Submet Industries

It’s December, so of course I’ve skipped over focusing on sticking the landing as 2015 rolls to a close, and am already looking forward to the new year. It should be an interesting one.

In 2014, Danica and I got engaged and got married. In 2015, we opened a comic store. In 2016, we’re going to be tackling something new once more. We’re still trying to shape exactly what we want to do, but we have a few goals in mind, and as soon as we can share some more information with you, it will appear here. For now, you’ll notice the site’s name has changed to Submet Industries, and old episodes of Doctor Whooch have slowly been appearing in the archives. These are portents, maybe. Or omens. But probably portents.

In the meantime, I have a few different relaxation projects that I want to try in 2016. I want to try and get a solid piece of fiction done. More specifically, I want to try and get the first story in a buddy detective series finally written up. I was thinking of making 2016 my year of no on the fly rewrites, which would mean forcing myself to get out a first draft in full before scraping the whole thing and working the bones again from the start. I spend a lot of time focusing on beginnings, rewriting and rewriting, never getting further than the first few pages. This is a metaphor for my life, he said, on his blog with several posts denoting unfulfilled plans for the future.

The only big project of mine that has really worked out has been Variant Edition – and honestly, that’s because I have some business partners who are helping with the whole “focus” thing. This will very much be the buzzword of 2016. Focus.

Beyond writing though, I’m looking forward to tackling something I’m calling The Douglas Adams Project. Which means I’ll finally get around to reading the rest of those Douglas Adams books that I’ve let sit unread for far too long. And hey, knowing me, if I can turn that into a series of blog posts, then it actually might happen.

And that’s it for today. December, you guys. It’s been a hell of a year. Let’s see how it ends.

In my lifetime, I have never been told that I couldn’t do something. Instead, I’ve been told I could be something “better”. A doctor. A pharmacist. A lawyer. A teacher.  Something “more” than a retailer.

Setting aside the bullshit of what constitutes “better” when you’re following your dreams (because HI PRIVILEGE!), I think that’s indicative as to why International Mens Day is dumb. Every day is Mens Day. When a guy gets told what to do, it’s with the idea that they should be “more”. When a woman gets told what to do, it’s with the idea to be what she’s told to be. Not more. Sometimes less.

So uh… Happy International Mens Day, I guess. Maybe take the time to check your privilege or something. That’d be nice.

Because obviously, my little flounderings are a drop in a bucket. This has always been the case, but when Real World Events are happening, I usually squint at myself when I lament the size of my pay cheque, while I live safe and sound an apartment, with my loving wife and some indifferent cats without considerable amounts of trouble.

Hi there. My name is Brandon. Welcome to a new week.

++SUBMET INDUSTRIES
For the past few weeks, Danica and I have been discussing The Future, and where we would like to be within the next few years. It’s a conversation that we have regularly, which has thus far resulted in moving in together, getting engaged on our own time table, getting married on our own terms, and starting up the kind of comic shop we always wanted to frequent ourselves. Those projects already in progress, we’re starting to think about adding more focus and purpose to our various projects. The first bit of that has involved quietly getting this site into a place that’s strong enough to be a working hub – meaning more frequent (and regular) updates, and a lot of back posting. In the future, it’s going to mean quite a bit more, but honestly, you can’t build anything without a solid foundation to start from. So hey look: an attempt at building a foundation. Doesn’t it look neat and load-bearing?

++FUN FACT
This would be what I think of whenever anyone says the words “load-bearing”.

Because it’s a load-bearing wall. Get it? Haha, everything is funnier when you explain it afterwards. (Laughs and slowly walks onwards towards oblivion.)

++GENDER IS NOT A GENRE
Yesterday, the shop was lucky enough to have the one and only Kelly Sue DeConnick Skype in to talk about Pretty Deadly (the new issue arrives this Wednesday!) and Bitch Planet. This is the kind of event that I always wanted to do when I was working at Wizard’s, but just never had the space, resources or support to pull off. And now? Well, we pretty much determine how to use our space and resources and can support whatever the hell we damn please. So: Kelly Sue DeConnick Skypes in to talk to a room full of folks about her comics.

I you missed the event, and you’re looking for a bit of a Kelly Sue audio fix, I highly recommend you check out the interview James Leask and I did with her back in April 2012. It goes a bit everywhere from talking about the soon-to-arrive Captain Marvel series to dealing with personal fears and self-doubt – and even has something akin to a “cameo” mention of what would become Pretty Deadly. To this date, it is still one of my favourite interviews that I’ve been a humble part of.

++SOMETHING DIFFERENT
I won’t always talk about the articles that go up on Variant Edition’s blog, but I will always talk about new instalments of Devin R. Bruce’s Seven Days columns. In a world where Danica and I are either at the store or reading comics for the store (or eating and sleeping), it’s great to get pop culture dispatches from Devin, so that we don’t completely lose touch with pop culture. And as a bonus? The dude is consistently finding cool things.

In this week’s instalment, Devin explores the twisted world of The Maxx, talks about a cool podcast that he’s been listening to, and then lets everyone know about a really cool band called Got A Girl. They’re pretty amazing.

++STAY TUNED
I think this week is the week some #YEGGeek stuff gets announced. Or at least when intents are announced. We’ll see how well I keep things together this week.

Until next time.

So when I was in pre-school and kindergarten and… well, just all school in general, I would have the occasional bully. The advice I was always given was, bullies want a reaction. They want your anger. They want you to swing back, because then, they are justified, and they can, and will hit you back – or at the very least, be proven that their hatred of you, irrational as it might be, is just.

Paris, and anything like this, goes back to what we learned back then. You don’t respond to hatred with hate. That justifies actions, and makes you a part of the cycle. You swing back. The reaction you get justifies your actions, and the cycle continues, never broken.

I probably shouldn’t. But then again, I really don’t care.

This past week, I partook in what I think was my first ever Facebook debate, not for anything important, but for posting a link to this article about why retiring the Slave Bikini from Star Wars merchandising is an excellent move. Some people took acceptation to this. And by “some people”, I mean “white dudes” – which hey, full disclosure, I am too.

Anyway, I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of it here. Suffice to say, I am in agreement with the article in question, and others are not, for their own reasons. We won’t ever see eye to eye on that, etc etc. What I want to talk about, however briefly and inadequately, is why I felt the need to so vehemently defend this position.

For the past few years, I’ve been learning more about gender inequality. It was something that I’d always been aware of, but hadn’t really sunk in until – quite honestly – earlier this year when I was watching a movie and realized that all of the female characters in this very serious drama existed only in reference to the male lead. One was his psychiatrist who was consistently stymied by her patient’s quippy comebacks, aghast at the male lead’s Complete Rightness All The Time. Another was the relentlessly doting mother who gave the main character everything, but would be treated to similar quips until she realized she should… give him everything but on his terms? And the other was the cheating ex-fianceé who realized too late how “amazing” this guy was, only to be Righteously Rebuffed in the end. Gag.

Anyway. Before watching this movie, I had long known the talking points behind gender inequality… but for some reason, this dumb movie crystallized things. A friggen movie did this. Not a personal experience, not an anecdote from my wife or another loved one, but an emotionally manipulative bit of drama built to lionize the hardships of a white dude with a medical problem. Kind of screams privilege on all levels, doesn’t it?

So yeah. I experience this shift, in the dumbest, most privileged way possible, and I go about my business. Together with my wife, and a third partner, we start up a comic store. We decided to build it as a place that is mindful of disparity, whether it be gendered, sexual, racial or what-have-you. We do this, because the comics industry is riddled with privilege, and we want to be better. In short order, we discover the only way to do this, is to be active, and mindful, but not cruel. Everyone will have their opinions and tastes, and some of them won’t necessarily line up with yours – and you will need to find a way to balance that out with the way you want to present your business. Our solution? If you want something, yes, of course we will make sure you can get it. But if we’re going to talk about books, or feature them, we want to be mindful that we’re not hitting the parade of best selling white male heroes or creators. In an industry in dire need of diversity, it is important to push, and make people aware of amazing products by amazing people who don’t usually get the spotlight for whatever reason. It is also important to be aware of things like the Slave Bikini from Star Wars, and be mindful of it’s context – and to say something, rather than remain silent. It is also important to speak up against differing opinions, not because the person is coming from a bad place, but because silence, and an adherence to the status quo is how the world got here in the first place.

I know I am absolutely not the advocate for this, but I can, at least, be a helping voice. I can speak, rather than remain silent, and I can challenge not just the ideas of others, but my own. I can try to be better. I do try to be better, and I hope and wish that what little I can do or say helps. I don’t want anything like this to be a victory for me, because white dudes don’t need any more victories, especially in the name of diversity. I just want to be able to lend my voice, and I think that doing so is important, in a small way. And so I do. And I will. Which I guess is how I start yelling at dudes about a costume from a fiction movie for far too long on the internet. But I guess at least I’m saying something.

It’s that wondrous time of year where brave groups of people band together in the sake of creativity and productivity to pound out 50,000 in just 30 days.

Every year, I consider doing this. Some years I do (and fail), most years I don’t (and fail through inactivity) – but I always try to hold myself to a similar challenge, which is this: attempt to produce 50,000 words in the month of November for all the projects I already ongoing. This year, that would include posts at places like here, Variant Edition, and Comics Beat, as well as work for a couple of super top secret places because I’m clearly not doing enough.

So once again, my Non-NaNoWriMo challenge. 50,000 words. I guess we start now.

I’m still trying to get the hang of scheduling. Here’s where I’m at: I love writing, and I love making content, but all the store work will often get in the way of that, because… well, you own a business kid. That’s what happens. Oh and also, you have a ton of shows that you want to see. Like, a ton of them. And books to read. And comics to enjoy for the sake of enjoying them. Does everything have to be an article? Does it really?

The short answer to that last part is yes, at the moment. If I can’t tell myself there’s article potential in something, then I will honestly push it aside for something else. It’s almost becoming a sickness, not being able to enjoy something just to enjoy it. This is how I’m consuming media right now.

I might have to take a day off soon. Like a real one, where things just get shut off. My brain too. Just – dead. And possibly no comics. Definitely no computer. I don’t know if I’d be able to handle it, but at least I’d be fresh to start up again. At least there’d be that. Maybe.

Some very quick thoughts as the night ticks to a close, and a huge Wednesday looms…

• Marvel’s opening salvos for their new line up are hitting hard this week – and they’re attacking on all fronts. At the center, they have  Invincible Iron Man – which seems to be acting as a makeshift emotional core for the new line. The new title is powered by Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez, and features a bit of a recalibration for Tony Stark, while offering bright new ideas for this “new universe”. There’s a lot of promise in this book, and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.
• On the “flash and bang” end of the spectrum, there’s the truly insane first issue of Doctor Strange from Jason Aaron, Chris Bachelor, and surprise guest Kevin Nolan. This is definitely one of the bigger “new take” books that they’re hoping will make a big splash – and it’s interesting to have these two books come out in the same week. One features a stable, always marketable character, and the other takes a big swing with a traditionally less stable character with a blockbuster creative team. Two distinct swings at the plate – and IMO they both connect. Or at least will connect with quite a few people.
• And finally on the Marvel front, they’re offering tasters of several new titles in three differ books. In Avengers #0, there are brand new stories that give a glimpse into all the upcoming Avengers books – including the highly anticipated All-New, All-Different Avengers. The in All-New, All Different Point One, there’s a bit of a grab bag of items, including a very intriguing Carnage story – which is something I don’t think I’ve said about Carnage, ever. (That one also has the first look at the new Daredevil book, which I haven’t gotten to yet. Very excited about that.) And finally, Amazing Spider-Man drops the new high concept for Peter Parker, and offers glimpses at the other upcoming titles in the Spider-line. If you want to taste any flavour of Marvel this week, those are the five books to look out for. It will essentially give you a good feel for how the water is before you jump in.
• Beyond that, there are far too many other #1s to talk about – but we’ll be getting to more of those tomorrow.

STAY TUNED…

We’ll be announcing all the panelists for the upcoming Gender Is Not A Genre: Growing Up Geek panel, which is going to be crazy exciting. As always, we’ll be broadcasting on Periscope, and recording audio, so stay tuned for that!

And that’s the night. Tomorrow? Yegs and Bacon and probably a Podcast! The Comics! Then on Thursday, a new Doctor Whooch. So many things!

So this past weekend was 24 Hour Comics Day – in which I participated in the challenge of making a 24 page comic in 24 hours.

I’m just at the dawn of my 30s, and even at this nebulous young-yet-old age, I can say that I have never in my life felt more tired and sore in my life. The key word, I guess, being “sore” and not “in pain”. I’ve definitely been in more pain. But anyway.

Over the course of 17 hours and 33 minutes, I made a comic. When I was finished, I had been up for about 26 hours. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been longer and I could have done another pass of spit and polish, but at five pages left, I literally felt like I had nothing in my engines. I called it a “night”, and at somewhere between 1 and 2pm yesterday, I had a shower, and promptly passed out for what felt like ten hours and two seconds – but was in fact, about 1 1/2 hours. That’s when Danica got home (herself, being up for roughly the same period of time I had, with a 2 hour or so nap in the middle) and we decided to sleep for another 45 minutes. Almost 2 hours later, again feeling as though I had both slept through the night, and only gotten about 2 minutes worth of actual rest, we blearily forced ourselves awake, had supper, watched the newest episode of Doctor Who, and proceeded to record this week’s episode of Doctor Whooch. Because we are champions.

Today, I feel like death. And I also feel a bit of dread. I left my 24 page comic at work, and when I completed it, I had long since gone passed the point in time where I could both read and make sense of what words were trying to say to me, so it could just be pages of absolute nonsense. That said, Danica read it yesterday and seemed to really like it, so… yay? She’d be the person I’d care about liking it anyway, so there’s that.

In addition to all that on the weekend, the store held it’s first ever Community Geek Swap, which featured a ton of great stuff. Everyone came with something, departed with far less, and Inclusion Alberta got a lot of great things donated. All in all, a successful weekend.

More to come in the next few days about… well, the next few days. Until then, I’m just surviving. (But man, is there a week of comics coming out…)

The Expo weekend really threw me for a loop, but I’m not using that as an excuse to not get my writing done. I’ve spent so much of my life shrugging and saying “oh, that can wait for tomorrow” – only to have things continue to compound into a wall of inactivity. Writing will happen. Things will get done.

That said, I am in a bit of a regroup mode. Tomorrow is the return of what I call my two hour morning. When Danica and I moved back into the city, we staggered our schedules a little to work towards our strengths. I usually function better at work in the afternoon, so I get a period of two hours in the morning to write and also watch episodes of The OC or Everwood or something. But mostly writing. Probably. Hopefully.

Oh my god, I’m doomed, aren’t I.

MEANWHILE…

As promised, the Indigenous Representation in Pop Culture panel made it out into the world in audio form as this past week’s episode of Yegs & Bacon. If I knock enough things off my list this week, I’ll be able to finally make a nice landing page for Yegs & Bacon with all of the interviews and panels that we’ve done in nice, prominent areas. But the list is… formidable, and very much like a hydra. So there’s that.

In less important news, I also posted my very own comic book origin story – if you’re at all interested in how I got into the medium. It’s the first in a series called Getting Into It, which will not only be about… well, getting into things in general, but will hopefully be about you, and how you got into things that you love. But more on that in the days to come.

STAY TUNED…

In the days to come: I will be attempting to complete a 24 page comic in 24 hours, and I’d love it if you stopped by to either do the same, or hang out with your writing tools and/or drawing supplies in a creative space. I think I’ll actually talk about this more in depth tomorrow. But we’ll see.