That wrestler giant lobster that changed my life
And edition about discovering the suspension of disbelief and the value of the story itself
HELLO AND WELCOME TO A NEW EDITION OF MY NEWSLETTER!
Nice to see you again and let’s begin!
I've recently been working on finding a new home for my graphic novel Cassandra: Lef Hand of the Devil after the bankruptcy of the Spanish publisher ECC, and the steps are coming along slowly but with good prospects. I've also received news on how the final edition of Kid Maroon will come out and I'm hopeful that the wait will be worth it.
I have also had several conversations about the possibility of turning Paranoia Killer and Ginger’s Revenge into audiovisual projects (I had one about Ginger some time ago but the interest has resurfaced from another frontline).
Don't freak out yet because I have these chats very often. I think it's become routine for most authors working on creator-owned series, although every once in a while (very once in a while) an interesting opportunity comes up.
This interest in some of my comics that have never been actually printed (and I see it more and more difficult due to this strange period of uncertainty) has made me remember a text I wrote eight months ago about the value of IP.
And it’s an interesting topic because webtoons have consolidated the idea that the comics have an entity of their own, and you can find a lot of examples in Korean TV shows based on webcomics.
Or using an USA-Netflix example, even if Hearthstopper had not been published in paper... Do you think the TV series would not have been made? If the characters and the story were powerful enough, what did it matter whether the medium was digital or physical?
I try to keep the hope that technology can help us to stand up to the giant platforms with their self-satisfying logaritmh-worshipper content. I know, technology is fucking us artists up pretty good lately… And you don’t need me to give you examples.
But every once in a while we can capture the enemy's weapons and fight back.
RED HOPE (PART 1) IS ONLINE
And speaking of webtoons/webcomics, I commented to you in my previous newsletter that I was drawing “analogically” at times a new short story to publish on my Polar webcomic page, where the first three volumes of Polar and the Against Hope OGN began, involving precisely two of the characters of those books: Christy White & Hope Walker.
The story is titled RED HOPE, and originally I had planned a single story of 8 pages, but finally I didn't have enough space for what I wanted to tell (although it was a really simple story), so I have divided it into two parts of 8 pages. The first one is already available at polarcomic, and the second one will be soon. I hope you like it!
And I also explained that this is something I’ve done for fun. I can't help but feel the guilt of the freelancer, so you can find the original pages in my bigcartel store as a way to fund this whim (an advantage of turning back to paper).
THE PACT
Like every decent and intelligent person, I love monster movies. And my first love, like many of my generation, were the Godzilla movies I rented or watched on TV when I was a kid in the 80s. Not the classic black and white dramatic film of 1954, but the monster brawls of the sixties or seventies, full of colorful sets, five monsters making wrestling moves at the same time, and massive destruction of models.
Now as an adult, although I have seen many of the later incarnations of Godzilla, especially the Japanese ones, my favorites still are the 19 movies that belong to what is called the Showa Era (1954-1975). I don't know why, but I find the destruction of those models and those tiny tanks and planes soothing and comforting.
I think there is a connection with the notion of craftsmanship and tangibility that these objects and these rubber suits have when you see them on your screen. It's like when you see a Wallace & Gromit movie, I feel fascinated just contemplating the small details of the kitchen or Wallace's inventions. Someone has fabricated every little object and placed it there.
There is another reason why I love those Godzilla movies: I think I unconsciously understood the concept of suspension of disbelief with them.
When you are a little kid, your relationship with fiction is complex, and the reasons are not only psychological, but also biological. Explaining it quickly, your brain, the way your connections work, is not fully formed; you don't perceive fiction as the artifice it is even though you KNOW it's fiction. Somehow, ALL feels real.
I saw a lot of good old 60-70s Japanese anime and movies at TV because this kind of material was a cheap source of content to local Spanish little broadcastings in the late 80s. I remember watching the 7th Godzilla statement, Ebirah: Horror of the Deep (1966) in some local channel and thinking “Ok, I know I'm looking at two guys in lizard and crab suits throwing polystyrene rocks at each other.... But I'm not going to let that spoil my fun”. I consciously made a pact with myself to override the disbelief.
It's a situation similar to when you are a child and you begin to suspect the real identity of the Three Wise Men and the Little Mouse Pérez (the Spanish equivalents of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy). Partly you play to ignore the truth (we are talking about gifts) and partly you don't want to let that part of magic go.
So now I'm an adult and there is a part of me that belongs to the author I became, that is analytical and loves to study the structure of stories. But there is this part that belongs to the child I was once that still wants to believe in giant monsters. And guys, I think that is something that we should keep even if you are just fans.
So YouTube analysts with those “plot holes of this and this” accounts: Don't be so fussy and watch the monsters fight.
And that’s all for today! See you in the next edition.
Take care!
Victor
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Ebirah: Horror of the Deep was literally my first encounter with Godzilla as a child. We had two Godzilla films on VHS. The Lobster-monster scared the crap out of me! But I also loved the movie.