lore: thedeadairchannel019

DC solicitations for March were released yesterday, revealing that the ongoing artist joining Nightwing is Denys Cowan.

Denys is a legend in the industry; a founder of Milestone Media, co-creator of Static, and the artist of The Question, one of the best ever DC Comics runs- one of the books that I discovered in my late teens that made me start thinking about wanting to write comics for a living.

The pages coming in for Nightwing, with inker Norm Rapmund and colorist Francesco Segala, are absolute works of art. I wish I could show you the double page spread that's in front of me, but you'll have to wait until March.

We also have Jorge Fornes joining us as our cover artist, beginning with this one for 136:

I have the cover for 137 in front of me too, and that's going to melt some minds.

As for the story? I mentioned somewhere online that what I was aiming for here is akin to a Born Again. Admittedly that's a bit of a lazy reference. It's a reference that's overused by creators because Born Again is fucking cool, and we'd all very much like to make the book that becomes synonymous with its title character, and we'd also like to make the book that stays on the shelf selling a gajillion copies forever and ever.

What I was more specifically thinking about is the self-containedness of that book; how it slots indelibly into the timeline of Daredevil, moves his story forward, yet can be picked up with little to no knowledge of him, and delivers a full, satisfying tale. That's what I hope we can achieve here.

I've been calling this story Bludhaven Lore. Each issue contains an entire story of its own, as different urban legends of the city rear their heads in different ways: in the behaviors of the city's people, in old traditions being reborn, and in some cases old monsters being literally unearthed.

Each of these cases seems to have something to do with the new superhighway that's been built through the heart of the city. The How and Why of this are the central mysteries Nightwing will be pursuing throughout.

Sort of. There's quite a bit more to it than that. Something big and horrible happens in 136. But you'll have to wait until March to find out about that.

Shifting the book towards done-in-one stories with an overarching narrative felt like the right move after writing the three-issue mini arcs of Batman: Dark Patterns.

These are a different length, a different shape, and therefore give a different rhythm to this book, but similarly give us a structure that feels agile, letting us explore different ideas about the city and Nightwing's relationship to it.

If you haven't been picking up Nightwing and you like any of my work- especially books like Dark Patterns or The Six Fingers- I'd implore you to check it out in March. I think it's some of the very best comics I've been involved in, and I don't say that lightly.

A week until Christmas, and everything seems to be winding down for the year. I have at least a script and a half due before New Year, however, and an idea for a short to come up with I've promised to deliver by Monday.

I've also just finalized the contract on the second of two creator-owned books I'll be working on this next year, which means I can finally put pen to paper on a story I've been chomping at the bit to tell.

This year we've decided to have a quiet holiday at home in New York, so I'll probably try and get out ahead on things before January's workload comes out guns blazing, as it has a habit of doing. O, the glamour of freelance writing.

In the attempt to capture some sort of spirit of the season I've been delving into Christmas horror movies in a big way. I've watched the first three Silent Night Deadly Nights, which has been an endeavour of diminishing returns. The third one introduces psychic powers, which is impressive- it took Friday the 13th seven films to stoop to that, whereas this franchise gets there in three.

However, the fourth film is directed by Brian Yuzna, so I have no choice but to soldier on. I suspect at some point in this newsletter I'll end up writing about Yuzna's comic book movie, Faust: Love of the Damned, which is terrible and bonkers and I love it more than oxygen.

I've watched A Christmas Horror Story, which was good mean-spirited fun in the spirit of Trick r Treat, and rewatched Krampus, which is an odd duck. Its PG-13ness and family focus feels like it's aiming to be a Gremlins for a new generation, but in places it leans too directly into being a horror movie to be truly family friendly, so it floats in a sort of limbo, afraid to commit to either.

I might try and work my way through the classic BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas on Britbox. Those are wonderful short story adaptations, primarily of M.R. James stories, that were produced throughout the 70s. They feel like a part of a lineage in Britain, as the Christmas ghost story is a long tradition.

It makes sense to me. This holiday grew from the winter solstice, those darkest nights of the year, where people would huddle together and unable to work, talk and eat and drink. Of course this would be the time we'd speak of things that could not be explained, of strange experiences and people who were long gone.

M.R. James himself wrote most of his stories for the annual Chitchat Society dinner club Christmas party at Cambridge. Professor Monty James's annual ghost story soon became highly anticipated and talked about, prompting him to continue producing them until he had books worth of the things and had quite accidentally cemented himself as godfather of the ghost story.

Obviously it was a select very privileged few who would have been party to the live unveilings of James's tales. Men and boys of a certain class and stature at the most prestigious university in England.

There's then a pleasing sense of democratization to the BBC adaptations. That 80 odd years after a few rich white guys huddled around a fireplace to experience these stories, now an entire nation would huddle around their television sets, getting to enjoy the same tales. And here, 50 years on, we can still engage with them.

Far from most of my family and their own seasonal rituals and comforts, there's a sort of reassurance to that.

Then again, there's an equally good chance I'll just have a few beers and end up chucking on Gingerdead Man on Shudder.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

This has been thedeadairchannel. A determination from the desk of Dan Watters. Please do subscribe.