After a few months of being out of stock––and after the Reno Pop Culture Con––I am happy to announce that the $20 3-Book Bundle is back on the Etsy store for purchase.
Just to remind you what this includes, it’s the firstthreechapters (“Sunza”, “Bird’s Eye”, and “Making Smoke”) that make up the first story arc of Long John. So, even though Volume 4: “Dead Words” is right around the corner, this bundle does give you a beginning, middle, and end of a story while leaving a lot of questions open and, perhaps, even asking a few more.
Additionally, Volume 2: Bird’s Eye was out of stock for awhile but that, too, is available for purchase individually at $8 plus $3 shipping.
For $20 and $3 shipping, you get three books (signed) PLUS a custom Long John sketch AND a Long John coaster!
Just to remind you that every transaction through the Etsy store comes with a custom Long John sketch on a comic book backing board and a custom drink coaster, so there’s more value for the purchase than just the book, so it’s totally worth it if you have been wanting to support the comic and the upcoming fourth volume: “Dead Words”! Buy now to get caught up and thanks for your support!
I don’t read books over 200 pages in length these days. I chalk it up mostly to my day job, which is to carefully and critically read thousands of pages every fifteen weeks. Such duties exhaust my capacity to really appreciate very long-form works when I’m off the clock, so to speak. So, I turn to shorter works and, obviously, graphic novels and comic books for my non-video narratives.
For awhile, the joke around our household was that any big book that interested I would instead give to my wife to read and have her report back to me on its quality.
Sometimes, however, it works the other way around, when she becomes so enamored by a work that she pushes the work onto me, demanding that I read it. Such was the case for the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. She read the series before the 2007 cinematic adaptation of the first book, titled The Golden Compass (Northern Lights everywhere else), was released. I enjoyed the movie and the hints Nicole was giving as to the direction the rest of the series took that I read the book and enjoyed it quite a bit.
Sadly, that film series didn’t get off the ground (a damned shame, in my opinion), but HBO acquired the rights and have begun airing their adaptation of Pullman’s series, and it’s quite good so far (we’ve only seen one episode, but all signs point to a positive direction).
However, in my head, I constantly compared it to the movie which I advocated for since its release, admiring its art direction and casting to the point where that was the real shame in its failure. So, I probably need to watch the first episode of this new series again to––with hope––absorb it after having extracted my bias a bit more. It’s not that my bias was agonistic, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, but my head continuously codified as once-removed from the “real” adaptation that was the 2007 film.
I have to soon accept that the film is definitely not the baseline that everybody is working from––that it was, instead, a rarely-watched one-off––and that this is likely going to be the actual baseline for how people define the series going forward. It’s these actors and sets that people will have in mind as they pick up the books for the first time. That’s the weird part, though; as I said, nothing about this show displeases me in the slightest. It’s just that for many people they’re adding it to an empty entertainment shelf in their minds whereas, for me, it’s being shelved right next to the dusty 2007 film as yet another adaptation instead of being what it will be for most people––their introduction this wildly inventive, challenging, and exciting story.
They also sold me because the series features both Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) AND Laura Kinney (Dafne Keen) in starring roles, so my fandom won’t let me be anything but supportive.
LONG JOHN CHAPTER 4 UPDATE:
Long John at Reno Pop Culture Con 2019
Last weekend was the first Reno Pop Culture Con and it was a blast taking the comic to its first three-day show. The closest I had come to a show as long as this was 2017’s two-day APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Jose, and, with the three-book bundle and some prints in my inventory, I was excited about seeing how I’d do at a big show like this.
What really stood out to me from the weekend was simply the appreciation the people of Reno had for the show. Apparently, the last big pop culture show took place a few years ago, and any promise of its return evaporated with little explanation.
What was great about RPCC was that it came in with funding and credibility behind it. Organized by the same folks who run the wildly popular Denver Pop Culture Con, the list of celebrity attendees was impressive throughout the entire weekend, in addition to being able to fill the huge space that is the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.
I didn’t get the chance to wander around the floor very much as I was stuck behind the table or simply exhausted from the work, but it was a show with a lot of promise and I’m interested to see how next year goes.
Thanks to all the wonderful and eager people I met last weekend and I hope you enjoy the books!
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Chapter 4 Production is Back Underway!
The day job took over my life over the last few weeks––with RPCC getting in the way, as well––so I had to put production of Chapter 4 on hold.
Sadly, it will soon go on hold again as the semester winds down and I will have two rounds of 125 papers and final projects to grade between now and the second week of December.
That being said, with where the book is now, it is actually fairly easy to pop in and do a little bit of work on it at a time when the opportunity shows itself.
As far as details, this is where we’re at:
100% of pages are pencilled, inked, and scanned.
100% of pages are lettered with dialogue and captions. However, until I keep the option open for nudging and revision up until I compile the pages and send them off to the printer.
99% of the pages have been “flatted,” meaning that they have basic colors thrown onto them to distinguish between characters and backgrounds, which will make it easier to go in and add shading and highlights and final touches.
~2% of the pages are completely finished. This was more of an accident of my process where I started doing one entire page at a time before moving on to the next. It was agonizing, and I quickly realized why it was so painful. So, that’s when I switch to flatting mode, which has already sped things up quite a bit.
Other than that, the 3-book bundles (for only $20!) are available again in the store (via Etsy). I’ll make a standalone post for that at the beginning of next week, but it’s best to let you know now in case you were holding out!
As of this writing, I’m completely convinced that Letterkenny is the greatest television show ever made. Based on a short YouTube series called “Letterkenny Problems”, the transition from short to series is remarkable.
The original YouTube short of “Letterkenny Problems.” Warnings for harsh (but surprisingly benign) language.
The premise of the original shorts had rural midwestern Ontarians talking directly to the camera relaying gossip from the fictional 5,000 population town of Letterkenny. It’s deadpan, rapid-fire delivery presents an interesting dichotomy with the hick chic aesthetic of the actors and of the stories they told.
A lot of that DNA survives into the show, but it’s flawlessly expanded the cast and made these people into rounded characters whose stories I have grown to care about dearly while retaining the very off-kilter, quirky, and politely profane (honestly) tone of the original shorts.
Image Source: CraveTV
The best way to describe why it’s hitting me so hard is that there is an innocent earnestness to the writing and––most importantly––even though it can be crass or even gross at times, it’s never cynical nor mean-spirited. Perhaps that’s its Canadian origin coming through, but the politeness of interactions between friends and enemies on the show comes across as nigh-ritualistic in its formalities that are repeated––often many times per episode––word-for-word.
Letterkenny is hitting a side of my humor that really brightens my day even when I’m only thinking about it while at work. It’s definitely not for everybody, but it’s doing so many things I hadn’t seen before––all while still being tightly written and well-acted––that, to me, it’s feels revolutionary. It’s the only show I’ve wanted to binge in years, which is dangerous because even though there are seven seasons, they’re comprised only of between six to seven half-hour episodes each, and this is something I truly want to savor (and then watch all over again).
LISTENING:
Image Source: Laurence Chapman/Bandcamp
Heaven’s Vault – the official video game soundtrack by Laurence Chapman
In order to grade papers, I have to get into a very strange mindset. In a sense, I have to put the world on pause, but in my head it’s not like pausing digital media where everything stops in a perfect, frozen moment. Instead it’s more of like pausing a well-worn VHS tape––the image bouncing and distorted with perhaps some feedback noise coming through the speakers, straining against the brake pushing against it.
To get through it, I work in a very myopic headspace. I have my desk organized in a very specific way. I have my computer angled in a specific way. My desk lamp needs to be at a certain angle. Most importantly, I need music. For each bout of grading I go through, I tend to find the one album that I can listen to on repeat, but it really acts as melodic white noise. When I think of specific classes or semesters, I often can recall specifics when I think of the grading music I was using at the time.
Most always it’s instrumental and orchestral––a lot of soundtracks like God of War, Logan, Wonder Woman, Dark Phoenix, Stranger Things, The Last of Us––but some anomalies get through, such as the electronic-based score of the first Deadpool movie and the most recent Tori Amos album, the ethereal Native Invader.
And so, for this cycle, the soundtrack of my professional purgatory seems to be the outstanding score by Laurence Chapman to the independent video game, Heaven’s Vault.
I found it not by playing the game (which I ashamedly still have not done) but through an interview with Chapman on a podcast I adore called Level with Emily Reese, a show about video game music where Reese interviews and has conversations with the games’ composers. It gets technical and into music theory and I love it.
While I’m a little worried about playing the game after listening to the soundtrack so much––a problem that had a strange effect when I finally played God of War––the game itself seems promising and unique that I’m quite excited to see how this music aids the narrative of a game all about finding and interacting with language.
In case you missed it, the title (“Dead Words”) and cover (click on the above link) for Chapter 4 were revealed last week. The response has been all positive and I can’t wait to get the book to you––in print and online––as soon as possible.
The book is completely lettered now and I’m almost done putting down the flat colors on it. Flatting is a maddeningly boring process where the base colors are laid on the page so that shading and highlights can be done on top of it. It’s ultimately helpful because it separates elements in the panels––characters from backgrounds, and the like––so that the rendering (shadows, highlights) will go really quickly since I’m not starting from scratch when I move from panel to panel, page to page.
But working on the book is temporarily on hold until I get through this batch of grading, which may be another week or so. But overall, I’m happy with the progress and where it’s at. But I certainly can’t wait to get back to it.
I’ve hinted at more exciting announcements for this book, but those are not quite ready, but should be soon. So stay tuned!
Oh…okay, here’s a look at a finished panel from the beginning of Chapter 4.
