thedeadairchannel012

Are we all feeling rested? Very good.

I spent the holidays in Wisconsin, which means I saw my first white Christmas in probably a decade. Once snow appears on the ground, my Spotify inevitably becomes riddled with black metal. It's snowy music, but it isn't very Christmassy.

Black metal as a genre is named for the second album by the British band Venom, but took its 'popular' form in Norway in the very early 90s. It's one of those genres intrinsically tied to a time and a place. Those early albums remain classics, as they have an aura and timbre that's unreproducible in that ethereal way. It is a genre intrinsically tied to arson, murder, and on ocassion a repugnant vein of politics.

Between 1992 and 1996, black metal musicians and fans attempted to burn over 50 churches across Norway. Norwegian stave churches are often entirely made of wood. Therefore many of these attempts were successful. There was also a handful of murders, which is a rabbit hole I don't want to go down here and now, but Wikipedia has your back if you do want to know more.

But what I've always thought an interesting question: why did this all happen in this time and this place?

Norway has historically been an extremely conservative and Christian country (hence the abundance of flammable churches.) It is oil rich and wealthy. The black metal scene was made of middle class kids who were often still in their teens when they recorded classic records like Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism and De mysteriis Dom Sathanas. How did these comfortable kids with comfortable lives end up getting themselves sent to prison or killing each other dead.

Up until the early 90s, Norway had a robust censorship programme, also tied to the Church. Art deemed blasphemous would get caught up in that net, which definitely meant heavy metal and horror movies were no-goes.

When these censorship laws were relaxed, those kids inhaled what had been denied them. And it all got a bit weird.

A theory that makes a measure of sense to me is that something got lost in translation between these kids and the films and music they could suddenly consume. They spoke English well enough to get the gist and to feel they understood it; but they lost track of the irony. That it was all meant to be fun. They couldn't figure out that Venom, in their skin-tight leather, skullets blowing gloriously in their onstage wind machine, were meant to look ridiculous. That their satanism was about as serious as Alice Cooper.

Bored teenagers, attempting to earnestly become something evil out of their bedrooms. A culture of one-upmanship. Inevitably it all ended in tears.

So yes. Wisconsin for Christmas. It was very nice. No churches were harmed.

2024 was quite a year, professionally. I took over my first ongoing at DC with Nightwing in November, launched my own Batman title with Dark Patterns, started and finished The Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives and Destro at Skybound, and Doctor Who at Titan. I finally wrangled The Six Fingers to life after years of discussion and collaboration with Ram V. I also wrote the entirety of Cyberpunk 2077: Psycho Squad which launches next month from Dark Horse.

That's seven projects, only one of which was creator-owned. I want to take more time to play in that space in 2025, but I've already committed to one more licensed title I haven't started yet, sent in the first script for a miniseries following up one I wrote last year, and have two DC books awaiting approval for when I wrap the Dark Patterns scripts in a month or so. Creator owned books take a lot of time and sweat, but I have two I'm really hoping to start bringing out this year.

I've spent the last few days getting pitches and outlines out the door. The week over Christmas where the emails stopped gave me time to organize some thoughts and stories and put them in the hands of editors who were asking after them.

I find it hard to hold other people's stories in my head at the same time as breaking new ones for myself, so my reading has been lighter fare; finished up the Laird Barron I was reading, chased by an Ian Rankin, a Lee Child, and a John Le Carre. My wife comments that I've entered my dad-book reading phase early.

I'm hoping to get the next issue of Nightwing submitted today or tomorrow, before diving into issue 10 of Batman: Dark Patterns. This marks the start of the final three issue arc, and Hayden is rather close behind the scripts, having just sent in the inks for the entirety of issue 8. Every issue of that book that comes in immediately becomes my favourite of the run. Being part of a book that feels like lightning in a bottle is a privilege. I'll be very sorry to finish writing it, but at least I'll get to keep seeing the art come in for a good few months more.

Issue 2 of Batman: Dark Patterns is out tomorrow with a uniquely striking cover from Hayden, and a variant from Martin Simmonds of Department of Truth mega-fame.

I love this piece from Martin, and I'm so pleased he came on board for it. Martin drew the first ever variant art I ever had on a book, a piece for Caspar Wijngaard and me back when were making LIMBO; a print of which my parents still have on their living room wall. Caspar and I were horrified to realize that this year marks a decade since the trade release of that title. A career in comics is a slog through treacle that advances in the blink of an eye, and now I apparently read dad-books back to back.

This second issue advances the story of Batman's hunt for the Wound Man, a murderer he cannot hit without killing. One who's visceral design seems to have elicited quite a response online. You can thank Hayden for that. I certainly do. It's an issue I'm very proud of with some scenes I'm looking forward to talking about, probably in next week's newsletter.

Preview pages can be found over on AIPT.

A short one today, easing into the new year, as I need to go write Nightwing. It's going to be a difficult year, let's face it, but don't let the bastards wear you down. Art has never saved us before, but don't let that stop us trying.

This has been thedeadairchannel. An apparition from the desk of Dan Watters. Please do subscribe.