Stick To Your Gunns
My secret origin! Plus, BATMAN covers! And spooky stuff!
The big news this week is that James Gunn is now the co-head of DC Studios. A lot of people are talking, and the biggest question on the twitter lips of fandom is, “what does this mean for Chip?”
A lot of people don’t realize this, but I probably wouldn’t have ended up writing for Marvel without James. Back in 2014 I was riding high as a professional dong artist on the hit Matt Fraction book Sex Criminals. I’d done a cover for Marvel and a two-page gag strip, but that was it. Then I got a phone call on August 4 that would change my life forever.
“Hey Chip. It’s Wil Moss, Marvel Editor.”
“I’m busy drawing dongs professionally. What’s up?”
“Did you see the new movie Guardians of the Galaxy on the weekend?”
I laughed. “Do you know who I am? I’m the artist of Sex Criminals. I’m incredibly important. I don’t watch movies. Movies watch me.”
Wil didn’t quite know how to process that, but he soldiered on. “You, uh, you should watch it. It’s really good. But I’m calling because there’s a pretty fun cameo in the post-credits sequence.”
“Wait, what? They’re doing more movie after the movie’s over?”
“Yes. And this one had Howard The Duck in it. You know what this means?”
“Marvel Films are done.”
“No! It means we can pitch a Howard The Duck comic now! Strike while the iron is hot!”
And so we did. And, after a weirdly rocky start (a story for another time. I don’t need to set fire to anything here. Who am I, Tom Brevoort and “The Brevoortex?”) I started writing and Joe Quinones started drawing and the rest is history.
Anyway, over the years I’ve become a huge fan of James’ movies, and he’s been publicly complimentary about my Howard comic, so we’re basically best friends. He’s now all-in at DC and I’m writing the biggest DC book in the world if you count all the variants and don’t think too long about how few people are actually reading it, so again the big question is, “what does this mean for Chip?”
Well, I can’t say too much publicly, but I can at least tell you to chill the fuck out because I’m actually unable to do much else in my schedule thanks to a VERY high-profile commitment with another company.
I know this may break a few hearts, and, again, I can’t get specific here, but let’s just say I’m branching out into other creative pursuits. Some would say … stretching myself.
Anyway, congrats to James. He’s the right man for the job and I look forward to seeing Superman beat the absolute fuck out of Black Adam before they come together and fight Thanos oh shit I’ve said too much
I LOVE WHEN YOU GO ALL ‘HOLLYWOOD INSIDER’
Did I mention that my name was said out loud on The Tonight Show recently?
YES
Ah. Okay, well … I’m pretty important
But you know who’s more important?
JAMES TYNION, KELLY SUE DeCONNICK, SCOTT SNYDER, RAINA TELGEMEIER, GENE LUEN YANG, JEFF LE—
Okay! Christ! I get it! I was going to say BATMAN! And DC has bequeathed me the exclusive look at the covers for issue 130! So go tell your retailers you want them no matter what the cost!!
First up is Jorge’s main cover, gorgeous as always. This teases the final fight with Failsafe in Canada. Mostly snowballs, weirdly.
Next is the brilliant David Marquez! Highlighting just how poor the structural integrity of the Batcave really is.
And look! A lovely holiday-themed cover from Laura Braga! It’s always nice seeing Bruce and his batfamily enjoying nice times together. I hope it lasts forever and—
OH GOD BRUCE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! This Gabriele Dell’Otto cover shows Batman, uh, pureeing some t-tomatoes so he can make his special tomato sauce to feed his … his hungry batfamily … yeah … that’s it …
The next cover is this lovely illustration by Stjepan Seijic. Much like myself, Stjepan is a known pervert who now gets to work on classic characters who are just subtly perverted.
And then there’s Jock. He’s the real deal! And, even though I’m not much of a variant guy, seeing these gold foil bad boys show up in my comp box is pretty cool. They look great. You want one? Your shop can get one for every fifty copies of our main cover that they order! I don’t make the rules! I just profit from them!!! (Sorry)
In other news, CHIPCLASS star Allison O’Toole is having a launch party for her spooooky anthology SHADES OF FEAR tonight in Toronto at the Silver Snail! Go! Get all spooky-ed up for Halloween! Meet a YouTube star!
Bye!
Love,
Chip
The terrible pun in the title made me think for a moment this was Kieron Gillen’s newsletter, but the cowardice to speak truth to power in declining to share the Howard behind the scenes story made me know it was indeed pure Zdarsky.
It might be reaching for you to be Reed Richards. It would be quite the stretch. It may elongate your career in Hollywood though.
Question. As the worlds biggest and best Reed Richards fan and a famous dong illustrator; can Richards extend his dong to go to the bathroom and not leave his lab or does it take forever to reach the end like a hose. The people need answers.
I know you have time for this question because you are only writing the most popular characters in the world.