Tales of Syzpense #80

Dread the Hall H final order cut-off looms large, another Weird tale, Locke & Key on Jeopardy, and a Code-free Spinner Rack

I keep staring at Nelson Daniel’s original art for his wraparound cover for our coming Dread the Hall H comic-con/horror anthology and just getting lost in it.

The issue arrives on July 16, just ahead of the San Diego Comic-Con in fact — and is nearing its Final Order Cut-Off period. So to fulfill the business end of this one, I’ll share the other covers and new story pages and all that below. It’s come together really nicely thanks to the artists and to the amazing design work and lettering work from multi-hyphenate Jordan Hart (also writer of two of the stories, and the series’ logo designer as well).

But back to the cover art.

I hold it and stare at it in awe and also with this sort of gnawing sense of sadness. Watching the preponderance of A.I. “art” that’s spreading from movie posters to book covers to advertising art and far beyond, it really does feel we’re at the final point of art being made without artificial enhancement (if indeed “enhancement” is even the right word).

Looking at what Nelson did here, and across the 10 pages of his story in the issue, too, I’m just increasingly in awe of art made by hand. I mean, I always have been — I can see comic book art from 40+ years ago still view it with the same childlike wonder I had when I first experienced it.

The cover Nelson drew took time. It took work. And, really, it’s not even about the time and the work it took him to bring this cover to life, it’s the time and work he’s put in over a lifetime of honing his skills to even be in position to bring this cover to life like he did. Are we on the cusp of losing that kind of craftsmanship? Man, I hope not. I know it’s easy now to cut corners and type in prompts and end up with some sort of glossy, soulless approximation of art, some digital amalgam that blends and combines the labors of people who actually honed their craft, but that’s never gonna evoke the sense of wonder that a piece like this brings me.

After the issue itself is released, I’ll run down the cameos and mash-ups and various and sundry figures I asked Nelson to add to this cover, and also the many that he added himself, but all of it combined to make for such a thrilling piece of art. It’s damned hard to show static figures standing in line and making the image thrilling and yet, check this out. Look how lively this is.

Without running down all the cameos now, well, the homemade ROM suit on the back is probably pretty obvious, and then Nelson, Jordan and me all appear on the cover as well, albeit dressed like characters from various stories we’ve worked on.

Anyway, I love it and wanted to show it again in all its forms, from the initial pencils to the fully colored and logo’d version. And, somehow 6+ weeks before it’s been printed, it already seems pricey on the secondary CGC market…

Inside the issue, me and Nelson do a story called “Q&A,” and it involves the final audience question during the waning minutes of a Hall H panel… which is typically when panels can go awry, and that’s certainly the case here, as beautifully rendered by Nelson, who handled pencils, inks, and colors.

And that’s just one of the four stories in the issue. Jordan’s two stories —with artists Jimmy Kucaj and Chris Anderson are a blast, and I’m very happy with the way my second story, “Spoiler Alert” came together thanks to artist Piotr Kowalski (and all three of thse are colored by Vladimir Popov, who brought three different and distinct palettes to the work.

The other covers are equally good, too — Dread the Halls mainstay Maria Wolf again provides the primary cover, and Jordan created the con badge variant:

That’s Dread the Hall H — coming in July from Image/Syzygy, and if you happen to be coming to SDCC, Jordan and I will be doing a signing in the line outside of Hall H (or elsewhere at the show, but that would be a good spot. Anyone in a homemade ROM costume gets to move to the front of the line).

---

In other Syzygy news and speaking of Nelson, the second issue of Moonshine Bigfoot was released this week, and just look at his colors over the amazing pencils and inks by Steve Ellis and Zach Howard:

And the first issue of the 5-issue miniseries Dark Honor, by Ethan Sacks & K.S. Bruce & Brian DeCubellis, with art in the first two issues by Fico Ossio, launches next week, too:

Brian and Ethan will be signing copies at JHU in New York on May 28, too.

---

Moore, please

This excerpt from a recent Alan Moore interview:

---

That’s Weird

My second contribution to Weird Tales magazine, this time a piece of short fiction built around his image by Peter Mihaichuk is going to be in issue #371, which is up for pre-order right now

---

Press Hits

---

The Current Rundown

Apple’s The Studio feels like a show that was made for my tastes but the good thing is, it seems to appeal to a lot more people than just me, since it was renewed for a second season. Brian Cranston deserves some kind of award for his work in the first season’s final two episodes, that was all kinds of amazing and outrageously funny.

I had lunch with IDW’s co-founder/former CEO Ted Adams recently and in talking about the show and the ways it cut far too close to home, it occurred to us both that if the world of The Studio was real, well, this probably would’ve been an IDW comic…

As seen in the latest Joe Hill’s Escape Hatch newsletter, a certain comic created by Joe and artist Gabriel Rodriguez was recently featured on Pop Culture Jeopardy. It’s always a thrill to see things like this; good to know that Locke & Key remains a solid chunk of the pop-culture firmament.

And speaking of Locke & Key, the keymasters at Skelton Crew Studio have still more great new literary-based keys available, including a special bonus key that I uhhh kinda-sorta helped design:

And I happened upon on old copy of Mad Magazine #206 recently. I know they’ve moved to mostly just doing reprints the last few years because Mad was thought of as a relic from another time but I don’t know, it still feels pretty relevant to me.

---

This Spinner Rack Was Not Approved by the Comics Code Authority

I’ve been pretty fascinated by the very preachy “message” comics of yesteryear. There were the more showy issues like the Green Lantern/Green Arrow issue with Speedy “a junkie!” or the 3-part Spider-Man comic that was released without the seal of prudish approval from the Comics Code Authority due to its storyline involving illegal drugs, but others are much more obscure but no less amusing.

Captain America was certainly a champion of all people and all causes, fighting against hate, drugs, bullying, and even asthma in his time.

And I elected to avoid the longer but certainly fascinating history of the religious Archie comics of the past but they’re worth reading about, and also worth looking at for the expressive art of Al Hartley, one of my favorite Archie artists. But man, are they unsubtle. Instead, I chose to go with an Archie comic that was produced in cooperation with the FBI…

---