Dear All,
This is the latest episode of Don’t Press That Button, a newsletter about books and music and movies and cats and baseball and whatnot. As the name would indicate, we are quite cautious about buttons around here. We want to understand what the button does before we smack that thing.
But the button below simply subscribes you to this newsletter. That’s it. And it’s free! If you’re new here, and you’d like to stick around, you can safely do so by clicking on it.
Self Helpings: The Graphic Noveling
The Self Help graphic novel has actually already leaked into a few comic stores — which is absolutely fine, the release date moved around a bit — but it’s landing in most stores in mere days, on 2/25.
It’s a fantastic edition, if I do say so myself. Among other things, it’s glorious to have Ian Chalgren’s designs all together in one place and just be able to relish all the care that he and our editor, Chris Ryall, put into paying tribute to movie posters (such as Saul Bass’s Vertigo) and book covers (like the ones for Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series) that are in the noir tradition that we’re very consciously working inside with the comic.
This is where I confess that I am truly of two minds about the best way to read a comic book, issue by issue vs. graphic novel. On the one hand, I enjoy the ritual of getting each issue of a series at a comic store. I also like to honor the structure that a series forces on to a creative team: each issue is a link in a larger chain, but it’s (or generally should be) it’s own individual circle, too. If I read each issue as it comes out, I attend a little more to the craft of those individual circles.
When I read a series issue by issue, however, I do have a tendency to sometimes lose track of the finer plot points of a series during the interim between each new comic.1 If you’re reading through a graphic novel you can flip backward a few pages and make sure you have a complete handle on the small details. In the issue-by-issue scenario, you need to dig out those previous issues from your comic box and, you know, that’s easier than shoveling the snow from the driveway, but the graphic novel makes it easier still.
Anyway, if you’ve been waiting to read Self Help as a graphic novel, the wait is over, and we sure hope you enjoy it. Jesse and I believe that the sequel, Self Help: Lie Another Day, coming later in the spring or early summer, is even stronger, and it’d be great to have you along for the ride. Join us!
A reminder: I’m going to be signing copies at Vortex Books & Comics in Columbia, PA on March 1 from 1 to 3pm, and then at Four Color Fantasies in Winchester, VA on March 2 from 1 to 5pm. You can also get signed copies from my pals at Oblong Books, or regular copies wherever you like to get your comics or your books. It’s even available digitally.
The Latest
For the time being, I’m sworn to secrecy, but there are Self Help-related happenings on another front, and they’re exceedingly cool.
I finished the editing process on a short story I’m very excited to share. I can’t talk about that yet, either. Soon!
I also have a new novel slowly clicking into place. It’s tricky, though. Wouldn’t be prudent to say any more than that at this time.
Jesus Christ. This is beginning to sound like I’m under cover. I remember the late great Graham Joyce once writing something on Facebook about how he was ready to kill the next person who wrote that they had the biggest, bestest news ever but couldn’t say anything yet.2 I’m not doing it justice, but you get the idea. It made me laugh so hard. Graham was a real wit, as well as a genius. I only knew him a little, but I loved the guy. Sure wish he was still with us.
I went tramping in the snowy woods the other day. This is an underrated activity. I have a terrible phobia of ticks and poison ivy, so I’m not huge for walking in the woods during the other seasons, but if you’re dressed for it, the winter woods are too good. I like following the animal tracks here and there, pretending I have the faintest clue what made them.3 The best part, though, is when you get far enough away from things that you can be still and listen to the sound of all that wet weight piled up on the branches and rocks and ground, creaking and cracking, and totally forget yourself.
I had a great, hilarious conversation about Anthony Trollope with my friend Nate. Nate is a professor specializing in Victorian literature and one of my dearest, oldest friends. We shared a railroad apartment on the Upper Westside with a few thousand cockroaches after college, so our bond is forged of strong stuff.
Trollope and his beard. I had been reading Trollope’s Barchester Towers, trying to understand the confusing political perspective that seemed definitely favorable toward a conservative establishment and yet very aware of the weaknesses of that conservative establishment. (Forgive the generality: the particulars are more interesting than it sounds, but they are, well, particular.) So, I called Nate up and happened to catch him while he was at his most vulnerable — driving home through D.C. traffic — and asked if we could discuss the matter. Although he was initially shaken — Trollope? In this economy? — Nate quickly rallied to the task, and explained the weird politics behind a novel that he last read about twenty years ago, navigating city traffic at the same time. How amazing is that? Is there anything better than stretching out a book with a friend?
Recommendations
You might treat yourself to Graham Joyce’s deeply unsettling, deeply humane novel The Silent Land. A perfect winter book.
It may not have sounded like it, but Trollope is good fun, too. The Warden, which precedes Barchester Towers, is my suggestion.
My big brother’s new novel, King Sorrow, is now available for order! Folks, I have read this beautiful beast, and it is the full five courses. You do not want to miss it.
That’s all I have for the moment. Thanks for subscribing.
In case you ever have a question or a comment or just want to say hi, if you reply to the email, I will see it. I also have a chat here on Substack, and some chatting has taken place. I’m over on Bluesky and Threads and Instagram, too, if you’d like to follow along there, although I’m not super active.
All Best,
Owen
Is this because I’m old? Because I am old.
Is the term for this “Vaguebooking”?
Deer, rabbits, jackalope, could be anything.