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 very cautious about buttons around here. Buttons are tempting, but so are a lot of things.
Rest assured the button below is safe. All it will do is subscribe you to this newsletter.
The Raffle
Hey! We’re doing a raffle! We meant to do it when the Self Help graphic novel1 came out, but we were too slow and disorganized. Details momentarily.
First, though, let’s get this right out of the way: entering a free raffle is definitely akin to pressing a button. I recognize that. However, free is the keyword. Granted, if a thing is free, it often sucks. That’s fundamental. Free pens from the doctor’s office are a classic example. This newsletter is free, and I think I can safely acknowledge that not every edition has been exactly top notch. Free advice? No, thanks. ChatGPT doesn’t cost anything (aside from your mortal soul) and it’s total dogshit.
But if it’s free and it’s good? Wow, hard not to like that. Remember the Jedi glasses from Burger King? Our lust for them was insatiable.
We had three of the four, for sure. The Han Solo one was particularly memorable and, in fact, I believe that my parents still have it in their drinking glass cabinet. Since it’s made of real glass, this seems impossible, and yet I’m positive that it has somehow survived. We ran it through the dishwasher, so it’s faded, but it’s still alive, still glorious. Was it painted with some radioactive material that will eventually kill me? Don’t care! I loved drinking from it and musing on science fiction adventures.
Wait. Were they actually free?
I just watched an original ad for them and it seems like they maybe charged something in addition to the price of your Coke, which kind of goes against what I had in mind when I started writing about them… shit!
… You know what, though, just imagine if they were truly thrown in free with your Coke? Pretty good, right?
That brings me back to the raffle. We are raffling an absolutely gorgeous original by the incomparable Marianna Ignazzi, showing Michelle and Amelia from Self Help.
But that’s not all! We are also throwing in 1) A signed Jesse Kellerman novel, 2) A signed Owen King novel, 3) Probably other stuff.
Here are the rules and the details:
You are eligible if you bought issues 1-5 of Self Help, or bought the graphic novel, or borrowed the issues or the graphic novel from the library and read it that way, and live in the United States. Paper or digital, either is legitimate. Honor system.2
Caveat: our friends and family are not eligible.
For clarity: our enemies are eligible.
Email hellodayren at gmail dot com and say that you want in.
Give us a handle to put in the spinner wheel. If your name is Bob Jorgenson this could be “Bob J,” but it would be a lot more fun and in keeping with our comic about grifting if you come up with a fun alias — i.e., “Dakota Sandy,” “Doc,” “Thunderbird,” etc.
We will not use your email for anything other than this raffle, ever.
We will randomly select the winner on 7/1/25 and you will get all the stuff.
If we screw up somehow, we will try to make amends, but you can’t be angry at us.
You agree to send us a picture of you and the artwork, or your cat and the artwork, or, if necessary, a friend’s cat and the artwork, so that we can show everyone who enters that we weren’t scamming.
OK, I’m pretty sure that’s everything. If you haven’t already checked out Self Help, we’d be thrilled if you did, and then jumped into the raffle. If you already have done so, we are incredibly grateful! You are ready to raffle, so shoot us an email.
The Latest
I’m thrilled about the response to “Letter Slot.” Thank you to everyone who has read it.
As excited as I am about the debut of Marcelo Mayer, the Red Sox are bumming me out. Something about this club is not clicking. If nothing else, they need to call this dude up immediately.
The Pope’s baseball card is amazing. First ever card with Latin on it?
I have heard the rough cut of the new Paranoid Style album, Known Associates, and it destroys. Their best yet. More on this to come.
Work on Self Help: Lie Another Day continues apace. Issues 1 and 2 are fully inked and colored.
Work on my other, yet-to-be-announced projects grinds ever forward.
Recommendations
Sinners is tremendous entertainment. Don’t miss the chance to see it on the big screen. I can’t wait to watch it again.
What do I think about the new Hamilton Leithauser LP, This Side of the Island? I love it.
Self Help editor Chris Ryall wrote a wonderful appreciation for the late Peter David, who was a lovely guy, and one of my all-time favorite comic book writers.
As ever, if you 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 at any of those places, although I’m not super active. Thank you for subscribing.
All Best,
Owen
Slight irony given that just about everyone in Self Help is a crook.