Deadfuel 4 Chip
My goddamn campaign continues
Once again, I dipped my toe into Twitter like a fucking fool. Ryan Reynolds announced that Hugh Jackman is going to be in Deadpool 3, presumably as Mr. Wolverine. I’m very happy for them as I think this could be their big break, but the news once again overshadowed my campaign to be Reed Richards.
I did some concept art to prove how good I’d be in the role, but even still I haven’t received a phone call from Kevin Feige (Marvel’s Geoff Johns Walter Hamada Dan Lin tbd) offering me the role of The Stretchy Smartman.
You think I’d be okay with this since I’m not an actor, can’t memorize lines, have never watched a movie, and currently have a career writing Batman. But I’m apoplectic. If my bona fides as the writer of Marvel 2-In-1 doesn’t at least get me a cameo on the Council of Reeds, then Hollywood is truly done with undeserving white guys and I refuse to believe that.
I BELIEVE IN YOU
Thank you, me.
In other news, a friend recently picked up a copy of the Toronto Comics anthology OSGOODE AS GOLD, which had a forward by me. I forgot I wrote this because of my problems, so I dug up my introduction this week to share with you, as I’m weirdly proud of how aggressive it is.
If you’re a cartoonist in Toronto, you’ve undoubtedly used the city in your work. Either as visual reference, or by having the city act as the home for your characters. In the process, you’ve probably played with landmarks, or exposed fun locales for non-Torontonians. Almost every one of you, when asked about your work, would say the same thing: that Toronto, the city itself, is a character in your story.
Well, you’d be wrong. Or, if not wrong, in a lot of trouble.
Years ago, realizing that Toronto was truly a character in my work, I did what any sensible person would do: I copyrighted that character. “Toronto,” and all derivatives thereof, like Supertoronto, Captain Toronto, and Toronto Spider-Man, are owned wholly by Zdarsco, Inc. I made this move back in 2003, resulting in massive payouts from Chester Brown for all of his non-Riel works, massive payouts from the graphic novel “Scott Pilgrim” by Bryan Lee O’Malley, and minimal payouts from the movie “Scott Pilgrim.”
Overall, it’s been fairly lucrative. And now I discover that there is not only an anthology that uses the Toronto character heavily, they’ve also made the brazen move to name their book “Toronto Comics Anthology,” a slap in the face to the 1921 Copyright Act of Canada. To make matters worse for the group of “creators,” they had the unmitigated gall to ask me, the person they’ll owe damages to, for a forward to their latest collection. Well, here it is:
Cherish these times. When you’re filled with passion for your art. When you find others who share that passion, and make you better in the process. Cherish this point in your life when you’re undoubtedly without capital, so declaring bankruptcy against a court-ordered payment barely affects you.
Creating comics, and new characters from whole cloth, is one of the most challenging and invigorating projects you can undertake. I envy you. And I’ll see you in court.
Chip Zdarsky
WOW WHAT A CHARMER
I know, right?! It’s so sad that I’ll never get to experience the magic of meeting me since I am me.
On to this week’s releases!!
THE ALL-NIGHTER #10 is out now on Comixology! We wrap up Volume 2 with a bang!
And STILLWATER #15 is out as well! This has the cliffhanger I’ve been waiting to drop since we started!
Some of you have already seen the news that STILLWATER is ending with issue 18. It’s gonna be an extra-sized issue full of thrills and chills and an ending that will hopefully floor you unless you read your comics on the floor already like a pervert. Look at that cover from Ramon! He’s so damn good.
Okay! That’s the newsletter! Go have a nice time I guess!
Apoplectic? Settle down Chip! You'll always be Reed Richards in our hearts.
OH SNAP!
Remember that seen in Season 2 of True Detective (I only watched the whole of season 2 because season 1 was so amazing, but if I could have those hours of my life back I would definitely take that trade) where Vince Vaughn is talking to Bullseye in a cop’s uniform and they say something like:
“I’m rather apoplectic.”
“I’m rather apoplectic, too”
And then you think, “there’s no fucking way these two guys would say that! I don’t even fucking know what that means!” But then you looked it up and thought, “those guys are super duper calm for being apoplectic.”
Spoiler, that true story happened to me. I’m so glad I looked up that word because I totally just read it for the first time in my life, not counting subtitles, and knew what it meant. ... maybe I wouldn’t make that trade after all.
Also, this is the funniest substack that exists. It really brings me so much joy.