Be unstoppable
A jar of different tips, recommendations and why it is so important to balance things.
WELCOME TO A NEW EDITION OF MY NEWSLETTER
Hi guys, we get over the first month of 2022, congratulations. Time to relax and think about the things we love and enjoy, and I hope to be part of it…
UMKB #1
Until my knuckles bleed #1 will be on the streets this week! I hope you enjoy this personal approach to the crime/superheroes genre. Some of my favorite superhero books have a lot of noir elements (Powers, Gotham Central, the Greg Rucka’s run in Detective comics, Incognito and Sleeper…) so if I got only a 10% of the quality of these works, I’ll feel satisfied.
THE CRUSADER OF THE CHILDREN
Andrew Vachss passed away this past November. I mentioned it in my social media but I wanted to write a little more about him. His novel Strega was one the first noir novels I read when I was in college. He was a true inspiration for me, a great writer with sharp dialogues and thrilling stories, but also a crusader with a cause: The protection of abused children. RIP
Above all I loved his talent as a writer, capable of mixing the most pulpy elements of genres like crime, martial arts and exploitation stories with sensitive subjects like the child abuse. Stories capable to spread his message and pure entertainment at the same time. And it’s not an easy task, guys. I recently read a novel by a bestselling writer (I prefer not to say who) with higher aspirations, trying to be “profound” and “serious” and falling into embarrassing moments of romance and erotism completely out of tone in a book about this same subject, the protection of the abused innocent. I’m sure Vachss never read this book or we had read news about him punching the author in the face.
So glory to Vachss! I cannot recommend you more the first novels of his Burke character and stand-alone stories like Shella or The Questioner.
THE JAR OF TIPS
Sometimes I have an idea or a thought about some subject I find interesting for the newsletter… And sometimes I find a way to develop it properly, but often there are ideas I note and think about, or things I have observed and learned. Not sure if I consider them tips or lessons or reflections or silly things. This 2021 I noted some things based on comments I read on social networks like twitter or facebook:
-I observed the phenomena of cult to personalities like Dave Filoni or Katheleen Kennedy. We worship great Companies of Entertainment, we put their logos on our t-shirts (Children with clothes only with the MARVEL logo, not a drawing of Captain America or the Hulk, just the brand) so now we build a cult around the executive producers (even directors when their role is as producers). Production instead Creation.
-Popularity is not necessarily quality: A mantra I try to teach myself every day. Do your best, the concept of success is not related to a number of followers or sales.
-Visibility is not Engagement. It is something similar to the previous point. Another mantra I use: Follow-up doesn’t mean Salary.
-This is something I stole from Jordan Harper: “A story doesn't need a moral lesson to be good. A story only needs to be a story”.
I read this nonsense on twitter about “stories need to be ethical”. First, it sounds like creators should choose the “right” subject and then begin to write around this. Writing doesn't work this way. Making a story is an exploration of yourself, then subjects arise, or maybe they have always been there. Subtext is something the readers find.
Another day I should talk about the silly use of the word “subtext” by people who haven’t written a line of script in their entire life.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Unstoppable (2018) directed by Kim Min-ho starred by Ma Dong-seok (AKA Don Lee, Gilgamesh from Marvel’s The Eternals).
You know how I love action movies. I wrote about balancing different tones in the Andrew Vachss part, and I found this movie interesting because it tells a story with a very serious subject (abduction of women for human traffic) and has unexpected elements of comedy very well integrated. Korean movies can be difficult to watch sometimes due to this combination of genres. I remember when I saw The Host more than a decade ago: First a horror movie, now a goofy comedy, suddenly a family drama…But recent phenomena like The Skid Game show us that audiences are really open to these fresh approaches to the genres.
Unstoppable has a very basic story: “You kidnapped the wrong guy’s wife” and it has resources I would hate in other movies, like a couple of “comic relief support characters”... But in this story they work as an effective contrast with the stony, stark quality of the main character, Dong-Chul. And I have become a fan of Ma-Dong seok. He has a special quality, a kind of fascinating crestfallen coolness. The action scenes are basically brawls, and they are resolute and brutal, like the Dong-Chul’s search is.
And that’s all! See you very soon with other action story but made by me, the fourth episode of GINGER REVENGES!
See you soon!
Victor
Copyright © 2022 Victor Santos. All rights reserved.
FIND ME IN MY SOCIAL NETWORK:
victorsantoscomics.com
My official Facebook page and my personal Facebook page
My Twitter / My Instagram / My Tumblr
The BROKEN ENGLISH Tinyletter archives
FREE WEBCOMICS!
http://www.polarcomic.com/
FIND MY STUFF
My Amazon page / My Random House page
ORIGINAL ART:
BigCartel store
Galerie Glénat (Paris)
Soming art (USA)