crack the spine: thedeadairchannel027

Lots to do, and I'm very tired. Small, ignorable tasks have accumulated until they must be tackled, lest they become large and unignorable. Flights must be booked, admin must be adminned, and conventions must be planned for. It's mid September and I just want to go hibernate in a Spirit Halloween until November 1st, but apparently that's frowned upon and they'll call the police.

Out this week: Nightwing 142 from DC Comics, and Shredder 12 from IDW.

The Nightwing issue is part one of our two Bad Seeds tie-in issues, for which we are joined by the legendary David Lapham, while Denys gets ahead on issue 144.

Preview pages here:

I've had a few people online lament to me that the story we're telling is being interrupted by the event. I hope the above shows that it isn't. These are important chapters with important developments.

Shredder 12 is the end of the second arc, and a really big pivot point, featuring a big development which is admittedly rather telegraphed by the covers and solicits for the next arc, many of which are already out. There's one of the problems of monthly comics- trying to surprise people while also showing off what's coming up.

I'm really pleased with the issue itself. It's very much a pulling together of threads we've been laying since issue 1, which from the creative viewpoint feels damn satisfying. And I love Mateus Santolouco's cover A for it:

I've sent in the scripts for Nightwing 147 and Spider-Woman 4, which both came together nice and cleanly. Also a second draft of the Project Expel outline, which is now with licensors for approval.

I lost a big chunk of yesterday to a slew of lettering drafts, lettering passes, as well as addressing some smaller notes and responding to emails. Issue 3 of Project Sledgehammer came back on Friday with very few notes, so I'll probably spend the rest of the week tackling issue 4, which is the final issue. This book will be announced next year and launch in the autumn so there's not exactly a mad rush, but I'm having fun with it and also have things on the horizon I'd like to ensure some daylight in my schedule for.

After that I'm onto Shredder issue 17, the first of the two-issue finale of this run. A few of you have asked if we'll extend again since the orders have been upticking on the last few issues, but honestly I'd have to say I doubt it. At a certain point we have to put the toys back in the toy chest, and I'm excited to see what Matt Rosenberg does with said toys when he takes over the TMNT book.

I'm working on a proposal for something I'd like to have ready before NYCC, though that's an arbitrary, self-imposed deadline. It's a book I've been percolating for about a year, and I think I've finally cracked the spine of it. Fingers crossed.

I'll be at Baltimore Comic Con before the month is out, which I'm really looking forward to- it was one of my favourite cons I attended last year. This time I'm attending with Ignition Press to promote the upcoming Mad Science Division. We'll have a bunch of ashcans and previews and things of the book for people to check out and get signed.

I've been asked to do a couple of panels, which I'll throw up on social media once I have the details.

Personal reading time has been fairly limited.

I'm two thirds of the way through Surprise, Kill, Vanish, Annie Jacobsen's book about CIA state-sponsored assassination in the 20th century, and how the 'hidden hand' of foreign policy has evolved and been deployed since WWII. It's fascinating and complex and so very well written.

I've also been very slowly rereading Pattern Recognition, because I felt the urge. I like Neuromancer as much as the next cyberpunk nut, but I maintain that the Blue Ant trilogy is William Gibson's best work, and it isn't particularly close.

Slow Horses is back on TV tomorrow, which I've been impatiently waiting for. It's going to be bizarre if Jack Lowden ends up cast as James Bond as rumored, since he's handled a role here which has more range than a movie Bond is probably allowed in the modern age. Even under the pen of Steven Knight, it feels like the thuggish cruelty of Fleming's Bond will forevermore need to be softened towards walking wish-fulfillment.

I hoped to write something about craft this wee but haven't had time to wrap it up, so that'll be in the next one of these.

I did find something that might be of interest as I was digging through some files- the original overview from the pitch that turned into Batman: Dark Patterns.

This is before we had the title, before Hayden was on board, and while I was still thrashing out the arcs- there are multiple half-finished versions of this document where the fourth arc of the book was envisioned as the first, which I'd forgotten about.

This page sat unchanged at the top of the document through every draft and variation. It's pleasing to look back at it and still find it recognisable as the book we ended up with.

A little bit of a peek behind the scenes we haven't shown before:

Right as I wrap up this newsletter a news alert pings that the US military has confirmed deployment of orbital weapons, which... Jesus Christ. That's quite the milestone.

I'll see you in two weeks, on the other side of Baltimore Comic Con. If the fucking space lasers don't get us.

This has been thedeadairchannel. A message in a cracked bottle from the desert island of Dan Watters. Please do subscribe.