Happy Halloween, folks!
The Usual
In ice hockey (and probably other sports as well) there’s a term that sometimes gets applied to players – “streaky”. It means they’re prone to scoring streaks – they might not score any goals or put up any points for a few weeks, then all of a sudden they’ll light up and put together a five-game point streak.
The same thing, I think, applies to writers – some people will sit down every day and make progress, even if it’s a small amount, consistently and reliably. And some won’t write for a while, but then the muse will hit and they’ll bang out an entire issue in a week.
I’ve been finding over the last few months that I’m firmly in the latter camp – life has been so hectic with the day job, practice for three separate bands, a tour with one of them, finding time to cook/clean the house/walk the dog..! It’s been a struggle to consistently make time for writing, but when the muse hit me this month, I got 10 pages deep into my first draft of Brigantia #4 over a few days, wrote a 1000-word essay for Brigantia Vol. 1 in an afternoon and came up with a fairly detailed story synopsis for a horror one-shot during the course of one evening’s dog walk.
My point, insofar as I’m making one, is that it’s okay to be streaky – sure, it’d be nice if I could set aside an hour every day purely to focus on writing and methodically finish pages, but sometimes the words just won’t come out and I’d rather not spend an hour beating my head against a keyboard and feeling like a failure. Write where and when you can, and don’t force yourself into a pattern that doesn’t work for you.
The Record
Following on from that, a bit more life in here this month!
• 10 pages scripted for Brigantia #4
• 1000 word essay for Brigantia Vol. 1 done
• Synopsis for “The Empty House on the Corner” written and page breakdowns started
• 7 pages lettered – I don’t think I can talk about this just yet, but it’s v. exciting because I’m actually getting paid for it! I think that makes me a professional comics creator, right??
I’m quite happy with that total, given that I spent a full week of this month on tour (which was an absolute blast and I wish I was still doing it) and managed to cram in all 25 horror movies from our Shocktober schedule. Here are the five best films we watched this month (in my, extremely subjective, opinion, and discounting ones I’ve seen before and already know I love):
- In The Earth – trippy, psychedelic, fantastic.
- You’re Next – an interesting take on slasher movies and some very inventive kills!
- The Empty Man – this one spooked us the hell out! It’s a bit twisty and complex, but definitely worthwhile.
- The Dark and the Wicked – not a classic ‘haunted house’ movie, but extremely effective.
- Candyman (2021) – Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is excellent (as usual) and this had some really great cinematography.
The Tunes
The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice only 9 songs on my playlist this month – that’s because the first track should be this one, by our good friends in Gozer (who we toured with this month): https://wearegozer.bandcamp.com/ It’s their only recorded output thus far and not on Spotify, but having seen them smash it out 6 nights in a row, the riffs are lodged in my brain. Into the Spotify tracks, and we start with A Pale Horse Named Death who have an extremely Halloween-appropriate name and a great ear for a riff. They’re followed by another of our tour friends, The Grey, who are a delight to watch live – instrumental sludge collides with prog to create something complex and unique. Next up is a true classic, Judas Priest‘s Painkiller, which every metal fan needs to listen to at least once a year. Septicflesh are up next with this fantastic tune – I just finished watching Midnight Mass, and while I won’t spoil it for anyone, I couldn’t get this song out of my head during the last 4 or 5 episodes! Dr. Colossus write Simpsons-themed sludge/doom, which isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds – they’re followed by Green Lung, whose new album is a banger stuffed with 70s-tinged riffs. AFI are on this list because somebody on Twitter reminded me that I like them, albeit not as much as my partner (a diehard fan) – Dancing Through Sunday might be a short song but it crams a lot in. Crystal Coffin are new to me – melodic, atmospheric black metal, recommended by my friend Gareth of Heel Turn Promotions. And closing things out is a new Zeal & Ardor track – if you’ve never heard of that band before, please do yourself a favour and listen to both their first two albums, which blend gospel music and Satanic black metal to devastating effect.
The Links
Only two links in here this month, but they’re both worth your time. First up, with some suitably Halloween-adjacent subject matter, is a long read by the absolutely excellent Ritesh Babu which delves very effectively into the criticism of colonialism that nestles at the heart of These Savage Shores (by Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vittorio Astone and Aditya Bidikar). I won’t say anything further because Ritesh elucidates it much, much more effectively: http://neotextreview.com/culture/civilized-monsters-these-savage-shores-and-the-colonialist-cage/
Second, Claire Napier (editor on numerous comics including the ‘Space Cowboys’ project I’ve been infrequently working on and all-round wonderful human being) has been putting together some big, important pieces about the actions of comics “publisher” Action Lab. This is part 2 – if you’re not familiar with the background, please take some time and read her other pieces over on ComicBookYeti because it’s very important that Action Lab are held to account: https://www.comicbookyeti.com/post/an-accounting-of-action-lab-allegations-part-2
That’s all for this month! I’ve got a homemade pumpkin pie cooling in the kitchen, sweets in a bowl by the door and I’m looking forward to welcoming some wandering souls/trick or treating kids this evening – let’s celebrate Samhain in style and plunge ever onwards to the end of the year! As ever, take care of yourselves.
All the best,
Chris