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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: August 2020

Episode 435: Ariel Francisco!

29 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Florida Literature, Poetry

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Episode 435 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Photo by Carlie Hoffman.

On this episode, poet Ariel Francisco and I talk about Florida’s wildness, Miami, Hollywood (Florida), multilingualism, Anna Nicole Smith, a sinking state, Jack Kerouac, FIU’s MFA program, and many other important matters.

TEXT DISCUSSED

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.Episode


435 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

The Curator of Schlock #322: Eye in the Labyrinth

28 Friday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in The Curator of Schlock

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The Curator of Schlock#322 by Jeff Shuster

Eye in the Labyrinth

Also known as L’occhio nel labirinto.

I woke up last night to a blood curdling scream. This morning I run into Indigo and Celestial, but Saffron is nowhere to be found. I arrive in the kitchen and notice what looks to be a large swath of blood leading into the fruit cellar. The door opens and out comes Jervis. He said he broke a jar of cherry concord jam. He then proceeds to mop up and tells us that Saffron left earlier that morning, something about having to take care of a sick aunt. Hmmmmm.

Tonight’s Giallo movie is 1972’s The Eye in the Labyrinth from director Mario Caiano. Rosemary Dexter stars as a young woman named Julie that’s been having nightmares about her German psychiatrist boyfriend Luca. In these dreams, Luca is running around in an underground labyrinth made of concrete. A killer is stalking him with a knife. Luca frantically runs away to safety he will never reach. Jazz music by Roberto Nicolosi plays in the background. Eventually, Luca is cornered and stabbed in the back.

Luca has been missing for a while so Julie decides to go searching for him after finding a clue to his whereabouts written in a notebook. This clue is also sputtered by one of the patients at the clinic Luca works at. Julie suspects Luca went to the seaside village of Maracudi. Julie drives out to the village, shows Luca’s photo to people in town until one shady gentleman says he’ll take her to someone that knows Luca’s whereabouts. He drops her off at a hollowed out building. As Julie walks around, trying to find out if anyone is there, someone unseen tries caving in a roof over head.

An older gentleman named Frank (Adolfo Celi) befriends Julie and knows a woman that runs an orphanage who can put her up for the night. Oh, the orphans like to paint and I think the paintings are sold to help with the upkeep of the place. One of the teenage orphans, a boy named Saro, takes a liking to Julie, going so far as to watch her as she sleeps in the nude. Saro is a disgusting pervert, but he gets set on fire later in the movie so it’s all good.

The next day, Julie decides to go swimming in the nude, but some rapscallions filch her clothes and she swims far away to a villa by the seashore. A woman named Gerda Hoffman (Alida Valli) owns it and houses a cavalcade of photographers, musicians, and actors. Turns out Gerda lets them stay there or maybe she rents rooms to them or maybe they’re all helping Gerda smuggle illegal drugs in the country.

Oh, and it turns out Luca had also stayed in the villa and every one of the guests have good reason to want him dead whether that be sexual assault or exposing of dirty secrets. What else? Someone tries killing Julie by locking her in the garage with a car that’s blasting exhaust out the tailpipe. Oh, and Frank is lusting after Julie and it turns out he was a gangster back in the United States before he was forced out of the county. Was Luca murdered? Yes. Was he beheaded? Yes. Is the suspect the person you least suspect? Yes. That does it for the year’s Giallo Month. Only about four hundred more to go.


Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

 

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #85: I Can Feel It In The Air Tonight

26 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #85 by Drew Barth

I Can Feel It In The Air Tonight

Oh, Lord. You break one guy’s neck and he’s your nemesis for life. But, then again, Maxwell Lord is a great foil: manipulative, mind-controlling, ruthless, blood-thirsty—everything Wonder Woman can stand against at a base character level. When wanting to show the compassion and indomitable will of Diana Prince, Mariko Tamaki selected one of the best villains for that contrast. And coming off the heels of an Eisner win for best writer, Tamaki shows us the nuance and subtlety that makes her one of the best comic writers in the medium right now as she takes over Wonder Woman at its 759thissue.

Although there are only two issues on stands at the moment (the third is being released in stores as this sentence is being read) we get our story foundations: Wonder Woman moves into a new apartment in D.C., meets her new neighbor, goes furniture shopping, and stops a mind-controlled woman from plowing her car into oncoming traffic. Relatively normal for Wonder Woman, but a good baseline for excitement for a first issue. Tamaki has been doing this for a bit and knows how to build up that energy from small moments into something much more bombastic. Everything in these first issues—even if they involve fights with maximum security prisoners and parademons—is just small moments building on top of one another to something greater we’re not privy to just yet. All we know is mind control and Maxwell Lord are involved, but that almost feels too simple for the moment.

As readers, we go into a comic written by Mariko Tamaki with a certain degree of confidence that the story is going to be strong. We also go in knowing that the art by Mikel Janínand colors by Jordie Bellaire are going to complement the writing further. The story has these wonderful moments of contrast between shopping for furniture for a new apartment and dropping into a maximum security prison and the art helps to bring this contrast into a more stark light. We have these full splash pages of bright, colorful heroics before we descend into the blacks and reds of tension. Janín’s art brings tension in his panels while Bellaire colors the world to match. They create a tag-team effort that bolsters the arcs Tamaki is putting Wonder Woman through.

Much like Kelly Sue DeConnick taking over Aquaman last year, Tamaki’s start on Wonder Woman already feels as though it will be one of the defining arcs in this character’s history. Although we only have a small portion of the story, this is how a writer coming into a long-running series should begin—a moment to begin anew with some connections to their past. We have some familiarity with Max Lord returning and Etta Candy providing some counsel, but this already feels like a story that is going to introduce more to the character of Diana Prince that can last well into the next decade.

Get excited. Get wonderful.


Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Episode 434: Nick Flynn

22 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Memoir

≈ Leave a comment

Episode 434 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

On this episode, Nick Flynn and I talk about memoirs, boundaries, and getting the writing done.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.


Episode 434 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

The Curator of Schlock #331: Torso

21 Friday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Horror, The Curator of Schlock

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The Curator of Schlock #331
by Jeff Shuster

Torso

Also known as The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence.

Indigo, Saffron, and Celestial are working my last nerve! Celestial means well, but she keeps insisting we eat legumes every night. Saffron needs a close encounter with a bar a soap. Indigo keeps going on about the moon landing being fake. I’m going to murder one of them before the week is out.

Speaking of murder, tonight’s Giallo movie is Torso from director Sergio Martino. The movie begins with a love scene between a man, two women, and some porcelain dolls. Or maybe I dreamt that. No judgements here. Except that porcelain dolls are creepy as hell and why do you want them as part of your sexual fantasy?

I have to say, I watched this movie twice and the first half is muddled in my brain. It takes place in the city of Perugia, Italy. Murder is afoot. A man in a ski mask is killing young women because he has a psychosexual disorder. He uses a black and red foulard to strangle his victims before mutilating their bodies. The police learn of his murder weapon and ask the local foulard salesman if he’s seen some suspicious individuals buying foulards. The foulard salesman says he has not. Then the foulard salesman calls up the killer, blackmailing him for a million lira.

This was the foulard salesman’s last mistake as the killer decides to chase the guy down with his car in the middle oof the night and ram him into a wall. Then the killer pulls away and rams into him again. Does he do it a third time for good measure? I don’t remember. I think he also slits the throat of the local peeping Tom who saw something he shouldn’t.

About halfway through the movie, I figure out the protagonist is a young American woman named Jane (Suzy Kendall). Americans tend to make out pretty well in these Gallo movies or, at least, they are the last to die. Jane has been busy attending art lectures at the local university with her friends, but they all decide to go to a secluded villa up in the mountains during their semester break. Jane sprains her ankle when the milk man shows up one morning. That evening she takes a sedative as prescribed by a handsome doctor from town named Roberto (Luc Merenda).

When she awakes the next morning, all of her friends are dead! Seems they answered the door after Jane had fallen asleep and let the killer with a psychosexual disorder inside the house. What’s worse is that the killer hasn’t left the premises. Jane hides when the killer comes back inside and has to watch as he saws the corpses of her friends into little pieces. It’s obvious the killer doesn’t know Jane is in the house, but how long until he finds out? We watch as Jane has to sneak around, trying to somehow signal someone from the outside world to come to her aid. I have to admit, it’s one creepiest situations I’ve ever seen in a movie.


Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #84: How Bad Can A Dream Be?

19 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

≈ Leave a comment

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #84 by Drew Barth

How Bad Can A Dream Be?

There have been plenty of stories that deal with dreams. Either characters having to jump into a friend’s head to dissect what about their dreams is disturbing them or having to pull the dream out into the real world to fight it off. But what if the latter kept happening—what if dreams kept popping out of people’s heads with enough frequency that a whole governmental department had to be created to deal with them? This is the world of Queen of Bad Dreamsthat Danny Lore, Jordi Pẽrez, Dearbhla Kelly, and Kim McLean have created for us and is the kind of comic series that jolts you awake in the middle of the night.

Queen of Bad Dreams is, for the most part, a story about family. It is the family we dream of having—sometimes we dream it so hard that it comes to life before our very eyes. This is what Daher Wei and Viv have in their daughter, Selene. But this kind of dream isn’t necessarily the norm. Daher is an Inspector Judge for the Morphean Annex, the governmental agency that deals with escaped dreams, and has a specific role when it comes to those dreams: execute, return, or free. From what we see from the first few pages, the execution is rather gruesome. And her own daughter is someone whom she had freed even before becoming an Inspector Judge. So what about returning dreams? This is where things get weird and complicated as a rising political star has an escaped dream that knows all of his family secrets–all of the worst from a family of politicians. On the one hand, a part of Daher’s job is to return these dreams to their dreamers if necessary; on the other hand, the family in question are a swarm of slimy assholes. So, you know, decisions.

But what is it about family that Lore and Pẽrez really want us to see throughout Queen of Bad Dreams? There is a continual thread of connections—the ones we make as people and how we are all bound together in certain situations. Ava, the escaped dream from the rising politician, is bound to her original dreamer, but he isn’t family or anything close to that. Daher, Viv, and Selene, despite their limited interactions with Ava, act more as a family or at least as someone actually familiar. While the political family will see Ava as a tool in dreams or a liability in the real world, Daher and her family can empathize with her desire to remain her own person. 

Queen of Bad Dreams is the kind of work that comics needs as voices like Lore’s and Pẽrez’s aren’t heard often in monthly comic spaces. It’s one of the reasons Vault is quickly becoming a favorite publisher since they’re giving platforms to creators of color and nonbinary creators who haven’t been well represented in the past. Giving these voices space is necessary to keep comics relevant and inclusive. And without these voices, we don’t have their stories, and their stories are what live on to inspire generations afterward. 

Get excited. Get dreaming. 

_________________________

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

The Diaries of a Sozzled Scribbler #15

17 Monday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Sozzled Scribbler

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The Diaries of a Sozzled Scribbler #15

Transcribed by DMETRI KAKMI

17 August 2020

Here I am back in the US of A, where self-expression is everything and no one gives a shit about anyone else. Ah, to breathe freedom’s air after being forced to wear a face mask by the fascist Australian government. Who cares about spreading a deadly contagion every time you sneeze or cough or speak? Personal liberty and comfort is all that matters. Fuck humanity!

pedestrians-400811_1920

So, in an effort to further revel in my god-given rights to be an asshole, as you Americans say, I’ve come to Manhattan to hook up. I haven’t had a close encounter of the erectile kind in oh, must be at least 2.5 hours and I must get laid rapidement, as we say in Paris.

‘Big hairy animal looking for fun and intelligent conversation,’ says the ad in the respectable personals website Sit On My Face and Sing The Star-Spangled Banner. Of course I answer.

Minutes later, I’m in a yellow cab, feeling like Angie Dickinson in Distressed to Kill as I speed through the glittering night to experience untold ecstasies. The address is a penthouse in The Vampire State Building. Must be a VIP.

new-york-1912582

Lift to floor 101, buzz door, la porte s’ouvre, and who do you think is on the other side?

King Kong!

He’s in a white terrycloth bathrobe carelessly tied at the waist so the essentials peek coyly out.

‘You,’ he screams.

‘You,’ I scream back.

He goes to slam the door in my face but I’ve got my foot in there faster than you can say Prince Andrew.

‘Relax,’ I say, sauntering in. ‘It’s not as if I haven’t seen it before. Remember the orgy on Skull Island? You went through 150 sacrificial offerings in one night.’

‘Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed.’ A flustered Kong ties up his robe. ‘I didn’t know it was you.’

‘That’s the problem with anonymous pick-ups. Might as well have a drink while I’m here.’

We settle on the couch with a classic martini for me and an Old Fashioned for the king of the jungle. Before us is the most stunning view in Manhattan. Kong is still upset about being found out.

‘Oh, the ignominy,’ he bewails.

‘I don’t know why you’re carrying on. It’s not as if I’m going to tell anybody. Mmm, nice martini, by the way.’

‘Don’t give me that. You’re the most indiscreet person I’ve met. Come morning everyone will know what I get up to after dark. My career’s down the gurgler. Oh, la publicite!’ And he fell over in a fainting swoon.

‘Stop carrying on, you old woman.’

‘Stop calling me an old woman,’ he says, sitting up. ‘It’s sexist and agist.’

‘Listen, I won’t tell a soul about your disgusting, perverse sex practices. I promise. And close your legs. I can see your wherewith-alls.’

Kong quickly snaps shut his thunder thighs.

‘Anyway, why are you trawling the net for sex? I thought you and Godzilla were an item.’

‘We broke up.’

‘Why?’

‘Well,’ Kong says, relaxing, ‘we met on the set of King Kong VS Godzilla in 1962. It was love at first bite. But we started having problems almost immediately.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that. What was going on, if you don’t mind my asking.’

‘It’s personal. Can I trust you?’

‘I am discretion itself,’ I say, and the poor lunk believes it.

‘Everything was fine at first,’ Kong goes on, taking a big sip of his Old Fashioned. ‘She was a great lover and we both liked the same things. Like sitting on skyscrapers and stomping humans. Then the troubles began.’

‘What happened?’

‘We tried anal sex and she shot flames out of her ass during orgasm. Nearly burned me to death.’

‘You poor thing. Then what?’

‘Hollywood came knocking.’

‘And you got jealous.’

‘There was a bit of that, of course. I’m only human, right? But there was something else…’

‘What was it?’

 Kong takes another big sip before answering.

‘She comes to the dream factory, starts mixing with trendy California types, and decided she’s trans or non-binary or something, I don’t know… Long story short, she became male.’

‘That’s right. Godzilla is male in the American movies, female in the Japanese. I thought Hollywood imposed that on her because they have a hard time picturing a woman destroy a city. Only men can do that.’

‘No, it came from Godsy herself. You know what they say.’

‘Enlighten me.’

‘Godsy came from Tokyo, Japan. Hitch-hiked her way across the Pacific, let her eyebrows get bushy on the way, didn’t shave her legs and then she was a he. She says, “Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side”’.

‘Do-do-do, do-do, do-do-do,’ we both sing and burst out laughing.

Kong can be fun when he lets down his hair.

‘You poor thing,’ I say.

‘Yeah,’ Kong says. ‘I’m as broad minded as the next guy but I didn’t fancy two dicks in one bed, especially when one of the dicks shoots flames out of his ass and burn down the house. The cost of insurance was astronomical.’

‘Tell me,’ I say, trying to stop him from getting morbid. ‘You just finished shooting Godzilla vs Kong. That’s exciting.’

‘Yeah, but I get second billing. It’s Godzilla’s movie. I’ve had my century in the sun.’

‘At least you star opposite Alexander Skarsgard. He’s cute.’

‘Dumb as a bicycle saddle. But boy does he give good head.’

‘Really?’

‘He’s a bit of a slut, actually. Caught him rimming Godsy. Godsy got such a shock, he farted and burned Skarsgard to a crisp.’

‘Oh, my god. Sex with kaiju is risky.’

‘Speaking of which,’ Kong adds, ‘want to give me a hand job while you’re here?’

‘Hand job? I need fifty hands to handle that thing. Big as a sequoia tree. You don’t need a hand job. You need a cow milking machine.’

‘Let’s go find one.’

Kong picks me up, clambers out the window and off we go across rooftops to find a kinky sex club.

à bientôt, mes amies.


people-2570596_1920 SozzledThe Sozzled Scribbler was born in the shadow of the Erechtheion in Athens, Greece, to an Egyptian street walker (his father) and a Greek bear wrestler (his mother). He has lived in Istanbul, Rome, London, New Orleans and is currently stateless. He partakes of four bottles of Bombay gin and nine packets of Gauloises cigarettes a day.

Dmetri Kakmi is a writer and editor. His first book, Mother Land, was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards in Australia, and his new book, The Door, will be released in September 2020.

Episode 433: Darin Strauss!

15 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Creative Nonfiction, Episode

≈ Leave a comment

Episode 433 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Darin Strauss

Photo by Robert Birnbaum.

On this episode, Darin Strauss and I discuss the utility of outlines, the utility of abandoning outlines, love, pain, stream-of-consciousness, love, Lucille Ball, Fred Trump, Coney Island, the semiotic intimacy of television, and love.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Queen of TuesdayChang and EngThe Real McCoyMore Than It Hurts YouHalf a LifeThe Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.


Episode 433 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

The Curator of Schlock #330: Autopsy

14 Friday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, The Curator of Schlock

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The Curator of Schlock #330 by Jeff Shuster

Autopsy

Mimsy Farmer twice in one year? How did that happen?

Jervis showed up to the mansion with three hippie hitchhikers he picked up on his way back from “taking care of his sick mother.” The new house guests are named Indigo, Saffron, and Celestial. I haven’t had a chance to bring up the coffin I saw in the basement because the beardy boy named Saffron won’t knock it off with the tambourine playing! Celestial seems cool enough. She keeps asking me what my sign is, but Indigo, the intellectual, keeps wanting to talk about late stage capitalism. Saffron reeks of patchouli oil. I’m not liking this one bit.

victorian-home-1606836

Tonight’s giallo feature is 1975’s Autopsy from director Armando Crispino. The movie begins with scenes of different people committing suicide. One is an old guy tying a plastic bag around his head before throwing himself into a river. Another has a driver lighting a match and setting himself and the car on fire. The third suicide is a father machine gunning himself to death and murdering his two young daughters. Okay. So this is a little dark.

autopsy1

Next we get to see a bustling Italian mortuary filled with doctors and corpses. Not my idea of a dream job. We’re introduced to Dr. Simona Sana (Mimsy Farmer), a brilliant young woman who also has waking nightmares. She sees the corpses of the mortuary get up and walk around. Some of the corpses even make love to each. I’m not sure what Sigmund Freud’s diagnosis would be be, but I think she’s whacko. Oh, did I mention Simona has visions of screaming corpses every time she tries getting intimate with her boyfriend, Edgar (Ray Lovelock)?

autopsy2

Anyway, we learn that Betty is only half American. The other half is Italian. Her mother was American. Her father is Italian. Her mother is dead. Her father is planning to remarry. Did you get all that? He’s planning to marry again. I think it’s to a young, vivacious red head named Betty Lenox (Gaby Wagner) whose body ends up being found a couple of days later. Betty supposedly shot a bullet through her head and it knocked one of her eyes out, but one of the lecherous coroners was able to pop it back in.

autopsy3

Betty’s brother, Paul Lenox (Barry Primus), shows up to identify the body, but he refuses to accept that she committed suicide. You see, Betty had confessed her sins to her priest before she died and was happy to move on with her life. Oh, and the priest is the aforementioned brother, Father Paul Lenox, who used to be a race car driver before he caused a major accident at Le Mans that killed six people. Father Lenox is also prone to fits of rage. I seem to remember a scene of him shaking poor Simona demanding that she “respect him.”

Autopsy4

You know, it wouldn’t be the first time a priest turned out to be the murderer in one of these movies, but that would be too easy. Father Lenox has his problems, but that doesn’t make him a murder. Unless you count those six people he killed a Le Mans. But that was before he became a priest. There’s more weirdness that awaits, but you kind of need to see it for yourself. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Autopsy was scored by the late, great Ennio Morricone. Also, you get to see Mimsy Farmer in the buff, but you didn’t hear that from me.


Jeffrey Shuster 1

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #82: Shut Up, I Don’t Have an Ulcer

12 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #82 by Drew Barth

Shut Up, I Don’t Have an Ulcer

Anytime I hear anything about corporate shake-ups from publisher-owning conglomerates, I get that pit in my stomach. Comics are a tenuous business—one that most of the time depends on a larger company mostly forgetting about them so they can go about their normal operations. And yet that doesn’t stop the inevitable. While the information is coming out at a small trickle, it’s been confirmed from multiple sources that much of DC Comics’ senior editorial staff—including Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras, editors Mark Doyle and Andy Khouri (the pair in charge of DC’s Black Label imprint), VP of Marketing & Creative Services Jonah Weiland, as well as a host of others—have been let go.

dc1

Many of these people have been in comics for decades and have helped to put wonderful work out into the world. It’s heartbreaking to see so many people go. When AT&T executives met with DC executives after their acquisition of TimeWarner, AT&T were surprised that comics were still being published at all. The worry I’ve been seeing online these past couple days is that DC is going to be treated more as an IP farm than an actual publisher—a branch that exists solely to create content for films, television, and streaming. And while that is pessimistic, the DC Universe service I had written about last year is already being folded into HBO Max for its movies and series. To say the least, things feel tenuous.

Marie Javins, the current Executive Editor of Global Publishing Initiatives and Digital Strategy, and Michelle Wells, the Executive Editor of DC’s Children’s and Young Adult lines, will now be taking over as publishers and will report directly to Chief Creative Officer, and former publisher, Jim Lee. And that might actually be DC’s saving grace in this current bloodbath. One of the larger recent pushes in DC has been for their young adult graphic novels—works like Mira: Tidebreaker, Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed, and many others. If they want to continue, their focus should be in this area since Scholastic makes up 40% of all graphic novels sold last year. And while that would be a massive change in DC as a publisher and creator of works we’ve become attached to, this could be how they survive.

There is no telling what DC’s future is going to be. And as this is just one part of a larger series of lay-offs across all of WarnerMedia, it might not seem completely world-shattering. But then this is comics, a medium that has always struggled with being rather small and a relative afterthought to larger businesses. I don’t know exactly how things are going to be by this time next year, but this is the kind of event that’s going to ripple across the industry. We can only hope for the best.


drew barthDrew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

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Recent Posts

  • Episode 467: Ciara Shuttleworth!
  • The Curator of Schlock #349: Greyhound
  • Aesthetic Drift #29: Chewing on the Words of Miami’s Incarcerated
  • Lost Chords & Serenades Divine #20: Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (2020)
  • Buzzed Books #93: Love and Errors

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