I Left the House
And it was fun!
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.
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Two Days, Two Stellar Events
Last week I was scheduled to celebrate the release of the Self Help graphic novel with a couple of events, so I packed up my vehicle, checked twice to see I had three books to read — two current, and an extra in case I got stranded in an emergency room or something — and that I had all my medications and my toothbrush and toothpaste and that none of the cats had squirted into the garage while I wasn’t paying attention. With those formalities dispatched, I was then able to climb into the driver’s seat, give myself over to the station on Apple Music that promised to play songs like the songs Dan Reeder1 plays, and set out for Columbia, PA.
Leaving the house: it’s usually great once you do it, but in the attempt, man, my OCD lights up like the console of a spaceship!
Thank goodness I did, though, because I had a fabulous time. The first event, at Brian Keene and Mary SanGiovanni’s Vortex Books & Comics in Columbia last Saturday, was everything I hoped, just an amazingly cool time. This is a store that’s worth making the trip to visit. They have the good stuff. Awesome comics like this, they will sell to you:
Alongside the wonderful and mischievous Clay McLeod Chapman, who was there with his new novel Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, I signed Self Help graphic novels and a bunch of my other books for a couple of hours straight. I think I can speak for Clay when I tell you that we were beyond thrilled by the turnout. Thank you so much to everyone who came and chatted with us.
Thank you most of all to Vortex. It turns out that when you have a good thing going the word gets around — and Brian and Mary clearly have a fucking great thing going.
My next stop was Four Color Fantasies in Westchester, Virginia, where I signed all afternoon on Sunday, and where the high bar set by Vortex was not lowered so much as an inch. Massive thanks to everyone who stopped in and bought a Self Help or one of my others, and of course, I’m eternally grateful to the whole gang at the store, especially since they don’t usually open on Sundays. This is another shop that is absolutely worth taking an extra hour out of the way to visit. They have all the comics and most of the games.
And that was it! With my labors completed, I scooted homeward and was asleep in my bed by about 1am.
The Latest
Self Help received a beautiful review from Publishers Weekly: “True to its pulp playbook, the script mixes gritty and outlandish elements into a satisfying potboiler… Fans of crime comics ought to snap this up.”
Jesse and I sat down over Zoom and wrote the last six or seven pages of the final issue of Self Help: Lie Another Day together. This one has been a wild ride, and there’s no one I’d rather have taken it with. We laughed a lot writing this story, and took some fairly adventurous chances with the narrative, but I was surprised by what an emotional wallop the end packed. No spoilers, but suffice to say, we put Jerry and his family through a lot!
If you’ve been enjoying the comic, or have any thoughts, I’d love to hear from you. And, hey, if you dug it, loan it to a friend — Help ’em out! (Get it? Little joke there.)
No Psychic Benefits this issue, but we will absolutely be checking in with them next time. You see, there are rumors that the Paranoid Style have been in the studio. As we know, these sort of rumors aren’t always true, and even if they are true, they may have just gone to the studio because the soda machine there has R.C. Cola, or because they were lost and needed directions. It doesn’t necessarily follow that the Paranoid Style has been recording. But they may have been recording. We will get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, Beth sat down for a chat with the legendary Chuck Prophet.
Recommendations
I’m halfway through Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies, and it is hard, hard material about Boston in the seventies and the endemic racism that poisoned so many lives there. Lehane handles it all with a relentlessly clear eye.
Erik from Four Color Fantasies told me to read Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, and I was wise to follow his instructions. BTTWNS is about an adorable serial killer bear and — well, what else do I have to say?
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
It turns out no one really plays songs like Dan Reeder. I didn’t think it would. He’s sort of a folk music Robert Pollard, I guess. But the station did serve up Fred Eaglesmith’s “Trucker Speed,” which is always welcome, and a number of other fine tunes. Here’s my favorite Dan Reeder track.