Our own beloved little puppets

An edition about creator-owned comics, the importance of the creative control and a couple of horror streaming recommendations

WELCOME TO MY NEWSLETTER!

This month and due to the crowdfunding campaign I am updating my newsletter (or at least I will try) weekly. Don´t worry, this is not going to be constantly spam (although tinyletter is giving me some problems with the mails and how they detect my updates, but this is another story). I will use these weekly updates as a chance to talk about some of the creative subjects related to this new project and my latest projects. And about comic-books in general.

When I am writing this text, the Moon Eaters book has funded 26% of the money. People from Spaceman tell me that we have a good pace. It’s a crazy ride, with a lot of ups and downs. I had been warned about it but, you know, you have to live it.

And why am I imposing this state of constant anxiety to myself? Well, the thing is about control. Control over your own work. Ed Brubaker explained really well in his fantastic newsletter:

Please stop calling publishers who take half their creators ownership and all control of media rights 'creator-owned publishers' - there are many publishers of comics and graphic novels that DO NOT take any rights from creators, so we need to stop confusing them with the ones that do.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, some of my projects were frozen and I began others, and getting a proper home to these personal stories is being difficult. It wasn’t a question to find a place, I received some offers. The question is: Right now a lot of publishers (including really little independent publishers) want to manage your movie/game/whatever rights. And sometimes it’s fine. I have a very healthy relationship with Dark Horse Entertainment because they really do the hard work. They arrive in places I can’t ever dream. So I don 't mind sharing the pie with them. But honestly, there are a lot of people outside more interested in amassing IPs and offering to producers in packs, and waiting if they hit the jackpot with one of them. And there is no option of negotiating.

And I wanted to try to move my own rights. Or, at least, to keep some of them for me and watch what happens. I have not a franchise, or a celebrity supporting my book, this is only myself and my stories and my art as weapons. My patrimony as independent creator are my ideas. A good movie option can guarantee that I can continue doing my comics a year more, this is my main interest. Maybe it sounds harsh but money means independence, and it means freedom and I think, it means to do better comics. My eyes are not watching Hollywood (and believe, you can’t create something to sell as a movie because this recipe doesn’t exist) but I should be the guy who chooses what I want to do with the property.

So this is the reason I published Paranoia Killer in Panel Syndicate and now I am launching the Moon Eaters crowdfunding.
So any support, even the smallest, counts. So you can back this kind of initiative by not only buying it. Maybe you have not enough money, but sharing by recommending your favorite authors helps a lot.

The MOON EATERS links:
In English: https://www.spacemanproject.com/es/proyecto/moon-eaters/81
In Spanish: https://www.spacemanproject.com/es/proyecto/moon-eaters/81

The book is available in Spanish and English, and it’s going to be an oversized hardcover with a gorgeous paper with a cover prize of 23 ($27). And if you buy the book you receive a signed print and a sketchbook with all the storyboard of the graphic novel!

RECOMMENDATIONS

And because I don´t want to be the guy of the spam, a short fiction recommendation. I recently saw a couple of TV show in Netflix with different approaches to horror with very interesting female main characters. Brand New Cherry Flavor and Post Mortem.

Brand New Cherry Flavor is a weird mix between David Cronenberg and David Lynch, set in the LA of the 90s. I really enjoyed it, but at the end I felt it wasn’t so original than critics sold me. I think the show was so focused in its own references than forgot to find its own voice. But is highly enjoyable and Rosa Salazar is awesome, I think she is really talented and I hope she get more leading roles.

Post Mortem (with the funny subtitle “No one dies in Skarnes”) is a Norwegian supernatural black comedy… about Death. Basically about Death, and it has a very peculiar dark humor but it’s heart-warming at the same time. I prefer don’t explain the plot because part of the charming of the show is discovering what’s about, what it is actually happening .

See you next week if my heart hangs on!
Victor

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