Perhaps you're a friend, a fan or even a foe. Wherever our paths have crossed, welcome to the Chuk Chronicles – my newsletter keeping the world-at-large up-to-speed with my comics, TV episodes and other writing. Gosh, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, I've been up to a bunch of stuff – swear! I'll just jump right into all of it, now...
I've seen some writers’ newsletters use codenames for unannounced projects rather than refer to them in vague terms that’re easy to lose track of. Seems like good policy. So henceforth, I'll refer my next big project with Nikos as Operation Sphinx (so named for that hideous statue I gave a peek of earlier).
It’s a mini-series. I did one final draft of all the scripts, taking in feedback from trusted readers. Nikos has thumbnailed half the issues. His thumbs are quite detailed – only a degree away from full pencils, really – and we've done rounds of revisions of them, too. Much easier to make tweaks at this stage than later.
While Sphinx has taken longer to bake, I do still think the extra time will make a difference. I do, I do. Polishing this comic as a complete piece before “production” properly starts will make it play better in a collection, and in installments, too. Of this I’m sure. Want another tease, though? Sphinx contains the most heartbreaking prank ever staged. Seriously, you won’t know whether to snicker or wince…
I'm also working on Operation Sterling with Patrick McEvoy, who's been a pal since our days as labelmates at Archaia. We've had close calls over the years – and actually worked together on some projects that weren't destined for public consumption – but this time, our powers are combining into something concrete. Feels appropriate to tease this comic with a peek at another dreadful creature…
Sterling taps a very different pool of influences than Sphinx. We’re aiming for more cinematic / metronomic / psychnomic storytelling in this one, which requires a different approach to planning. That’s had its own learning curve, for sure. But Patrick’s got a handle on it and his virtuosity is already quite clear in the pages thus far.
I’ll tease Sterling in the terms of our stooped mutant above and say it’s about how this is a “dog eat dog world” in every sense. Metaphoric. Literal. Philosophic. Existential. I can’t say where and when, but it’ll be coming one way or another, sooner or later.
While Sphinx and Sterling are both long stories and long-in-the-coming, Operation Stoneheart is compact and right around the corner. It's a back-up short in a famous series. I got to play with some one else's toys and romp around in their sandbox. Pleased to say, this one's all about romance! Though, I can never keep things simple, so expect some stinging heartburn to go with it. All pages are drawn. Waiting on lettering, now. So, hold tight for Stoneheart…
Early in July, Hai Nguyen from New Guy in Comics and Collectibles in Winthrop Harbor, IL, reached out to me about doing an Andy Xenon signing to tie into his store’s second birthday. I happened to be in town the week before, so we got the celebration started early – and it was one of my best signing experiences ever.
I met Hai during my epic road trip and he’s been a huge supporter. When I arrived, I was floored to find he’d really been promoting the comic since he stocked up last time. There were store regulars waiting for me who’d read the book, liked it and wanted me to re-sign their copies. Since I’d of course signed every one at the store before, I opted to do little doodles of Andy for everybody.
Hai took the promotion a step further, too. He asked me to bring even more copies and had me on a livestream with him while I signed, making books out to customers who couldn’t join us in-person but were watching remotely. I forget which platform we streamed on, but it really felt like being a host on QVC in the 90s, taking callers while we gabbed about this rare collectible.
New Guy’s located right at the Illinois / Wisconsin border. Hai came up with this livestream since some of his customers have to drive really far out to him. It’s a brilliant idea — inviting customers into his store, no matter the distance — and really made an event out of this signing. Hai mentioned his father owned a video rental back in the day, and promotions like this are exactly the sort of fun I love in a brick and mortar store.
Anyway, Hai and his staff were amazing. I hope to be back for New Guy’s third birthday – or even sooner!
In February, I taught an intensive four-day workshop on comics at UCLA Extension. I’ve taught classes on TV writing for their Writer’s Program and done some panels on making comics at cons, but this was my first proper class on the subject and it went as deep as I could possibly go. A blizzard was declared in LA county the week of classes too, believe it or not, and the commute each day felt like driving a submarine through solid rain, which added even more intensity to the intensive.
Anyway, I aimed to take students “from zero to sixty” and make experts out of novices over the long weekend. My lectures ranged from history to theory to the nitty gritty of communicating with collaborators, and some fantastic guest speakers from different corners of the business came to my aid. Editor extraordinaire Greg Tumbarello and that most loquacious letterer, Troy Peteri, Zoomed in, while Beth Setelo and Joel Gomez actually drove all the way from San Diego to offer artists’ perspective. I stressed to my students that writers must always remember how comics is a team effort, so all these speakers’ insights were crucial to hear.
My students were fantastic, too. Each came ready to work and eager to learn. Extension’s invited me to teach this workshop again next year, and I’m looking forward to meeting even more students like these. (I relish imagining the conflicted feelings some of my grade school teachers would have, seeing comics in a university classroom, too).
I went to Cartoon Network’s unmissable headquarters in downtown Burbank earlier this August and paid respects. A tee from one of their wild Halloween parties felt appropriate for the occasion. Such awesome memories in that building…
Prior to Warner Brothers’ ill-fated merger with AT&T, I got to work with some very creative, friendly and professional people there, developing the original series I co-created. Over the years of development, I only got to come in every few months, and it always felt like entering some fantastic pocket world. The fact that I'd typically park at the mall garage down the block before coming in really did make it feel like stepping into Narnia through the wardrobe.
I also got to watch an episode I scripted for Ben 10 get acted out live in their recording studio. Words fail, trying to describe how surreal it was, seeing and hearing a story I dreamed up come to life in real time thanks to such superhumanly talented voice actors.
Warner Bros separated from AT&T later, only to merge with Discovery, which has begot even more corporate restructuring. As I understand, Cartoon Network remains a brand but the studio itself has been merged with WB Animation – meaning its remaining staff has left this building to relocate to a campus on the other end of Burbank.
One of these days I’ll talk about more about the show I developed with them. The WGA and SAG strikes obviously cast a shadow over the place since a lot of the strike points are in response to such mergers. That’s a lot to get into. It’s an unpredictable moment all over the business right now, obviously. Still, I preferred to think of the good times when I stood outside… because there were a lot in that building.
I went to Comic Con, of course. With LA in the throes of a heat wave, the San Diego ocean breeze was extra appreciated. I haven’t seen exact figures, but it certainly looked like attendance was back to pre-Covid levels. Walking the floor without needing a mask over half your face, garbling your words, was a relief, too.
I wasn’t signing or paneling this year, so the con was mostly about sharing the projects teased above with prospective editors, catching up with friends at parties, booths and artist alley, and of course getting good deals on comics. Got a tall stack of reading material that’ll last me a long while.
This con coincided with the aforementioned strikes, of course, which caused a lot of panel cancellations, but also confirmed a misconception about SDCC I’ve noticed over the years…
People who tend to say, “Oh, Comic Con isn’t about comics anymore” either haven’t actually attended the show, never liked comics in the first place, or actually wish it wasn’t about comics, at all. On any year, if you go to SDCC with a resolution to only see its comics portions, you’ll have more to see than you’ll ever have time to look at. There’s also the fact that any comic con, of any size, has a TV / Movie element, even it’s merely one screening and an autograph alley with three celebs. The ratio isn’t unique.
Comic Con is simply so big, it contains multitudes upon multitudes. I roomed with some friends this year who buy and sell Funkos. I went about my business and they went about theirs, and as far as they were concerned, Comic Con might as well have been Funko Con. There were that many attractions just for them. But when I mentioned this to people I met from other sectors, they said they hadn’t noticed Funko having any presence this year, so your focus can play real funny tricks on what you see.
So, why does the canard endure? I think it’s partly because Variety, Hollywood Reporter, et al, only cover the panels in Hall H and Ballroom 20, so if your sense of the show is only shaped by their coverage, it’s unavoidably distorted. But I think it’s moreso comparable to cinephiles who gripe about how “it’s only superhero movies at the theaters these days” but then have convenient excuses for skipping all ten art house films nominated for Best Picture. It’s fun to complain, especially when it makes for rote small talk.
All of which is to say I personally had another fantastic time at Comic Con this year.
As I alluded earlier, Patrick McEvoy and I trade ideas all the time. Sometimes those manifest in full-on collabs, like the one teased ealier. Other times, we’re soundboards for each other’s work – which was the case for Soul War here. I gave notes at different stages, starting with the script, and it was a thrill to watch the book evolve over the past year or so. Like seeing a giant lizard grow from a tiny egg…
This rippin’ yarn takes place in Titanic Creations’ universe of kaiju and somehow captures the grandeur of a blockbuster crossover event in one self-contained story. It pits four giant and uniquely grotesque monsters against each other in a battle royale for the fate of Earth (and several other worlds, to boot), with every scale, fang, horn, claw and membrane rendered in meticulous detail. And as you saw earlier, Patrick’s got a scary talent for etching terror into existence.
The human drama of each person in these big beasts' respective orbits are more compelling than you'd even expect, too. Soul War’s set during World War II and truly feels like it. I saw firsthand the deep research that went into the locations, costumes, scenery and more, and Patrick wasn’t afraid to get into the corners of the era that were plenty scary, even without giant monsters. A top notch comic by a top notch talent.
One last story before I wrap. This Is Your Life was before my time (I know it only from the Sesame Street parodies), but I find it’s one of the best comparisons to the whole SDCC experience. Every corner you turn, you’re liable to run into somebody from some era of your life you didn’t expect to see again. It could be years… and suddenly you’re face-to-face!
Michael Sinterniklaas was one such friend this time. Hadn’t seen him since before the pandemic, but we bumped into each other at a hotel bar just after the premiere of the Venture Brothers movie (which I unfortunately couldn’t catch). I sensed it was a bittersweet moment for Team Venture. The flick was well-received, but it’s also looking like the end, now (and after so many twists and turns caused by that same mergers mentioned above).
I actually wasn’t a Venture Bros fan when I met Michael. I tried to get into it over the years, but its lore is so complex, you really have to watch it from the beginning to understand. One upside of quarantine? I got to do just that, marathoning all seasons on the treadmill.
I’m sooo late to the party, I know, but the deep cut parodies, homages and allusions to pulp novels, obscure comics lore and even forgotten music acts are all sooo in my wheelhouse. Getting to run my own fan theories by Dean Venture himself while they were still fresh in mind was an unexpected – and kinda surreal – highlight of the con.
Michael’s performance over the seasons really makes the show, too: how he starts as this gee-golly parody of a Hardy Boy, then steadily reveals more nuanced layers once he’s finally allowed to grow up. Anyway, if Futurama just made a big comeback after a decade, I feel like we haven’t seen the last of Venture Bros, either. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow...
The Chuk Chronicles will return. And I’ll make sure it’s much sooner than eight months from now! If you have any writing questions, thoughts on my work, or bon mots, shoot me a message. Catch you ‘round!