The Saturday Syllabus: Comics This Week for August 21, 2021
What is this Syllabus Substack Silliness?
What’s This? Why are you here, Paul?
For years, I’ve done the Comics Syllabus podcast at Multiversity Comics, and the good folks there let me ramble and post with lots of freedom and support. But one thing I respect about Multiversity is their reader-focused desire to publish consistently and reliably. And two things I’ve never been able to afford as a comics commentator: consistency and reliability.
Not because I’m incapable of it, but because my consistency and reliability in other realms of life (ie “The Life of a Teacher” or “The Joys of Parenthood”) require the sacrifice of my comics obsessions, a relegation to extra-curricular time. It’s been the impulse of a fan, not the rewards of a laborer, that have kept me involved in public comics-related work.
Frankly, sadly, it just costs too much: podcast hosting, editing software, writing hours, comics buying and patronage, and that most precious resource of time. In stark terms, I’m robbing from my daughter’s college savings to fund my hobbyist interest. Bad dad!
Jumping here to a Substack, with all due respect to my opportunities at Multiversity, is an attempt at a sustainable comics commentary side gig. My goals are modest, but if you’re reading this far, I hope you’re part of it!
An occasional newsletter, though? Are you promising inconsistency?
Let’s say, I’m exploring sustainability. If Substack allows me to read and write throughout the week and record at my leisure, if I can get real-time feedback from a participatory (if small) audience, I’d love to foster a community interested in these same nexuses:
comics and graphic novels
cultures & culture
civic life and climate change
classrooms and youth futures
Transparency: I haven’t built a paid subscription tier here yet, but I will. The paid supporter subscriber tier will be $5 per month, SubStack’s minimum, or $40 yearly. Platforms like Substack allow everyday folks like me a chance to directly tie audience growth and engagement to production. If more subscribe, it becomes easier to afford more offerings.
What’s free here? What will paid subscribers get?
What I’m currently thinking to make free here would be, every fortnight (that’s once every two weeks, not the video game) newsletters like this one (see below!) with some general comics commentary. And meanwhile, you’ll be able to listen for free to the every-other-week episodes of the Comics Syllabus podcast just like you always have, either by visiting Multiversity or subscribing wherever fine podcasts are sold for free. :)
But paid supporter subscribers (when the paid tier appears) will not only receive my gratitude and comics friendship (PRICELESS!), but also…
(a) I’ll count you in for comments and comics community here on the Substack, opening up the comments for you as supporters, and…
(b) with just TEN subscribers, I’ll start doing weekly podcasts (instead of every other week) on a unique Substack-subscriber-only feed that you can pop into your podcast player (except Spotify… darn you, Spotify!!!).
Those weekly supporter podcasts will cover new releases from indie publishers, regular graphic novel reviews and deep dives, check-ins with Marvel Unlimited, DCU Infinite, and Comixology Unlimited, all from the Comics Syllabus perspective…
and exclusively, those subscriber weekly podcasts will feature:
comics in the classroom segments,
ongoing insights from my work at the intersections of comics, culture(s), civics, climate, and classrooms
You know, the good stuff.
(And then, in addition to the fortnightly posts, the weekly podcasts (once we pass ten supporter subs), and the community of commenters I’ll intentionally weave into the conversation,
(c) eventually with more supporters I’ll spin out more targeted newsletters, podcasts, or other media you can opt into… whatever keeps us reading and learning together. As always, I’ll take my cues from you, my reader-friends. We’re a community: Your feedback will shape what we provide here. If enough of you want to go on a certain reading journey with me, we’ll lace up those reading boots.
What you’re saying, Paul, is that you want to continue to do the comics work, but you’re trying to get financial support to make it feasible, while at the same time cultivating an online community to join you reading widely and digging deep in the Comics Syllabus way?
Why yes, Mysterious Interlocutor. You said it better than I could’ve.
So, speaking of “the good stuff”…. What have you been reading this week, Paul?
First, if you read this but somehow didn’t know I have a podcast, here’s the last episode of Comics Syllabus where I talked about Run Book 1, the first volume of the second planned trilogy following up from March, by the late Rep. John Lewis, writer Andrew Aydin, and returning artist Nate Powell for some bits, but mostly passing on the reins to artist L. Fury.
It’s an audio-only episode, going against my recent trend of trying to do video podcast episodes, like this one here about the Black Widow movie, or this one about some recent Middle Grade Graphic Novels, or this one about Bernardin and Kristantina’s "Adora and the Distance” on Comixology.
Will I keep doing video podcasts? Stay tuned to find out! (Or if you can time travel, please do let me know, because I’m wondering myself if I’ll find the time. :D)
What I haven’t had time to podcast about is lots of other reading I’m doing, like…
re-reading classic stories of Dick Tracy and catching up on the Joe Staton and Mike Curtis current run available on GoComics,
catching up on all the issues of Superman Red and Blue (now wrapped up with all six issues out) and savoring the artist flavors and quick-hit stories from some of my favorite creators,
My, my, that’s many beautiful Supermans thank you Doc Shaner. “Superman Red and Blue” #6 (DC Comics, naturally) preparing to teach about climate science with MK Reed’s Wild Weather from First Second’s Science Comics series, which beautifully captures a ton of complex and now very urgent knowledge,
Mmmm ‘kay I’ll read MK Reed’s “Wild Weather” finally reading the Comixology Originals series Snow Angels by Jeff Lemire and Jock, now around 7 issues into a 10 issue story, I believe. This is Lemire’s typical genre-garbed tale soaked in family poignancy— this time about a family surviving in an arctic trench isolation— and Jock’s typical contrast-deep art soaked in snow-covered vastness— this time adding Whiteout-like tautness to a survivalist world. The story’s a slow build but it’s definitely heating up (pun intended!) as the future-built world gets bigger. Worth a look!
Jeff Lemire and Jock’s “Snow Angels,” ice barely containing the fire of persistence that family inspires, from Comixology Originals my kid and I read the run-up and grand completion of Rainbow Rowell’s remarkable run on Runaways (with issue 38 aka issue 100 by cheater-renumbering) which left us hungry for more and sad to see the run end, Genolet art or otherwise (nudge, wink Kris Anka). We’ll miss the Molly hats, Doombot declarations, Gib-berish, and will-they-won’t-they-which-timeline-version-are-they? of it all. A fabulous run that I’ll treasure, including the bound volume of issues that ONCE AGAIN I HAD BOUND RIGHT BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE RUN WOULD END SO NOW I HAVE TO GET IT RE-BOUND INTO TWO VOLUMES AHHHHH!
Rowell and Genolet’s “Runaways” #38, or #100 if you’re Marvel and tricky. (cover by Anka)
the infinite unlimited:
(Here’s where I talk up some stuff from MU, DCUI, or CmxU)
After “What If?” Episode 2’s flex of T’Challa as Star-Lord (but cool!), Marvel Unlimited is featuring the recent Ta-Nehisi Coates “Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda” arc (here with artist Daniel Acuña) for more scintillating Space T’Challa!!!
This series grabbed me from the start, but make sure you get to issue 5, where intrigue and mysteries become destiny and revolution
Coates does here and in his Captain America what these MCU shows stiilllll come up short on: male heroes because of— not in spite of— the women who know better…
Read on Marvel Unlimited, where for the price of two comics a month you get to read two bajillion comics.
comic strip down my day:
“Blondie” has Mr Dithers fuming with the same grave sense of injustice I feel at robot service reps whose careful codes you must pass through to get real human help. Today I ordered a coffee, got a COVID test, and inquired for a package lost in limbo… all through robot receptionists who were throw-your-phone levels of frustrating.
(from Comics Kingdom where $20 a year gets you a treasure trove)
Okay, that’s it for today. Lemme drop a litany of Substack-provided buttons again, in case you’re here and still haven’t subscribed, you wanna help us spread the word, or you have COMMENTS! Because I want COMMENTS!
With love. Let’s keep reading.