Fly By Soul #10

It’s quiet out here at the beginning of 2022. The weather in London can’t seem to make up its mind between mild and bitter. It’s a bit of a strange one, I didn’t expect to be going into somewhat of a self-imposed lockdown. But Omicron is about and I’ve got a 6 month old at home who’s unvaccinated, and I would plummet into great pits of despair if he had the smallest sniffle. So my braveries have been put on ice. I light up a fire each evening, grab a glass of wine, and have made it a point to spend some time disconnected from anything electronic so I can make silly baby talk with my son.

I hope you all had a good New Year's. We spent New Year’s Eve watching the fireworks from my office window. We emptied a bottle of wine and laughed at Ziggy, who insisted on barking at the neighbour’s party.

I make resolutions at the beginning of each year so I can laugh at myself at the end for failing to achieve them. Part of me is a miserable bastard, yes. But I managed more newsletters last year than I had in any of the previous ones. The aim this year is to do better than the last! So let’s get to it.

Work-wise, 2022 is the opposite of quiet. Things seem to have started at a pace that feels like being tethered to a screaming, screeching eagle dive-bombing through the air before soaring long enough to let me catch my breath.

January began with starting Swamp Thing Season 2. It’s shorter than Season 1, only 6 issues; I want to continue taking the story to unexpected places, but I am also aware of the need to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. A balancing act at the best of times. And if you’re not a planner but a seat-of-my-pantser like me, it’s like walking the tightrope blindfolded while dancing a jig. Just put the finishing touches on issue 12 of the jig, and it’s all going well so far.

Over to Venom and Carnage at Marvel. Symbiote madness ensues! WIth Venom, I am beginning to get the hang of this duet harmony that Al Ewing and I are writing. These recent issues have felt like my grip around what I want to do with this series is tightening, my familiarity with the shape of it becoming more confident. I think issue 4 is going to have some interesting revelations that’ll push the narrative in a rather unexpected direction.

With Carnage, the challenge was entirely different. Part of my endeavour has been to try and bring an approach to the story that feels significantly different from what I’m doing on Venom. I sent off issue 1 before the end of the year, and it felt right. It felt new and interesting and good. There’s a devious part of me that watches with glee as people make assumptions about what the series is going to be. I love you, but you’re all wrong. Enjoy!

PROJECT PRESSURE is in full swing at DC. I’m working with a good friend and all-time great artist; I wish I could show you more, but I’ll wait for an official announcement to drop. The biggest thing about Project Pressure for me is that it feels a lot closer to the kind of creator-owned work I tend to do. It’s a bit more moody, a bit less concerned with causality and linearity, a bit more concerned with feel and tone and aesthetic and doing interesting things with structure and form. DC and my editors and collaborator have put a lot of trust in my ability to execute this, and I’m glad to be working on something that is a step closer to unifying my personal preoccupations with my superhero work.

I might have also just signed on to a new DC thing later in the year. It’s big and it needs a lot of thinking and note-making. I opened up a new notebook yesterday. Time to fill it all up in black and blue and red.

Creator-owned work continues. Honestly, it’s in a bit of a pile-up, but I make these books because I enjoy something very particular about making them. And if that means I need to take my time with them, then it’ll have to be so. Given the amount of work I’ve been doing this past year, my publishers have been super understanding about it. But each time I get art back on one of these things, I am only more confident that focusing on the quality of the work is the only thing that matters with creator-owned books. I don’t actually have to rush to put them out until we have enough work in the bag to know we’ll be done by the time the early issues start coming out.

They’re coming. They’ll be good and they’ll be new, fresh, intelligent, interesting things.

As a general direction, my story brain has been leaning heavily toward long-form ideas in the medium. Largely my work so far has been contained stories. These Savage Shores — 5 issues, Laila Starr — 5 issues, Blue in Green — an OGN equivalent of about 5 issues. My Catwoman run was 13 issues + one-shots and an annual. The Swamp Thing will be the longest complete thing I’ve written when it wraps with 16 this year (unless it doesn’t, of course.)

But Venom and Carnage are built to be longer projects, and that seems to have finally pushed my brain into the realm of— “What if my next project was 50-60 issues and released over five years?” It’s a dangerous line of thinking. Mostly because it ties into exactly the kind of obsessive person that I am, and in all probability it’ll become all-consuming. But perhaps at this stage that’s a good thing. Perhaps, at this stage, I want to build stories rather than just telling them. Perhaps I should do two things, do them well, and build patiently to intricate, grand narratives.

Who’d be mad enough to let me do it? We shall see, won’t we?

Perhaps I shall talk about this with a creator who has previously done that kind of work. Perhaps it’ll be the subject of one of my recorded conversations!

I’ve only just finished reading The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Unsurprisingly, it’s very good. A lot of people keep recommending his Mapping the Interior to me, which I've already read. It’s where I discovered Stephen’s work, and it is indeed a very beautiful, deftly executed and surprisingly incisive novella. So if those who read this newsletter haven’t read it yet—you have two recommendations now!

I’m listening to Tendai. I like discovering new artists; I discovered Tendai off of Twitter. He’s only got two tracks on Spotify, but they’re both entirely fresh, very complex and very good. Listen!

That’s all from me for this edition of Fly By Soul. Happy New Year! The world has changed significantly over the past couple of years. But we are adaptive, intelligent creatures. Infuse that with some kindness. Find your new normal and achieve some kind of routine Zen. What’s that they say on airplanes? Fasten your own mask before attempting to help others. Good life advice.

Take care of yourselves!

—Ram