Greetings everyone,
First off, updates on Torchbearer: We’ve received preliminary pencils on pages 1-10, and we gotta say: we’re excited about this issue. Without revealing too many plot details, we really come to understand just who the Torchbearers really are in the grand scheme of things. We should be getting lettering proofs for issue 4 this weekend, and the trade (the compilation of issues 1-3) have been sent to the printers! So, yay!
Also, today we’re attending the Brooklyn Comic Book Creators Meetup at Cocoa Bar in Brooklyn, so stop by, have a pint, and enjoy the stories about the trials, tribulations and just quirky things we’ve discovered it takes to make comics.
Lastly, let’s talk about Snowden.
Edward Snowden is many things to many people: hero, patriot, traitor, a chess pawn in the game of politics, a video game character and a distraction. Regardless of how we may think about his actions, the justifications for what he did and the morality and righteousness of it all, at the end of the day we skirt around the issue that really needs to be addressed.
There is something wrong with our current society.
And deep down, we all know it.
It’s the reason why we flock to the movies about superheroes and people rising up against the injustices of society, to TV shows set in the present where corporations control our thoughts and personalities, to comics featuring individuals working to down the corporation/government hybrid controlling everything. Snowden didn’t reveal something new to those of us who’ve been keeping our ears to the ground: he revealed just how valid of our worries and suspicions really were. And how sometimes science fiction really is science fact.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Because while escaping is good (and hey, we as creators provide outlets for you to do so), we also must strive to inspire and shine a mirror to ourselves and decide whether we like what we’ve become.
And in the end, we both individually and collectively must decide whether enough is enough.
It’s times like these that I’m reminded of a quote by Martin Niemöller
First they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
May we never have to live a period like this again.
That’s all for this week, everyone. I promise next week our updates will be chock-full of adventures and misanthropy (read: us talking about creating comics).
Until then.
Best,
-Nick D.