee album I brace for impact. I can’t wait to be destroyed by this one.
Stay safe. Take care of each other. Seriously, elustrious isn’t a word, right?
-Matthew Rosenberg
NYC 3/13/24
I was confident that "elustrious" was a word until I looked it up and it turns out the word is "illustrious".
Or maybe they're both words, who knows!