Hey team,

We’re all tired, right? The onslaught of atrocities, a rapidly rising cost of living, cruelty, genocide, horrors upon horrors in an unending nightmare of the stupidest people on Earth crashing us headfirst into a brick wall.

And yet —

The compulsive need to make more things. To add more tactile things to a world that so desperately wants to eradicate them.

A world run by the stupidest people on Earth, remember, who want to control the information you are allowed to read so you don’t get hip to how stupid they really are (very stupid).

That’s why comics are so special — they exist in perpetuity. They are time capsules that can’t easily be erased. They can be shoved under beds and into backpacks. There are literally millions of them in existence. Losers tried burning them in the 50s and here they remain.

As a recovering nihilist I feel it’s important to say definitively that I think this world is worth saving.

But at least, comic books

I know comics can’t save the world. I know this because despite almost a century of superhero comics manifesting the emergence of a better world, we are where we are.

But I — we — don’t have to save the world. We can’t! Too big a job. Even Superman can’t fix systemic issues, he can only help.

We just have to improve our world using the life we live and skills that we have. I’m a writer, so I do that.

I do fact-checking as a day job, which lately has meant lots of depressing research about awful things. I do think it’s meaningful work but really engaging with the news at a granular, hyper-detailed level for 8 hours a day has taken a lot out of me, I will admit.

But it has made working on the comics part of my life — challenging in different ways — feel like a reprieve. A chance to add something I think is cool into the physical world, even if what it has to say is dark or weird or silly. Crucially, I want to hold that shit in my hands.

For my generation — Elder Millennials who grew up alongside the internet, from rewinding VHS tapes as a job to having to explain to your kids what the “save” icon is supposed to be — most evidence of our time on this earth will be lost to time in the digital abyss.

Maybe it will be the same for future generations but I don’t think it will be. I think they’ll learn from our mistakes. We grew up with the internet and gave too much of ourselves to it.

Ever walk into a thrift store or flea market and there are old postcards and letters from lives long past? It’s a lovely window into a real life during a real time. They’ll never find postcards of us when we’re gone.

Letters became emails, notes became DMs, a photograph of a moment became one of 10,000 on your phone, or worse, in the cloud. We put all of our thoughts and feelings onto the internet willingly, too young and uninformed to see how they would very easily trap us into an ecosystem from which there is no easy escape.

The internet, specifically social media and giving up our privacy, was just another version of luring a kid into a van with candy that our parents didn’t know they had to warn us about.

And it consumed us entirely. When passwords are lost to time, servers go offline, and social media platforms shutter, even our digital ghosts will disappear. So create we must. It is the only way our memories will survive.

It’s not the internet itself that did it, it’s how much power we let those who control it have. And now we live in a shrinking mouse trap of increasingly shitty fantasy tech that balloons their growth and squeezes us tighter.

But here’s the incredible news: creating is cheap and nobody can fucking stop you.

And there’s nothing more valuable than adding something into the world that didn’t exist before you put it there.

That’s just good ROI.

The way out is through.

What a gift it is to have a brain,

-Joey
[email protected]
PO Box 1093, Bath, ME 04530
Buy my comics

KILLER INFLUENCES — Read all about it in last month’s newsletter! Our fucked up serial killer/true crime satire hits in July and if you love crime comics, it’s crucial to let your local comic book shop know you want ‘em to order a copy for you. And while you’re at it, why not check out IDW’s entire new Crime imprint?!

MADAM — If you missed out on the Kickstarter campaign for our horror epic MADAM, I have great news — the full 168-page graphic novel is now available in my web shop in both physical and digital formats! And if you’re a GlobalComix reader, we’ll be releasing the chapters monthly — chapter one is already live! Read it here.

SOUP DAD MERCH!!! 

THE PEDESTRIAN THREADLESS SHOP is still available for all your PEDESTRIAN needs. And as always, if you haven’t snagged a copy of THE PEDESTRIAN yet, it’s available in my web store, online, and on GlobalComix. 

SHOWDOWN by Dave Wielgosz and Tadd Galusha

Dave was not only my editor on KILLER INFLUENCES but also a great writer — and he’s got his first creator-owned series called SHOWDOWN coming in May, co-created with artist Tadd Galusha and published by Ignition Press. I’ve had the pleasure of reading #1, and anyone who loves Brubaker/Phillips’ CRIMINAL or Rian Johnson’s BRICK should be very inclined to pick this one up. I loved it. Pre-order online or add it to your pull list — final order cutoff for #1 is April 6!

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE by John Fugelsang

The official subtitle to this book was “A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds,” but could also be “How Dudes Perverted the Words of Jesus to Control Women and Hate Everyone.” Mine doesn’t have great alliteration but is also a pretty good descriptor of the current regime and those they’ve enlisted to stoke their flames. Crucially, though, this book isn’t anti-Christian and is written by a believer; just a believer who is sick of his faith being co-opted for white supremacy and fascism. I know, sounds heavy, but Fugelsang is a comedian and makes his points effectively but with humor. This atheist found it to be great and informative reading.

CALAVERA P.I. by Marco Finnegan

I missed this one as it was releasing monthly but borrowed the trade paperback from the library — and will be buying it next time I’m at the shop. It’s about a dead PI resurrected on Dia de los Muertos five years after his murder to continue his last case. I read this in one easy sitting, part period-noir with flares of a subtle supernatural romance and plenty of social commentary. It gave me feelings of reading James O’Barr’s THE CROW in that the passion of this story is easily readable on the pages, the sense of emotional truth behind the genre storytelling is palpable — the artist dedicates the book to his wife and I can feel it, you know? Highly recommend.

DAREDEVIL: ENEMY OF MY ENEMY by Alex Segura

My pal Alex is a heck of a crime writer — check out his comic book crime thrillers SECRET IDENTITY and ALTER EGO — so I was so stoked to learn he wrote a Daredevil crime novel for Marvel! I wish there were more prose stories featuring superheroes, and it sounds like ENEMY OF MY ENEMY is really going for it — the premise is Matt Murdock (Daredevil) opts to be Frank Castle’s (The Punisher) defense attorney when Frank turns himself in for murdering the Kingpin, arguably DD’s arch nemesis. It sounds like an ethically murky and twisty noir romp that I know Alex thrives in. Order it here!

PROJECT ROLLERCOASTER (WFH) — Info on this is already out there and not “officially” announced yet, but next month’s newsletter should be fun! I’m having a blast working on this, it’s a dream come true, and has been something of a life preserver in this river of shit.

PROJECT PUKE — Passed editorial review and I’m very hopeful to get this story out there. I’ve been struggling a lot with the issues this book deals with, so finally digging into it will be some alleviation for sure.

PROJECT ENSHITTIFICATION — I’ve got a meeting with an editor to talk about this one this week. This book is my response to the unceasing darkness and I think it could be awesome and very cathartic to write.

THE PEDESTRIAN  — Sean and I continue to make sure The Pedestrian will live on and I promise we’ll have more to say eventually.

Thanks for hanging out. If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to drop me a line at [email protected].