Remembering the laughs...
Where I talk about the influence Keith Giffen had on me, my last events of 2023, what's out this month, some previews, and more free comics.
It wasn’t just about “bwah-ha-ha”. Keith Giffen stories were typically funny, but they were always dramatic. It’s probably why he plotted a lot of stories during his career, a natural evolution from his start as an artist, and an awesome one at that. And if his stories were scripted by J.M. DeMatteis, they were still funny and often hilarious, but with others, they were toned down among the grim and gritty superhero tales being told in the late 80’s to current day. He showed that you could do straight on funny in comics (and it’s comics, so you should!), like Ambush Bug, Lobo and Justice League, but you could also do funny in the midst of drama in even some of those books and others like Legion of Super-Heroes. Which was important at a time when books were sliding toward darker and darker trends. He showed the importance of maintaining that balance in storytelling and how enjoyable that could be for a reader to go through the highs and lows of comedy and drama. It’s something I enjoyed immensely and took to heart with my own writing. He was a huge influence and he will be sorely missed. It’s fortunate that he wrote so much and there’s so much for everyone to still enjoy. I still have books of his I haven’t read, never mind the books I’d like to reread, so at least there’s that. I only met him once at a Toronto Fan Expo and he was super nice to me as he walked by my table and perused my books. I think I was promoting the True Patriot books at the time so I hope he really liked what he saw.
I’ll end this section with a couple of pages from Aircel’s Dragonforce, the first comic series I ever scripted. As a 20-year old, I had a ton still to learn writing comics…and I think my influences from Alan Moore, Frank Miller…and Keith Giffen show in these pages. RIP Keith…and thank you.
2023 shows are done like dinner!
After a busy 2023 of events and comic shows, I can now say I can relax a little bit just in time for the holidays!
Now, outside a virtual presentation next week with the University of New Brunswick, I can focus on shows in 2024. One officially booked so far…and that’s the Deep River Geekfest on June 1-2! More to come…
Out This Month
The final issue of the Dominion Jack run in Antarctic Press’ Exciting Comics, issue 40, comes out the last week of November. Hope you’ve been supporting the book at your local comic shop. We end with an all Dominion Jack issue by me and Hugh Rookwood. Let your shops know to bring these books into the store for you and fans of Canadian superhero adventure.
The special hardcover colour edition of Growing Up Enchanted Book 1 has been out for a while. I haven’t been promoting it locally a ton due to issues getting the book to show up properly in Canada on Amazon.ca and Indigo. I haven’t had any luck with that so I’ve added stock to my online shop, shop.jackbriglio.com. For those outside Canada, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and other online shops are working fine, so you have more of a choice!
Drifting our way…
The work for my next graphic novel (with Marcello Bondi and Ricardo Bevilacqua), Asteroid Adrift, is done. Submitted the final files to Markosia and should be released sometime in 2024. Here’s the back cover and copy…
Floyd the Ferocious Fly - Pages 7-8
Free comics! The icky end to Floyd’s story, by me & Alex Serra.
SuperIcons - Pages 7-9
And SuperIcons by me, art by Tom Syzc and letters by Rachel Deering. It’s not the end of the story, but it’s the end of the pages that were completed and used for the pitch and proposal. Never found a home sadly. Would have been fun to do a series like this. Who knows…maybe it will at some point in the future, whether it’s this actual story or ideas that came from this story.
That’s it for this month. Until next time…and I need to figure out what’s next to include in the free comics section!