4W4M
Plus: THOUGHT BUBBLE! TIME WAITS! THE DOMAIN!
I met Jonathan Hickman almost ten years ago, during a dinner at HeroesCon. I was a fan, so it was pretty exciting. I kept asking him questions like, “how it like being smart” and “how married should Peter and MJ be?” I’m sure he was a big fan of me as well but was too shy to ask me any questions. At one point during the dinner he mentioned some sort of ludicrous Hickman fact about the DUNE books, that he used to read them all every year? I may be misremembering the details, but I quickly realized he wasn’t right in the head.
Anyway, little known fact about ME: my wife was named after one of the characters in DUNE, and yet she’d never read it. And neither had I. So, after my HeroesCon trip, we decided to start a little two person book club and read DUNE side-by-side in our marital bed, with only the holy ghost of Hickman between us (she didn’t know about that part). Both of us got three pages in, turned to each other and went “fuck this”, then went back to reading the latest Garfield collections instead (I assume radial-infographic Jonathan also approves of Garfield because of his perfect-circle eyes and telepathy).
I’m just not a sci-fi world-building kind of guy. My brain bounces off of it hard. When people ask me what kind of novels I read I tell them my favourite genre is “New York Couple Going Through a Divorce”. So when Jonathan and pals announced their big Substack project, 3 Worlds / 3 Moons, I was like, uh oh.
It’s sci-fi world-building. On a massive scale. But not only that, the creative teams let you in on the actual building of it, which is incredibly cool. Here’s just a snippet from a post on “Industry and Economic Forces” from Ram V with Jonathan commentary:
RAM: For the purposes of this story, we’ll frame industry and the economics of trade, service and manufacturing as evolved into free-market syndicates. While each of the planets potentially have some measure of centralization, the interplanetary trade and industry is largely self-regulatory and long-standing forms of syndicalist ideologies have led to like-minded entities within similar business spheres coming together to present their interests on the bigger platform.
JON: ‘Should everything be enclosed inside a free market’ is a fair question. I think Ram is right here (for lots of reasons, but primarily because we’re holding up the idea of KHOR, regardless of cycle, as being the most important resource in the solar system and a shared/bifurcated/parallel trade avenue existing for the two sides that control it -- meaning both competition and some version of market control, etc. etc.), but I do think we should leave room for characters who have a hierarchy of needs that exist outside of that paradigm. Which, unsurprisingly, is what he’s getting at in this next part.
Look, I wrote HOWARD THE DUCK, I have no idea what these guys are talking about, but the fact that they did all this is pretty neat. What I’m here for are the stories. And man oh man the team has not disappointed.
Look at this lineup of talent: Mike del Mundo, Mike Huddleston, Nick Spencer, Al Ewing, Deniz Camp, Tini Howard, Nimit Malavia, Stipan Morian, Jacob Phillips, James Stokoe, Jason Howard, Vanesa Del Rey! And more! Plus, all designed by the amazing Sasha E Head!
All this to say that there’s a BIG OL’ KICKSTARTER happening now, collecting everything that’s come so far. If you’re into world-building, this is a must-buy. If, like me, you’re NOT into world-building, it’s STILL a must-buy because the comics are excellent and beautiful and the package looks so damned good.
Seeing that creative roster of course will get people wondering: where’s Chip? Well, yes, they did approach me to be a part of 3W3M, but they didn’t care for my pitch.
Anyway, maybe if you support their Kickstarter and tell them “Chip sent me” then they’ll get onboard 4W4M and finally get rich.
WEIRD TO SPEND TIME DEVELOPING A FICTIONAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM BUT ALSO TURN AWAY MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF CASH
Can’t live their lives for them!
Two big releases from me this week! TIME WAITS #2 is out, written by me and David! It’s ALL-OUT ACTION and looks so damned pretty! Marcus, Marvin and Matt (3M) on art are perfect, made even better by Ariana Maher on letters (the fourth M??)
For real, I love seeing the physical editions of this series. It really does look spectacular in-person at the larger size.
And also, the final issue of THE DOMAIN is out today, where we get to know DOMAIN PRIME!
He’s bad!!! But also looks so good thanks to Rachael and Eren! What a joy it’s been seeing this come together. A book based on the book inside another book isn’t the easiest sell, but I’m eternally grateful for those of you who came along for the ride.
Oh, hey! I’ll be at THOUGHT BUBBLE in just a few, short days with David and Marcus! that’s right: TEAM TIME WAITS in jolly old England!! We’ll be at tables E1-3 in the DSTLRY Hall doing non-stop signing and sketching!
On Saturday I’ll be doing a SPOTLIGHT PANEL at 1:30 in THE QUEEN’S SUITE, which I guess these days means it’s Camilla’s suite? I don’t know if she inherits suites like that, the monarchy is a true mystery to me.
There will also be a cool EXCLUSIVE VARIANT from Travelling Man here! Get it and we’ll sign it! I swear to GOD!!
While I’m away there will be a CHARITY LIVESTREAM happening! It’s called HEROES 4 HEROES, the proceeds of which goes to Mission 22 to provide veterans suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and other issues with wellness support.
I donated this 9x12 Spidey sketch! So if you want it, make sure you check out the livestream on the 16th!
OKAY I’M DONE THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME SEE YOU IN THE UK
UPCOMING BOOKS
ZDARSKY COMIC NEWS #5 — Nov 20
BATMAN #155 — Dec 4
ZDARSKY COMIC NEWS #6 — Dec 18
DAREDEVIL OMNIBUS VOL 2 —Jan 1
BATMAN #156 — Jan 1
TIME WAITS #3 — Jan 8
ZDARSKY COMIC NEWS #7 — Jan 15
THE ALL-NIGHTER VOL 3 — Jan 22
BATMAN #157 — Feb 5
ZDARSKY COMIC NEWS #8 — Feb 12
PUBLIC DOMAIN VOL 2 — Feb 19
BATMAN: DARK PRISONS — Mar 04
ZDARSKY COMIC NEWS #9 — Mar 12
TIME WAITS HC — Mar 25
THE DOMAIN VOL 1 — Mar 26
BATMAN: THE DYING CITY — May 05
UPCOMING SIGNINGS
THOUGHT BUBBLE (Harrowgate) — Nov 16-17
Thought Bubble is going to be insane. So many Canadians making the trip too!
Well, as much as I'd wish you had explored the fictional economic modalities of Howard the Duck's world, I'm also okay with the extent of world-building being "Howard likes to ride on roller-coasters" (did he ever ride a roller-coaster?). Thank you for sharing the charity stream and the Spidey!